Dead by Daylight is an asymmetric multiplayer horror game: four survivors against one killer, played from third person as the survivors and first person as the killer.
The survivors' goal is to repair five generators scattered around the map and escape through an exit gate. The killer's goal is to find, down and hook them before they manage it. Everything else follows from that asymmetry — survivors cannot fight, only evade, hide, heal each other and buy time, while the killer has map pressure and has to decide constantly whether to chase or defend.
The chase is where the skill sits. Survivors loop obstacles, vault windows and drop pallets to break line of sight and stun; killers learn to read those loops and cut them short. It is a game of small mind games repeated over a match.
Its other draw is licensing. The roster has grown to include killers and survivors from a long list of horror franchises alongside original characters, which is unusual enough that the crossovers are much of the appeal.
Progression runs through Bloodpoints and a per-character perk system, with perks unlocked across characters through a shrine. Paid on Windows, with the base game bought once and additional licensed chapters sold separately.
Behaviour Interactive, based in Montreal, develops and publishes Dead by Daylight, running it as a live service with regular chapters that add killers, survivors and maps.
