Dead by Daylight is such a great idea for a game, it’s no wonder that it was copied by Friday The 13th. While the latter was largely unsuccessful, Dead by Daylight has soldiered on, recently releasing on Nintendo Switch. Like lots of other recent Switch ports — Overwatch, The Witcher 3 — Dead By Daylight is great to have but it’s not going to be the best way to play.
Straight up, Dead by Daylight on Switch looks bad. Regardless of whether you’re playing in handheld or TV mode the visuals are murky, jaggy and terrible. Not so terrible that the game is unplayable just noticeably worse than every other version.
Wandering around the maps as a survivor makes the game look like something from the PS2-era and playing as the killer doesn’t fare much better.
However, it’s still hugely playable.
Dead By Daylight Switch Review
Dead By Daylight is every slasher film fan’s dream. The Entity, a malevolent, supernatural entity is awakened by violence and mayhem and has been awakened by the acts of serial killers. Pulling a number of killers and victims into a constructed world where it forces the killers to sacrifice the victims to it.
The plot is just a way to explain how and why a serial killer and four victims are trapped together in a small, supernatural space.
Matches are a 4v1 affair with four victims trying to survive against one killer. The victims are unable to attack or deal damage to the killer at all and their only objective is to escape. The killer, on the other hand, only needs to kill the victims.
It’s pretty simple yet gives way to tonnes of depth. The killer plays from the first-person perspective while the victims play in third-person. Essentially a violent game of cat and mouse, the victims win if they can restart the generators and open the door. The killer wins if all victims die.
There’s lots going on in Dead By Daylight in addition to the simple premise. Killers are faster in a straight line, victims can create diversions and block the killer’s path, the killer can follow blood and scratches to find the victims and so on.
It’s quite an in-depth game and coming to grips with the minutiae is best done through the tutorials and by playing. It’s a game in which you never really stop learning or having fun.
As it’s been available on PC for three years and on other consoles for two, there’s a dedicated fan and player base. It’s also incredibly well supported by the developer with frequent content updates, balances fixes and patches.
The Switch version comes after many of the initial teething issues associated with always-online games and so functions incredibly well out of the box, though the previously mentioned ugliness isn’t the only issue.
Finding a match on Switch takes some doing. I’d often have to wait between five and 10 minutes before finding enough players to get into a game, even during peak times. One way to fix this would be to allow cross-platform play across all three consoles, but at the moment it seems that Behavior Interactive has no plans to do so.
When you do get into a game, it’s great and playing on Switch is responsive, easy and best of all great in handheld mode with headphones. However, when you have to wait for ages between matches, the game loses its appeal.
Overall, there are better ways to play Dead By Daylight (it’s free with Xbox Game Pass) but, it plays really well on Switch and if you don’t have any other platform, it’s a great game that is a worthy addition to your Switch collection.
A physical, retail copy of Dead By Daylight on Switch was provided by the publisher.
PowerUp! Reviews
Game Title: Dead By Daylight
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Great Idea, Great Execution - 9.2/109.2/10
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Very Ugly on Switch, even in handheld - 3.5/103.5/10
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Can be difficult to find a match - 4/104/10
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Incredible Atmosphere, Fun and Scary - 9.5/109.5/10
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Plenty to Do, Unlock and Earn - 7/107/10
