Following a PTB and September's spooky Friday the 13th, Dead by Daylight's 13th chapter is out, giving us characters and a map from Stranger Things!
As many of you know, Stranger Things follows a group of kids from Hawkins, Indiana, who get mixed up in a crazy world when a portal to another dimension is opened.
At the start of season one, Will Byers disappears, and it is later discovered a creature the others named the "Demogorgon," after a D&D monster, took him to the other dimension, which they've dubbed the "Upside Down." As the Dead by Daylight Wikipedia says, the Demogorgon is a perfect hunter, chasing down its prey filled with a bloodlust and devoid of any compassion or mercy. The Demogorgon entered our world when government research accidentally opened a portal between dimensions, allowing it to traverse out of the Upside Down. Initially a tall, pale, humanoid figure with a gaunt appearance, the Demogorgon hides a blood-red mouth of razor teeth within a flower-like face that "blooms" open. Along with these teeth comes a gnarled claw, similar to the Hag, which can pierce a person's body as we see in the mori. The Demogorgon's mori is up there as a favorite for me, with the Hag, Legion, and Ghostface, and I find it most similar to the Hag's. After leaping on a survivor and piercing their side with a claw, the Demogorgon turns their head into a snack, flinging them like a rag doll. After releasing their head, the creature then gives one more stab in the side before belting out a roar. The Demogorgon is sort of a fungus creature, fitting how infectious spores fill the toxic Upside Down and fungi are a big part of the series. Even a short time in the Upside Down poses a risk to people, and the seasons two and three antagonist, the Mind Flayer, infects people. Fitting this, the Demogorgon is sort of like a large fungus or plant, and its add-ons include mushrooms and lichens. Along with its typical look, the Demogorgon has other cosmetics that have it wrapped in chains, likely from someone studying it. The Demogorgon also brings new awesome chase music, which sounds similar to what you hear while watching Stranger Things.
The Demogorgon's power is "Of the Abyss," which grants it the "shred" ability and place portals connected to the Upside Down.
The shred is a pounce the Demogorgon charges, opening its flowered face in the process. Users beware: you lunge in a straight line, so you need precision. Some add-ons lower the cooldown of a missed pounce, and one of the best allows the shred to destroy pallets. This may change in the future, as the developers are considering making the ability like a chainsaw, and always allow pallet destruction. Another facet to the killer's power is its portals, which appear as large, circular masses of strange vines and fungus on the ground. Like the Hag, the Demogorgon uses a hand to place the portal, but unlike the Hag, it is left invisible to survivors and remains inactive. After placing another portal, with a base max of six, the Demogorgon can "activate" one to quickly travel through the Upside Down and come out of another portal. At this point, the portals are both "active" and survivors can see and try to destroy them, but the creature can stop them from ripping the vines by teleporting back. It takes time of course to figure out when and where you should teleport, but the ability can come in handy, cutting off survivors, catching them off-guard, or coupling it with abilities like "Make Your Choice." With this Pig ability, if you're far enough from a survivor when they're unhooked, the one who unhooked them becomes exposed. If a portal is near them when this happens and you can get to it quick enough, you can instantly down the saving survivor. The Demogorgon's first teachable perk is "Surge," which has thus far honestly been underwhelming for people. With this ability, generators instantly regress 8% if the killer is within 32 meters of when while downing a survivor, and can be used every 60/50/40 seconds. I really don't see this perk being all that useful, both because of the small regression and the range. The regression isn't very much, especially if someone is on the gen at that moment, and you're not likely to get many, if any, with that range. Survivors will at least try to avoid generators they know are being worked on, which can leave the killer not even near a gen when they down someone. Following this is "Mindbreaker," which casues survivors who are working on gens with less than 50% progression to gain exhaustion. Any exhaustion timer is paused while they work, and they retain exhaustion for 1/2/3 seconds after getting off the gen. This one I'd likely rank below Surge, as pausing exhaustion could be good if the person has just gotten out of a chase where they used an ability like Dead Hard, but a survivor could just look for a new gen, and the added exhaustion doesn't last long. Last is Cruel Limits, which blocks vault areas such as windows near survivors for 20/25/30 seconds when they finish a generator. This is another that could possibly be useful, in particular later in the game when survivors are willing to take hits if they can finish a gen. In an area like the killer shack, where there's always the "god pallet" and a great window, blocking the window for a time would be helpful to the killer.
In a rare chapter situation, we get two survivors this time around, and first up is Nancy Wheeler, inquisitive investigative journalist and sister of protagonist Mike.
As her Wiki states, she went searching when her friend Barb went missing in season one, and in season three dealt with male chauvinism as a journalist. For the game's, she was chasing a lead one night when she suddenly fell unconscious outside the Hawkins National Laboratory, soon waking in the Entity's realm. Along with her base outfit of a sweater, pants, and brushed back hair, players can purchase Nancy's season three work outfit. At first glance, people tend to assume Nancy is a bit of a snob; her family has money, some would probably label her a "prude," and she's studious. As Stranger Things viewers know, Nancy is in fact quite a capable young woman, digging into cases no one is bothering to look into. This is especially true in season three, where continued looking into the case of strange rats devouring Mrs. Driscoll's fertilizer. She's also capable when it comes to helping others, willing to go looking for her friend when she went missing, and able to effectively use firearms.
Nancy's first perk is "Better Together," which has a double ability of showing her generator to survivors within 32 meters, and showing her every other survivor when the killer downs someone.
The first power can definitely be useful to bring help when others are nearby, and the second can allow you to help others, sort of resembling things like "Bond." Second up is "Fixated," allowing the survivor to see their scratch marks at all times and walk 10/15/20% faster while injured. I don't entirely find the scratch mark aspect useful, though it's been pointed out to me it could help against the Spirit, and I think the increased speed could be good. Combind with David's perk "No Mither" would allow a constant speed boost, and adding "Resilience" would let them get work done faster as well. Last is Inner Strength, allowing survivors to heal in lockers when they have cleansed a totem, regardless of if it's in use or dull. Along with giving a stealthy heal since the killer can't sport you in a locker, this could be combined with "Quick and Quiet" during a chase to sneakily get into a locker, and "Head On" would give you an escape method if the killer comes searching.
Our second chapter survivor is Steve Harrington, who formerly had a bad boy reputation and has since taken on a babysitter role for the Stranger Things kids.
Having a particular bond with Dustin, Steve has fought Demogorgons and Demodogs to save the others, and in this game disappeared after responding to a call for help from his friend Nancy, whose notebook he found outside the Hawkins National Lab. Steve begins the series as a minor antagonist of sorts, a cool guy dating Nancy and bullying the less-popular, especially Jonathan. Despite this, Steve proves himself eventually, with it being revealed he wasn't part of a cruel prank his friends pulled, and he helped fight the Demogorgon. In season two, Steve and Nancy broke things off but remained friends, and Steve became a sort of mentor to Dustin, especially when it came to girls. When a hoard of Demodogs invaded Hawkins, he whipped out the spiked baseball bat he used a bit in season one, and helped fight the creatures off. Then came season three, in which Steve, now a bit of a loser due to his lost high school popularity and lame job, got mixed up in Russian plot and the Mind Flayer's plans. To go along with season three, Steve's base outfit is his typical shirt and pants, and players can unlock his work uniform from Scoops Ahoy.
The first perk for Steve is "Babysitter," which prevents survivors he uhooks from leaving blood and scratches for 4/6/8 seconds and allows him and the killer to see each other's auras for 4 seconds.
This is a great perk for altruistic players, and can be of use if the killer is staying close to the hook (though sometimes this happens solely because of survivors). The second part of the perk is meant to be a kind of downside, but it doesn't last long, and perks like "Object of Obsession" work with seeing these auras anyway, Next is "Camaraderie," another friendship based perk fitting Steve's growth that halts the struggle phase timer when you're on a hook for 26/30/34 seconds when another survivor gets within 16 meters of your hook. This is a perk I think sounds fantastic, especially given the frustrating teams I often get, where people wait until the last second to save. It's incredibly frustrating, especially in games where you do a lot of work, when the killer gets you and your team either lets you die or waits until it's too late. With that little bit of extra time, a last-second save that would've failed can work phenomenally, and give you another chance. Steve's final perk is "Second Wind," which I see as similar to Borrowed Time and once again focuses on getting unhooked. Afgter unhooking yourself or having a teammate unhook you, you enter the broken status effect, which prevents healing, for 34/32/30 seconds, after which point you are immediately healed. I wonder how this would work out when coupled with Adam Francis's "Deliverance," which allows you to leap off a hook if you've saved someone, at the cost of being broken for 100/80/60 seconds. I assume pairing these two would simply negate Steve's ability, since Adam's keeps you broken for much longer. This perk can keep you from wasting time, as you don't have to stop and heal yourself or have someone heal you, which people often now do right after unhooking. Because you don't need to heal under the hook, you also don't risk as much during a safe save, as you can flee before the killer has time to return.
Rather than take us to the Upside Down, as I had thought the devs might do, the map for this chapter is the Underground Complex in Hawkins.
Hidden within the Hawkins National Laboratory, this location is where the program that unleashed the Upside Down was held, and where Eleven was tested on. This is one of only a few indoor maps, joining the Doctor's hospital and the Pig's Gideon Meat Plant, and just like them can be a bit of a maze. Full of winding corridors, the lab houses all sorts of scientific sights and features destruction from the Demogorgon, along with corruption from the Upside Down. Also like the Meat Plant and, to a small extent the Hospital, the Complex has upper areas, but this time around there are actually three floors. Survivors really only take the stairs to go from the first to the third, but there are also platforms that they and the killer can reach. The third floor is certainly a dangerous place you have to plan carefully for, as the halls are even tighter, and along have numerous dead-end rooms, sometimes with probably the least-safe pallet I've ever seen. One room in particular, the isolation room, is a tiny area with a one-person gen, which helps makes things scary as the trying to complete this gen can leave you trapped. There is also the way down to account for, as survivors can try to reach the other stairs, but risk the killer catching up, and the third way down is a hole with a long drop. Despite the challenges presented, I enjoy this map for both being sort of killer favored in these regards and for being another indoor map, which we don't get often. There are definitely areas that favor survivor, so it doesn't favor the killer, and I feel like it isn't too different from the Meat Plant, which is considered hard for survivors. I also just adore the atmosphere of this map, which has a creepy feeling as unnatural roars and mechanical noises occasionally radiate.'I know not everyone is into Stranger Things, but I for one love the series and was excited just to get this update. I love getting original killers and hope we get more in the future, but I'm liking what the devs did with this property, and hope they can improve the issues.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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