Dead by Daylight Nintendo Switch Review

"Hunt, or be Hunted"

Campaign

October 4, 2019 at 3:53pm
By Jason Stettner

I certainly enjoy this game, and I’ve spent far too many hours playing it on the Xbox One. When I saw it was arriving on the Nintendo Switch, I was excited to have a reason to dive in once again. That is of course, aside from checking out the really awesome stream of special DLC that they release to support this title. With this port of the game, we’re given a somewhat really downgraded version.

This is in terms of the visuals, the performance and the load times. I will go into that more under the gameplay portion however. Dead by Daylight is a 4v1 multiplayer only title. You search to either be part of the survivors, or to be the single killer. The four survivors need to work together to turn on a selection of generators and then escape. The killer is tasked with just catching, hurting and then placing those survivors on hooks. It’s a simple game that actually has some deep skill and complexity to it once you continue to get invested.

Every match you’re also earning points, and these filter into a blood web. The blood web is how you gain perks for your characters, offerings to change-up a match or even special items that can be brought into a match. You can also prestige in the blood web, offering even more gameplay. I should mention that these webs are separate for every survivor, as well as for the killers.

Gameplay

This is a third person experience for the survivors, whereas the killer plays in first person. As a survivor you don’t really have much unless you brought a special item into the match. This could be something like, say a med kit or a flashlight. You largely need to go around the procedurally generated environments to gather new supplies or to use the area to your advantage. You’ll be able to run by certain areas slamming down barricades to stop the killer, or vaulting over windows to escape. Stealth is important, as is understanding how to properly get away when you’re being chased.

Working with the other survivors is also helpful, something hindered by the Switch’s almost mic-less community. There are in-game motions you can make though. The killers have a series of tricks, and advantages. It really does vary depending on what character you choose to play as. Some have traps, others have special moves and maybe even unique senses. They do a good job of representing each horror property in this one, very respectful to the original concepts. When it comes to the general gameplay in this, it is a bit rough on the Nintendo Switch.

The matches take a super long time to load in, you could prepare a meal and come back. Once you get in the visuals are very murky and sometimes textures have issues loading properly. The performance is also a bit messy at times, and those Joy-Cons are rough for skill checks, but that’s more on the actual console control designs I suppose. It’s great to see the game running here, yet it’s really not in an ideal state which is disappointing. It’s not the place I’d choose to play despite the great option for handheld gaming on this title. I will mention on the big 4k screen it looks very rough, and murky as previously mentioned. You do get a good render distance though, that’s a positive I suppose for it visually.

The Conclusion

Dead by Daylight on the Nintendo Switch brings the entire package, but does so at some deep cuts in performance and visual quality. The game has never stood out technically from what I’ve experienced, but it’s rather rough here which is disappointing. If this is the only place you can enjoy the game, it’s a lot of fun. If you can play it on other platforms, I certainly suggest doing so as it’s a worthwhile time where you can just pack the hours in.

There’s a good selection of quality DLC that gets released for this and the game has received tremendous update support so you can count on that here. It’s a fun game to play, it can be somewhat scary as well if you get startled and it’s great to play. I enjoy the survivors, but it’s also a blast to hunt as the killers. There’s a varied selection of survivors to play as, killers to hunt as and many unique maps to try to survive within.

Read our The Saw Chapter Review
View our Dead by Daylight Hub

Dead by Daylight Nintendo Switch Review on Nintendo Switch
Review Code Provided by Behaviour Interactive

Rating Overall: 5.0