Dead by Daylight: Silent Hill Preview

May 28, 2020 at 2:01am
By Jason Stettner

I was recently invited to chat with various members of the Behaviour Interactive team. This included Game Director Mathieu Cote, Creative Director Dave Richard and the Head of PR Mario Claude Bernard. The purpose of this meeting was to go over the upcoming secret horror license the team has been working on.

This is of course the upcoming June 2020 “Dead by Daylight: Silent Hill Chapter”. With that, I have some interesting details about what to expect directly from the team themselves from this special meeting that went over DLC content. This exciting release was made possible through a unique partnership with Konami.

This allowed them to do some interesting new things that they can’t necessarily do while using film based horror franchises. I’ll go over that a bit later however. Prior to that, I will note this will be releasing on Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC platforms. It will also release on mobile devices later on.

To start, they wanted to note that they’re ”really excited to be able to do this” and that this is a ”dream come true”. It certainly was surprising to hear, as I never expected this to be happening within the game. This new content will be available for purchase as usual, but new things will be happening with all of the content involved. The first piece of this is the Midwich Elementary School map. This is a brand new type of layout for the team, not taking inspiration but directly trying to recreate the design of the original experience.

This is a two floor interior location with a brief exterior portion at the center of the map. They aimed to essentially create as much of the original layout as possible. Fans will be able to see the different rooms present, with some secrets as well. There will be some symbolism, and a puzzle feeling from that original Playstation 1 era game.

There will be a neat atmospheric mix of the original fog style, and the “other world” too. They wanted a good mix between the two of them, and to try to recreate some of the original jump scales from that map as well. This will also be a big change since it will feature new powerful lighting and mood inclusions. They’ve also brought in the original composer from Silent Hill, Akira Yamaoka to work with the team’s composer on audio and atmosphere.

When it comes to the survivor some changes are being made. The primary option is Cheryl Mason, protagonist of the third game. She’s powerful, a vessel of the dark god. A reincarnation of two souls. This in turn provides some different perks. They have a connection to the entity, even granting a little power to a degree we haven’t seen prior within the game.

On top of that, there are new customization features. New cosmetics, and legendary options. This will be more than a costume as it’s essentially where you can transfer a character into another character. You can transform Cheryl into Lisa Garland from the first Silent Hill. Basically the same base character and perks, but an entirely different look.

It is also possible that the team will retroactively use this feature on others characters in the future. That includes both survivors and killers. The first use of this will be within this chapter however. This is only possible due to the Konami partnership, to create unique cosmetics. This is a luxury that hasn’t been present with licensed characters with Freddy being an example. He’s iconic with a specific look, here they’ve been given some freedom to get creative.

Onto the killer, they are providing Pyramid Head and the original one at that. This is the judge and executioner. This character will feature new gameplay mechanics and lots of power. The giant knife can be used for normal, or ranged attacks with it being able to go through collisions and walls. There will be the ability to plant the knife, and to start drawing trenches. This will open the level in new ways.

There will be new choices for how survivors interact with the levels from there. Will they go through the trenches which creates torment if they do. The killer could then bypass hook methods and take them on the spot, put them in the cage of atonement with spikes and all! That’s all the information I have for now, read our review of the most recent chapter or check out the general hub for further coverage below.

Read our DBD Chains of Hate Review
View our Dead by Daylight Hub