Behaviour Interactive revealed the slate of Resident Evil content being added to its asymmetrical horror title Dead by Daylight during the game's fifth anniversary livestream Tuesday. While the stream also revealed Dead by Daylight's overall year 6 roadmap, many fans of Capcom's long-running survival horror franchise tuned in to the announcement that Jill Valentine and Leon S. Kennedy could attempt to survive the wrath of Nemesis in Resident Evil 2 Remake's Raccoon City Police Department.
At the same time, fans of Dead by Daylight were treated to the news that an interesting mechanic is being added to the multiplayer title: AI entities. Whenever a Killer chooses to play as Nemesis, called "The Tyrant" in-game, Dead by Daylight will also pay homage to Resident Evil's classic content by spawning zombies throughout the map that can spread T-Virus infections. While this makes Nemesis the first AI-assisted character in the world of Dead by Daylight, creative director Dave Richard said he likely won't be the last. Game Rant attended a press event leading up to Dead by Daylight's fifth anniversary reveal livestream and learned more about this new mechanic.
Nemesis' perk kit is built around making him "the ultimate pursuer" according to Richard, as he first attacks Survivors to spread the T-Virus so they will be more easily trackable and then take greater damage. The AI-controlled zombies will patrol a map on their own to find and bite Survivors, making infection a greater threat considering there will be a limited number of cures in each round. Richard said AI was previously tested in Dead by Daylight Mobile, but now that it has made the jump to the main game it will "100 percent" appear going forward.
"Like anything we build in Dead by Daylight, we create new tools we can use in the future."
The specific way AI entities assist Nemesis will be unique, Richard said, and any future Killer who takes advantage of AI will do so in their own way. There are plenty of possibilities when it comes to this idea, especially given Behaviour Interactive CMO David Reid told press that the developer is constantly in conversation with a lot of companies. A Dead by Daylight survey in April 2021 asked for player feedback on what kind of crossovers they might be interested in seeing. Among the lengthy list of choices were licensed properties including Scooby-Doo, Fullmetal Alchemist, Dead Space, and Spawn.
Richard and Reid were asked what genre of horror they would like to see in Dead by Daylight that has not yet been tackled, specifically pointing to Japanese horror properties such as the PS2 survival horror game Siren. While they were not able to go into any specific details about what crossovers may be on the horizon following Resident Evil in Chapter 20, which releases June 15, Richard said more possibilities are always being considered.
"At this point in Dead by Daylight history, we've seen a lot of different franchises and genres explored. We're always on the lookout for others to join the hall of fame our game has become, we just need to make sure it's the right one because quantity is limited. Every year we can only create so much content."
With the addition of AI-controlled characters, there are certainly plenty of options for future Killers and maps to become more complex and interesting. That isn't even the only new mechanic being introduced in Chapter 20, as Behaviour points out that Leon's "Flashbang" perk allows him to spawn extra items mid-game. Between this constant mechanical evolution and Dead by Daylight's push to revamp its graphics during the newest console generation, there's a lot of room to keep growing. "Over the years, Dead by Daylight has brought in 36 million players across all its platforms, and it remains one of the top viewed and streamed games on Twitch," Reid said. "So today we celebrate Dead by Daylight's fifth anniversary - It's a remarkable milestone."
Dead by Daylight is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.