Asymmetric survival horror title Dead by Daylight offers players a choice of over two dozen scrappy Survivors and over a dozen dangerous Killers to play as. Core gameplay centers around a team of four Survivors having to escape from a Killer who hopes to catch and sacrifice them to a dark god. Since the game's launch in 2016, Dead by Daylight has continued to release regular updates and add new content, including Survivors and Killers from popular horror films, TV shows, and video games.
The most recent update to Dead by Daylight, entitled Sadako Rising, featured the addition of the titular character from the Japanese horror film series Ringu. Referred to as "The Onryo," a term meaning "vengeful ghost," Sadako is as terrifying as ever with her signature white nightgown and long black hair. As a playable Killer, Sadako can teleport using several televisions placed around the map. Players must find and use scattered videotapes to turn off these TVs and limit Sadako's movement. However, while the update was generally well-received, it also coincided with the unfortunate disabling of certain in-game powers, also known as Perks.
The two disabled Perks were Wake Up, learned by A Nightmare on Elm Street's Quentin Smith, and Object of Obsession, learned by Halloween's Laurie Strode. Wake Up, which allows Quentin to detect Exit Gates and open them faster, was disabled because of a bug that sometimes caused the person playing as the Killer to experience game crashes. Object of Obsession, which creates a supernatural bond between Survivor and Killer and is good against stealthy Killers such as Michael Myers himself, was disabled because it sometimes resulted in crashes when players used the Perk to free fellow Survivors from hooks. Both perks have now been re-enabled as of Update 5.6.1, although they will not be made available to players until the update has been pushed out across all platforms.
Other fixes included bug repairs on the Gideon Meat Plant, Yamaoka Estates, and Silent Hill maps and some adjustments to Sadako's powers, which would occasionally not trigger properly. Additionally, the update continues to tweak Boil Over, a powerful Perk that allows Survivors to wiggle away while being carried by Killers, which was previously nerfed in a recent content update. The nerfed Boil Over was sometimes remaining active even after players successfully wiggled free, an issue which was fixed in Update 5.6.1.
Hopefully, these fixes and re-activated Perks will help keep Dead by Daylight enjoyable for Survivors and Killers alike. In the meantime, the team behind the game is constantly working on new content to add, including new crossovers with popular horror franchises. Recently, the creators of Dead by Daylight revealed that they would love to do a crossover with the works of prolific horror author Stephen King, which could possibly lead to the addition of It's Pennywise or The Shining's Jack Torrance as a Killer.
Dead by Daylight is currently available for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.