Dead by Daylight has become a staple in the horror genre. With their own original killers as well as the licensed ones in the game, it can feel like playing a horror movie. Like many franchises, people love to see team ups. Freddy vs Jason, Alien vs Predator, these movies bring together franchises and can serve as fan service. When it comes to Dead by Daylight, that kind of fan service always felt like it was lacking since the killers were pretty isolated. Yes, you could have Laurie Strode face off against Leatherface or Freddy Krueger, but honestly the killers are the stars of the franchises and they were always separated in their own trials. At least they were until last week. Last week, Dead by Daylight finally released their highly anticipated limited time 2v8 game mode. In it 8 survivors face off against 8 killers. While all survivors are available, only 5 killers are able to be chosen. There’s also only 5 maps that you can be sent to. This is only the first iteration of this mode and Behaviour Interactive has said that in the future it would return with more maps and killer options and that it may eventually become a permanent game mode.
Gameplay Differences
Survivors
The survivor objective is the same, do generators and get out, but there’s a number of differences in this mode. First off, you need to do 8 generators instead of just the 5. 13 generators in total will spawn on the maps as well. When you complete all 8 generators, it powers 3 doors instead of just 2. Killers don’t need to take you to a hook, instead they just stomp on you and you’re put in a cage. You have 3 cage states, just like hooks. If a killer gets too close to a cage, you’re then transported somewhere else on the map. Unlike being hooked, you cannot try and pull yourself off out of a cage. Another change is that when there are two survivors left, 3 hatches will spawn. On each map there are 20 chests for you to get items from, which is good as you can’t bring in any items.
Items aren’t the only thing you won’t be able to bring in when playing the 2v8 mode, there are no perks in this mode. At least not in the traditional sense anyway. There are 4 classes that you can choose from: escapist, guide, medic, and scout. Each class has separate abilities. You use 3 standard perk slots with each class. The fourth perk slot is reserved for a self heal that is usable after 2 cage states (basically the same as last hook).
Killers
Trapper, Wraith, Hillbilly, Nurse, and Huntress are the 5 killers that are playable during this mode. Admittedly I have not played killer as of yet, but I am having so much fun as survivor, I don’t feel as though I am missing out on much. Killers an queue up with each other, but there can not have 2 of the same killers in a match. Killers don’t have perks either and some of their limitations are not there, such as Trappers and other killers cannot be caught in bear traps. Killers have one unique perk to them and one perk that is unique to them, but is a team perk, for example when a Trapper sets a bear trap, he and the other killer gain 150% haste.
Back to the Fog
Personally, I didn’t play Dead by Daylight for a while. I did check out some of the other limited time modifiers that Behaviour put into the game, but it still felt the same to me. I love a good horror game, I played a lot of DBD in the past, but it didn’t feel new or refreshed, even with the modifiers. This 2v8 mode feels good, it feels like the game has some new life. I really hope that it becomes permanent. Between this mode, other modifiers, plus the new cross progression features, I could see me playing more Dead by Daylight than I have in a while. Who knows, maybe I will play enough that I will want to unlock the survivors that I am missing, though Lara Croft is pretty tempting already.
It sucks that cross progression doesn’t unlock the same Achievements I unlocked on Steam in the Windows and Xbox Series X/S editions of the game, but it is nice that I have all the characters and perks that I paid for on the Windows Store edition, so now I can play and get reward points for them.
Have you tried out the new 2v8 game mode? What changes would you like to see made to it? What modes would you want to see added in the future? Do you think this is just the beginning and we might see something like a 4v16?
