Recent reviews by Baldky

Became less playable than Overwatch, and that's an achievement.

Not worth the price whatsoever. I find it funny that the reviews are "very positive" when almost no one is playing the game (0-12 players playing at any given time currently), which is probably the biggest thing holding it back. The gameplay is average at best and doesn't do anything new or creative, so it gets boring and repetitive very quickly. Not to mention the outdated graphics.

The only good/unique aspect for me is the theme of the game as it does feel quite well-grounded. The maps, while not being particularly standout, help with that.

Overall, not worth getting.

Yes, I would recommend Dead by Daylight. Does that mean it's a flawless game? Far from it.

While the developers at BHVR have shown some signs of balancing some extreme flaws in the game (Moris, which used to allow killers to end games very quickly), they are still about 90% incompetent to any existing issues. I'm not going to go into detail but if you play the game you'll know what I am talking about (keys, broken/op addons, NOED, object of obsession, the large divide between fairness in different maps, matchmaking etc.).

Another thing that should be mentioned about BHVR is they will knowingly release updates to the game that are completely broken. You probably think I am exaggerating but I am not. Most recently they released a new chapter which adds a new killer and survivor (a big, exciting announcement, basically) and stated that some of the killer's abilities DO NOT WORK whatsoever (for example), and that they planned to release a follow up patch sometime soon. What kind of developer does this?! Can you imagine if Valve added a new map to CS:GO where you just couldn't plant in one of the bombsites? Or if Overwatch added a new hero where one of their abilities just did absolutely nothing? There would be absolute OUTRAGE. They even had a public beta out where you could play the killer before the full release, but did that allow these kinds of bugs to be fixed or addressed before the main release? Nope, not at all.

A big positive the game has going for it is its visual designs and assets - killer designs are cool, skins for characters look great, and the unique chase music for killers is cool too. It's very well made in this area.

In conclusion, the concept for the game is brilliant, the assets and audio are incredible, and there's also a vast amount of interesting lore which is overlooked by the majority of players. The execution of some of the gameplay features is not so good, and you will really question the sanity of the developers quite a lot as you get good at the game and figure everything out. If you're looking for a new game to get good at while having some fun then it could be for you, but be prepared for some very unfun and unfair parts of the game that will probably never be fixed by BHVR.

2024 EDIT: Since this review and after a long break from the game, quite a few of the worst gameplay elements have been improved (Moris nerfed, keys reworked, Object of obsession reworked, op addons nerfed, some maps improved). From what I have gathered some of the new killer gameplay designs aren't the best (knight and skull merchant for example) but the developers seem more open to changing and reworking the game than previously. There are definitely still questionable decisions at times and the roadmap and responses to good ideas don't exactly give me more hope for improvement (reasonable small-ish idea given -> acknowledged as good -> "we'll get to it in a few years probably" genuine simplified response) but overall its a lot better than it was from a competitive standpoint.

Now this is hands down one of the best games I have ever played. And I haven't even completed it. And I'm not going to spoil anything, relax. Build a shelter, explore caves, defend your base from cannibals, and find stronger weapons underground. And find your son, Timmy, don't forget about him. Or, DO forget about him. There is a nice storyline but it isn't shoved down your throat.

There are lots of annoying little things about the game however, but nothing that the typical player would mind or notice (It's mostly just some issues I find like stamina and other "mechanics".) So don't worry about those. They're just personal things I would change.

One thing to note is that the forest isn't really open ended. I mean, you can play the game as long as you want, but there is a limit where there is nothing else to discover except complete the game. And there is only the single map (as it is still storyline based). What I would love the most is some kind of random world generation.

Finally, if there's a single most important thing about the game, it's the title. "The Forest" isn't really an accurate name. Just refer to it as "The Forest with cannibals and mutants and caves" instead. If you are in VR... well, all I'm going to say is this game is probably downright terrifying in VR. So yeah, awesome game. Worth every penny.