Dead by Daylight has proven that it can still be creative. For just a few more hours, you can play arguably the best game mode that has ever existed.
The asymmetrical horror game Dead by Daylight has been available on Steam since June 2016 – so almost 8 years. Over time, the game has changed drastically. The objectives have been adjusted, new killers with new abilities have been added, and the survivors have become increasingly versatile with new and better perks.
However, where there was once fear and horror at the beginning, over the years, familiarity and thereby some disillusionment crept in.
Sure: The heartbeat of the “Terror Radius” loses a bit of its shock power after a few years, and you eventually get used to even the creepiest killer.
In all those years, Dead by Daylight never really received other game modes. But that changed last week, when the “Light’s Out” mode was activated.
The latest survivor in Dead by Daylight:
What is this mode? In the “Light’s Out” variant, some special rules apply that should reduce the game to its core mechanics and bring back the horror factor. The changes were:
- Every map is in deep darkness, you can only see a few meters ahead.
- There is no loadout, neither for killers nor survivors. This means:
- No perks
- No offerings
- No items
- No addons
- Scratch marks from survivors are not displayed.
- All killers have no terror radius.
In summary, you can consider this a kind of “Dead by Daylight Hardcore”.
Horror is back in Dead by Daylight
After a bit of a longer break, I have been playing Dead by Daylight more extensively in the past few days and must say that “Light’s Out” is the best thing that could happen to the game. The mode reminded me of why I actually like the game so much and proved that Dead by Daylight works wonderfully even without “all the junk” like perks, addons, and items.
Some finer adjustments would still benefit the mode, as on some maps, killers are so hard to see that you run into objects constantly – but aside from that, it was pure, unadulterated fun and something I hadn’t known from Dead by Daylight in a long time: horror and scares.
It’s been a long time since I was genuinely startled when the Trapper or the Clown appears from the darkness and is not already announced from 36 meters away.
However, this mode also reveals a potential weakness of the game. Because if the core game can work completely without perks and addons, and balancing those details has been a major criticism from the community for years – why should one still engage with the “normal” game?
I hope that the developers will learn the right lessons from the new mode. Because I haven’t had this much fun in Dead by Daylight in a long time.
If you want to try the “Light’s Out” mode yourself, you should do so in the next few hours. Because on Wednesday, February 14, this modification will be temporarily disabled again. However, as the community’s feedback has been extremely overwhelming so far, it is likely just a matter of time before the developers bring this mode back – and hopefully as a permanent version.
Have you tried the mode? How do you like this special variant?
