Summary
It’s no easy feat to keep a live-service game going for a year, let alone almost eight, but somehowDead by Daylightis about to do just that. Released all the way back in 2016,Dead by Daylightmay not be perfect, but it’s the longest-surviving asymmetrical horror multiplayer game out there. One core thing that setsDead by Daylightapart from its competition that have all come and gone in the last few years is Behaviour Interactive’s consistent output of updates and DLC Chapters, with new content coming to the game every few months.
Beginning just two months after the game’s original release,Dead by Daylighthas received a consistent stream of DLCevery few months for almost eight years now. While all of that content has kept players coming back time and time again, it does bring up a potential issue, one that pervadedSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, and one that could easily start affectingDead by Daylight, if it hasn’t already.
The entire gimmick ofSuper Smash Bros. Ultimatewas that it included every fighter that had ever been in aSmash Bros.game, bringing them all together under one roof. This meant that from the get-go,Super Smash Bros. Ultimatehad a total of 82 fully playable fightersin its base game. Already, this is more than enough characters for a fighting game, and some characters were always going to get a bit lost in the mix. This is especially true asSmash Bros. Ultimatefocuses on crossover fighters, which means that some lesser-known crossovers are usually going to fall by the wayside anyway.
This issue only became more apparent with the addition of post-launch DLC. Over the course of the next few years,Super Smash Bros. UItimateadded another 12 crossover fighters. Of course, the iconicity of some of these characters was far greater than some others, with fighters like Sephiroth, Steve, and Sora all being characters that fans had been asking to see in the franchise for years. This led to some DLC characters overshadowing others. WhileSuper Smash Bros. Ultimatecurrently features one of the most impressive rosters in all of gaming, it does still feel a tad bloated, with the game now having a ton of characters that don’t often get picked.
The firstDead by Daylightcrossover happened all the way back in October 2016 whenHalloween’s Michael Myerscame to the game, and since then, it’s remained a staple of theDead by DaylightDLC cycle. Recently,Dead by Daylighthas seen some of its best crossovers ever come to the game, withAlien,Child’s Play, and now itsAlan Wakecrossovers all adding some excellent Survivors, Killers, and Perks to the game. However, crossover bloat might already be starting to creep intoDead by Daylight.
Dead by Daylightcurrently has a total of 12 crossover Killers, and a total of 13 crossover Survivors. That’s almost half of each roster taken up by crossover characters. While there wouldn’t be too much of an issue with that normally, some ofDead by Daylight’s crossover charactersdo feel a tad neglected nowadays, with Killers like Freddy Krueger andSaw’s Pig being some of the least popular to play due to their lack of any recent updates. The more crossover characters come toDead by Daylight, the harder it’s going to be for Behaviour to continue balancing them all, and the more likely they are to start to feel worthless.
