Dead by Daylight - A Beginner's Guide to The Cannibal

I'm back with another beginner's experience of playing as a killer in the asynchronous multiplayer game Dead by Daylight. For March, the killer I randomly chose to try was The Cannibal, better known to all as Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series of films. They kind of shot themselves in the foot regarding this type of character, as The Hillbilly was an original creation from the team behind the game who was their blatant stand-in for Leatherface and released long before this killer (before they were able to get that licence). As such, Leatherface is the second killer to rely on a chainsaw, and so he had to act differently to The Hillbilly.

I really wanted to spend more time playing as the killer this month, after only playing as Wesker three times last month. Leatherface arrived with 'Chapter 5.5: Leatherface', and consists solely of the killer himself. The lore based backstory has Leatherface entering the entities realm right at the end of the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. He goes from being scared that the escaped victim is going to call the police on him and his family, to fear at finding himself in the new realm. Determined not to fail the entity like he believes he failed his family, Leatherface realises immediately what he has to do.

I can't say I was that great at using Leatherface, but I still enjoyed playing as him better than I did Wesker. His default weapon is a sledge hammer he effortlessly wields, his special ability being of course the iconic chainsaw. When activated, Leatherface moves forward slightly faster, swinging the chainsaw side to side. If you hit an object while using the weapon, Leatherface goes into an uncontrollable tantrum where he wildly swings it around for a few seconds. What I really liked about this ability was that it is an instant down if it connects with a player. He may be slow, but there were many times I was able to easily down players trying to escape. His special perks are a mixed bag, one of them causes players to drop any items they are carrying when they are hit, another causes players to get the blindness status when hit, while the final one, 'Barbecue & Chilli' allows Leatherface to see the auras of all players for four seconds after he hooks a survivor. Many of his add-ons revolve around changing elements of the chainsaw attack slightly.

Being a licenced killer, his alternate costumes were limited. As I hadn't played as him before, I spent the month with his iconic default look (the mask made out of human flesh and the butchers apron). I only managed to play five games as him, the final one I was a bit cheeky as I had a secret perk to gain the ability to kill survivors after hooking them twice. This led to be killing three of the four survivors, each time I got a fun animation of me clubbing them to the ground with my sledge hammer, before sticking the chainsaw right the way through them and bringing it upwards.
I had fun with the killer, but all these months in and the game still hasn't really clicked with me. There is a reason I don't play it much during the month, and that is down to still not really being comfortable with how to properly play in an effective way. Next month's killer is to be The Hag, one of the original killers released for Dead by Daylight. Check back around this time next month to see how I got on using her.

Dead by Daylight - A Beginner's Guide to The Mastermind

I have now been making an effort to get into asynchronous multiplayer horror game Dead by Daylight for four months. Each month sees me randomly picking a new killer to spend the month trying to get to grips with. For February the killer chosen was The Mastermind, better known to all as Resident Evil's Albert Wesker. When I initially saw this killer was my new pick I was excited, I thought it would be cool to play as this iconic bad guy. Over the course of the month however I just never really got to grips with exactly how he controlled, leading to frustration more often than not.

The set-up for how the killer came to be in the nightmare realm of Dead by Daylight is often pretty cool, though with Wesker his introduction comes not at the end of his natural time in the Resident Evil games, but instead is made non-canonical with him weirdly getting pulled into the realm mid-way through the events of Resident Evil 5. I have a somewhat sad knowledge of the Resident Evil world and so this really is just nit-picking on my part. As for being a killer in this realm, it makes sense Wesker would relish the chance to use his powers to kill those deemed as weaker than him, I imagine it would feel like a welcome break for someone used to dealing with boulder punching action heroes and global conspiracies. He was added to the game in Chapter 25: Resident Evil: Project W, while he didn't get his own stage, he was joined by Ada Wong and Rebecca Chambers who became survivor characters.
Wesker was at the height of his coolness during the events of Resident Evil: Code Veronica, where his powers were blatantly inspired by The Matrix films. The version of the character here isn't that though, recently infected with the Uroboros biological weapon, his main form of attack is transforming his arm into a tentacle.

Being perfectly honest, I'm a little ashamed of how little I played Dead by Daylight last month. In total I only actually played three matches with Wesker, one of which was a unique limited time mode which took away the threat detection ability as well as the use of items. In that time I was met with a lot of frustration getting to grips with how Wesker's move set worked, despite him being rated as 'moderate' to use. His default weapon is a knife, perfectly fine, no trouble there. His power move sees him rush forward quickly, his arm transforming into a black tentacle to either grab survivors and hurl them against walls, or to use his dash to swiftly vault over barriers and through windows. Hitting a survivor in this way infects them, the infection eventually causing the hinderance status effect (movement speed reduced by 8%) if the survivor doesn't find and use a first aid spray. My main problem came with using his rush ability. He has the ability to rush twice in a row, but I was rarely able to get this to work. Sometimes I would see a button prompt to do the follow up dash, but other times it seemed I wasn't even being given the option to do this. It led to me charging at survivors expecting to get a second dash to actually reach them (the grab and hurl motion being automatic once contact with a survivor is reached), but never usually getting to reach them. This, coupled with a cool down for the dash move, led to me being the least effective killer I have been since I started playing Dead by Daylight again.

Wesker was fine as a killer, I left him in his default black trench coat look as I have only been purchasing alternate skins for the killers I had previously used in the past.. He is prone to saying cheesy one-liners when attacking, something that fits him perfectly as the Resident Evil games are often full of cheese like that. I did have to turn off the subtitles in the settings however as it was quite distracting having them come up on screen in large text.
The sole highlight I had playing with Wesker came right at the end of a match. Survivors like to troll killers by hanging out at the exit doing the tea-bagging motion rather than immediately going through it when it opens up. One such player was doing that, obviously forgetting that Wesker has a dash, I swiftly shot forward, grabbed this player and threw them against the exist (which then turned solid due to the killer not being able to pass through). This put the player in a downed state, so I quickly picked them up before they could crawl to freedom, put them over my shoulder and went and hooked them. I have to say that was really satisfying!
So, I have done a random killer pick for March and that killer is The Cannibal, which I recall is actually Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series of films. I will aim to play more than the paltry amount I managed for February!

Dead by Daylight: A Beginner's Guide to The Pig

For the past three months I have been trying to get into the asynchronous horror multiplayer game Dead by Daylight. Each month sees me choosing a new killer at random (previous times being The Trapper and The Clown), and then at the end of that time giving my very beginner thoughts on playing as them. For January my random pick was The Pig, which is the first licenced killer that has come up for me.

Coming from the Saw franchise, The Pig is actually Amanda Young. I'm always one who enjoys lore, and this killer had perhaps the most interesting lore I had read about so far. I haven't gotten around to seeing all the Saw films, but basically, Amanda is killed in the real world, but awakens to find herself in the entities realm wearing her pig mask get-up. What I found cool about this was that initially she began to panic, not expecting or wanting to be in this place. Due to her unshakeable faith in John Kramer, she comes to believe that he must have known she would end up in this place, and so decides to play the part of the killer, convinced that he had planned for her to become the tool of the entity.
She has a unique stage of 'Gideon Meat Plant' but this never actually came up for me, so no idea what it is like to play on.

The Pig has a 'hard' rating, but despite this I found her a lot easier to use than The Clown (due to him relying on accuracy, something I struggle with!). She has two main abilities, the first of which allows her to crouch walk, which removes her detection ability from survivors. When crouching you can charge up a stealth attack which when activated cause you to rush forward, blade out in front. Higher level use allows you to change the trajectory of this stealth attack to trick survivors, not that I managed that much.
Her second ability changes the flow of the game a bit, when a survivor is downed, you are able to fix a reverse bear trap onto them. This initiates a (somewhat generous) time limit, the end of which will see the survivor instantly die to the trap. Dotted around the map are special boxes, one of which will contain the key to remove the contraption. Even if the exit gate is open, survivors with an activated trap must still find the key as trying to leave will instantly kill them.
Of her three unique perks, the only one I really understood was 'Make Your Choice', which kind of mixes in elements of Saw in that unhooking a survivor places a de-buff on the rescuer. 

I don't know if I was just lucky, but out of just the seven or eight matches I managed to fit in (no idea where all my time goes!), I was able to kill all survivors twice, sometimes by hooking them, and sometimes by the head trap killing them before it could be removed. You only have access to four reverse bear traps (without perks that increase this), but I'm not exactly great at downing people so there was never a time I ran out of them. The stealth attack I managed to use a few times, but I missed more than hit using this, something that will take more practice. Additional perks allow you to change the effect of the bear trap, as well as cause the Jigsaw boxes to hold little traps of their own.
Being a licenced character there were sadly fewer alternate skins to buy. I brought one that had The Pig wearing a black leather coat, and replaced her hidden blade with an electronic corkscrew type weapon. The next killer I shall spend a month with is The Mastermind, better known as Albert Wesker from Resident Evil, excited for that one!

Dead by Daylight: A Beginner's Guide to The Clown

Each month I am randomly choosing a new killer to play as in the horror video game Dead by Daylight, for December that killer was The Clown. As stated last time, this is a guide written by a beginner of the game, not a guide for beginners!

An original creation for the game, born in 1932, Kenneth Chase became obsessed with killing small animals as a child, and due to his work helping out a dentist was able to start collecting anaesthetic. He gradually moved onto larger animals and then eventually humans. With risk of being found out by his abusive father, Kenneth ran away from home and it wasn't long before he had joined a travelling circus, taking on the new name of Jeffrey Hawk. Over a decade he returned to his killing ways, using his clown disguise to trick people into his confidence. With his crimes eventually being discovered, he fled once again, and spent years turning up at random travelling circuses in clown disguise, so that he could continue his killing, keeping a trophy of a finger from each of his victims. Eventually he became one with his clown disguise, rarely removing it, as much a part of him as it could be. Then one day he ended up in the entities realm, where he was happy to continue the killing.

A smaller killer with a difficulty rating of medium, his reach wasn't as far reaching as The Trapper, though he is quicker at climbing through windows. He doesn't have a home stage tailored to himself, but officially, he shares the 'Crotus Prenn Asylum' stage with The Nurse. This stage is split into two maps, 'Disturbed Ward' and 'Father Campbell's Chapel'. I would have thought a creepy circus ground would have made for a cool original stage, but never mind! The Clown's main skill is throwing potion bottles at his victims. The purple potion bottles release a purple gas cloud which inflicts various effects on the survivors, typically slowing them down. A direct hit gives an effect that lasts longer. As The Clown, you can also throw yellow potion bottles. After a delay this releases a yellow gas cloud that invigorates you, allowing you to move faster for a limited time (something that survivors can take advantage of also).

I have to say, aiming isn't my strong point, so a killer whose ability relies on accurately throwing bottles at survivors wasn't going to show me in a good light. I often just stuck to the purple potions, as I never could get my head around properly taking advantage of the yellow ones, only throwing them by accident when I had swapped potions without realising! A lot of the skill is predicting where survivors are going to run to, I wasn't too bad at guessing correctly. I relied on faster mixing times for the potion recharges, as I predicted my problem would be a high number of misses when throwing the bottles.

I had many poor matches, though one stood out in which I killed a few survivors, including one I killed myself rather than sacrificed. This played out as me stamping on their head, before using my knife to cut off one of their fingers to add to my collection. I had assumed this was a default kill, but reading the lore for The Clown, it made sense.

The Clown had a few alternate costumes, I went for a chicken suit, suitably ragged and filthy. I wasn't as successful with him as The Trapper, but I grew to not really mind him, though I was always aware I was only making use of half of his abilities, with the yellow potions beyond my current skill level to effectively use. Over the month I think I had around eight to ten games with him, so by no means great yet. January brings with it a new Dead by Daylight killer to try out, The Pig, which is the first licenced character that has came up in my random pick, coming from the Saw franchise. Tune in roughly this time next month for my thoughts on that killer.

Dead by Daylight - A Beginner's Guide to The Trapper

I have always loved the idea of online asynchronous multiplayer survival horror video game Dead by Daylight in theory more than action. It is constantly getting new killers added to it, many of them licenced from horror films. In execution however I have often struggled to enjoy this. As a survivor I end up getting wiped out almost immediately, and find the loop of having to fix generators a dull task to complete. As a killer I often worry about putting on a poor show, or that the survivors will run rings around me.
A few months ago I decided to once again give the game a go. Rather than randomly dipping into various killers and survivors, I decided that each month I would randomly pick a killer and only use that killer for the month, hoping to gradually get better at using them. 
I thought as some nice easy blog posts I would do a beginner's guide to each killer I come across. A beginner's guide not for beginners, but one written by a beginner. The first pick a few months back was The Trapper.

The Trapper (Evan MacMillan) was an original creation for the game (even being the cover image killer). His backstory has him in the real world working as a brutal enforcer for his rich father, with his actions resulting in the murder of over a hundred men. One day he vanishes, with his father found locked and starving in the basement of his own warehouse. Of course, Evan had been pulled into the entity's realm, a place between life and death in which poor victims are trapped in a hellish purgatory where they constantly have to escape from various killers looking to sacrifice part of their soul to the entity. He has his own level, 'The MacMillan Estate', though it is random which level you actually play on.
The Trapper is one of the larger killers to be found, and is classed as easy to use, so was a good choice for my first random pick. His special ability, as the title may suggest, is to place bear traps around the maps. Playing as him, you begin the round with a set number of traps, with others dotted around the level, either to be activated where they lay, or collected and placed elsewhere. It became clear that you have to try and place the traps at least vaguely effectively, putting them by doorways or windows, or by generators or narrow points of the path seemed to work best. What is good with him is that you can place traps and forget about them, until you get the indicator a survivors has triggered the trap. His large size meanwhile means he has a better reach than some of the other killers.

My rookie tips for playing as the killer over the course of a month (and roughly ten to fifteen matches) are as follows. I found inside levels to be better than outdoor levels. I found corridors and doorways effective places to constantly trap survivors. My worst match was thankfully also the first, in which I spent the entire round chasing one survivors without ever catching them! My best match saw me manage a squad wipe. On average I can't say I was amazing with him, but it was early days for my killer adventure.
On the cosmetic side of things, he has a great cross-over skin with Naughty Bear. This changes his appearance into that of a giant scowling teddy bear, I loved going around looking like this. This also adds some mild narration to the start of a match, much like that early 2000's video game did.
Later this week will be my second Dead by Daylight guide for the killer I used all December, The Clown.

Little Nightmares II (2021) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

Little Nightmares was a horror game that left me a little disappointed. Despite the superbly creepy graphics I soon came to be frustrated by the controls, and the story didn't feel like it went anywhere that interesting. The game's three DLC packs were a mixed bag, with only one of them, The Residence, being a better experience than the base game. I believe Little Nightmares II originally retailed with a price of £35 here in the UK. Knowing that the first game was only around four hours long, I had no intention of getting this sequel unless it was heavily discounted. Well, that time has come, and seeing it for under £9 I decided to give it a go and hope against hope that it was a better game this time around. The story elements I do speak of is my own interpretation, with no dialogue it is all up to the player to decipher. 

You play as a small boy who exists in a world built for giants. Starting in a forest he begins his adventure, to seek out the reason why all his life he has had recurring dreams of a door marked with an eye symbol at the end of a long corridor. His journey takes him to the house of a giant poacher, and it is while exploring this place that he rescues a girl of similar size to him. The pair flee the shotgun toting giant and their travels eventually take them to a gigantic city of monstrous proportions, a place that the boy eventually learns the meaning of his dreams of the door.

With this sequel I finally understand the title of the game. While the first one was horror, it didn't feel like this one did atmosphere wise. This feels like being in a living nightmare, every location oozes with menace. This had more of a feel to Inside in that for the majority of the game you are journeying from left to right, each new location is a point on your onwards journey. The woods and poacher's cabin is a great introduction to the game, it is here that you learn the controls, something that the game often leaves you to discover for yourself, rather than providing any button prompts. The majority of the game takes place in the city, with rain perpetually pouring down. It is split into different areas in which there usually roams an area antagonist. Much like the first game, you encounter a variety of horrific boss enemies who patrol areas, and chase you down and kill you should they spot you. The first of these is the poacher, whose constant shotgun blasts require you to manoeuvre yourself behind cover. Later you encounter an extremely freaky looking teacher in a school, her neck is able to stretch seemingly infinitely, leading to some very crazy moments, helped by the crazed expression on her face. In the second half of the game you encounter the most scary of the boss characters, a 'Slender Man' looking thin figure who silently walks constantly towards you, appearing everywhere you turn, that was a highlight in terms of the horror.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Forgotten Saga (2022) - Video Game Horror Mode Review (Playstation 5)

I have never spoken about the Assassin's Creed series of video games on this blog before as they are not horror games. I am however a huge fan, having been hooked on the games since the very first one back in 2007. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the twelfth major installment in the series and up until recently there was no reason to mention it on a horror blog. That is, until the recent release of a free update that was not only horror based, but also a shift into a different genre of video game entirely. Unavoidable spoilers about some aspects of Valhalla, including the ending to the last major expansion; Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok.

While the core game is mostly set on the British isles in the 9th Century AD, at set points the game switches to the world of Norse myths and legends. In these sections you play as Odin, a God who is preoccupied with preventing the onset of Ragnarok. The last expansion had Odin searching the Dwarven realm for his kidnapped son, Baldr, but culminated in him finding he was too late, and that Baldr had already been killed. Being the world of Norse legends however, death is not the end. Determined to save his son, Odin travels to the realm of the dead, Niflheim, where he plans to rescue Baldr before his soul passes over to the other side. This all takes place in a free expansion known as Forgotten Saga.

The Forgotten Saga is a roguelike mode in which you play as Odin as he attempts to navigate Niflheim in order to reach Hel's palace at its centre. Each 'run' has you attempting to fight your way through four different areas. I have played roguelikes before, but this one is the first that felt more epic in scale. It reminded me most heavily of Hades, mostly due to the setting. That game had you as the son of Hades who was attempting to escape the Greek version of Hell. Here, you are instead trying to infiltrate the Norse version of Hell.

Zombie Army 4: Dead War (2020-22) - Zombie Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 4)

It seems funny to me now that upon starting Zombie Army 4: Dead War I was concerned it wouldn't be able to match the content of the previous game. That previous game, Zombie Army Trilogy was, as its title implies, made up of three seperate games. I have fond memories of playing through that, while I wish I had people to play it with, it was still a fun, albeit, repetitive game of zombie slaying in a World War II setting. My synopsis of the story for this one may be a little foggy, due to playing this over a three year period.

Zombie Hitler has been defeated and banished to Hell but that didn't mean the zombie horde invading the world was defeated. Even with him gone the zombies continue to hunt down the last bastions of humankind. Even worse, Nazi cultists are working together to resurrect the Fuhrer, and so you are in a race against time travelling all over Europe in order to stop this happening.

Zombie Army 4: Dead War is a gigantic game even when you don't count the huge amount of DLC missions. The base game is split over nine chapters and comprises of thirty two different levels. Add in the downloadable content (whose final chapter, Ragnarok released last month) and you have yourself an additional eleven chapters and an extra thirty two levels, making for a whopping sixty four in total. While I dread to think how much money I splashed out to own all the DLC chapters, it did completely double the size of the game, seeming pretty essential in my eyes. Having played this over such a long time period my memories of the base game is hazy.