Dead by Daylight: The Board Game - a review of the tabletop adaptation of the popular horror video game

Dead by Daylight: The Board Game is a tabletop adaptation of the popular video game of the same name that draws from the horror and survival genres, with the addition of a single player asymmetry system. The goal and setting of the board game version is the same as its video game predecessor: Four poor survivors need to get out of the arena by repairing the generators that power the escape gate that is their path to freedom.

Survivors move around the playing field using movement cards that allow them to move from location to location. Each location on the map has several paths leading to it, depending on the type of card. Some rooms you can only sneak from/into, others you can only run out of, so you need to think ahead about where to move and how to coordinate your progress (especially if you control multiple characters at once, so you don't get "stuck" somewhere).

This is because if you are not at full strength, five players, then 1-2 players must control a pair of survivors who share activation cards. They then find randomly generated items from pre-made categories in each room. In addition to the aforementioned generators or escape gates, these can be things like a first aid kit, repair tools, or pallets, which - as you may know from the video game preview - can be thrown on the road to slow down the killer/monster.

He does everything he can to thwart the efforts of the survivors, with his goal being to capture and sacrifice all players to the mysterious entity that holds everyone in the arena. There are multiple killers in the game, and each has their own special abilities that allow them to devise different strategies and plans for killing others.

The killer also moves around the playing field using action cards, which also allow him to perform various special abilities. Unlike the survivors, he is not activated by one card, but by two different ones, which always makes him faster than the survivors (not to mention the special abilities that often allow the killer extra movement).

Even in the boardgame variant, the video game fact applies that when the monster grabs a survivor, it first wounds him (represented in the boardgame by a snap-on bloody pedestal) and only on the second occasion grabs him and has to carry him to the hook. As in the video game, he has to get to the hook first, and the survivor has until then a chance to slip away by rolling the dice. So he's not in danger of killing someone in one round, which he could in theory with two activations.

There aren't many dice rolls in the game in general though - just to get away from the assassin on the way to the hook and to repair the generators, which is also done on a six-sided dice board with pictures that has 1 failure, 1 major success, and 4 ordinary successes, so the game is really primarily about tactics and not luck and dice rolling, which is never a sure thing in board game.

Dead by Daylight: The Board Game contains high quality and carefully crafted game components including figures, cards with illustrations from the game and a game board representing the game field. The design of the figurines and game components is faithful to the video game original, and the characters' skills have identical graphics to their video game counterparts. 

The quality of the models is not equal to, say, CMON's figures, but as better game tokens they are more than adequate and eventually look really nice when painted. These are definitely not half-baked miniatures that don't match promo images or renders at all, as some Kickstarter original games sometimes have.

However, there is one Kickstarter malady the game does have, and that's exclusive content that is (and will never be) available for the regular release. Which usually doesn't matter that much, but the "problem" with Dead by Daylight is that it only gets you a portion of the survivors or monsters in the game and you never get to buy the rest.

The surprise base game doesn't include The Huntress, which is one of the most popular characters in the original (we can only speculate as to whether or not it should have been a ploy to buy the collector's edition on Kickstarter), or The Plague, which I personally love the most from the video game version, but will sadly never play as on the tabletop. 

Also exclusive to the Kickstarter campaign were the iconic hooks on which survivors caught by the killer are hung. Which is a bit unfortunate, not only because it makes the survivors on the hook more cool, but also because all the survivor figures have a big hole in their back just so they can hang themselves.

It's just that they have nothing to hang on to in the retail box. Luckily for us, Czech publisher TLAMA games has made their own hooks that you can buy. They work great, they're movable too, and you get spare hooks just in case, although in a few games they've never been damaged in my case and don't even look like they're going to get damaged.

Overall, Dead by Daylight: The Board Game is a great board game for fans of the video game and those unfamiliar with it. It offers a very engaging and adrenaline-fueled experience that keeps players entertained and challenged, and provides plenty of variability and replayability thanks to the various characters, abilities, and game modes.

The only downside I can potentially see is that the game is virtually random dice-free and is all about planning and tactics, thus experienced players are able to make it for an inexperienced killer incredibly hard. But the game also keeps this in mind and recommends that the most experienced player always play the killer.

Verdict:

Dead by Daylight: The board game is a real success and has a lot to offer both video game fans (for whom I dare say it's a must-buy) and people looking for some asymmetrical PvP board game for more people. Moreover, its principle is relatively simple, so it's not a problem to teach it to anyone in five minutes. The components are of high quality and faithful to the source material. For its price, an excellent buy that is capable of providing hours of entertainment.

Also, if you find this article helpful, you can buy me coffee. :) 

Originally published in Czech on the ZeStolu portal. Unless otherwise stated, images taken from my Hobby Instagram page @Potan_CZ.