It’s no surprise that horror games and multiplayer are about as good of a mix as pineapple and pizza or Dead Space and co-op, but sometimes on a rare occasion it can be made to work.

In comes Dead By Daylight from Behaviour Interactive. One multiplayer horror game that I myself have stuck around 500 hours into. With rivals like Friday The 13th: The Game and Evil Dead: The Game entering the fray, albeit without the same kind of staying power. This is without mentioning the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre game slated for launch later on this year in August.

Having dabbled a little with Friday the 13th, a fair amount with Evil Dead and sinking a whole lot of time into Dead By Daylight, I thought it would be fun to have a little think about what makes any of these games good (or bad) and whether or not there’s enough room in the multiplayer horror space for new contenders.

DISCLAIMER: My opinion, of course!

Friday The 13th: The Game

Jason Vorhees is undoubtedly a slasher icon, spanning across twelve movies, various books, novels, comics and two previous games (1986,2007) it was only a matter of time before we saw another fresh video game adaption.

This is the title I put the least amount of time into. I don’t think I even played this on my own Xbox, having only tried it for a couple hours at a friends house, not feeling the urge to jump onto the Xbox store to buy it for my own console. Having to work as a team as survivors feels like a chore in this if you’re playing with randoms. Communication is key here and it feels unsatisfyingly difficult trying to push for a win when you’re with a team that doesn’t understand team work. Collecting certain items to unlock a means of escape is the aim of the game in this one but again, communication is crucial. I didn’t get hands on with the killer side of the scenario either but for the small amount I did, I wasn’t satisfied. Jumping into this one around launch most certainly had a negative effect, trying to play whilst navigating a myriad of technical issues. A shaky launch really didn’t help this title, Admittedly though, I don’t think I gave this one a fair chance. Releasing in 2017 with a final update launching in 2020 and support cancelled, saw the “end” for this title.

Evil Dead: The Game

I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever sat through an Evil Dead film… I’ve been meaning to sit down and watch them, ok? (I have watched a little of the Netflix series) With that said, all it took for me to dive into this one was a friend who actually is an Evil Dead fan and I was pleasantly surprised.

I found both survivors and killer satisfying to play, with plenty of progression available for both that kept me hooked for the best part of a month, if not more. Putting enough time into it to max out my favourites and then moved on to maxing out other characters too!

Even including a single player mode for better or worse, Evil Dead certainly left more of an impression on me than Jason ever could. Working your way through objectives as a team and being able to fight back against Deadites with an array of guns and melee weapons is always a blast, maybe I need to hop back into this at some point and try my hand at some Splatter Royale…

Having launched last year with ongoing support including a “Splatter Royale” mode, it’s made it halfway through Friday The 13th’s life cycle so far and only time will tell if it can manage to stick around.

Dead By Daylight

The true king of asymmetrical horror games, Dead By Daylight. Largely due to one critical factor these other entrants into the genre seem to be missing; Intellectual Property.

Sure, Friday the 13th has Jason Vorhees and Evil Dead has Ash, but Dead By Daylight has Michael Myers chasing around Steve Harrington, Ada Wong, Cheryl Mason and Bill (Left 4 Dead) among countless other survivors and killers.

Couple this with the games simple premise of repairing five generators and escaping gives you a recipe for a winner. Survivor and killer are both fun to play and work out which characters to main, with plenty of perks and consumables to wrap your head around to create that perfect build!

Continuous updates and support help a game thrive and DBD has no shortage of those. Introducing fixes/graphical upgrades over the years alongside new classic and original survivors and killers really helps to keep the game fresh. Not forgetting it’s inclusion into Xbox Game Pass, surely helps drive new players. I’d like to see them try their hands at introducing a different game mode, but… I digress.

Having launched back in 2016, Dead By Daylight shows no signs of slowing down in broadening it’s monster roster of horror franchises. Very fond memories of when I first discovered this game, spending weekends straight with friends playing into the late night only to wake up in the morning and hop right back to it. I’m reliving this game again recently and as a massive horror fan, keeps reminding me of how much I adore this one.

The Future For The Genre

Whilst I doubt anything will be able to dethrone DBD (for me personally) I’d be hard pressed to say I’m not intrigued at the thought of Texas Chainsaw Massacre game. There was also a Killer Klown game announced to everyone’s surprise, boasting a 3vs7 setup, it will certainly be interesting to see what they bring to the genre.

Evil Dead has a fun gameplay loop even if it is lacking a huge roster of horror icons, so it’s not to say that TCM or KK won’t be inherently fun, but I feel like they’re going to have to go above and beyond with their gameplay loops to make people choose them over DBD.

Having only recently dived back into DBD and having its hooks sunk into me, It’s rejuvenated my excitement for these style of games. DBD obviously saw the benefit of being included in Xbox Game Pass, as Texas Chainsaw Massacre is following suit later this year. Whilst it will surely help boost its launch, ultimately, these new entrants need to be fun! How far can a single franchises’ characters and world carry it? Dead By Daylight started off with it’s own original environments and characters to then eventually start incorporating the likes of Stranger Things and Resident Evil, to name a few. Then continuing to these day to add more original killers and survivors and this is ultimately where I feel like new entrants will struggle to branch out, especially when they base themselves around one franchise.

I like to be optimistic and hope for the best when look at future releases, after all, I’m a gamer and I want to play games (funnily enough) but I’m a little sceptical when it comes to these type of games. Here’s hoping Evil Dead continues being it’s own unique take and that a new entrant can shake things up with something fresh and exciting.

If you want to yell at me or maybe even have a civil discussion about this piece, you can find me @BERSERKER_THiiS over on twitter, or just reply to @CompleteXbox on Twitter. Thanks for reading, don’t let the entity get you.