Dead by Daylight vs Friday the 13th: Which Game is Right for You?

There are two games right now that make up the Horror Multiplayer genre and they are Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th. Both of these games are a take on the popularity of survival horror games with multiplayer objectives. There is a team of survivors or counselors who are being pursued by a killer, and you must escape before you are killed. These games have many similarities but do have 2 key differences that make up their playability.

Objectives

Both of these games have the same idea, escape the serial killer who is coming after you, but these games go about that in different ways. In Dead by Daylight, you and your fellow survivors work together to repair 5 generators that are on the map. Once they are all complete you then make your way to one of the two exit gates and try to make it before the killer gets you. In Friday the 13th, you and your fellow counselors have different 5 different ways to escape: repair the boat and sail away, repair one of two cars and drive away, repair the phone and call the police, kill Jason, or survive for 20 minutes.

On the surface, Friday the 13th has a lot more variety in gameplay and this means there are essentially more objectives to choose from, when compared to Dead by Daylight. With the cooperative aspect, there is an expectation that your matches will feel very different from one another and provide a unique experience each round, which is generally the case. With Dead by Daylight, you are much more limited as to what objectives they should accomplish, and leaves variety to come in the form of player interaction and the random nature of the generators. Generators are not in the same locations each round, and as the survivor, you must find them on your own.

Characters

Both games offer a diverse character roster that adds to the game experience and works in different ways. In Dead by Daylight you play as a survivor or a killer. Each survivor has their own unique perks and cosmetics that make them each look and feel different. You do have the option of being able to use perks from other survivors if you level enough down their skill trees. Eventually, survivors more or less can play very similarly but depending on what you do, you can make or find one that fits more of your playstyle. There are also 9 killers that play a lot more distinctly from each another. Killers rely on their own abilities to kill survivors and have skills that help their abilities become more lethal. Survivors and killers both also have their own unique back story that places them in the Dead by Daylight universe.

In Friday the 13th, you either play as a counselor or Jason. Each counselor has their own perks that work with the games features, such as different levels of stamina for sprinting. While also having different perks they also have different appearances that makes them feel different from one another. As a killer though, you are only Jason. There are different forms of Jason to choose from, each inspired by the different films in the franchise, and they have their own perks but you are still only Jason. This aspect limits the sense of variety the game can offer as you are stuck more or less as the same killer, which can get old pretty fast.

Verdict

Both games are great examples of what multiplayer horror games can look like and both are fun to play overall. Personally, I prefer Dead by Daylight. There is something so unique about the premise of the game that Behaviour Interactive has created. Each character seems real and it makes the horror all the more gruesome. The killers also have haunting pasts and each provides a sense of sympathy to characters committing great acts of violence. The simple objective nature is easy to get the hang of, but paired with the game’s mechanics it will take a while to master. At the end of the day it comes down to what you are looking for and what you expect to get out of your own experience.

Which game do you prefer? Let us know in the comments!