Matthew BaileyDisclaimer: Today’s game contains a mature horror-based theme and some mature-based visuals. I am including it here because underneath the visuals its oddly family friendly.
Game 59 of the “Now & Then Summer Marathon 2024” is “Dead by Daylight the Board Game” played with and hand full of 13 & 14-year-olds at the school I work at. I would play this with Jack but Toby is a bit young.
Today, we’re going to take a break from the norm and look at “Dead by Daylight: The Board Game”. Now, it’s quite clear that the theme of Dead by Daylight is 100% not suitable for children, so let’s start off by saying this isn’t a game for small kids. However, oddly enough, the game mechanics are actually quite family-friendly. If both the children and the adults are comfortable with the theme, there’s actually a pretty good family hidden movement game in here. Let me explain.
“Dead by Daylight: The Board Game” is based on the popular indie horror video game where one player takes on the role of the Killer. In more modern incarnations, this has included licensed horror movie favourites such as Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Ghostface from Scream, among others.
This is a really good hidden movement adaptation of the video game, and to be honest, I actually prefer playing it to the video game. I’ve been sitting on this review for a little while, not because of the content, but because it was out of stock. I didn’t want to recommend a game that was impossible for you to buy, but it’s now back in stock, so I thought it was about time to post this review. I hope I can get my hands on the expansion so that I can include it as part of our annual Halloween marathon.
The board game is an asymmetric game where one player plays as the Killer, and the other players are Survivors trying to escape by working together, fixing generators, and ultimately fleeing the map.
The first thing you do is set up the board, which is divided into different zones. These zones can be traversed by the players as they try to fix the generators and accomplish their goal.
On your turn, the Survivors can move around, repair generators, hide, heal each other, or try to escape, while the Killer moves around trying to find the Survivors, attack them, and place them on hooks.
The best way I can describe how this game works is that it’s essentially the board game equivalent of the classic playground game “stuck in the mud,” where the Killer moves around the board placing players on hooks, where they are “stuck” until another player potentially frees them.
The most interesting mechanic in the game is that everyone makes decisions on their moves at the same time using their cards. This means that as the Survivors, you have to try and second-guess what moves the Killer is going to make, and vice versa. This works extremely well and really captures that feeling of chases in horror movies. It’s my favourite part of what makes the game compelling to play.
Survivors can also repair the generators and heal each other, and once all the generators are repaired, they can try to escape through the exits.
There is, of course, more to it. Different characters have different abilities, and the Killers have their own unique abilities as well, which make the game more enjoyable. All of the characters’ abilities definitely add enough variety to warrant multiple plays with different characters.
Despite the adult theme, there isn’t actually anything too gory in the game itself—the scariest part is likely the visual design of the Killers. If your kids aren’t scared by that sort of thing, and you’re comfortable with the theme, what’s here is actually a fun hidden movement/movement prediction game.
The components are really good quality; the board and cards are nicely made, and the miniatures are really cool, adding a lot to the design. My least favourite part of the game is the “boxed” design of the board. I wish it had a more organic look, more like an actual area to traverse. However, this is a minor criticism, which only highlights the fact that I really like this game.
Obviously, this is a recommendation with some strong caveats. This is clearly a game for much older children or early teenagers due to the adult nature of the theme, but if you can overlook that, there’s a fun, family-friendly game of cat and mouse (or “stuck in the mud”) here.
Disclaimer: “Dead by Daylight The Board Game” was kindly provided by “Level 99 Games” for the purpose of review. Crystal Tsui who works for “ALevel 99 Games” is in our community and I consider her a friend. Our thoughts and opinions are, however, our own.
*Not a kid’s game theme-wise but playable with kids rule-wise.
