Recent reviews by SneakyAlba

Behaviour has always been a mixed bag when it comes to balance and design in Dead by Daylight, but Ghostface is a real turning point for them; not only is he fun to play (and has the scare factor of Myers and The Spirit) but he has a LOT of applications for his power. Not to mention the art and animation teams have done an incredible job yet again, somehow making a familiar face look completely new and refreshing.


Art, Sound & Animation

• The iconic look of Ghostface is preserved well in the new design and looks incredibly fresh and functional compared to the source material. He's got straps, belts, buttons and boots securing his clothing firmly in-place and some spooky rags that float around in the wind as he moves; he just radiates malintent and is beautifully detailed. And though I would have preferred that Behaviour kept with the dark leather material we saw in the reveal trailer, the grayish look in-game give him a nice silhouette with Dead by Daylight's dark lighting.
  
• Ghostface ships with the usual colour variants of the default look we've come to expect on a Killer release. This time we've got a selection of blue, red and white variants (the latter of which comes exclusively with this DLC purchase) and an all-new devil Ghostface outfit complete with horns and a poncho not unlike the original look we know and love.
  
• The prestige rewards can be mixed and matched with other cosmetics really nicely, which is often not true of other Killers.
  
• The animation is simply brilliant. There is so much personality conveyed through the motions and idle poses of the character alone. There are first and third person animations that convey everything Ghostface could be doing at a given moment clearly. Although the Ghostface we see here isn't the ones from the Scream movies, there is a lot of inspiration taken from the series: From the minor things like the post-attack animation to the pretty big ones like the Mori animation.The animation team has really outdone themselves here.
  
• Like with the animations, there are some pretty neat audio cues that convey information that may not be entirely obvious or unseen. Entering/exiting stealth has its own cues, as does being spotted, leaning, stalking and marking Survivors. Nothing really to write home about, but definitely a nice touch.

The Gameplay

• Ghostface has one of the most fun powers I've played with and it has a decent bit of utility. Whilst he's not exactly able to get around fast, he sure as hell can get around quietly. His stealth ability is only broken by being spotted by a Survivor or attempting an attack. There is no time limit, other than that created by the Survivors' attempts to escape. Because the power shrouds both The Stain and The Terror Radius from Survivors, it can be used to sneak up on and stalk your target or in a chase to mindgame or get cheeky cutoffs.
  
• Oh, and did I mention that the Survivor that breaks you from stealth is marked with Killer Instinct for a few seconds? It really helps with those "wtf? Where?" moments.
  
• All of this and I haven't even mentioned how great stalking someone is. When you are in stealth, pressing the power key lets you stalk a Survivor and build energy. If any one Survivor reaches their threshold, they are Exposed for about 45 seconds, allowing Ghostface to one-hit-down. It also doesn't tell the Survivor any of this, meaning it's possible to get a powerful sneak attack on them too. Stalking a Survivor from nothing to the exposed threshold only takes a few seconds and any build energy isn't lost when you stop stalking, only when you trigger the Exposed status, which lets you save it for a chase not unlike Myers.
  
• The ability to crouch and lean around corners to stalk really compliments this as well, not to mention it's super creepy.

The Stuff I Don't Like

• There is no new map or Survivor with this Killer. That's fine. The same was true of Leatherface, after all. But it's sad that this was considered a Chapter by the devs.
  
• Other than the white alternative outfit, the other cosmetics for this Killer are microtransactions.
  
• In-game he's called The Ghost Face rather than simply The Ghost for some reason.

At launch, the DLC was rather good. It felt like a worthwhile purchase; decent killer and slightly sub-par survivor and map, but boy was it fun to play. After a week, it felt like a mistake.

As a player of both survivor and killer equally, I found the creativity of Freddy's playstyle enjoyable for both sides, but, as with most new killers, people call "OP". With the last DLCs, this was mostly ignored by the devs and those who complained started to learn how to counter, and changed their opinions. With Freddy, this was not the case.

They have nerfed Freddy from being mid-tier to the worst killer in the game by a landslide. He must find his prey, tag them, wait seven seconds and only then is allowed to hit them. The only benefit he receives from this is a slowed interaction speed and the ability to see the survivor when they are outside of his terror radius. This would be alright if it wasn't for the movement penalty he receives by sleeping survivors and how easy it is to wake up again. Survivors can find each other, be hooked or fail a skillcheck and wake up. His perks are not terrible, but often don't have a very strong presence in-game, other than Remember Me, which is meh at best.

Quentin isn't much better, sadly. His perks are the least powerful of the survivors in the game, and are in dire need of a buff. His best perk is Vigil, which takes a whole 6 seconds off of status effects like exhaustion (AT MAX LEVEL) and his worst is Wake Up!, which reveals the exits within range, which often isn't very helpful as they can be seen from much further away.

The map is incredible looking, but feels really messy. There are areas that are incredibly killer sided and others that are unbelievably survivor sided. There are also a great deal of "fat shaming" spots; areas that the killer cant walk through but survivors can, which can change the tide of a match.

Overall, until they buff Freddy and the perks, this is a "pay-to-lose, but have one hell of a ride doing it" DLC. I'll update this whenever the DLC content becomes viable.

Perhaps the devs should let the saltwave pass before making such drastic changes next time? They did a damn well good job with The Doctor, who had a very similar problem to Freddy. Why couldn't they repeat that?

THE GOOD:
-Gameplay has had some huge changes. Minor games like this are great for testing new ideas.
-Lots more lore and information about the current times in the Dishonored universe.
-Introduction of contracts system.
-Incredible map design.
-Engaging and entertaining puzzles, exploration and secrets to find!
-New and unique powers that complement each other beutifully.
-Exclusion of the chaos mechanic creates for a much more open playstyle that won't have a bearing on the game's outcome.
-Forces you to think and plan ahead like a real assassin.
-Some new horrifying enemies.
-Very open to different playstyles.
-New gadgets and weapons are creative and destructive.
-Not every mission is "ELIMINATE [X]".
-Voice acting and sound is fantastic.
-Great DLC for fans of Dishonored.

THE BAD:
-Only 3 new locations (1 was re-used from D2).
-Story is kinda weak, but still interesting when analyzed.
-Visuals are weak for a modern AAA game, considering the performance cost. Great art style though.
-Suffers Dishonored 2-like technical problems, although not as bad.
-Poorly ends Daud and The Outsider's story arcs. Light suggestion that Lurk may appear again.
-The Outsider is humanized too much to be seen as a god-like figure.
-Short.
-New enemies have different weaponry, but mostly are the same to defeat.
-Targets are not very interesting.
-Does not warrant being a seperate game from Dishonored 2.
-Is a tad expensive considering how long most playthroughs last.
-Only 3 new powers, despite being incredibly designed.
-The Original Game+ is only worth playing for the achievement.
-Is difficult to reccomend to those who have not had a great deal of experience with the past Dishonored games.

Honestly, one of the best games I have ever played, and I'm not just saying that because of the number of copies of the first game I own and my total playtime on it, either.
I pre-ordered this and suffered the masses of performance problems the game sufferes from (currently using betapatch for v1.2 to get around most of those) with HIGH settings giving 60 in most places, but dropping like a brick in certain places, looking at glass (I think) or entering combat. However, the gameplay and story was just so good that it didn't stop me from playing at 31FPS every now and then.

I've started my second playthrough as Corvo after doing a Ghost run as Emily; and my god. It's a work of art.

From the start it seemed more than good. They've kept most mechanics the same, tweaked and refined some others and added in a metric ton on top of that. But I've come to discover while playing Corvo that I haven't seen the start of it. Just changing my playstyle a bit from *sneaky sneaky chokey chokey* to *sneaky sneaky stabby stabby* has revealed so many more things for me to do. It keeps bringing me back for more, just like the first game continues to, only it's much better for it because I can choose between to characters to play as on top of what they present you in terms of gameplay options. It's very open to player choice. Even somebody who's never played a stealth game before and doesn't enjoy the sneaking can get enjoyment out of this. The hardcore players have customisable difficulty (not out yet at time of writing), no powers mode and the usual UI options that can be toggled on or off.

-Overall 9/10 - Could've used with some more optimisations.
-Gamplay 10/10
-Story 8/10 - A tad too similar to the first one, not enough talk of Daud or Corvo's actions in the first game and the mark they left upon the world. Nothing too gripping or close to heart like Undertale.
-Replayability - 10/10
-Visuals - 10/10 - However there are some visual artifacts.
-Optimisation 3/10 - Runs very badly (at time of writing, 25/11/2016) even above reccomended specs.
-Capability to knock a man unconscious, stop time, shoot a crossbow bolt into his bodyguards and throw him out the window while you teleport below him, grab him and have a swarm of rats follow you through the security checkpoint you possessed your way through earlier and eat all the guards - 9999999999999999999999/10