After many years of constant community feedback, this game has only gotten worse. Balance wise, it has gotten better, but that balance took way longer to come to fruition than is necessary with a big team like BHVR. Fun wise, definitely worse. Make no mistake, this company is slacking and does not put very much effort into this game.

And they don't have to, there's no competition. So instead they ignore a lot of very valid common arguments and focus on pushing out overpriced DLC lacking in content and filling the store with auric cell cosmetics. My impression of this company is that they are greedy as hell.

The content they put out when they make DLC or push updates is laughably little. It's just not realistic that a company this big shouldn't be able to put more effort and do more changes when they push updates. I understand as it is an assymetrical multiplayer game it is hard to balance, but that's no excuse because there are so many other things they can focus on such as bugs and performance issues, but they simply do not unless the bug is gamebreaking. For how long has the audio been broken? Why does the game constantly run at a subpar FPS on good hardware? I could go on.

The devs also add things nobody asked for, such as breakable walls, and the new UI. Not to mention the main menu and scoreboard screens feel laggy and sluggish when you navigate, often freezing for 200-800 milliseconds, not at all how a game UI should perform.

I have a lot of complaints about the gameplay itself, so here goes:

- They nerfed Decisive Strike after many years of complaints, and the first nerf wasn't even good enough, now after even more complaining they've finally nerfed it properly. It should not have taken this long, they should have addressed it much sooner.

- NOED, though arguably balanced simply is too strong in most solo queue matches because you cannot rely on your teammates to cleanse totems. The fact that you get punished for your teammates incompetence is simply not fun. Arguing that "but SWF!" is also not a valid argument, more on that later.

- Spirit. I don't think I need to say much about this killer. I also have issues with Nurse, but at least Nurse takes some decent amount of skill in order to steamroll with. I am not fond of either killer because there is very little counterplay, but Spirit is literally just "use headphones to win". The Spirit is one of many killers that showcase how the devs really don't properly plan ahead when designing killers.

- Map design. A lot of great players and vets in this game will tell you that often the map decides if you win or not. This is very true to some extent (obviously your skill also plays a factor). Certain maps will leave you chasing until all 5 gens are done if you're chasing a good survivor, and other maps you can down them pretty easily as there are unfair deadzones that survivors cannot avoid. This has gotten better, but it is still a substantial problem.

- Useless perks & grind. There are so many arguably completely useless perks in this game, and to get the perks you actually want, you often have to grind for way longer than you'd have to in other games. Because they are forced to add 6 perks per chapter (3 for killer and survivor) means they will quickly run out of ideas and pollute the bloodweb with perks that nobody wants. The meta doesn't change much as a result, and people who are starting the game are at a significant disadvantage because they have to grind for so long to get the perks everyone else use.

- Hook mechanic. This mechanic has always bothered me, because it just doesn't seem well designed for a multiplayer game. Not only can survivors screw you over without you having any control over it, certain killers can ensure your death no matter what you do or survivors do by camping with certain perks and/or killer powers. It's hard to balance a mechanic like this, but I feel like it could be a lot better than it is today. At least come up with some way to make it less unfair for the hooked person.

- Gens. My god, this is why survivor sucks to play a lot of the time if you're not being chased. They put 0 effort into making the objective fun and engaging. You find a gen, you hold M1 for 80 seconds, you find the next one, rinse and repeat. Despite people asking for it, they have never addressed anything about making gens more fun and engaging. There are so many things they could do, like making you look for parts, or give you something more engaging than a skillcheck.

- RNG. There is so much RNG in this game, and it can often be a deciding factor if you die or not. RNG itself isn't a bad thing, but in this game it is used to such an extent that I believe it is very detrimental and unfair. Map spawns is one example where gens can spawn bunched up, meaning the killer can easily camp 3 of them and dragging the game out forever, eventually winning because depending on how close the gens are it's impossible to get any work on them.

Another is the jigsaw boxes for the Pig, where if you just happen to be unlucky and the key is in the last box, you are more often than not likely to die before getting there. Or you might get it on the first try, which is unfair to the killer.

And then there's exit gates. Why, why in the world should exit gates spawn next to each other? The whole point of there being two exit gates is so that killers can't camp them. There should be fixed exit gate spawns on the map. You can easily have two different spawns so there's still some RNG and the survivors have to do a bit of work to find them, but there is no reasonable argument as to why exit gates should spawn in close proximity, effectively negating the point of having two in the first place.

- Survive with friends. Arguably the most polarizing thing in DBD. The problem with SWF is that the game is balanced towards survivors having no way to communicate. As such, SWF completely breaks the balance of the game. But there is a very easy way to fix this: Give solo queue survivors more information, and buff killers as a result. It is such an easy way to alleviate the problem, there are for sure issues with it and it isn't perfect, but it's better than doing nothing which is what they have been doing.

I could keep going, these are only a few of my complaints with the gameplay, but let's move on.

And then there's the community. Of course, it's not nearly as toxic as other communities but I feel the devs have a lot of work unifying the community because it is currently split into two. This is because there is very little incentive to play both sides, so many players end up "maining" one side and thus not understanding the struggles of the other. Survivors OP this, killers OP that.

This makes it so simply by playing the game as intended, the other side will vilify you for doing your job as killer or escaping as survivor. Using perks, items, or addons will make people dislike you and flame you in the end game, which I don't think is justified.

The game is unique and have a lot of potential to be good. But all of these issues make the experience more often than not frustrating and I often find that other games offer me a lot more substance and entertainment. So, I uninstalled the game a while ago and I don't intend to come back unless these issues are fixed, which I don't really expect they will be given how they have not addressed 95% of the issues in the 1.5k hours that I've been playing.

I cannot in good faith recommend this game to anyone because of this. By all means, the game can be very fun in the beginning and if you don't care about any of the things mentioned above it might be fine. But to me and many others, these issues end up being a dealbreaker.

After many years of constant community feedback, this game has only gotten worse. Balance wise, it has gotten better, but that balance took way longer to come to fruition than is necessary with a big team like BHVR. Fun wise, definitely worse. Make no mistake, this company is slacking and does not put very much effort into this game. And they don't have to, there's no competition. So instead they ignore a lot of very valid common arguments and focus on pushing out overpriced DLC lacking in content and filling the store with auric cell cosmetics. My impression of this company is that they are greedy as hell. The content they put out when they make DLC or push updates is laughably little. It's just not realistic that a company this big shouldn't be able to put more effort and do more changes when they push updates. I understand as it is an assymetrical multiplayer game it is hard to balance, but that's no excuse because there are so many other things they can focus on such as bugs and performance issues, but they simply do not unless the bug is gamebreaking. For how long has the audio been broken? Why does the game constantly run at a subpar FPS on good hardware? I could go on. The devs also add things nobody asked for, such as breakable walls, and the new UI. Not to mention the main menu and scoreboard screens feel laggy and sluggish when you navigate, often freezing for 200-800 milliseconds, not at all how a game UI should perform. I have a lot of complaints about the gameplay itself, so here goes: - They nerfed Decisive Strike after many years of complaints, and the first nerf wasn't even good enough, now after even more complaining they've finally nerfed it properly. It should not have taken this long, they should have addressed it much sooner. - NOED, though arguably balanced simply is too strong in most solo queue matches because you cannot rely on your teammates to cleanse totems. The fact that you get punished for your teammates incompetence is simply not fun. Arguing that "but SWF!" is also not a valid argument, more on that later. - Spirit. I don't think I need to say much about this killer. I also have issues with Nurse, but at least Nurse takes some decent amount of skill in order to steamroll with. I am not fond of either killer because there is very little counterplay, but Spirit is literally just "use headphones to win". The Spirit is one of many killers that showcase how the devs really don't properly plan ahead when designing killers. - Map design. A lot of great players and vets in this game will tell you that often the map decides if you win or not. This is very true to some extent (obviously your skill also plays a factor). Certain maps will leave you chasing until all 5 gens are done if you're chasing a good survivor, and other maps you can down them pretty easily as there are unfair deadzones that survivors cannot avoid. This has gotten better, but it is still a substantial problem. - Useless perks & grind. There are so many arguably completely useless perks in this game, and to get the perks you actually want, you often have to grind for way longer than you'd have to in other games. Because they are forced to add 6 perks per chapter (3 for killer and survivor) means they will quickly run out of ideas and pollute the bloodweb with perks that nobody wants. The meta doesn't change much as a result, and people who are starting the game are at a significant disadvantage because they have to grind for so long to get the perks everyone else use. - Hook mechanic. This mechanic has always bothered me, because it just doesn't seem well designed for a multiplayer game. Not only can survivors screw you over without you having any control over it, certain killers can ensure your death no matter what you do or survivors do by camping with certain perks and/or killer powers. It's hard to balance a mechanic like this, but I feel like it could be a lot better than it is today. At least come up with some way to make it less unfair for the hooked person. - Gens. My god, this is why survivor sucks to play a lot of the time if you're not being chased. They put 0 effort into making the objective fun and engaging. You find a gen, you hold M1 for 80 seconds, you find the next one, rinse and repeat. Despite people asking for it, they have never addressed anything about making gens more fun and engaging. There are so many things they could do, like making you look for parts, or give you something more engaging than a skillcheck. - RNG. There is so much RNG in this game, and it can often be a deciding factor if you die or not. RNG itself isn't a bad thing, but in this game it is used to such an extent that I believe it is very detrimental and unfair. Map spawns is one example where gens can spawn bunched up, meaning the killer can easily camp 3 of them and dragging the game out forever, eventually winning because depending on how close the gens are it's impossible to get any work on them. Another is the jigsaw boxes for the Pig, where if you just happen to be unlucky and the key is in the last box, you are more often than not likely to die before getting there. Or you might get it on the first try, which is unfair to the killer. And then there's exit gates. Why, why in the world should exit gates spawn next to each other? The whole point of there being two exit gates is so that killers can't camp them. There should be fixed exit gate spawns on the map. You can easily have two different spawns so there's still some RNG and the survivors have to do a bit of work to find them, but there is no reasonable argument as to why exit gates should spawn in close proximity, effectively negating the point of having two in the first place. - Survive with friends. Arguably the most polarizing thing in DBD. The problem with SWF is that the game is balanced towards survivors having no way to communicate. As such, SWF completely breaks the balance of the game. But there is a very easy way to fix this: Give solo queue survivors more information, and buff killers as a result. It is such an easy way to alleviate the problem, there are for sure issues with it and it isn't perfect, but it's better than doing nothing which is what they have been doing. I could keep going, these are only a few of my complaints with the gameplay, but let's move on. And then there's the community. Of course, it's not nearly as toxic as other communities but I feel the devs have a lot of work unifying the community because it is currently split into two. This is because there is very little incentive to play both sides, so many players end up "maining" one side and thus not understanding the struggles of the other. Survivors OP this, killers OP that. This makes it so simply by playing the game as intended, the other side will vilify you for doing your job as killer or escaping as survivor. Using perks, items, or addons will make people dislike you and flame you in the end game, which I don't think is justified. The game is unique and have a lot of potential to be good. But all of these issues make the experience more often than not frustrating and I often find that other games offer me a lot more substance and entertainment. So, I uninstalled the game a while ago and I don't intend to come back unless these issues are fixed, which I don't really expect they will be given how they have not addressed 95% of the issues in the 1.5k hours that I've been playing. I cannot in good faith recommend this game to anyone because of this. By all means, the game can be very fun in the beginning and if you don't care about any of the things mentioned above it might be fine. But to me and many others, these issues end up being a dealbreaker.