Playing the free weekend, this game is one of those "Great ideas, bad execution".

I haven't played DBD, but i've read the complaints: that the killer is too weak, the survivors can dance around them so the idea that the survivors are really playing with fire by distracting the hunter because at any moment a shotgun blast can knock them down is a nice idea. Another nice idea is the fact that as the game goes on, runners can get new abilities and skills to stall the hunter and occupy time. Unfortunately, thats where it ends.

The issue is the hunter has too many options, easy intel on the entire map by shooting pickups, massive amounts of area control in the form of turrets or mines, tracking with a pulse that reveals everything around them, and the fact that runners move quite slow that the hunter will easily catch up just by sprinting. This is also compounded by the fact hunters have the ability to activate a jetpack sort of thing that gives them super speed and extra jump height, which isn't too bad until you realize it lets the hunter cross the map in 3 seconds.

Even barring the fact that the runners could make some objectives happen, going for objectives lights them up making it extremely easy to track people down. I understand that the survivor team must leverage numbers and teamwork, but the time to down is so low that the hunter can easily down somebody, activate their jetpack and hop to the other objective in seconds, and even if runners and the hunter trade a down for an objective, it works in the hunter's favor as every down means an execution that takes minimal time, and every subsequent down reduces the bleed out time. At this point i've gotten more kills via bleedout than executions.

Having played a little bit, I've won a single game as runner, but I have not lost a single game as hunter. The objectives are too punishing for runners, while hunters are omnipresent. Playing this while its free is entertaining, I would not buy the game for $30.

Update:
Having played more runner, I think I've gotten the hang of it and have won many more games as runner. As it stands though, I'll still say that the hunter has a much stronger advantage. Against any hunter that has a clue of how to prioritize, things become extremely hard to the point the effort needed to outplay the hunter just isn't comparable to the effort needed to take down the runners. A bit of tweaking on the hunter's tools would immensely make this more balanced for both sides.

Playing the free weekend, this game is one of those "Great ideas, bad execution". I haven't played DBD, but i've read the complaints: that the killer is too weak, the survivors can dance around them so the idea that the survivors are really playing with fire by distracting the hunter because at any moment a shotgun blast can knock them down is a nice idea. Another nice idea is the fact that as the game goes on, runners can get new abilities and skills to stall the hunter and occupy time. Unfortunately, thats where it ends. The issue is the hunter has too many options, easy intel on the entire map by shooting pickups, massive amounts of area control in the form of turrets or mines, tracking with a pulse that reveals everything around them, and the fact that runners move quite slow that the hunter will easily catch up just by sprinting. This is also compounded by the fact hunters have the ability to activate a jetpack sort of thing that gives them super speed and extra jump height, which isn't too bad until you realize it lets the hunter cross the map in 3 seconds. Even barring the fact that the runners could make some objectives happen, going for objectives lights them up making it extremely easy to track people down. I understand that the survivor team must leverage numbers and teamwork, but the time to down is so low that the hunter can easily down somebody, activate their jetpack and hop to the other objective in seconds, and even if runners and the hunter trade a down for an objective, it works in the hunter's favor as every down means an execution that takes minimal time, and every subsequent down reduces the bleed out time. At this point i've gotten more kills via bleedout than executions. Having played a little bit, I've won a single game as runner, but I have not lost a single game as hunter. The objectives are too punishing for runners, while hunters are omnipresent. Playing this while its free is entertaining, I would not buy the game for $30. Update: Having played more runner, I think I've gotten the hang of it and have won many more games as runner. As it stands though, I'll still say that the hunter has a much stronger advantage. Against any hunter that has a clue of how to prioritize, things become extremely hard to the point the effort needed to outplay the hunter just isn't comparable to the effort needed to take down the runners. A bit of tweaking on the hunter's tools would immensely make this more balanced for both sides.