Dead by Daylight: Tokyo Ghoul Review (neco arc)
Man, I was really excited when I heard Dead by Daylight was getting a Tokyo Ghoul chapter. The idea of playing as Ken Kaneki sounded awesome, right? Well, turns out, this killer is basically just Legion and Wesker combined, with all the fun taken out. Instead of a high skill ceiling or an active playstyle, we got a killer with auto-aim and a free injure/deep wound mechanic that goes through terrain and lets him tunnel survivors out of the game without much effort. Exciting, right? Not so much.
The Ghoul, as it stands, is honestly a complete joke to play. It's like the devs decided that aiming was too hard for the average killer player, so they gave him auto-aim. If you want to completely turn your brain off and tunnel someone for an easy kill, The Ghoul is your guy. His best playstyle? Tunnel the survivor, rinse and repeat. No challenge, no strategy, just pure frustration.
Going against The Ghoul is equally painful. Every encounter feels like you're stuck in a boring loop. You're either constantly holding W to prevent him from getting the bodyblock with his leap or you're just getting hit through terrain because of his auto-aim mechanic. Neither is fun, neither is engaging. It’s just the same thing over and over again.
It’s hard to believe how such a promising character could be so dull. His playstyle is about as exciting as watching paint dry. It’s the same tedious loop every match: hook a survivor, go to the gen, survivor unhooks, go back in 3 seconds, apply deep wound, down, rinse and repeat. It’s not fun, and it doesn’t make for engaging gameplay.
When the only things you can say about a killer’s replayability are “he can bodyblock people” or “he can pressure unhooked survivors like he's running Wesker’s conference device,” you know you’ve got a problem. There’s just nothing about this killer that makes me want to play him again. If I want a high-mobility grab attack killer, I’ll play Wesker. If I want constant injures and no healing, I’ll play Legion or Plague. If I want cross-map mobility, Hillbilly’s my go-to. The Ghoul just takes the worst aspects of these killers and throws them together in a way that feels lazy and uninspired outside of He Wall jump.
Some people are calling this “peak design,” but I honestly can’t see how. Maybe it’s just because the game hasn’t had anything exciting in a while, but if this is what we’re now calling good killer design, I’m really worried for the future of Dead by Daylight. The skill ceiling? Gone. It’s as basic and uninteresting as Legion, and that’s saying a lot. It’s just unbelievable that BHVR keeps missing the mark, especially with something as iconic as Tokyo Ghoul.