'What The Fog' Is A Fogging Awesome Dead by Daylight Adaptation

Behaviour Interactive's new game set in the Dead by Daylight universe, What the Fog, was given a surprise release during the game's 8th anniversary livestream in May 2024. The game is being offered for free to the first two million players to connect their Behaviour Interactive account to Steam (Yes, if you've already done that, you can still get the game for free). The game's release may have been kept a secret, but what's equally surprising is its great roguelike gameplay. Though What The Fog is far from being as in-depth as Dead by Daylight, nor is it a deeply innovative title for its genre (and it isn't trying to be), it's a great little game for a few runs with your Dead by Daylight duo.

The premise of What The Fog is pretty simple, both in terms of its lore and what you do in the game. Three familiar Dead by Daylight survivors, Dwight, Claudette, and Feng Min, have beensucked into a cursed board game that also serves as a mysterious part of the Entity's realm. (As it turns out, they've also been turned into adorable tiny cartoon versions of themselves.) Here, they battle it out against various monsters in procedurally generated levels where they must collect Bloodpoints to repair Generators, all while gaining power-ups along the way.

Each character has their own powers, but that doesn't mean they're equal in strength. After playing one complete run as Dwight or Claudette, you'll unlock Feng Min — and you'll be glad you did. Dwight and Claudette's powers are both useful and can help you more quickly take out the swarms of monsters around the map, but Feng Min's Healing Pools ensure that you're able to stay alive even in the face of impending danger. They're a game-changer, since Dwight nor Claudette has a built-in healing ability (except for one of Claudette's add-ons, but it only heals you slightly when standing still). When playing Solo at harder levels, playing Feng Min is borderline necessary.

Your success as each character is also highly dependent on which add-ons you choose between each level, so it's definitely worth reading what each one does before you progress.

Since each level is procedurally generated, it's a new experience every run, but that doesn't mean the game doesn't get repetitive. There's few unlocks for completing a run after your first one, aside from getting upgraded versions of the monsters you've already fought. There are eight different boss monsters, meaning beating them suffers from a similar lack of replayability; it's a fun experience to encounter each one the first time, but after that, it can get a little tedious.

Verdict: 7/10

All in all, What The Fog is great for what it is — a redeemable freebie, or a little $4.99 game otherwise. While What The Fog is a totally different experience than Dead by Daylight, and doesn't have nearly as much content, it's definitely worth checking out if you want a fun platformer/roguelike combo to play with your DBD duo and sink a couple of hours into.

A PC code of What The Fog was provided for review by the publisher.

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