honestly a really fun, scary and exciting game. already sunk 32 hours into after just a few days. 10/10.

(new edit) the stranger things chapter 2 is SO GOOD. vecna is balanced, hes not too strong but not too weak, and he can be mastered - theres levels to ts. also, the character models for dustin, eleven, vecna etc are really well made. the only L from this update is nancy's remodel - but apparently thats because they lost the rights to natalie dyers likeness, so its understandable. anyway, love it. really good update. and for once, theres barely any bugs, and this is only in the ptb which is insane because by that logic, the full release of this chapter will be even better. w bhvr for this.

(old edit) i hate this game
genuinely only play this game if you want to hate the human species.

on a real note though, this game has serious issues. the community is appalling. you will either get toxic killers that slug and tunnel all game and then nod their head like theyre amazing at the game or that theyre funny, or on the other hand you will get toxic survivors that tbag the killer needlessly or sandbag and troll other survivors to ruin their experience. or lastly - you'll get people like the infamous annieilusion_ttv, who are just so oblivious to their own delusion and will do everything except take responsibility for being a complete ass. usually its easy to not let the community of a game influence your opinion on it, but with this game, its so in your face that you cannot avoid it. and the thing i hate most about this community problem, is that when you get in a game with either of these types of people, your natural instinct is to dc. but OHH NO you will get a dc penalty/ban that prevents you from playing. its like the devs DONT want you to play their game. I understand that dc'ing was a big issue in dbd, and so i respect that they made it harder for sore losers to stop disconnecting the second the game isnt going the way they want, but with such a toxic playerbase, its hard not to dc sometimes - especially when faced with players who want to make the experience miserable.

next is the problem with balancing. you will either go against killers that have no kind of cooldown or punishment for misusing their abilities - like the ghoul or legion for example that can use their ability to gain distance on survivors and cancel it to get quick and easy downs without any kind of punishment for cancelling their ability, or they will be using the most obnoxious perks that make it impossible for you to make any progress in the match. or you will go against a 4 man swf with perk builds that are solely purposed to making your experience as difficult and as painful as possible. and the problem with both sides is that some people will say the game is killer sided, while some will say its survivor sided. there is a severe divide in the community. my opinion? as someone who plays alot of both killer and survivor, i just say that the game is overall unbalanced on both sides. its just a mess.

next is map rng/randomness. some maps will have an insane amount of vaults and pallets that make it torture to play on as killer, but other maps will have dead zones everywhere with no vaults or pallets within a 32m+ range - making it nearly impossible for survivors to have a chance on.

then you will get problems with bugs and glitches and cheaters. i will admit that ive not had many issues with cheaters or glitches - so w anticheat i suppose, but the game is still spaghetti coded, and that often leads to odd issues arising when new content is added like new characters and perks.

i just hope some major changes can be made to this game, because i play it so much and love it. im addicted, but i also hate 3/4's of the time i spend on it, because the game is unbalanced, the community is abysmal, and players will exploit every unbalanced thing in the game to make your experience as either killer or survivor as miserable as possible.

not only that, but i miss the old vibe that the game had. it was darker and grittier, and had a watercolour/oil painting aesthetic that me and alot of people miss. now unfortunately i didnt play dbd back then, i started playing in the fnaf chapter, but ive still played well enough to know where the game's flaws are - and i understand that dbd is a more competitive game now, and if it had the same level of darkness and aesthetics that it did back then, it would be even more of a miserable experience.

i think the one of the most annoying things is when you get teammates that blame everything on you when they were throwing the game or doing nothing all game.

[EDIT] i felt the need to add this little segment in to complain about how broken killers like the legion are. i just went against a complete failure of society who was using legion to gain distance and block pallets and get easy downs. they were using spirit fury and gen pop perks to waste as much of our time and resources as possible while also making it impossible to progress. THEN, they had the AUDACITY to proxy camp me until i got sacrificed. so, like any normal individual, i scorched them for it in end game chat. their reply was that i was just crying. the nerve to play like that and then say im crying. I HATE THIS GAME.

anyway;
despite all of this, i still love the game for some reason, i just want it to improve.

jamtoes.

it starts of pretty fast, puts you right into the story and game. there are definitely issues with this game, and i will name a few here:
controls are a little weird, although not as bad as i thought they'd be - judging from the amount of people that gave this game negative reviews for 'bad controls'. however, the controls could be explained a little bit better. next, in terms of explaining things, theres a kinda corny "weapon manual" you find that explains how to use your weapons. but the way it is done is as though its non-canon, like its addressing the player instead of the character, and that just feels a little cheap and immersion-breaking. lastly, performance is a bit iffy. the game DOES support modern resolutions and refresh rates, but it can crash - especially when tabbing out and back into the game, and it actually runs at a lower framerate than what you set it at.
apart from that, the game is decent. its got that old silent hill vibe mixed with slightly more modern gameplay, graphics, physics, etc. the animations are cool - especially for its time. like when you interact with a door, you actually try the door handle, or push it open. next, the story seems ok. ive heard its kinda just like sh2 but slightly different - which tbh i dont mind so long as it is done the right way, because i loved sh2.
if you can get over the odd jank here and there, this is a fairly solid sh game imo. im already enjoying it more than shf... (that game just feels strange to me idk why)