Nicolas Cage is finally in Dead by Daylight (DBD) and he’s even better than we imagined! Ever since his DLC trailer was leaked in late May, players have eagerly been awaiting the arrival of the man, the myth, the legend himself.
Well, players are now able to play him for the first time in the Public Test Build (PTB) and everything about him makes him a DLC unlike any we’ve ever seen.
Voice Lines
Nicolas Cage is now the first survivor to have voice lines while playing in-game. While multiple killers (Pinhead, Trickster, Plague, Singularity) have voice lines that they say during a match, the survivors are almost entirely silent when playing except for their screams and grunts of pain.
But not Nic Cage, oh no. He has almost ten minutes of unique voice lines, many of which are him reacting to things in the game, such as being injured by the killer, getting caught by a crow, or escaping the trial. He even has a few unique lines for interacting with specific killers like Sadako (whose presence in the game reportedly sparked Cage’s interest in the first place).
Nicolas Cage players may have a harder time hiding from the killer, but it’s worth it to hear him say absolutely wild lines like: “We’re gonna stand up and we’re gonna keep going back to the toy store. You can’t take that from us!”
Nicolas Cage’s perks
Perks in DBD are basically a character’s stats; they affect aspects of the character like healing speeds, repair speeds, ability to see the auras of other characters, among many abilities. Nicolas Cage’s perks change the player’s abilities in the most chaotic ways and unexpected ways.
His first perk, ‘Dramaturgy’ allows him “to run with knees high for 0.5 seconds to gain a +25 % Haste Status Effect for 2 seconds” but at the ‘cost’ of one of the following random effects:
- Suffer from the Exposed Status Effect for 12 seconds.
- Extend the duration of the Haste Status Effect for another 2 seconds.
- Scream, but without notifying the Killer.
- Receive a random Rare Item with a random selection of Add-ons attached to it, automatically dropping any previously held Item.
The perk can only be used while healthy and “[t]he same effect cannot happen twice in a row.” Basically, this perk is its own roulette wheel of potential buffs and nerfs.
Even funnier, this isn’t Nic Cage’s only perk that includes ‘screaming.’
His perk ‘Scene Partner’ states that “Whenever you are inside the Terror Radius, Scene Partner activates:
- Looking at the Killer causes you to scream, which reveals their Aura
- for 3/4/5 seconds.
- There is a chance of 50 % that you will scream again, extending the Aura-reveal duration by another 2 seconds.”
This perk seems to be made for those who enjoy being chased by the killer and want to grab their attention in the best way that Nic Cage can: screaming.
The final perk, ‘Plot Twist,’ is perhaps the wildest of all. While using the perk, “Whenever you are in the Injured State, Plot Twist activates:
- While crouching and motionless, press the Active Ability button to silently enter the Dying State with the following benefits:
- Suppresses Grunts of Pain.
- Suppresses Pools of Blood.
- Grants the ability to fully recover from the Dying State.
- After full recovery using Plot Twist, you are healed instantly and gain a +50 % Haste Status Effect for 2/3/4 seconds.”
This high-risk, high-reward perk allows survivors to purposefully injure themselves, avoiding hits, juke the killer, or even counter certain perks.
Lore
What intrigues me the most about Nicolas Cage is how he has been brought into the larger narrative of the game.
His lore states that Cage was sent a movie script for a film called Descend Beyond, which was the name of a previous chapter of DBD, the one that brought The Blight and Felix Richter into the game. In fact, the implication is that Cage would be playing the Blight back when he was still a human chemist known as Talbot Grimes.
Cage’s ‘agent’ tried to warn him against the project due to some sketchy financial backers, but Cage signed on. Of course, he wasn’t brought to a set; He was brought to the real-life Dyer Island, where the Blight and Felix were both taken by the Entity. The film’s producers were Black Vale Cultists who worship the Entity. And now the actor finds himself in a real-world of horror.
Larger implications for Dead by Daylight
This whole DLC is wild, not only for the new things it brings to the game, but also for how it seems to show the path forward for DBD.
For one, the perks imply that the game will be focusing less on competitive, ‘META’ perks and gameplay and more on fun and memeability.
The voice lines also indicate that other survivors, especially licensed survivors, could be given more in-game voice lines, which could eventually lead to survivors and killers having full conversations.
Finally,, the reference to a Dead by Daylight movie could be foreshadowing the plot of the recently announced Dead by Daylight movie produced by Blumhouse. Imagine a movie about actors trying to make a film about the game, only for them to accidentally summon the Entity.
In any case, this chapter is hilarious and a breath of fresh air. Even if you don’t play the game, I highly encourage you to look up some videos of the gameplay with Nicolas Cage; it’s something that has to be seen to be believed.
(Featured Image: Behaviour Interactive)
