Mar 8, 2017

Cult hit horror game Dead by Daylight — in which four players try to escape from a rampaging killer — is adding a survivor of a different sort today. Bill from Valve’s Left 4 Dead is coming to Dead by Daylight as part of a free update titled Left Behind.

The grizzled Vietnam vet, who also appeared in Left 4 Dead 2, joins the ranks of Dead by Daylight’s survivors as part of a partnership with Valve, developer Behaviour Interactive and publisher Starbreeze Studios announced today. Dead by Daylight Left Behind is a non-canonical follow-up to Left 4 Dead’s downloadable add-on, The Sacrifice, in which Bill sacrifices himself in an attempt to save his fellow survivors.

Bill’s appearance is more than just a re-skin of an existing character — though a handful of Left 4 Dead-inspired costumes are also coming to Dead by Daylight today. He’s a unique survivor with his own special skills.

Dead by Daylight producer Mathieu Cote says Bill’s character perks were designed to “represent very well what Bill is all about,” namely his sacrifice for his team and being the “tough, gritty guy who never gives up.” One of Bill’s perks is “a game changer” for Dead by Daylight’s meta game, Cote said.

That perk, Borrowed Time, will give players extra protection — they won’t fall down if they’re struck by the killer — if you rescue one of your teammates from the killer’s meathook. Bill’s other perks, Self-Sufficient and Left Behind, will let players recover from a downed state and repair generators faster under certain conditions, respectively.

With the Left Behind perk, “it becomes a valid strategy to fixing the generators by yourself,” Cote said.

Bill’s crossover appearance in Dead by Daylight “fits in very well” with the Dead by Daylight experience, Cote said, as “Left 4 Dead is a great inspiration [for our game], obviously.” He said Valve was very open to the idea of Behaviour Interactive borrowing their character, under the condition that he’d be free for Steam users. (It’s not clear yet whether Bill will be playable in the forthcoming console versions of Dead by Daylight.)

Cote says the character model for Bill in Dead by Daylight is the same one used in Valve’s games, only with increased resolution and some changes to his hair and beard. Behaviour Interactive also developed “exact replicas” of the outfits worn by Left 4 Dead’s Eliss, Zoey, Rochelle and Francis for Dead by Daylight’s other survivors to wear. You can see images of those new character costumes in the gallery above.

Dead by Daylight Left Behind is available today for free on PC starting today.

http://www.polygon.com/2017/3/8/14849658/dead-by-daylight-left-4-dead-crossover-left-behind