Silent Hill DLC isn't worth buying.
Honestly I was really hyped up when I saw the reveal trailer and played the ptb, but now I feel disillusioned.
Other than the Silent Hill name this chapter has really nothing to offer. The map is too closed up to legitimately navigate and we got more of those breakable walls that are absolutely necessary to break to play the game. Pyramid head is laughably bad as when going through the process of trying to get survivors tormented due to the fact that it not only gives survivors a free save most of the time; but also clears the torment of other survivors. Playing him feels more like playing Demogorgon but not being able to use the shred. It's just a fancy zoning tool at this point which basically makes him a M1 killer with flashy filler. The AOE attack is extremely easy to dodge and he has zero map pressure. The idea of the cages make sense because you'd think that "Hey now they have to go to the other side of the map to get the save" but most survivors are already far from the killer when doing gens and barely have to waste any time to save from cages. The only legitimately useful part of his kit is Final Judgement because of the time it saves. His AOE is stuck in one place so there's not a lot of skill you can use to land a hit. Prediction can only go so far, especially when survivors know you're going to be trying to land a hit. Some people may say that since it's able to go through walls that it can be used with skill but that is entirely guessing. Realistically, too, you'll miss a majority of those shots OR be on an open map where that opportunity isn't avaliable. On top of that the huge wind up gives survivors a lot of time to react. Missing the attack makes you lose so much distance it's not worth the risk of using and playing against him I was never hit unless I made a dumb mistake. So if the killers power is utterly useless and more of a gimmick than it is a threat, then what about the perks?
I will be going over both Cheryl's perks and Pyramid head's perks here. I don't have anything to say about Heather mostly because survivors are just different skins.
Pyramid Head Perks
Forced Penance: Apply "Broken" to a survivor who takes a protection hit for 20/25/30 seconds.
this perk is just pathetic as you will either chase the survivor and down them or they'll just do something else while waiting for the broken effect to go away. Also far too situational and underwhelming for said situation.
Trail of Torment: Kick a gen and become undetectable for 15 seconds, the gen is highlighted yellow and has a 120/100/80 second cool down.
This one must've not had more than 3 seconds of thought put into it. There's no point in being undetectable if you leave a giant sign saying "I'M OVER HERE BUT YOU CANT SEE ME :)". It's the same thing with Demogorgons portals and old Ghostface. The whole point of stealth is that people DON'T know where you are. Especially if you're a giant buff dude with a long pointy piece of metal on his head and dragging a large knife that people can hear. On top of this the cool down makes it only usable like 3 times a match. Adding a large cool-down to already terrible perks IS NOT balance. It's just lazy and hurts snowball potential which is what killers desperately need in order to have the match not end in 6 minutes.
Death-Bound: Survivors who heal from 32 meters away or more will scream and the healer will become oblivious for 45 seconds when 16/12/8 meters away from the healed survivors.
I like the idea of this one, it's probably the most creative and actually usable one in the bunch. It isn't strong but it's a fun perk to play around with. In practicality it's sort of trash but good enough. You probably wont find the survivors after they finish healing as you're probably doing something else in the moment like hooking, chasing or interrupting gens. I really enjoy perks that mess with survivors abilities to track the killer because the terror radius is such a huge mechanic in the game.
Cheryl's Perks
Soul Guard: When recovering from the dying state gain the endurance status effect for 8 seconds. While cursed with a hex you can full recover from the dying state.
This is literally just a NOED counter. All it really does is punish killers for using hex perks, which are already weak considering they can be disabled at any time. In the current game state I can see this being a problematic perk. Personally I haven't tested to see if you can pick yourself up more than once but it means if you're still trying to use the new Hex: Ruin for some reason then you just lose pressure with a perk that encourages you to keep up pressure. I do really hope that Soul Guard is only a one time use because it would be worse than unbreakable since the only counter is for you to LOSE YOUR PERK. Second chance perks should not be in the game period. Many of the problems people have with the game come from these second chances. DS and Unbreakable are a prime example of survivors getting 4000 tries while killers have a noose around their neck that gets tighter every second. As someone who still uses hexes I am at an extreme disadvantage over something I cannot physically control. All this perk does is potentially remove desperately needed pressure and band-aid fix an already terrible but annoying perk.
Blood-Pact: If you or the obsession are injured you see each others auras. Disables if you're the obsession.
I genuinely thought this was a joke when I saw it. A perk that kills itself based on rng? You can get much better results and more information with Empathy. Your perk also wont choose to stop existing when using empathy.
Repressed Alliance: After working on a gen for 80/70/60 seconds you can call the entity to block a gen for 30 seconds.
It's just a Pop Goes the Weasel counter that can be used for memes and trolling. It's creative but that doesn't make it good. The only purpose it serves is to prevent gen progress loss which could be strong but we'll have to find out when it goes live.
Overall the whole chapter is just a disaster. Sometimes it seems like we get 6 perks because BHVR feels like they have to crank out something. The only thing these perks are going to do is inflate the bloodweb even more. Sure you could say that it adds build variety but most people will just stick to the meta anyways. There's no point in running a different build if you're just putting yourself in a considerable disadvantage. Very disappointed in this one, especially since it's something as big as Silent Hill. Maybe these things will be changed but I honestly doubt it. We're just going to be stuck with another killer who looks cool but is really just frustrating to play as, along with perks that will just spend the rest of their days collecting dust.
Comments
@BubbaMain64 after playing with Pyramid Head, I personally felt it was way more useful than Demo's shred. It comes down to personal preference in the end on which someone prefers. But I do think you are being too harsh on your judgement of his ranged attack. It isn't meant to be spammed like Huntress throwing hatchets because then yeah the killer will be heavily punished. But it still serves its purpose quite well in my opinion. You'll see the best results with it if you know how to get in a survivor's head.
How are they trash? The Oni is considered by many to be very strong and I find the Deathslinger can be brutal if you have practice and experience. Perks are another story. They're mostly bad, but the killers themselves are much stronger than you're giving them credit for. They're just different. Oni is a beast at the 4v1 and Deathslinger is a god at 1v1s, and their weaknesses swing the other way to compensate.
Personal preference doesn't mean that it's good though. It has a soft skill-cap is the problem with his power because with how low it is you are unable to perform any better than that. It's like saying Leatherface's chainsaw has a high skill cap. You just use it when you can use it and theres really nothing more to it than maybe getting a free pallet if the survivor is bad or too close.
Finally bro they need to nerf that perk it literally carries killers bro...
I explained in the post why they're garbage.
legit might be the only dlc i won't buy
I can respect the developers wanting to give another lesser known horror franchise a try. Sadly this is the only real Xbox One/PS4 appearance it's going to get before Xbox Series X & PS5. I am happy for the concept alone but getting Pyramid Head & Cheryl is just a cherry on top for me.