Darkness Among Us: Designed for Money Or Enjoyment?
Fair warning: this is several paragraphs.
To explain the meaning of the title, context is first needed. First of all, this DLC came with the most customizable killer at launch and had much more design focus on looks rather than balance according to the community. Another part that is notable is the Game Awards, which might have had some affect on advertising. And lastly, the game's added content from the DLC in terms of perks and map. So, let's discuss it: is this DLC meant for enjoyment or money?
To explain the money aspect of this argument, let it be stated that Legion has the exact same amount of cosmetics as Spirit, which is 27 including all of the weapon, body, and head aspects. So why is this important? Well, that is because of a single reason. That reason being the killer was advertised with all of these cosmetics. Just look at the mirror image for reference. That image clearly shows cosmetics in the shop and was announced as a teaser to the new killer which provided false information. Clown and Spirit were advertised in ways meant to hint at the lore, whereas Legion implied multiple people had something to do with the power and left the community fairly dissapointed when it was found to be a hint at cosmetics. This implied money would be something required to get what was advertised.
As for the enjoyment side, many people can take comfort in a killer that is relatable, at least in terms of being an average human, and would pay good money for a highly customizable character. By far Legion is the most cosmetic based killer and some people do take enjoyment out of using skins they buy and want t use them. And there is no shame in that, because if they buy it, they thought highly of the cosmetic and are entitled to spend money however they want in which the game allows. Much like fun, enjoyment is subjective and is the reason why people play games.
Now back to the money side, featuring the Game Awards. The Game Awards was no coincidence as everyone got a free cosmetic from just having bought the game. To elaborate on why the Game Awards affected advertising though, examination needs to be taken on the actual game itself. Besides DLC being added, there was a huge advancement in the Unreal engine. This change is welcome to all players, although it can be argued that it was meant to cater to newer players as they would make the population of the community grow and provide more money through cosmetics. Wanting to prolong your games lifecycle isn't an unjust reason, however, not being transparent to the community isn't helping if that is the reason.
Back to enjoyment. The Unreal engine was long in the making. It required months of effort and was shown in sneak peaks by the Hallowed Blight cosmetics. Upon examining them, it would be clear that the skins were, particularly Trapper, different in terms of texture and lighting and that was because they were on the new engine. The free cosmetic from the Game Awards is a nice touch as well, as it rewards players for sticking around in the game until the new killer came out.
And on to the final point for the money argument: affecting core gameplay. If it wasn't already apparent, some changes to lockers in terms of perks and base changes have occurred. The perks that caused this change was Distortion and Iron Maiden. Despite the large number of counters that BBQ and Chilli has, a perk was invented to counter it, that being Distortion. It can be argued that it was also meant for Nurse's Calling as well, keep in mind the locker change. Iron Maiden would have genuinely no purpose on the core gameplay because of the existence of Urban Evasion. The reason it was invented was because of people saving Distortion stacks by lockers and this came by to counter it. Even more questionable, BBQ and Chilli has only been on the shrine once. It almost seems as if money is required to make the perk function as it used too. In the mean time, other aura perks like NC have been nerfed and the new map has been removed for maintenance.
For the final point of the enjoyment argument, there is the fact that a new meta is needed. Things are stale as is and something needed to change, this being a welcome one. In fact, all of the perks added help in some way to combat playstyles. Discordance slows the game down just because of the fear of working together providing information. Mad Grit is made for SWF. Iron Maiden even has it's uses in chases for Leatherface or Nurse and other uses for Doctor and Huntress. In fact, all lf Jeff Johansen's perks are very creative and fun to use. Nothing feels like a cheapskate or underpowered (except Breakdown and Mad Grit). It fixed continuity problems with Nurse's as well.
So, after that tiring post, what is your thoughts? Worth your money? Or perhaps not the DLC you expected? Feel free to start a conversation down below.
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