Dead by Daylight’s indomitable live-service structure adds new content on a constant basis. Dead by Daylight is essentially a springboard for popular franchises as far as skin cosmetics are concerned, and there are likely players who have never heard of a particular horror franchise before that learned about it from the game. For example, Hellraiser’s Pinhead is likely one of the more obscure IPs that Dead by Daylight received the rights for, at least before Hulu’s recent reboot.
Dead by Daylight recently indulged in further content inspired by Resident Evil. Many characters from Capcom’s seminal survival-horror franchise have been added to the asymmetrical horror game, whether through their own Survivor and Killer character models or as cosmetic skins. However, these skins have proven that Dead by Daylight does not simply cut corners and reskin an initial model. Instead, Dead by Daylight creates faithful interpretations of Resident Evil characters, and its most recent Killer skin based on William Birkin may be the most impressive yet.
Dead by Daylight Debuts a William Birkin Skin for Blight
Dead by Daylight crosses over with Resident Evil for a new Lunar New Year skin collection that includes a Lunar Qipao skin for Ada Wong, inspired by Resident Evil 4; a Revelations Gear skin for Jill Valentine, inspired by Resident Evil: Revelations; and a William Birkin skin for the Blight, inspired by the Resident Evil 2 remake. The latter skin in particular is impressive because not only does it perfectly resemble Birkin's first G-phase of mutation, it is also completely unrecognizable as the Blight. One of the most important details that Dead by Daylight knows to consider when making skins is how to craft them in a way that actually represents the frame of the character being adapted.
In this case, the Blight does not have a massive eyeball protruding from his right shoulder, let alone any sort of tissue mass that would make sense for a Birkin reskin. Instead, Birkin’s character model still walks like the Dead by Daylight character, but the model itself is in a different form to compensate for these physical changes.
Dead by Daylight’s Skins Have Franchise Mileage
Knowing that, Dead by Daylight is able to put essentially any character into the game so long as they could emulate a character already serving as an established Survivor or Killer. Resident Evil’s Hunk might not be that similar to Dead by Daylight’s Legion, but even in this instance it is great to include other characters from beloved franchises.
Nonetheless, Dead by Daylight’s newest cosmetic collection is another great celebration of Resident Evil, proving it still has a lot of content to draw from for character skins. This is how Dead by Daylight could get the most out of its licensed IPs, and could be how Behaviour decides which Killers and Survivors to put into the game in the first place.
If a franchise character that is considered for a Killer is more adaptable or similar to other characters, that would be better to implement for multiple future reskin possibilities. Additional Resident Evil DLC is not off the table either, and perhaps players will eventually see other desired Killers in the form of Resident Evil Village’s Lady Alcina Dimitrescu or the Resident Evil 2 remake’s Mr. X.
Dead by Daylight is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
