Whatever you wanted more of in your Dead by Daylight: The Board Game collection, the Malicious Expansion has great offerings for you. Want some new maps to keep the board fresh? Here are two drastically different options. Survivors want something a bit more complex to try? Have some with wild abilities, including two with “Difficulty: Hard” ratings. Need even more Killers to terrorise those pesky Survivors? These three will really put them to the test. Needless to say, I’m really happy with what this expansion has brought to my table.
Rules & Components
What’s funny about the rules in this expansion is that… there aren’t any! Any “new” mechanics unique to the Killers are already explained on their board, so a full rulebook isn’t really necessary. While I did come across a couple of odd interactions where clarifications would have been nice to have, there weren’t any issues with the rules themselves (or, more accurately, the lack thereof). The Dredge is definitely the strangest case, drastically changing how the Killer plays the game, but even that was pretty intuitive, and the Passive block explained its direct movement simply.
The minis continue to be solid, though I’ve got a minor nitpick on the Knight’s Guards. As someone who hasn’t played the video game much, I’m not sure which model represents which Guard. It doesn’t really matter during gameplay as long as you’re consistent, but I wish that the minis had the Guards’ icons on their base somewhere. There is art on the back of the box that lines up the minis to their names, but I know a few people who immediately toss expansion boxes to consolidate their games.
The new maps are pretty much the same quality-wise as the base game’s. However, I’ll note that I like the background of the Forsaken Boneyard simply because it’s significantly brighter than the others.
Gameplay
All three of the new Killers were great, but the Dredge and the Knight are easily my favorites across the DbD:tBG lineup so far. The Dredge uses a unique deck of movement cards, which allow it to basically teleport to one of the starting locations. While its movement might seem limited, its power allows it to force Survivors to use one of their movement cards—ideally moving them into the Dredge’s space so it can interact with them. Its Perks are also really interesting, essentially turning empty lockers into crows for the Killer, setting traps along paths, and destroying non-objective props. Still, some maps make playing as the Dredge pretty rough, and the random placement of lockers can also handicap the Killer through no fault of the player.
The Knight, my other favorite, rolls up with his own posse of Guards that he adds to the board with his power. These Guards each have a different ability, but I found the Carnifex to be the most fun as he tromps around breaking props the Survivors might want.
While I didn’t like the Artist quite as much as the other two, she’s still very interesting as she relies less on “gimmick” play and more on the skill of the Killer player. Her kit is basically a toolbox that lets you play the standard game better. The Artist may not be flashy, but she’s good at what she does.
The Survivors also get a few new tricks in their sleeves with the Malicious Expansion. Mikaela and Jonah can really mess with things, using Hex Totems to either heal or unhook Survivors from across the board. Haddie gets to teleport randomly and treat any item as a Flashlight (which is both less finicky and more useful than searching the item deck for a flashlight, which would be a slightly more direct interpretation of her DbD Perk). Vittorio is definitely the most disruptive of the bunch, able to move progress tokens or obstacles along paths, as well as move the Killer themselves (but only by dragging the Killer with him, so they’re both in the same space). I don’t play as the Survivors often, but Vittorio is usually an easy pick when I do, since he can change the board state so much on his own.
I already mentioned that I like the background on the Forsaken Boneyard map, but it’s also got a layout I really like. The central Eyrie Balcony East space offers a ton of versatility, connecting to a four-way green path and three yellow paths leading out of it. Killers and Survivors alike can use this to their advantage, but with only nine different spaces, the map is much tighter than the rest. On the other hand, the Withered Isle map is spread out across eleven spaces and doesn’t have nearly as many path options per space after you’ve locked in your movement card. It’s a bit more subtle in its unique traits, but those paths, plus the key breakable walls, mean it can put Survivors through the wringer.
Dead by Daylight: Malicious Expansion
Excellent
The new Killers make use of the existing game’s framework in interesting ways, and the survivors similarly give their team powerful tools without breaking the game or adding additional rules overhead. The new maps keep the game fresh, especially the very open Forsaken Boneyard. My only real complaints are that the Dredge’s design can make them susceptible to things beyond the Killer’s control, and the Guards aren’t the easiest to identify if you haven’t played the video game. Still, I would argue that the Malicious Expansion is a must-have for anyone who enjoyed Dead by Daylight: The Board Game.
Pros
- Three of my favorite Killers so far
- An interesting spread of abilities on the Survivors
- Two drastically different maps to choose from
Cons
- The Knight’s Guards would have benefited from marks matching the Killer board
- The Dredge can be very map- and prop-dependent
This review is based on a retail copy provided by the publisher.
