Hooked on You: A Dead by Daylight Dating Sim Critic Reviews

Hooked On You: A Dead by Daylight Dating Sim is something that, as a long-term Dead by Daylight fan, I never knew that I needed until now. This alternate universe version of these Killers and Survivors turns what we know about them on its head while we try to stay alive, uncover the mystery of Murderer’s Island, and axe any unfavorable possible romances from the running in slick, self-aware, and completely over the top reality-show style gameplay.

Hooked On You delivers what it sets out to do in this parody dating sim and will please visual novel and Dead By Daylight fans alike. The narrative style definitely lends to the overall story experience, especially when paired with the witty dialogue, and although it can be completed in a single sitting there’s plenty to uncover with its replayability.

Turning an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game into a dating simulation is unique, but it is what the community wished for. Sadly the unusual dating simulation has not a lot of gameplay to offer. But the game scores with special humor and a design based on other genre representative.

Hooked on You is an amusing spinoff that Dead by Daylight fans will get a kick out of, but it isn’t able to stand on its own.

Hooked on You is a fun spin-off for Dead by Daylight fans, but if you’re a dating sim fan, you’ll probably find it a little lacklustre. It’s often simplistic and repetitive, but it brings the ‘90s meta edge to horror games in a way that hasn’t really been done before, with characters I fell for and a world I didn’t want to leave. It might be a breezy 70-minute game, but I’ll be going back for all the achievements and digging into every single romance all the same.

There’s a certain novelty to Hooked on You that makes it easy to recommend to Dead by Daylight superfans, particularly those that are into the lore. For your casual Dead by Daylight fan, or dating simulator fan, there’s just not enough meat on the bone here. The writing isn’t bad in the moments where the script isn’t stuffed to the gills with jokes, but the occasional shining moments don’t add up to a compelling narrative, leading to an ultimately forgettable experience.

Ultimately, Hooked on You has some funny aspects to it that are worth checking out for Dead by Daylight fans, but for everyone else who might not be familiar with the lore, this feels like a weaker dating sim that isn't able to truly feel like its own game that's independent of the main series.