Chucky is the most lore-accurate killer in Dead by Daylight and he's so much fun it's silly

(Image credit: Behaviour Interactive)

Move over, Nurse and Blight, the best killer in Dead by Daylight is now a possessed doll. Or at least, it will be when the Good Guy chapter launches on November 28 and Chucky takes a chunk out of the game.

It's a whole new world out in The Fog, as I found out after sneaking in a few public test build matches before it went offline this past week. I'm proud to say that my favorite asymmetrical horror game has never taken itself too seriously. This year alone has seen the very meta addition of Nicolas Cage to the Survivor headcount, the Stranger Things DBD license being reinstated after two years, and more Killers have voice lines than ever before. Chucky is far from the first horror movie icon to pick up a blade in The Entity's realm, but he is the only one to have voice lines performed by his original actor. Due to his short height, he's also the first third-person Killer in the game.

I had a blast getting to know him and his three unique perks while testing out the new chapter, and it's great to see the developer doing a few things different with a licensed character – though they're probably running out of source material to choose from.

Evil comes in every size

Hidey ho!

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"How's it hanging?" Chucky actor Brad Dourif's telltale drawl comes as a surprise to me as I walk past a hooked Survivor. It's one of many random voice lines in the upcoming Good Guys chapter of DBD, this one seemingly triggered by glancing up at one of my ensnared victims.

"Stop running from a doll," on the other hand, can be heard when giving chase to a Survivor who's made a lucky escape. Chucky's gleeful giggles and strings of profanity ring out as I race after my prey, duck beneath pallets, and scamper through windows like no other Killer in the game is able to. Survivors can run, but thanks to my current perks build, they have nowhere to hide.

Developer Behaviour Interactive is no stranger to purchasing character licenses, loaning famous faces from some of the best horror films. The trend started in 2016, when Halloween's Michael Myers reprised his role as The Shape, but no Killer has piqued my interest quite like Chucky since Albert Wesker was added last year. I was fundamentally disinterested in the Alien chapter – what can I say, I'm not a sci-fi girl – but finally, BHVR has hit the mark in more ways than one with the infamous Child's Play villain.

Chucky's perks look to meaningfully switch up the meta by discouraging toxic playstyles. The first time I step out as Chucky, I equip only his three unique perks: Hex: Two Can Play, Friends 'Til The End, and Batteries Included. Hex perks aren't usually my favorite thanks to the variable value you get out of them, but Friends 'Til The End might just be my new bestie.

Upon hooking a Survivor, this perk allows me to see the aura of my Obsession and make them Exposed for a handful of seconds. The Exposed status effect means it just takes one hit to down them. I make use of it in my next match by pairing it with Play With Your Food, a perk that gives me a stackable speed buff every time I chase and let my Obsession go.

I need this extra speed, thanks to Chucky's slower movement speed as the shortest Killer in the game so far, but I have another ace up my sleeve. Batteries Included gives me a little speed boost when I walk past completed generators, meaning I no longer need to panic too much if I'm getting gen-rushed by a ground of particularly speedy Survivors. There's something in it for me now; all the better to chase you with.

Finally, I equipped Dark Devotion to seal the deal. This one gives me even more reason to chase my Obsession and hit them only once, transferring my Terror Radius to them and making me undetectable in return. It doubles down nicely with my innate Hidey Ho ability, all of the above keeping my Obsessions on rotation and my prey constantly disoriented.

Chucky's perks look to meaningfully switch up the DBD meta by discouraging toxic playstyles.

This build proved monstrous, showing just how quickly Chucky's perks could enter the meta. It helped me take down a very aggravating Nic Cage, whose mission was to irritate Chucky as much as possible.

I expected to be ganged up on by Survivors as such a tiny little guy, especially since Survivors love a bit of flashlight click spamming and blinding. But with the player base still largely unaware of Chucky's strengths and weaknesses, I managed to take them all down in ten minutes flat.

After a disappointing hiccup or two this year, Behaviour's creative take on Chucky is an absolute blast to play. One of my favorite quirks about him is how, when you go to pick up a downed Survivor, the ghost of Charles Lee Ray helps you out. A black humanoid shadow picks up Chucky up in one arm and the Survivor in the other, understandable given his being a doll and all. Chucky even lunges at the Survivor from under Charles' arm, brandishing a giant knife wickedly before staring right at the player and breaking the fourth wall.

Small touches like these give the Chucky chapter some contextual flair, finding clever ways of implementing him mechanically as a Dead by Daylight Killer while staying true to the existing lore. Is Chucky a little overpowered right now? Potentially. But it's good to feel powerful as a Killer again in Dead by Daylight, and to be working with perks that conceptualize a character's villainy to a T.

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Jasmine is a Senior Staff Writer at GamesRadar+. Raised in Hong Kong and having graduated with an English Literature degree from Queen Mary, University of London, she began her journalism career as a freelancer with TheGamer and TechRadar Gaming before joining GR+ full-time in 2023. She now focuses predominantly on features content for GamesRadar+, attending game previews, and key international conferences such as Gamescom and Digital Dragons in between regular interviews, opinion pieces, and the occasional stint with the news or guides teams. In her spare time, you'll likely find Jasmine challenging her friends to a Resident Evil 2 speedrun, purchasing another book she's unlikely to read, or complaining about the weather.