Edit 2-10-2024: It only got worse.

Definitely not worth $40. There are super prominent issues and bugs that do not get fixed for long periods of time, horrendous developer decisions that impact the way the game is played, overpriced DLC that so far has been fairly pay-to-win, and a dwindling playerbase due to all this, making getting into a match a chore as well.

I have no idea where to begin with prominent issues, there have been SO many since I started playing this game on release. Some get fixed here and there, others get ignored for months, and new ones seem to pop up every patch. Remedies to some of these are completely mind-boggling sometimes as well.

Some examples of issues include:
- Pressure Valve taking a long time to turn off as family, almost instant activation as victims, and no regression to punish victims. This has FINALLY been remedied in a good way as of last week-ish, family doesn't take as long to deactivate and victims need to spend more time activating, and it now regresses when it's turned off.
- Johnny, started off as a weaker member of the family at C+ to B- tier, has been nerfed time and time again into his current state of unplayability, now unironically making him D to F tier. The devs are calling it "fixes" to Johnny's "bugs," however, they nerfed his power (why???) and killed his lunge attack, which made him a pretty scary family member to have to chase against because he could catch up quite well and did considerable damage, but now he stops dead in his tracks a lot when attacking.
- Blood trails being buffed on console over PC. For some reason, console had really well working blood trails when family injured victims, and victims could bleed quite a bit, allowing for family to retain chase easier. However, PC did not see trails, but instead, droplets of blood every now and then, which made chasing harder for PC for no reason. So the devs must have fixed this for PC, right? Nope, console now has the awful blood trails that PC has too, which could be seen as intended... if the family members didn't voice line at random, empty areas indicating that they've seen a blood trail, making it seem that the original intention was to have console's blood trails on all platforms.
- Hitchhiker traps at ladders used to bug out the victim to not be able to go through cracks or crawlspaces, so instead of fixing the bug, Hitchhiker is no longer allowed to trap ladders, as there's an invisible area in front of ladders that block trap placement.

If you notice, there's a trend of straight up removing features and mechanics that should absolutely stay, but since there's a slight problem with what they are connected to, they have to go. There are way, WAY too many issues, both to list here and because I'm getting fatigued. These are just 4 out of dozens, and these aren't even the worst ones. The point was more that developers are not understanding their game.

The game was incredibly fun at first, but like some other multiplayer games that have been ruined for me (random example: Escape from Tarkov), the developers do not understand their own game, whether that's due to how they do not play their creation or not I have no idea, but they just don't get it. It's really frustrating and it's getting to a point where I'm debating dropping this game entirely, which, even though I'm just one person, I will end up contributing to the dwindling playerbase problem.

Not to mention, so far, the expensive DLC has unironically been a bit pay-to-win, even the Cucktero skin (which is $16 USD by the way, not including tax) gave a really big advantage for a bit by making the chainsaw way more silent at range and only months later was that fixed to be moire in-line with the regular chainsaw audio. Now, Nancy and Danny have been released for $10 USD *EACH*. Putting aside the fact that $20 for 2 characters could easily go into buying a full fledged game on Steam, they are also pay-to-win. As I understand, once Danny has been leveled up enough, he can permanently open an exit making it next to impossible for family to play effectively at all for the rest of the match anymore, and Nancy can reveal your location no matter what if they're knowledgeable about the map, and can even place infinite traps with the correct build. So, overpowered characters/DLC (Nicotero skin) that will later be nerfed only *after* the developers get the sales they need. IMO this is pretty scummy, super akin to LoL.

End of review, I have a lot more to say but I'm bad at articulating my thoughts and wanted to keep it from becoming an essay either way (which kind of became one anyway). I'll leave it off by saying, if you DO want to play anyway, Game Pass is what I'd start recommending to people, since access to the game is dirt cheap.