In a world devoid of outstanding and original survival horror experiences for what feels like decades, I was incredibly stoked to receive a review code for Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle. I was excited to jump into the next entry in the Daymare series and see just what improvements were made to what was already a solid foundation of an original survival horror experience. I was on a rollercoaster of impressive highs and depressing lows throughout my time with the game, all thanks to the trend the likes of Dead Space and Resident Evil have started, and of course, the indie market has followed – this isn’t a survival horror game, it’s a horror shooter.

You begin the game by stepping into the boots of Deliliah Reyes. She’s a lot like Dolph Lundgren – super smart, hard to understand, has the emotional range of a potato, but can kick serious amounts of ass. She’s also a member of the H.A.D.E.S. team, essentially this world’s version of S.T.A.R.S. After an accident at Area 51 she’s sent in to retrieve a briefcase filled with sensitive information. Sound familiar at all? It’s essentially Resident Evil but with aliens instead of zombies. The similarities don’t end there, as the title also borrows the cheesy C-movie cringe writing and truckloads of exposition which to most people would be turn-offs, but in my case, they are selling points. I was buckled in with a bucket of popcorn and really enjoyed the opening hours of this, with my only valid complaint being just how long it took to actually see some action (about 20 minutes if you’re wondering).

Initially, I was in survival horror heaven – I experienced one of the best uses of the haptic feedback on the Playstation 5 Dual Sense controller. I was being chased through a bulkhead with a swarm of enemies hot on my trail; the door closed just in time to keep us separated, and I was left with nothing but the loud bangs on the door and the reverberation through my controller that eased and increased in realistic ways as I moved towards and away the door. Once I was into the game proper, outside of the tutorial territory, I was popping heads with my shotgun like it was my job, and business was good. Like Conker the Squirrel with his eyes rolling dollar signs good. It was so satisfying to have one of the skinned fellows who looks like Dr. Manhatten on crack have their melon explode mid-lunge as it moved in on me. This was a high that I maintained until it faded, much like a first attempt at a drug, where I was chasing that high again and again, but never really achieved it. This is due to a number of factors that culminate with the game feeling like it was stuck in a weird place where the developers really didn’t know what they wanted to make.

By far the biggest issue within the game is the arsenal you have at your fingertips, if you can call it that. You get an MP5 and a shotgun right off the rip, and I kept waiting, and waiting, and then waiting some more for something else to add to my belt. Unfortunately, the only thing that came was a handheld freezing unit that was a nice touch at first, as I was using it to bypass hazards and freeze enemies as needed. But that’s it. No hand cannon, handguns, LMGs, or sniper rifles. No knives, not even a pencil. You literally have three weapons to use the entire game, and one of them is only fatal if you shatter the enemy with your fist or with an attack from one of the guns, and even then only the shotgun is worthwhile. The MP5 features this weird upgrade where you only shoot crayons, and not Crayola mind you, but the Rose Art crayons that they sell from the dollar store. The ones that even a house fire won’t melt. You can easily unload an entire clip into one of the alien’s heads and they won’t even shrug. Making matters worse, the enemies quickly evolve into a situation where a ball of lightning will escape from its corpse and quickly jump into another one if you don’t freeze it in time, and if you fail to stop it from jumping too many times, it’ll turn red. Akin to the Crimson Heads from the Resident Evil remake, these special enemies must be frozen before being destroyed, requiring you to manage your freeze-y mabob entirely too much. I can respect games that will develop creatures that have their own unique abilities and reward the player for finding the best tool for the job, but I absolutely detest when there are these artificially hard requirements in place.

Around the midway point of the story, the enemy roster and numbers grow to the point that I no longer felt like I was playing a 90s tribute, but dumped into the world of Dead Space 3 or Resident Evil 5. Both games that are still decent in their own right, but are by far some of the weakest in their respective franchises. The problem here is that the game really wants to be a survival horror game, one that often relies on the player picking and choosing their battles, but locking players in an area with the creatures when fleeing forces you to play a third person shooter instead. This left me in a weird place where it felt like I was playing Monopoly with the rules of Trouble. This becomes even more frustrating once the enemies start coming at you in numbers that are damn near impossible to make it through unscathed, largely due to their only attack shifting you into a QTE that has you mashing buttons, maybe freezing them, and then moving back to running and gunning. On multiple occasions, I was overwhelmed due to the sheer number of aliens moving in on me resulting in me going from QTE to QTE to QTE until I was dead. This further escalates once the floaty fellow with spider-like arms steps into the fray, who not only supercharges those aliens in the area, but can teleport around and one-hit you as he pleases, even from full health.

Combat makes up the bulk of this game, with a close second-place medal being given to the cinematics. Sandwiched between them is a wealth of hacking and puzzle-like mini-games that each felt like they were tributes to survival horror of years past without coming across as rip-offs. These were easily the high point and while none of them left me perplexed for long, were welcome breaks from the dreadful combat encounters. I feel like many games have dumbed these aspects down to the point where it’s just finding cog A to insert into hole A. It was refreshing to really have to think about the task in abstract ways. There is still a fair bit of having to find key cards and the like, but it’s a much smaller part here than in similar offerings. Another throwback is the inclusion of set save spaces, a PC in place of a typewriter, which I think is a nice touch. However, the ease of checkpoints has softened my opinions on this, and while they are in place, if you leave the game and have to return, you can only do so from your previous save. Additionally, the game doesn’t like quick resuming on the PS5 and generally left me with a black screen if I didn’t fully exit the software before shutting down my system, if not soft resetting on its own.

The cinematics are nothing to write home about, mostly filled with long-winded exposition that would make Hideo Kojima circa Metal Gear Solid 4: Sons of the Patriots blush. They don’t look terrible, but some additional polish would’ve gone miles – my biggest issue is how the information is just thrown out there. It’s a constant stream of high-concept sci-fi, acronyms, and bullshit that left me playing Tetris in my head by the end of the game. I would’ve appreciated some sort of break or further explanation in most cases that would’ve made it all make sense, opposed to making me more and more confused. Even after completing the game, I couldn’t tell you what the cause of everything is, nor do I really care at this point. Most of what I remember of the narrative was me watching a cut scene, walking about 15 virtual feet, and then sitting through another cutscene.

From a presentation perspective, the environment makes this easily one of the best-looking indie games of the year, and outside of the occasional frame rate hiccup, texture pop, or slightly out-of-place asset, like the super small briefcase that looks more like a travel bag my wife would use to carry her makeup, it looks great and makes full use of Unreal Engine 4. The same cannot be said for the character models, who move in weird, awkward ways with Reyes being the biggest offender. Her face looks like she’s stuck mid-stroke and runs like she crapped her pants and can’t find a restroom to clean up. Some of the enemies will also be seen getting stuck in place during their punch animation, which usually appeared to be due to getting stuck on a stray corner, but I am not sure since I took this as an opportune moment to blow their heads clean off. Making matters worse, most of the supporting characters look like their faces are made of wet clay that’s melting, and their lips are so out of sync that I had to quit focusing on their faces within the first 20 minutes.

By the time the credits rolled, I was exhausted. Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle presents a passable throwback narrative with some key flourishes that showcase the love for the genre that the developers have, but sadly, most of this game misses the mark. It is an action title hiding behind the inkling of survival horror. There really isn’t much here in terms of horror – just some random jump scares here and there that are usually nothing more than a lightbulb exploding or a thud emitting from the room around the corner. Clocking in at just under eight hours (with at least a third of that time being cinematics), with unlimited ammo being the only alternate mode or bonus feature, there isn’t much to do once you’ve finished it.

6 out of 10

Pros

• Atmospheric Setting
• Some Fun Tributes to Survival Horror Games of the Past
• Shotgun Headshots are Extremely Satisfying

Cons

• Uneven Gameplay
• Limited Arsenal
• Bloated Due to Repetitive Combat Segments and Unneeded Cinematics

Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle was developed by Invader Studios and published by Leonardo Interactive and 4Divinity. It launched on PC, PS4, PS5, X1 and XSX/S. The game was provided to us for review on PS5. If you’d like to see more of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, check out the developer’s site.

 

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