Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle Review

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but sometimes imitation borders on the precipice of blatantly ripping off others, like walking through an Aldi supermarket and seeing all the brands that have been designed to look just like known brands. Much like the German supermarket giant, Italian Invader Studios has taken inspiration from those that came before it, and in this case it’s Capcom and its survival horror series Resident Evil, with its title Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle. But just like shopping at Aldi, there’s some value to be found here, but most of the time it feels like a cheap knockoff.

Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is the second entry in the series and serves as a prequel to 2020’s Daymare: 1998. If that’s not ringing a bell – that was the game that began life as the infamous fan remake of Resident Evil 2 before Capcom decided it wanted to do its own remake and shut the operation down.

Something doesn’t look right

Once again we’re playing as an H.A.D.E.S. solider (Hexacore Advanced Division for Extraction and Search), this time by the name of Agent Delila Reyes. Reyes and her team find themselves in Nevada investigating a facility near the infamous Area 51 after a distress message is sent out. Their mission is the retrieval of a briefcase containing important and confidential research information about a top-secret project. Don’t expect much from the narrative, with some truly dreadful writing and voice acting making it nigh on impossible to take whatever happens seriously.

While the objective may be simple, completing it will be anything but, as an experiment gone wrong (classic) has caused zombie-like monsters to wreak havoc inside the facility. It seems that scientists had been playing with electromagnetic fields and somehow bestowed these creatures with the power of electricity and by extension the ability to bring the dead back to life as reinforcements.

Daymare 1994 follows the gameplay blueprint used in the Resident Evil remakes, with an over-the-shoulder view keeping you nice and close to the action. Reyes has an SMG and shotgun at her disposal, but disappointingly, the gunplay lacks the kick and power found in similar games, making combat feel clunky and underwhelming. Reyes also has a tool called the Frost Grip, which allows her to slow down and freeze enemies, and even turn them into ice shards. It has a rechargeable tank that fills itself slowly over time, or if you’re desperate you can use a refill cartridge (which at times you will be), and Reyes can upgrade the device to increase the tank size, make it recharge faster, and give it the ability to shoot ice bullets that slows everything down in the affected area.

Where Daymare 1994 primarily lets itself down is through some inferior mechanics that aren’t nearly as intuitive and enjoyable as they should be

Standard monsters come in two types: blue and red. Blue monsters can be killed with any weapon, while red monsters must be frozen to exterminate. When you eliminate an enemy, a resulting ball of electricity can move to another corpse to revive it, and to cancel this process you must use the Frost Grip on the ball before it reaches its destination. Other creatures are those that can teleport and throw electricity, and a larger type called the Sparker which can one-hit kill you.

In between fighting off monsters, Reyes will need to complete puzzles, such as restoring power to areas and using the Frost Grip to bypass obstacles or unlock doors. The puzzles are a nice addition and don’t require much backtracking, which is a relief.

Where Daymare 1994 primarily lets itself down is through some inferior mechanics that aren’t nearly as intuitive and enjoyable as they should be. It results in an experience that feels difficult by poor design, hindering the fun and immersion. Enemies not only come at you with speed but also in groups, making it very easy to get overwhelmed, especially when you’re facing off against various zombie types and trying to stop corpses from coming to life. When they do get you, they’ll take a fair chunk of your health while you frantically mash the button to get free. It makes getting attacked feel cheap and almost unfair, considering the mechanics restrict your ability to get out of difficult situations. Switching between weapons is cumbersome, reloading feels slow, the Frost Grip takes too long to be effective on approaching enemies, and Reyes can’t muster more than a jog when being chased. Quite often when you’re jogging away there won’t be enough separation between you and the enemies on your tail, making it almost inevitable that you’ll take damage when you do turn around to face your pursuers.

Freeze!

I got stuck at one point for far longer than I’d care to admit where any attack from an enemy would kill me, and I had to somehow get past three standard enemies and a teleporter. The issue was that whenever I triggered the sequence the three standard enemies would attack from the front and the teleporter would end up behind me and kill me. I did get past this sequence initially but only to be confronted with a hallway of corpses and a handful of enemies ready to spawn, and I didn’t last long. Annoyingly, once I finally got past this section the first time, you’d think the game would autosave, but apparently not, and I suffered a cheap death in the next area where I turned a corner directly into an enemy and had to do the whole section again. I could have switched to the easy difficulty (there are three difficulty levels) but I wouldn’t have been able to revert back to normal.

Despite all this, Invader Studios must be applauded for Daymare 1994’s immersive atmosphere, which is elevated thanks to a chilling soundscape. One irritation is that visually it is far too dark and your flashlight barely illuminates your surroundings – there were several instances where I could barely see despite cranking the brightness up to the max.

Technically, the game is all over the shop, with my playthrough suffering from constant framerate drops that made it almost unplayable at times, especially during combat against multiple enemies. I switched between the multiple framerate options but nothing seemed to ensure a smooth experience for long enough.

It can be a little too dark at times

Final Thoughts

If you’re someone who enjoys third-person survival horror action titles such as Resident Evil and are looking for something to play over a weekend, then Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle’s 10ish-hour campaign may scratch that itch. There are some good ideas here, such as the Frost Grip, but the lack of execution and polish, and some poor core mechanics, means that this is best saved for a bargain price and a rainy day.

Reviewed on PC // Review code supplied by publisher

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