Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle should eradicate many criticisms of the predecessor. Whether that works? Hard to say…

• Mysterious research facilities and failed experiments
• THE STORY
• The technology and the game world
• Many quality-of-life improvements
• The thing with the “zombies”
• Smaller loosening
• Will that?

Daymare: 1998, the predecessor of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, has a moving story behind him. Actually, the project of the Italian Developer Invader Studios started as a “Resident Evil 2” fan-Remake. Parts of the first level were even playable up to a certain point and the project made good progress. Stupidly, Capcom has decided to publish a new edition of Resident Evil 2, and the project of Invader Studios can be stopped despite the good relationship with each other.

Many assets and some levels were already completed and in a playable condition. So Invader Studios decided to use the already done work as a basis for a new own project. From this, the already published Daymare: 1998, which was quite popular with fans, from the press but rather restrained and partly even devastating reviews import. Nevertheless, the developers sat down to a successor to be realized in cooperation with the Indie-Publisher Leonardo Interactive. Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is a prequel to Daymare: 1998. This year, the title for the PC is supposed to appear on Steam, the console versions follow later. We were already able to play a demo version of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle and win a first impression.

Mysterious research facilities and failed experiments

In a strictly secret US research institution, something went wrong and the contact canceled. She slips into the role of Dalila Reyes, an agent of the Unity Hexacore Advanced Division for Extraction and Search (abbreviated Hades, “Resident Evil” fans may still remember the S.T.A.R.S.-unit). Dalila is sent to examine the incidents in the plant – normal routine. Stupid only that in the system seems to be all dead and stripes strange zombie-like creatures, the Dalila immediately attack on visual contact.

In Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle studies a mysterious incident in a US research institution.

In advance, it has already been communicated that the development of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle has been significantly more budget than the predecessor was the case. The team has professionalized and set the goal to deliver a larger and better title. After the 20 to 30 minutes long demo, of course we can not judge whether this project has succeeded or failed. Some skepticism remains mainly at the story. Despite the actually successful overall presentation, it is still trashy.

THE STORY

A big criticism of the predecessor Daymare: In 1998, the sometimes very trashy and sometimes embarrassed dialogues have been. Invader Studios praised in advance. To what extent this has succeeded, difficult to say at this time. We did not get much of the story in the demo so far. However, it is clear that significantly more narrative about the environment, ie Environmental Storytelling, takes place. Many clues, details and text states are distributed in the research facility and draw an approximately image of the incidents shortly before the total collapse. This type of storytelling can create a hugely dense atmosphere and that is exactly what the developers succeed in the playable section very well.

_Mall again discovers your spaces that tell their story purely through details in the area.

But a sticking point could be the dialogues in Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle. Although they are better than in its predecessor, which means that they now have “Resident Evil” levels have reached. And if we are honest, this row has never been made by the brilliance of your authors. Although Dalila leads mainly self-talks in the demo and only at the beginning of his colleagues has a short time with one of her colleagues, but neither writing nor voice acting are outstanding. Of course we can not close from this short passage to the entire game, but there is some skepticism.

The technology and the game world

Technically, Daymare is: 1994 Sandcastle on a rather solid scaffolding. During our session we have noticed any performance problems. Graphically, the title tears out no trees. Even on the highest settings, he looks a mediocre. The same applies to the animations of the character and NPCs. The quality never reaches the top class, but commutes constantly in midfield.

The graphic and the animations in Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle can not always convince.

Many quality-of-life improvements

On gameplay page seems to have done a whole lot. The inventory and the entire interface were revised and now have a clear and clearer. The somewhat unknown PDA-like device from its predecessor did not make it to the successor. Despite the obvious parallel to Resident Evil exists in Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle no crafting. However, ammunition and healing items are extremely rar and the inventory areas are limited. Unlike predecessor or comparable titles, magazines do not have to be awkwardly selected via the inventory, but can be switched directly to the “R” key directly. This helps enormously not constantly interrupt the paping during the fighting.

The thing with the “zombies”

Invader Studios does not send Dalila against normal zombies in the fight as you know them from many films and other games. The undead are extremely resistant and even after several hits are often back on, sometimes several seconds after banging on the ground. Sometimes you have to freeze the opponents and then shoot them on, so they finally bless the temporal.

Ob a zombie is really dead, does not always be sure to be sure. It’s best to be on number.

The fighting, however, play a bit awkward. Dalila’s movements are strongly reminiscent of the tank-like control of Jill Valentine from the first Resident Evil or Harry Mason from Silent Hill. The weapons – in the demo that has been a shotgun and a submachine gun – lacking power and the hit feedback is too lax.

If the fighting will be too heavy, you can customize the difficulty level at any time. Here is also a nice detail from passing days on you: In the settings you can activate limited memory points. As at that time at Resident Evil!

Smaller loosening

Most of the time you move as a Dalila through the dark, destroyed gears of the research facility, triggers environmental tubes and shoots undead over the pile. The puzzles of the demo have never been particularly demanding, but have recently loosened the events. This is especially true for the computer puzzles. The interface of the devices is kept consistently in the style of the 1990s.

Will that?

Whether it has succeeded in Invader Studios, actually successfully addressed the criticisms of Daymare in 1998, after a 30-minute demo version is difficult to estimate. On the whole, the game works more rounded than the predecessor, but we’ll take a while to worry about the story. The few dialogues, acted quite trashy and the writing agent also made a middle-class figure. Of course, that does not have to be representative of the whole game. But since for a demo version usually the preliminary places of a title are selected, we remain a bit skeptical.

This year, DAYMARE: 1994 Sandcastle for the PC and sometime later appear for current consoles.

Now to the website of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle!