The Resident Evil saga (and especially its second opus) has always been considered the example to follow for survival horror. Whether it’s the story, the mechanics or the graphics, Capcom knows very well that it has a real nugget to its credit that is very difficult to reproduce, but there are examples of other video games on the market. who were able to draw great inspiration from it. , make great games .
One of them was Daymare: 1998, a title developed by Invader Studios. The most curious thing about it is that its development really started as a remake of Resident Evil 2 itself, but it ended up being a somewhat different and successful video game among fans of the genre. This same 2022 will come to us in the form of a prequel Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, and we had the opportunity to try the demo that will be available on Steam a few days before.
Daymare First Impressions: 1994 Sandcastle
I’ve already told you that the previous title was originally developed to “bring Resident Evil 2 back to life”, and this has meant that, although with differences, it is quite similar. However, we note that with 1994 the study wanted to avoid repeating the 1:1 formula, and from the first minute of the demo it will feel like playing something different.
For this Sandcastle operation we will once again put ourselves in the shoes of Dalila Reyes, one of the 3 playable characters of the first Daymare and which will allow us to discover her past as well as that of other characters that we already know. in this case
So we will once again have the camera right behind the character, and although we don’t want to reveal where the demo takes place, I can tell you that it is one of the most emblematic places.
Let’s talk a bit about the graphics section, it shows that Invader Studios has done a very good job and the leap in quality is evident. The game knows how to cope very well in dark areas where our flashlight will be essential, but in brighter areas it does not lower the level at any time. El pequeño pero que debo poner en este punto es que pese a que mi ordenador sobrepasa con creces los recomendados del juego requisitos sí que he podido apreciar un par de zonas donde las caídas de frames eran evidentes, aunque por supuesto no hacían la demo injugable ni much less.
The gameplay takes the best of the first Daymare and uses it as a base, adding new mechanics that give, as I said, a very different feel to the game. In our possession we will have a kind of sonar that will allow us to easily detect where important objects are such as ammo or documents, as well as a scanner for use in certain areas. Along with that, we’ll have something that I found very funny: a kind of “freezing gun”.
Reading this far you might think it’s not new and it’s been used 1000 times in other video games before, but I think Invader Studios has been very smart and has it added to the game in a very creative way. (or at least that’s what it looks like in the demo). This gun can be used to solve certain puzzles, but where we will really see its usefulness is in combat thanks to the new enemies that we will have to face.
In Daymare: 1994, we won’t see the classic zombies of all games, but we will face a certain type of humanoids who have a fairly aggressive and well-built AI, being quite common for them to dodge our attacks. The real grace of these is that when they die, they release an orb of electricity that will go towards other enemies in the area, causing them to turn red and…be immune to bullets! At this point, our management of the chill gun will be essential, as it will be our only means of stopping and killing them.
Of course, I cannot forget to mention the inventory that we will have at our disposal (exactly the same as the first Daymare) and quick access that we can use with the joystick crossbar if we use one. Puzzles will also be a very important part of the game again, and the two that appear in the demo without being overly demanding sounded pretty good to me. The only doubt the Daymare:1994 demo throws at me is when the game will hit the market (it’s scheduled for sometime in 2022) because of course it has plenty of arguments to grab it when it launches.
