Daymare 1994 started off as a Resident Evil 2 remake before the official Capcom one actually existed. It garnered much fan attention and somewhere along the line, Capcom took notice and invited the Daymare devs a vacation to Capcom offices to discuss with them that they can't make RE2, but they were happy to give advice on forming a new IP. So, It seems they took a lot of that work and created this new game instead.
As the game starts, it asks you a bunch of mode selection questions. Like do you want to play "Classic mode" or "Modern mode". By default its on Classic, so I went with that. It also says thats the way "its intended to play". Also theres 3 difficulty, with hardest saying "You will hate the devs" so of course I just went with medium as well.
The game is in third person over the shoulder like Re4 or the modern RE games, and it starts off with some pretty impressive graphics and voice acting. You start off as this military guy wearing all sorts of tactical gear, in this facility complex to complete various objectives. The game has a bunch of tutorials to try to ease you into all the mecahncis, theres quite a bit to learn here. Its got this PDA inventory system (which is pretty slow to pull up) that lets you manage your gear and look at the map as well as get more details about the current objective. A unique interesting mechanic you have to learn is the magazine reloading system. Unlike most other games, you actually have magazines in your inventory that take up space, that you have to individually load bullets into. Then, when your gun runs empty, you can either do a Fast reload to quickly drop the magazine on ground, or Hold the reload button to do a slower reload, but it doesnt drop the mag. It creates this tension and stress everytime youre fighting zombies and you need to make a decision what kind of reload to do, then the suspense of dropping your mags on the ground and having to pick them back up after the fight, its immersive too. Usually, though, I just spent my time constantly opening the inventory to manually load the bullets into the gun instead, leaving the magazines for emergency situations.
The game has 5 chapters, and surprisingly you play as 3 different characters. Chapter 1 is all about playing that military guy, going through this creepy facility but ultimately at the end of chapter 1 he gets killed and you never play as him again. The other chapters you play as this other military guy, and a random civilian that wants to get revenge for his wifes death caused by one of the military people.
The game has some really crazy puzzles. Theres a lot of them. Even in the first chapter within the first 30 minutes or so youre already doing multiple puzzles. Theyre challenging, but ultimately satisfying and fun for the most part. Some of them are just bonkers and way too hard or obscure, though. For instance even on the very first chapter, around the end of it, you have to do this insane puzzle dealing with a Greek keyboard and trying to decipher these ambiguous codes written on a bunch of paintings on the wall. It's pretty baffling, most people probably looked it up, I didnt but I think it took me over an hour to figure it out. Theres a lot more crazy puzzles as well, halfway through the game you have this town square with a fake Compass map in the middle that mistakingly lies about where North is, so I just spent an hour trying to do the puzzle being lied to about which direction I was facing. Another interesting but fun puzzle is in Chapter 4 theres this radio tower where you have to listen to and decipher Morse code by looking at a computer that shows and lets you listen to all the various morse code symbols. So yeah its a true to the spirit Resident evil kind of clone game, it goes even harder on the puzzles than most RE games but for the most part they're well done, with a few bullshit parts.
The zombies for the most part look awesome, the model details and texture and graphics here are great I like how a lot of the models look its pretty threatening. The weird thing is zombies dont bite you in this game, they just grab you and vomit in your face while you can mash A to escape. Not a big deal just found it kinda odd. They operate like typical zombies otherwise, slowly shambling around but actually some of them can randomly start sprinting at you so they are actually unpredictable and engaging, its not boring zombie AI. Theres a lot of multiple types of them too, some of them are these big hulking mutant things that just run directly at you and can facetank shotgun blasts a few times before they get stunned, further increasing the adrenaline.
The game has almost so bad its good cutscenes and voice acting. It's almost like they on purpose hammed up some of the voice acting as a call back to how corny and over the top RE1 voice acting was. If anything, its just entertaining as hell. The writing and dialogue either makes me constantly laugh out loud with its constant swearing and ...creative phrases. The cutscenes are mostly over the top insane shit youd never expect. Like at the end of chapter 1 you see the guys in a helicoptor and then suddenly the commander guy just starts shooting everyone after some macho bro argument its like what? its amazing to watch, especially how cheap and plastic doll the cutscene graphics look, its obviously low budget and 'shitty', but in the good way that campy B tier 80s horror movies are, its just fun entertainment and wacky but suitable writing that just works to set the tone and overarching mood of the game. Yeah its just kind of a generic Resident evil type plot, where theres a big evil corporation that created zombies, some guys wife works there and had a hand in it so the Military bros you play as murdererd her, then you play as the civillian guy for a couple chapters trying to track them down to get revenge, while snapping back and forth between the civilian character POV and the 2 military guys. While the story isnt creative or original, it just works and doesnt wear out its welcome or give you constant lore dumps, well, atleast not until the very end of the game where they give a bunch of lore dumps for like 20 mins after end credits that was a bit out of place.
I also especially like how your characters will dynamically comment on actions happening in the game. Sometimes when his ammo is low, he'll mutter "Sure would be nice if there was an ammo box" or if hes in a close call with zombies he'll say "Youre one ugly on of a bitch" and so on, its just the little touches like that which makes the game more of a complete atmospheric experience. The game also has some pretty awesome sound design, especially the creepy music at parts and the echoing effects in the distance, eerie machinery noises and beeping, zombies sound good and so on.
The game has a decent variety of locations, too. Chapter 1 is that industrial complex + lab place, Chapter 2 you suddenly start off as the civillian guy working at a forestry outpost, then you make your way through some cable car stations and into a Hospital. This part is this almost Silent hill esque hospital where you play as the civilian whos having constant psychotic delusions of his wifes death, all the while making your way through this hospital trying to interact with this doctor behind a locked door and do his tasks for him. It's pretty enjoyable, the hospital section was probably the most eerie and creepy place in the game it almost did feel like something out of Silent Hill. It's got the first 'boss' encounter too which is this guy called a Melted Man that you have to defeat, its pretty easy but the thing is it becomes a somewhat common enemy after this. Something sort of weird is how the game has a big emphasis on the magazine system, but for most of the game you have access to a Shotgun with abundant amounts of ammo, completely bypassing having to deal with magazines. Thats another thing, on the "intended experience" default difficulty setting, the game is very plenty on the ammo pickups. Its not like classic RE where you need to be constantly worried about missing one or two shots, they give you so much ammo in this game you wont know what to do with it, clogging up your limited space inventory. It's not a problem really, because the combat is fun and the game isn't too easy for the most part, but its just something worth noting. Then, Chapter 3 almost looks like a directly ripped level from when they were woring on Re2 Remake. Its the city streets level which is very reminisant of Resident evil 2 streets. Theres a gun shop, the basketball court place, all sorts of familliar, yet different sights and sounds. I liked it, its a really cool throwback to classic RE but also it has its own spin on it. Then, after the streets and the dreaded compass puzzle, it has you going through a sewer level, but with constant psychotic delusions and spooky psychological horror things happening, its actually a decent sewer level. Chapter 4 is unfortunately the weakest one in the game, mostly because it just rehashes the streets of Chapter 3. Its almost the same level, but this time in reverse. So you work your way back through the streets, to get into this resturant and then find a valve to bypass a puzzle.
The objectives are usually easy to figure out, and if you go to the map screen it will give you a bit more info if needed, but rarely sometimes the objectives can be the kind of "what the fuck do I do" kinda shit. Like here in chapter 4, you get to a point where its like "Find the missing valve by the construction site" and you can backtrack the entire city level looking for it, which I did multiple times. What the objective should have said to not be so vauge and annoying was something like "Find missing valve at construction site BY THE HOTEL" - That would have made more sense because it made you go to the Hotel previously, so I know where that is, and would have prevented annoying worthless running in circles. Not a big deal, just a small gripe that sometimes happens. After you work your way back through the whole level you basically already played, you finally get some new content by going outside to these gas stations and trailer parks. So its cool that the game does have a bunch of outdoors sections, and the atmosphere here is great with nice rain effects and ambient sounds. This is where the morse code puzzle is, and then the first real big boss fight. The boss here I is just a big enemy that you need to sprint around in circles and doge and get some shots in, thrilling and a welcome addition but nothing mindblowing.
Chapter 5 is the shortest chapter about an hour long, just takes place as the military guy inside of the main laboratory of the outbreak, a classic and typical RE style ending sequence where you make your way through a lab, find the big bad final boss which is you locked in a room with explosives everywhere that seemingly do nothing but stun him for a second, the real goal is to lure the boss into a middle platform and electrocute him there with a button. This part looks pretty cool but I found it frustrating and I failed quite a few times but im not gonna say its a bad sequence or anything. The part after this kinda sucks though, suddenly youre being chased through narrow hallways and theres quick time events randomly where you have to simon says random buttons to open doors, but then the boss can also do this animation where he one hits you and crushes your head (which looks cool) but is just annoying and kinda bullshit because of shoddy hitboxes and trigger zones. After this, you get to the final boss fight which is some outdoors area where you just gotta shoot the guy as much as possible and bait him around corners, end cutscene with this hilarious over the top drama and voice acting, then after end credits you get suddenly a first person segment walking through some Lab and looking at a computer watching cutscenes and reading logs with a bunch of lore. Ok so thats Daymare. It's an awesome game overall, I had a great time, its the perfect length of about 8 hours long it definitely catches your attention for just long enough and never gets boring. I especially like how the devs seem passionate and are real hardcore survival horror fans because theres just pop culture references absolutely everywhere in the game , on the walls, grafiti, arcade machines (Full Life 3, lol) and so on, which just makes exploring the world really exciting and fun and also funny. Theres a sequel coming out soon called Daymare: Sandcastle so I'm actually quite hyped to play that one now, too.
8/10
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