Review for Daymare: 1998. Game for PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 30/09/2019 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 28/04/2020
The end of the 90s, videogame speaking, was a golden age in many respects, among which it is certainly to remember the clearance of survival horror to the general public of consoles. What until then had been attempted - successfully, but now forgotten - by Alone in the Dark, had been resumed between '96 and '98 by Capcom with the Resident Evil series, which in the following years would kick off to the mass production of an infinite series of clones.
Daymare: 1998 - already available for PC users and now also on the current generation of consoles - was born with the intention of paying homage to the survival horror of the early years, offering us a story, a gameplay and a general feeling of the experience as faithful to what PsOne users still remember today with nostalgic affection. The result is a terrifying experience… an adjective to be understood both in a good sense and - unfortunately in some situations - also badly of the term.
Three stories, three nightmares
The long introductory video of Daymare: 1998 immediately transports the player into the mood of the horror of the 90s: a virus capable of transforming humans into violent undead, an underground laboratory from which the virus escapes, soldiers ready to do anything to bring to his head the very powerful bacteriological weapon. In short, the ingredients are all there and, incredibly, they are remixed wisely enough to offer a plot that despite being clearly inspired by Resident Evil manages to thrill.
The narration is also interesting for the mix of characters that can be impersonated during the adventure: starting from the ruthless agent Liev, to then move on to the control of the forester Samuel and the special agent Raven, witnessing the events through the eyes of the three protagonists makes the experience always exciting. Actually Samuel is the emotionally stronger character of the three because, leaving aside the personal motivations that push him to throw himself into the fray (which we let you discover to avoid important spoilers, Ed), compared to the other two who are trained agents he is the unique with a characterization that favors empathy, allowing the player to identify more with a poor Mr. Nobody with obvious psychological problems, who suddenly finds himself holding a weapon and blowing the zombies' heads.
The plot, even if hastily told in some salient points that would have deserved a better management of the rhythm, remains the main strength of Daymare 1998: it is enough to know that within the game it is possible to find the classic documents but that, in addition, many of them will report a code to be inserted on the developer site to be able to access large files that will allow you to further deepen all the background of the transformation into zombies of the inhabitants of Keen Sight. A boundless and perhaps excessive lore - not many players will read all the documents - but that demonstrates the attention that Invader Studios has placed in its creation.
Puzzles, bullets and (few) magazines
Another nice aspect of the Resident Evil 2 survival horror is the presence of the puzzles: Daymare 1998, during the 8 hours required to complete the adventure, offers interesting and challenging ones, some of which will require careful exploration of the playing area and a discreet use of gray matter to be solved.. The presence of these puzzles counterbalances the action in an excellent way, bringing the mind back to the glories of an era that, unfortunately - and we have seen it with the recent Resident Evil 3 Remake - will hardly be able to impose itself again in a world of horror games always more action-oriented.
Another key feature of Daymare: 1998 is the management of weapons: the whole inventory - containing as usual weapons, ammunition, healing items and important objects - is visible through a mini computer on the wrist of the protagonists which, once opened, does not stop the game action. As it happened in Dead Space, therefore, opening the inventory is already a risk in itself, because you must always keep an eye on the surrounding area to make sure that no enemies arrive. The loading of weapons is also valuable, managed in a decidedly realistic way: The bullets in the inventory must be combined with the magazines available and, by quickly changing a magazine that still contains bullets, it will fall to the ground. If you do not collect it at the end of the fight, you will lose it together with the precious unexploded bullets and given the scarcity of the latter, especially fundamental at the highest difficulty levels, we certainly advise you not to leave anything behind. It is possible to make a slower magazine change, an action with which the character puts the magazine in use back in the inventory before replacing it with the full one: obviously this is not a recommended choice in the excitement of a fight, with the game that pushes to use every moment of tranquility to replenish their paraphernalia and thus be always ready for the next attack.
In all this, very good system, we still point out a few flaws: for a short time the game prevented us from reloading the gun because, even though we had bullets in the inventory, we were left without a spare magazine, with the character refusing to put away the empty one (which would have left the gun without a magazine) we were forced to avoid clashes until we found a new magazine to use. We also report a strange distribution of in-game objects, which saw us find several vials to increase the perception and stamina of the characters, in the face of a shortage of healing items: at the higher difficulty levels, where it is imperative to escape the most zombies. weak to save bullets, it's easy to get caught and injured, and a few more medkits would certainly have made the experience less frustrating.
1998 also in graphics?
Invader Studios is a very small team of a dozen people and the work done to optimize Daymare: 1998 is commendable. Having said that, even if the result is commendable, we must point out that the Unreal Engine 4 has been exploited only in part: if the lighting and the technical realization of some settings is really successful, as a counterbalance we have polygonal models (especially the faces) of the characters that look like plastic puppets, with animations and facial expressions that really seem to have been done in 1998. Although everything works - and, in a certain sense, it is part of the perspective of returning an experience as close as possible to the Resident Evil of the late 90s - the sector technician certainly deserved more attention. This is where we see the biggest gap between this production and those of a gigantic studio like Capcom: small details such as the refinement of the icons, the readability and usability of the inventory, the convenience of the map, the animations when using an object, … They are all small elements which are missed in the long run in Daymare: 1998.
Although the problem has already been solved, we would like to point out that upon receiving the code for the review we ran into a graphic bug that made some parts of the map literally disappear, making the title unplayable in some places. The developers immediately ran for cover with a corrective patch that made the whole experience much more enjoyable and beautiful to look at, but we were forced to delete and reinstall the game to make sure everything worked properly. If you are a day one buyer of the game, therefore, we recommend that you wait for all updates to download before starting your first run., in such a way as to allow you to fully enjoy the refinement work done by the developers.
We close with an applause to the sound behavior: beautifully crafted sound effects are accompanied by equally inspired music, which convey the right anguish and make the memory return with nostalgia to that Resident Evil 2 that we all loved to madness in its time.
Daymare: 1998 goes to great lengths to keep the promise of making us live an experience as close as possible to the Resident Evil of the 90s. With a Resident Evil 4-style camera, tough zombies, few bullets (to be managed with an extremely realistic system), several puzzles and a well-written plot that unravels putting the player in the shoes of three different characters, the premises are all there. Too bad for the lack of some refinements to the gameplay and the technical sector, which would have allowed the title to rival triple A sacred monsters such as the recent remakes of the first two Resident Evil. If you are a fan of old-fashioned survival horror, however, it remains the experience closest to that great historical period, able to give you a nostalgic jump into the past of a decent longevity. Our advice is to take a ride without too many expectations, so that you can enjoy the title for what it is: a celebration of a time when horror was still scary.
► Daymare: 1998 is an Adventure-indie game developed by Invader Studios and published by All in! Games Destructive Creations for PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 30/09/2019 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 28/04/2020
