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
Anyone who is passionate about video games will surely know or have heard of Invader Studios, the talented parent team of Daymare: 1998. The developers are known not only for their title that will soon see the light, but also for Resident Evil 2 Reborn, an unofficial remake of the Capcom title. Invader Studios, better known at the time as Invader Games, had to abandon the project as soon as the Japanese company announced its remake of Resident Evil 2. Thanks to this fan made project, the developers acquired considerable notoriety: their video, in the in a couple of weeks, it crossed the threshold of one million hits on Youtube. All this allowed these talented guys to found Invader Studios in 2016 and to start work on their first survival horror title, Daymare: 1998.
The title, released today for PC and later also for consoles, is a survival horror that winks at the titles we loved during the 90s and which tries to reproduce the exact same atmosphere. Despite being simple, the plot is well told, ensuring excellent involvement. During our adventure we will play the role of three characters, apparently disconnected from each other, but with a well-studied and orchestrated lore, which will connect their destinies. Our adventure begins with Liev, Special Agent of HADES (Hexacore Advanced Division for Extraction and Search). We do not have much knowledge about Liev's past, except that he was most likely born in Russia and that he obeys to the letter the orders given to him, regardless of the consequences and collateral damage. What awaits us looks like one mission among many, but with a truly unexpected twist: we will be dispatched to a secret research base near Keen Sight in Idhao. Once we arrive at the base, we will find only an innumerable amount of dead waiting for us. Total blackout, no communication with other areas of the base; our priority will be to reactivate the electricity. Once we have succeeded in our intent we will discover that there has been a Pollux spill and that all the staff have been brutally transformed into zombies.
The other two characters we will play are Raven and Samuel. Raven is a senior pilot of the Hexacore Air Force unit called “Delta 4RG0” and a member of the Crimson Skulls. In the past, our second protagonist was also a NASA pilot, later discharged due to a failed mission where a companion also lost his life. The last character we can play with is Samuel, a Redcrest Mountains ranger. Sam is not a specialized soldier like Raven and Liv, he is an ordinary person who however suffers from “Daymare Syndrome”, which causes hallucinations, paranoia and anxiety disorders. Samuel is the most human of all three characters and will certainly be the one we will relate to the most.
The intent of the three is to understand what is happening and to prevent the spread of the Pollux virus. Thanks to the combination of all three, we can follow the Keen Sight events from different points of view, from the military to the human one.
Daymare: 1998 as mentioned before, is a third person survival horror with shooting mechanics. Although the gameplay may be similar to that of other productions, the guys at Invader Studios have managed to introduce some really interesting elements that make the title even more realistic. The shooting phases are done really well: the shot fired from the weapons is credible, with an excellent recoil so much so that if we hold an automatic rifle in our arms and start firing in bursts, we will see it rise inexorably.
Ammunition management represents the real innovation in terms of gameplay. When we find a box of bullets around the level, they will not be immediately allocated on the magazine, but we will have to insert them manually. This will lead us to consult the inventory over and over again during the moments when there will be no enemies, so as not to loom in unpleasant situations. Always carry several chargers with you and charge them often, really often. The charging mode also has some new features. We can load our weapon in two ways: by lightly pressing the appropriate button, we will lose the magazine with the ammunition that we will still have inside; by pressing for a long time, the character will manually insert, bullet by bullet, all those necessary to fill the magazine.
Daymare: 1998 offers two game modes: a normal one for the less experienced or for those who want a not too complex experience, or Daymare, the most difficult, where our skills will be tested against even more difficult enemies and difficult to break down. To our delight, we obviously opted for the more difficult mode during the review phase. To complete the entire campaign, while also allowing ourselves some healthy exploration, we took about 9 hours, a completely acceptable time given that the title was developed by only twelve people.
The enemies, in both modes, are difficult to kill and it will be necessary to carefully weigh the shots so as not to remain dry. When a zombie falls to the ground, it is not certain that we will be able to take it down: if we do not pay attention we will find it back on its feet. It will always be good to try to hit enemies in the head, so as to consume less ammo. The latter will be found in a fair amount so you will need to use them sparingly. If we run out of ammo, it will be possible to perform melee shots, although we will have to hit the right time (just before the zombie attacks) because they are extremely slow. Each melee attack, such as running, will consume a portion of the stamina bar, preventing us from delivering a series of blows or running for too long.
The inventory on Daymare: 1998 is an extremely important element, because here we can combine different objects that we will find around in order to create the best ones, such as medkits that will give us more health or that will allow us to increase stamina, or create some more effective antidotes. In the inventory we will also be able to view the map of the level in which we will be, or consult our health statistics.
The art direction of Daymare: 1998 is really well done. The twelve settings, fourteen if we also want to consider the boss fight and the bonus level, manage to give a disturbing atmosphere worthy of a high-level horror film. Each level has a completely different setting, well characterized and that will give us moments of unique thrills. The enemies will not always be clearly visible and often we will find them behind us or we will see them emerge from a corner making us take terrible scares. The soundtrack in a title like Daymare: 1998 is extremely important, because it manages to take the involvement to even higher levels. In this case, the guys from Invader Studios succeeded fully, presenting an extremely engaging and well orchestrated soundtrack.
All that glitters is not gold, in fact Daymare: 1998 has some minor flaws, given that the title was developed by twelve people. On the technical side, the work of the guys at Invader Studios fails to shine. Although the game was developed using Unreal Engine 4, the graphic aspect is not the best, but in the end it lets you play quietly, especially due to the great atmosphere. Another sore point are the extremely woody and not very credible animations, especially those of the melee attacks. Despite this, Daymare: 1998 is a well-optimized title that can run smoothly on any machine, even older ones. We obviously played it on PC, at a resolution of 3840 x 2160, or 4K, using an Intel Core i9 9900K and an Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080Ti. The frame rate turned out to be extremely stable, we never had any noticeable drops to compromise the enjoyment of the title, settling on 120 frames for average seconds.
Daymare: 1998 has really convinced us, above all for being a purely made in Italy video game, and above all for the excellent atmosphere created and for the excellent story and storytelling. It does not shine with regard to the technical sector and above all for the animations, but, considering that the title was developed by a team of twelve people, it can be considered a marginal detail. The atmosphere created by the guys at Invader Studios is excellent and manages to offer terror, anxiety and anguish at the same time, all accompanied by an excellent soundtrack and that will help us immerse ourselves even more in this terrifying adventure. Inventory management, and especially ammunition management, was a pleasant surprise that gives a touch of realism to Daymare: 1998. If you are a fan of third-person survival horror titles that follow the style of the titles of the 90s that they raised us, you can't miss Daymare: 1998. You can buy it for the moment only on Steam at a price of € 29,99.
► 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
