Screenshot: Daymare 1994: Sandcastle
I really need more survival horror games in my life. And while I like where the
Resident Evil games have gone, there’s just something that was scary about old school survival horror. I don’t know if it was the lower fidelity graphics, their novelty, or even just the fact that I played them when I was much younger—but nothing quite feels like old school survival horror. Developer Invader Studios is hoping to change that with a game that has its mind on the classics, with modern graphical fidelity.
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is a survivor horror game, and the prequel to
Daymare:1998, which paid homage to early
Resident Evil games.
Daymare: 1994 continues with that homage. In it, you play as H.A.D.E.S. agent Dalila Reyes. H.A.D.E.S. stands for Hexacore Advanced Division for Extraction and Search—and Dalila is finding herself extracting and searching an underground military complex that has been overrun with zombie-like, electrified bad guys. But that’s okay, because Dalila has her trusty shotgun and submachine gun to take care of any trouble.
Screenshot: Daymare 1994: Sandcastle
But those aren’t the only weapons at Dalila’s disposal: she also has a wrist-mounted frost gun to turn any of her adversaries into zombie-cicles that can easily be smashed. This wrist mounted frost gun is also used to bypass obstacles. In the demo, you have to cool down some pipes to open a door. I’m not sure what other frost-solvable puzzles
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle will feature, but I’m sure that won’t be the last.
While
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle’s demo does a good job setting up a retro stylized sci-fi world, it didn’t do that great of a job scaring me. I’m sure there is a lot more underground military complex to explore, but even with loads of bloodied and gory bodies lying around, I never felt like I was in significant danger. I don’t think it helps that the demo’s enemies are just zombies, but a little different.
Screenshot: Daymare 1994: Sandcastle
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle has all the potential to be a good game, and definitely invokes that old school survival horror feeling—I’ll be looking forward to its release later this year. If you want to try out
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle before its release, there will be a demo available during this weeks’
Steam Next Fest.
A Steam demo key was provided to us for the purposes of this preview.
