There is nothing really magical about what Zombie Studios is trying to do with Daylight, yet what they bring to the table is an engrossing atmospheric experience that will keep you on the edge of your seat constantly, especially later on in the game. Before we get into the technicalities any further, let’s discuss the backstory.
You play as a woman named Sarah. Sarah wakes up in an abandoned hospital with only her cellphone (initially) guiding her way. A strange man audibly guides her through this very messed up place and asks her to uncover its secrets along the way. As Sarah delves deeper into the hospital, the ghostly danger around her grows more apparent with each step. I’ll stop there to avoid the spoilers.
The first thing you’ll notice when you start up Daylight is how immersive the desolate atmosphere is as Sarah is walking around. You have long dark hallways with broken furniture, rotting walls, eerily decaying and destroyed rooms, and other items like paintings/boxes/etc. everywhere. This place looks and feels like it’s something straight out of Ghost Adventures — but more real (hahaha—hmmm). Randomly, you’ll have objects move on their own, sounds such as footsteps appear and disappear and just an overall sensory overload to make you feel incredibly uncomfortable during gameplay. Oh, forgot to mention this one, that’s before the random spirits/witches decide to appear in undetermined spots around you. So, yeah, Zombie Studios has nailed the atmosphere, even somewhat better than the extremely creepy Outlast game that was on PSN a few weeks back for free (Plus members only, of course).
You have a few choices for you navigation through the game. The first two that you have at your disposal are a limited supply of glowsticks, which help reveal objects of interest and more glowsticks. The glowsticks last for about 1-2 minutes before burning out, which is probably the most inaccurate part of the game. They could have at least included a freezer to try and preserve the glow of the glowsticks.
The other item you can obtain on the first level is the flare. The flare is your friend. It keeps things from scaring the shit out of you. Sadly, the flare only lasts somewhere in the range of 15-20 seconds, but can be put away and slowly reused until completely kaput. So, when you have a ghost or witch (or ghost witch) appear behind you, whip one of those suckers out and they’ll vanish — temporarily.
If you don’t have glowsticks or flares, then you can use Sarah’s trusty cellphone, which is nearly always in her palm. The only caveat to that statement is when Sarah is lighting glowsticks or flares, which render you environment temporarily pitch black while she cracks a stick or lights a flare. The cellphone’s main purpose is to be used as a map. The cellphone’s light can be used as an additional light source, though not as useful as the glowstick or flare. Anyway, you have some options for lighting, but you have to be careful how you use said items, as two out of three can burn pretty darn quickly.
Getting back to the idea of the gameplay, you basically wander through this multi-level hospital looking for small bits of clues in the forms of letters, notes and pictures. You go around collecting remnants (generally six of them) that are hidden on each level of the game. Once you collect the maximum number of remnants for that level, you have to go hunt down a sigil, which is an item of interest to some part of the story you’re putting together (the first level is a teddy bear). Once you have the sigil, you eventually will find the creepy-ass sealed area of the game and unlock it with the sigil. Unlocking said seal will advance you to the next level in Daylight.
As I mentioned before, Zombie Studios does a fantastic job of creating this decayed atmosphere that is full of evil. It works very well and, again, keeps you on the edge of your seat. It’s so overwhelmingly good that you forget how mundane the actual gameplay (collecting remnants) can be, as it’s very repetitive in terms of goals. That’s probably the biggest snag in the game. It’s nice to have the crap scared out of you around every corner, but it would have been really nice to add some more gameplay substance to the mix. It’s regretfully light in that category, which does hurt the game at the end of the day. I don’t mind uncovering a solid story through notes, but doing it over and over again will leave a bit of a hole in the overall game.
I just wanted a bit more from the gameplay.
Having said that, the game is only $14.99 on PSN, which isn’t a bad price for what you’re getting. You do get a bit more cohesive experience through a game like Outlast, which is free to PS+ members, but the scares that Daylight brings certainly might be worth the small price of admission that Zombie Studios is asking. It just depends on what you want from the game and what you’re expecting. I certainly don’t think that $14.99 is unreasonable, but I could see people wanting a bit more from it. Just depends on what you’re seeking with this title.
What you do get in gorgeous fashion with that $14.99 price tag is a good looking game. The PS4 version is actually quite a bit better looking than the PC version at this stage. I’ve been playing the PC version of about 3-4 days and there are less details in the rooms, hallways and even ghosts than what I found in the PS4 version of the game. There are some nice particle effects in the PS4 version, tons of nice lighting and shadow opportunities that you actually don’t find as strongly in the PC Daylight game. It just feels a bit more visually built in the PlayStation 4 version when compared to the PC game. I’m not entirely sure why, but hey! PS4 owners will take what they can get right now.
Now, probably one of the strongest parts of the presentation value of Daylight is how intense the sounds can get as Sarah progresses through the hospital. You’ll find random shouts, footsteps, banging and screams that are pretty well done. There is nothing quite like getting whispered at and nothing is around you to do it. It’s pretty damn good in the audio department, especially if you have the right speaker set-up.
So at the end of the day, is Daylight fun? Well, if you’re not expecting much gameplay variety, but expecting the shit to be scared out of you then yes. If you’re expecting something incredibly deep and engaging as an Outlast or something from another popular survival horror game series then no. There are plenty of scares in this game to warrant the play, but if you want something deep beyond those offerings then you may not appreciate or like (or both) Daylight.
