We are late to the game with trying out Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle but have a good grasp on what the game wants to be and what it seems to lean on with its designs. While the demo didn’t give us a complete grasp on what is happening, the structure of the gameplay design is obvious. Honestly, it’s not a bad structure whatsoever. It certainly is familiar.
Let’s dig right into this sucker.
The story
Well, this is a prequel to Daymare: 1998. We know that much. Your main character, Dalila Rayes, who frequents the ‘f word’ during her struggles, is exploring a top-secret U.S. research center. While she finds some whacky top-secret technology, she also finds horrible beings that come in all shapes and sizes, some of which can die, then bond with others to create super beings. Armed with weapons and a Frost Grip (we’ll talk about this soon), Dalila is determined to kick the holy hell out of everything that comes her way.
Yeah, I know, not many details to fall on, but enough to get you started with what you have in store for you. The story is a bit jarring if you’re not familiar with the Daymare: 1998, which we are not, and the demo doesn’t do you any favors by just throwing you into the mix of things immediately. That’s a demo, though. It’s not supposed to give you the whole meal.
Let’s move on to gameplay design.
Gameplay Design
The first thing that I noticed before any enemies really emerged and made the experience different, was how similar Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is to Resident Evil gameplay structure. The developers at Invader Studios must have been huge RE fans, at least from the Code Veronica to Resident Evil 6. This game had a lot of gameplay elements that mirrored what you would find in that Capcom timeframe.
First, the game is in third-person perspective, which I understand doesn’t instantly make it an RE clone. It simply gives that comfortable feeling of familiarity to the popular series. That over-the-shoulder camera view, the quick movements of your character, and having the ability to read most of the room just absolutely feels normal because it’s straight from an RE design. Again, I know that third-person has been around forever, but a third-person horror survival game groundwork just absolutely points the RE direction. It helps when getting comfortable with Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle.
The mechanics of Daymare are also from the same structure. Moving, shaking, quickly accessing weaponry through the d-pad is an RE trait in its most recent years. That action-oriented intent really has put a good stamp on the RE series, though the move to first-person has shown the old series a new direction. Anyway, there’s so much similarity to the gameplay mechanics of RE, that it’s easy to get settled into it, which bodes well for a demo of this nature. Anytime a new game moves and responds as your brain wants it to because of past games you’ve played allows you to spend more time concentrating on the story and adventure and less trying to relearn the wheel.
Continuing with this RE fest is the inclusion of puzzles/steps to get through certain levels. While RE has shifted its gameplay to more action-oriented with fewer puzzles being involved, RE 1-3 really was the pinnacle of puzzle-solving in the RE series, and Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle embraces it. For example, there is a stage where Dalila must shift a series of platforms by accessing and turning on switches. You must visit different, sometimes restricted parts of the level to move platforms, while at the same time looking over your shoulder. The puzzle is lengthy because of distance, and not because of difficulty, but also less taxing because you run into other things that add context to your adventure. The level this puzzle works within is huge and enemies are prevalent everywhere. This type of design is a refreshing balance to action.
Where Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle separates itself from the RE franchise are the common enemies and the mechanics that go with defeating them. The common enemy in the game is these creatures that have elemental powers. They come in blue and red, which you can probably guess are electricity and fire. Each creature has its own way to get to you, but also each creature is running full-speed at you to try and grad and torture you with its power. It’s a bit unnerving, especially when you fail (which I did multiple times). What’s neat about the game is that if you down a creature, its elemental power will try to attach to the closest creature alive, which will make the receiving creature somewhat invincible to bullets. Strategizing where to kill creatures, how far they should be from each other so this doesn’t happen, is a neat strategy I never imagined would be fun in any game. It’s fun with this one.
To counter these creatures’ invincibility, you are equipped with a Frost Grip device. This device plays a lot of roles, especially in this demo. You can put out fires with it or you can slowly freeze things – LIKE ENEMIES YOU CAN’T KILL WITH BULLETS. Seeing an enemy slowly freeze then stand in front of you like the T-1000 out of Terminator 2 is gratifying. Blowing the frozen enemy into pieces with a shotgun is even more exhilarating. The Frost Grip is a cool item that not only can be used as a strategic offensive weapon but also can assist with puzzles. It’s very diverse.
This is what the gameplay consists of so far. I’m anxious to see the final product once it is wrapped on PC.
Other odds and ends
In addition to everything above, I thought that the visuals were gorgeous in Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle. I ran this game using a 3060, 11th gen i7 with 16gb of RAM. It ran as smooth as a Colt 45 pours, and the game played in ultra, which featured beautiful ray tracing and high-end textures. The environments were also massive and eerily detailed with fog, fire, and on/off lighting. The graphics really sold the story, which is a huge plus and good use of visuals. I didn’t have any issues with this game’s demo running my hardware, which was a plus considering it’s still in development.
As it stands, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle looks promising on the PC. While I would have loved to get into the story of why Dalila is where she is and does what she does, I’m hopeful the final product will be outstanding (every reviewer should feel this way at the beginning). We’ll keep you in the loop as this game continues its progression on PC.
