Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is a survival horror game developed by Italian indie studio Invader Studios. This is the second work, and the first edition, Daymare: 1998, was inspired by Resident Evil. As you can see from the title, it is a sequel to the previous work “Daymare: 1998” and depicts an incident that happened four years ago.

The first edition, Daymare: 1998, was released as a Capcom-approved Italian Resident Evil.

The developer Invader Studio team was influenced by Resident Evil and was developing Daymare: 1998 as its remake version. When I approached Capcom about the development status at the time, they said that Capcom was also developing RE:2, and that the Resident Evil 2 remake would be developed and released independently by Capcom. At that time, Capcom was also impressed by the content of Invader Studio’s development, and a cooperative relationship was established.

Reference article (Daymare: 1998 development members talk about survival horror love)

“Daymare: 1998” has boss creature concept art by Satoshi Nakai, designer of the “Resident Evil” series, and Kazuhiro Aoyama, director of “Resident Evil 3”, is invited as a VIP advisor. I’m here. With the cooperation of such greats, “Daymare: 1998” was born. “”
””Actually, our name is in the credits of “Resident Evil RE:2”. “”
(Quoted from an interview article on Famitsu.com)

From these things, I think that Daymare can be expressed as an Italian biohazard.

In the demo version, the Section 8 team infiltrated for the purpose of investigating and securing research facilities under the order of Operation MAD DREAMLAND from the United States Department of Homeland Security. “The game starts with a scene in which you invade the facility as if chasing after you.”

Inside the facility, the tragic corpses of the Section 8 team that infiltrated first are scattered here and there.

Along the way, there are sound effects and battles with mysterious enemies, which will surely give you more than enough horror for a timid person like me.

The demo version only allowed me to go as far as the following steps:

Along the way, there will be battles with enemies, and the balance between battles and puzzle-solving elements is the driving force to move forward.

Become H.A.D.E.S.’s Special Investigator Rays, explore the secrets hidden in the top-secret facility, and uncover the past of the characters who played an active part in “DAYMARE: 1998”. Since it is introduced on Steam, it seems that it is recommended to play this work after playing the previous work 1988.

Just by playing the demo version, I was able to play without much influence on whether or not I knew the previous work. Perhaps, the further you go, the more the relevance to DAYMARE: 1998 will become clearer.

As an honest impression, it seems to use Unreal Engine, but the graphics themselves are inferior to recent big titles.

As for the sound effects, the demo version consisted of only moans and physical sound effects without unnecessary background music. “Personally, I think it’s good because it created a good atmosphere.”

For those who are accustomed to FromSoftware’s works and recent Harry Potter and Horizon characters, the character movement is a little strange and sloppy. This is easy to understand for those who have played past Resident Evil games, but it feels like the character’s movement is off by one tempo as the viewpoint moves.

I didn’t feel any problem with aiming during battle, just because the movement of the character was sluggish. The aim sensitivity can also be adjusted, so it can be adjusted to individual preferences. However, the viewing angle is limited to 100.

In any case, you will get used to it while playing, so I don’t think it will be a big problem. Rather, it can be said that it is a character operation that expresses a resident evil feel.

In addition, the part where the place to be examined is marked to some extent also feels bio-like.

The game has 3 levels of difficulty, and unfortunately I’ve only played normal, so I can’t explain everything.

In normal mode, the enemy’s strength is reasonably strong, and I feel that the balance of appearance of bullets and recovery items is not too much and not too little.

I don’t know how the previous work was, but I was able to check the collection elements in the demo version. “On the way, there are collection items like the one in the image below, and you can get coins by shooting them.”

It seems that 20 collection coins are currently available.

Some mysteries cannot be uncovered unless you carefully observe your surroundings. This is the 3-digit number required to open the locker, but I never imagined that it would be left as a dying message.

From my personal point of view, after playing the demo version, this work was a Western game that you can feel the operability of Resident Evil. As a novice survival horror game player, I felt that playing on the normal difficulty level was just the right balance.

The unique character movement like Resident Evil will get used to it after playing for a few minutes.

In addition to physical sound effects and moaning voices, I think that adding BGM as sound effects in the product version would increase the sense of realism.

In any case, my honest feeling now is that I can’t help but worry about the development beyond the demo version. I’m wondering if I should play 1998 because the story seems to be related to the previous work, but what do you think about reading this article?