Over the weekend I’ve had access to a preview build of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle. The build contained around thirty minutes of gameplay and appears to be the tutorial part of what will be the finished game. Given that it’s a preview build there will be no score given and this will simply be my impressions of the time I spent with the game.
First off is how it looks. Clearly inspired by resident evil, the environments are suitable ordinary looking. By that I mean they are normal which makes them all the more creepy when the horror style lighting is applied to them. Graphically the game looks well polished already and things will only improve as the game gets nearer to launch.
Watch the demo trailer below:
Sound also plays a vital role in horror games and Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle ticks the boxes here too. You can spend ages walking around with hardly any background noise then all of a sudden you’ll get a surge of music to build the tension. More often than not nothing actually happens but the soundscapes on offer ensure that when something does happen you are suitably tense.
Gameplay-wise it feels a bit clunky. As expected your character doesn’t move very quickly and the enemies can easily outpace you. I know this is a deliberate feature of the game but when you add clunky controls it can be extra frustrating. My biggest issue with the controls (I was playing with mouse and keyboard) is when you try to use the frost mechanic.
This mechanic allows you to freeze enemies and then either carry out a finishing move or fire a frost bullet. I found the combination of keys required to pull this off a bit confusing and would often mess it up. This could be down to it being a new system to me and perhaps with more time, I could get it into my muscle memory.
Check out my playthrough in the video below:
The build also gives a taste of the sorts of puzzles that can be expected and, if I’m being honest, they didn’t fill me with confidence. One puzzle is clearly designed to get you used to using the frost mechanic and I’m fine with that one. The other requires you to fix three different cargo lifts and requires you to traverse a good portion of the environment in order to do so. This lift fixing simply felt like something designed to take up time.
There are two different types of enemies on display here. They are both types of zombies but act differently from each other. I would describe one kind and simply fodder but they can do some serious damage if they get hold of you. The second type is much more nimble and carries out plenty of dodges as they close the ground on you. Both of these enemy types proved hard to put down and, what’s more, you need to use the frost mechanic mentioned above to kill them properly or they can transfer their energy to any remaining zombies making them even tougher. Combat is definitely a challenge here and is made even harder by the meagre supply of ammo.
Overall I would say that the game is shaping up fairly well and it’s certainly one I’m going to keep an eye on. As I mentioned before, this feels like it will only be the tutorial part of the finished game and I’m curious to see how the rest of the game plays.
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is available to wish list now on Steam
A demo is also listed with a release date of 21st February.
Daymare:1994 Sandcastle will be released sometime later in 2022.
