While being a vast improvement on the original, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle still has many areas in need of some polish.
The second game in the Daymare series, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle adds to the 2019 game Daymare: 1998. It follows in its survival horror footsteps, aiming to be an improvement on the original. Invader Studios had originally made the original Daymare game as a fan remake of Resident Evil 2, with it evolving swiftly into a game of its own. The sequel, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, has a far more original footprint, showing an improvement in the creativity of the development team from the very beginning of the game.
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is a prequel to the original game, following new protagonist Reyes. Starting as any survival horror with sci-fi undertones should, a lab experiment gone wrong has put the world in danger, and an elite soldier has been tasked to head down to the lab on a death-defying mission to save the planet from the monsters that have been unleashed. To add to the horror elements of the game, Reyes is haunted by sinister visions of her sister Helen, who has been missing and presumed dead for years, with whom she needs to reconcile.
While not a completely unique and out of this world premise, the story of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is an effective backdrop to the gameplay and serves as a good example of survival horror being able to be kept clean and simple in the stories it wants to tell, rather than needing an overly complicated plot as many games on the market have at the moment.
As has been made so popular in the survival horror genre by games that dominate the scene like Resident Evil and Amnesia, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle has a large focus on the exploration of various environments. Like many of the other games in the genre, there is a lot of backtracking, solving puzzles, and unlocking shortcuts to other parts of the map. Despite the seeming simplicity of this particular gameplay element, it is, in fact, very difficult to perfect. While other champions of survival horror demonstrate how effective this can be as an addition to the atmosphere of the game, the exploration of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle has a different effect.
Rather than creating an intense atmosphere, the exploration becomes somewhat of a drag. The player is left wandering down too linear paths that often just end in backtracking and working out many puzzles that are often very similar with simple solutions. While some shortcuts could be opened, the amount of backtracking led to a lot of boredom, which is the worst way to describe a horror game. The repetition and monotony of these sections were some of the most frustrating parts of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle as it diminishes from much of the atmosphere.
In an effort to change up the gameplay a little, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle adds a scanner that can be used during these exploration sections towards the start of the game. While the scanner can be used to add to the environmental storytelling and the overall lore of the Daymare, there wasn’t much of it that felt interactive enough to justify all the scanning. It is likely that most players will tire of the mechanic very quickly, meaning it does not add to the enjoyment of these exploration sections.
It is a shame the sections that are scanned are so limited, as it would have been fun to have a brief video or audio log play that allows the player to learn said lore in a more interactive and interesting way. Instead, asking a player to read a lot of background information to fill out gaps in the story can bring any pacing to a grinding halt and break any tension that has been built up until this moment.
The scanning device used in Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is the Data Interchange Device or D.I.D for short. This is used as both the scanner and the user interface. It shows the player’s inventory, creating an effective management style. The D.I.D also allows the player to track Reyes’s ammo and health in a very simple way. This is a vast improvement on the interface in the original Daymare 1998, which had an overly complicated health and inventory system. In this case, the more simple version wins, making it far easier for the player to quickly understand all the information they have at their disposal.
The other main aspect of the gameplay in Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is the combat. Like most survival horror games, there is an option of two weapons to choose from, with each offering different options when it comes to range and damage. The MP5 mainly exists for variation, it appears because the shotgun is a far more effective choice in weaponry. To some, this can lead to much annoyance, with one of the weapons being fairly ineffective. Others, however, could enjoy the challenge added as the player has to choose when to use each weapon, as the MP5 does have a few uses at range.
Much of the gunplay also relies on ammo management, which is a very fun part of the game as it is one of the few things that makes Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle feel like a true survival horror and adds some tension to the game. While not being a unique addition to the gameplay, it is a very effective implementation of weaponry in the genre, particularly when one of the more inventive weapons is introduced. It should be noted that while effective, the lack of quick slots for accessing weapons, with two being auto-filled, is a serious oversight due to the speed at which the action can take place.
A unique element is added to the game, however, in the addition of the Frost Grip. This adds a lot of fun to the combat due to the variety of ways it can be utilised. This is introduced fairly early in the game as a key item in one of the environmental puzzles. The Frost Grip was originally used to cool the Ram77 and keep the Ogre in stasis in the Groom Lake facility. Reyes picks one up in this facility, and it becomes a key element of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle going forward. The Frost Grip can be used as a key item in certain puzzles, as well as freezing fires and cooling pipes in order to pass into sections.
Beyond this, it can also be used offensively to freeze enemies. This can be improved through the many upgrades available for the Frost Grip. Many of these are the classic upgrades a player would expect from a weapon in a survival horror. These include a range increase, an improvement in reload speed, and a tank (ammo) increase. Some of these are far more exciting, however, with the inclusion of frost mines and bombs that can be used very effectively against enemies. There is also a Frost Shield that can be used to stop incoming projectiles, which can be one of the most fun elements of the game. And, of course, freezing enemies makes them far easier to headshot and kill.
Or so the player thinks! One of the most interesting parts of the combat in Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is the ways in which the enemies die or don’t. Once an enemy has eaten most of the players’ bullets, they will be left unmoving on the floor and finally dead, right? Wrong! Many of the enemies can be left on the ground, appearing dead, and will suddenly leap up and attack the player who has been lulled into a false sense of security.
This was one of the scariest parts of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, as many of the enemies will stay still for a very long time as the player passes by and only leap up once they have been passed several times. Often, the enemies will also come back more aggressive than before, which is really something as many of them begin in a very scary state.
While the combat can be fun in parts of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, the exploration sections, unfortunately, let it down. Even with the regenerating of enemies adding a certain amount of scares, they often feel like a cheap jumpscare rather than the release of excellently built tension. Without the tension in place from the exploration sections, the jumpscares from the enemies are more of an annoyance than a moment of true horror as they very much could have been.
The most common enemy type in Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle also has a truly infuriating attack that grabs Reyes and can only be broken away from with a QTE. While many survival horrors have a matching mechanic that most wouldn’t find almost a game-ending annoyance, this is not the case in Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle. This is because this is the only attack these enemies have, meaning the player has to shake themselves free every few minutes.
The other main enemy type is a teleporting, floating nightmare that has a one-hit kill attack that cannot be evaded. These enemies will also often spawn behind Reyes when they teleport around the environment, meaning that the player will often be killed by a foe they can’t even see. Safe to say, this led to a lot of frustration as the death screen was not as interesting as it could have been, considering how often it will be seen.
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle has a fantastic creative team that devised some truly horrifying monsters for the player to come up against. The team at Invader Studios also used the power of a player’s imagination to their advantage. This is done in the design of the Ogre. While some of the Ogre becomes visible in moments of the game, most of it is left concealed, meaning the horror is created by the player. This is a very clever technique seen in works of horror, as the fear of the unknown is often the most terrifying. This is made more effective by the creatures that are seen as being truly disgusting.
The voice acting isn’t perfect, although the terror of the protagonist is portrayed very well during some of the scarier moments of the game. The noises of many of the enemies are also suitably scary, with a definite unnerving edge to them. Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is lacking in the ambient sound department, with some sections that feel as though they could have been improved by a slightly more intense soundscape, although the score is very well implemented.
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is a vast improvement on the original; there is no doubt about that at all. There are still many aspects of the game that are lacking, however, which can be hard to see past. The gameplay varies in quality, with much of the exploration and gunplay being on the dull side, but the Frost Grip adding some unique and exciting elements to it—ultimately, the biggest sin of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is in its lack of scares. While there is fun to be had, there was not much in the way of bed-wetting horror sections to keep the player up at night.
