TEST Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, a thrilling plot and tough gameplay

The Italian studio Invade continues to develop its license Daymare. After a first opus 1998 released in 2019 (are you following us?), this one sends us back four years with a pre-sequel. Here’s a taste of the game’s atmosphere in our full review. This survival horror takes up all the codes of the genre, taking inspiration from the master resident Evil. However, the universe it offers brings a certain breath of fresh air. In this case, it would be more appropriate to say sandstorm, since we are in the heart of the Nevada desert. In the agent’s shoes Dalila Reyes, the player explores the bowels of the famous area 51! Who doesn’t dream of knowing what’s going on in this mysterious American base, which does indeed exist in our reality. The fun part is that real facts are used in the game’s storyline. From this point of view, the title has something to seduce and has totally immersed us.

The F117 stealth plane is not the only feat of this period…

Dalila is a technology expert within the HADES unit, a fairly obscure paramilitary group. She is deployed to Site 51, in order to recover a mysterious briefcase lost in the base. After a distress call from one of the scientists and a strange accident causing the death of several children in the nearby town, the alert is at the highest level. The squad is made up of the organization’s commander, as well as Delilah’s colleague and friend, Ralek. All three must prevent Section 8 from getting the briefcase before them. This platoon of American soldiers is directly under the orders of the President of the United States.

Upon arriving on site, the section 8 camp intended to assist the personnel was completely empty of any occupants. Even exploring the first levels of the base shows no signs of life or inert bodies. Dalila has to interact with a lot of equipment and computer interfaces from the 90s. A whole series of well-thought-out and intuitive puzzles are on the program. The agent’s equipment also allows him to decipher the locks of precious containers, the most difficult of which contain the best material in the game (but hold on to open them…). This system quickly gives access to a secret area of ​​the base, where she will gradually discover the full extent of the situation.

Charred bodies litter the ground everywhere, some of which are men from Section 8. Armed with a shotgun and an MPG submachine gun, Dalila faces the strangest creatures. Initially, the human remains come back to life after the intervention of an electromagnetic sphere which seems to possess them. When one of them is downed, the sphere continues to reanimate any other corpses in the area. Worse still, these enemies are fast and rush towards our heroine. As long as there are few of them the situation is manageable, but some fights are terribly frustrating. These monsters attack from behind without warning, which sometimes causes quite infuriating deaths. Clashes with too many individuals prevent the player from discerning dangers outside their field of vision…

You will have understood, the difficulty is there. The problem is that the situation repeats itself many times during the adventure, which becomes tiring in the long run. The margin for error is too fine and annoyance predominates… To better face the dangers, our agent recovers unique equipment of its kind. In order to cool a multitude of machines, a device based on liquid Nitrogen can also be used as a weapon. This device allows attackers to be frozen and quickly neutralized. As you progress, Delilah will improve it and use new abilities that will make the task slightly easier. Projectiles, mines and even a form of bombs put obstacles in the way of the monsters.

It’s a pleasure to burst frozen enemies with big punches!

Slowing down lightning-fast opponents is a good thing, but when they teleport at high speed it doesn’t change anything. Indeed, another beast will add an extra dose of rage, the Sparkers. These horrors one-shot you at close range, all while appearing out of nowhere right on your heels. From then on, you have to be constantly on the move, while managing the other attackers who give you no respite! Concretely, the title would be a real success if difficulty balancing was redesigned. As it stands, the combat phases greatly tarnish the experience. Which is a shame, as the rest of the game is so successful.

Beyond these shortcomings, the adventure is really interesting despite its linear side. It takes around 10 hours to complete the mission, taking your time, not to mention the many challenges that require replaying. Graphically Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is beautiful and well optimized, its PC version does not require a war machine to run at full speed. The soundscape is also very well rendered, it is even a shame to hear certain music too rarely. The final outcome is exciting, it leaves the door open for a sequel. Now we’ll see if this part succeeds and allows us to find out what will happen to the agent. Dalila Reyes…

You can buy Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle on:

Nicolas Balaguer

An avid traveler of virtual worlds for over three decades, I have visited thousands of different universes and gameplays. All these journeys have allowed me to shape my existence on this earth and live superb stories in this life.