I ain’t afraid of no… electric monster zombie thing?
Daymare 1994: Sandcastle is not as scary as I thought it would be. I’m the resident wimp around here, but when it came time to get this preview done, time was short, so I put on my big boy pants and got to work. It wasn’t really any bother, even to a grade A coward like myself.
The demo opened with the game’s hero, Dalila Reyes, (who looks a lot like Cassandra from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey) injured and in the darkness of some facility. Not much was really given by way of exposition, and this was a continuing theme throughout the short demo; I had to figure it all out for myself, either by mooching around and reading notes left behind, or good old fashioned interact-with-everything-until-success-has-been-achieved.
Game Information
Release Date: Summer, 2022
Developer: Invader Studios
Publisher: Leonardo Interactive
Availability: Microsoft Store, PSN, Steam
I trudged forward, tinkered with the controls on my gamepad – I played the demo on Steam using an Xbox One controller – and then had a mooch around. It felt familiar, like Resident Evil or Dead Space. Dalila moved slowly throughout the carefully constructed environments, all blocked off at convenient points to funnel me in the right direction. There was a “jog” button because in a time of crisis, sprinting is never a good idea, right?
Exploring the facility I soon ran into my first puzzle, as well as my first monster. I should probably state that I never played Daymare 1998, so I’m not familiar with the background or anything else. I don’t know what’s new and what is being carried over. I’m coming in as green as the fields of Wales. But I did alright and managed to fumble my way through my first encounter. And then I was a bit let down, but also relieved; it didn’t scare the big boy pants off me. If anything, the recoil of my weapons worried me the most.
Guns have a massive kick to them, meaning you can’t John Wick your way through the weird plasma-absorbing zombie things (I really don’t know what else to call them) but instead you have to pick your shots carefully, adjust for the donkey-kick recoil, and be ready to pop again if needed.
Later on, I found that Dalila’s handy little arm freezer spray device can be used not just to spray fires away, or to solve the first puzzle – which if I’m being honest, took me far longer than I’m ready to admit – you can actually use this freezing contraption on the walking power pylons and freeze them in their tracks. This was really cool and when I was up against a handful of Electro’s minions, it came in handy to give me a little breathing space so I could reload, back away, and take my shots again. I still died, but at least I knew there was a method that would work.
I expected to be scared, but in all honesty, I didn’t find Daymare 1994: Sandcastle scary at all. There were no jump scares, just a few encounters and a few puzzles that the game had no interest in helping me with. Thankfully, Dalila is kitted out with a scanner, which you can spam to highlight objects of interest in the vicinity. With a good bit of spamming and interacting with every interactable thing, I managed to get through the experience without having to flip all of the lights on in my house and sleep with The Little Mermaid on the telly.
Is that a good thing? I don’t know. For me, yes. For horror fans who get their thrills from video-game induced cardiac arrhythmia, not so much. But then again, this was just a small slice of the pie. The next bite could be far spicier.
Daymare 1994: Sandcastle will release later this year on PC and consoles. If you want to try out the game ahead of its full release, you can check out the demo on Steam as part of this year’s Steam Next Fest.
Disclaimer: This preview was carried out using a copy of the game provided by the publisher. For more information, please read our Review Policy.
Primary version tested: PC