Daymare: 1998

First of all, I only played few Resident Evil games so I am not here to compare both games. This is solid game with few annoying things like missing option to change ammo so you need 2 different ammo clips for 2 ammo types which ofc take space in inventory. But for me it was smaller things which did not ruin gameplay. Spoiler: Story wise, it is some standard story about evil corp, virus, etc. so I see why people see this as RE ripoff. It was nice to play game from few different stories with different characters. All in all, I really enjoyed playing this game and if you can buy it on sale as I think full price is not worth paying, only if you are hardcore fan of similar games.

The story of this game is somewhat interesting, parsing out how a botched attack became a possibility, became a botched super-soldier drug. That said, it is delivered in LONG, boring print that you put together from different research notes, diaries, and letters. The combat is horrible and really makes me feel like I'm playing Alone In The Dark, especially the clunky melee. The "puzzles" are not really and I ended up using a walk-through that said "in the note on such and such table..." but the notes that give hints were not there. The Greek puzzle in the first chapter is craziness - translating the answer to a question asked in English and input with a keyboard that only has Greek on it. Did you get the right answer? Well, according to the paintings outside, I got the right hero... did I spell it correctly or am I off track entirely? It's mostly just frustrating. You don't have to kill things, so you can run past them. If you DO try to kill everything, there is not enough ammo. Also, things get up and attack you, when they decide to, but if you double-tap the skulls of zombies while they are napping, they do not take damage; they are just gruesome decoration until you have advanced the quest enough. It's pretty cringy.

Daymare 1998 was developed by the same people who were making the fan made Resident Evil 2 Reborn RE2 remake, but then cancelled it at the request of Capcom. Invader Studios then took their love for survival horror and put it to creating a new game. Gameplay wise, it's not too different from RE2 Remake. You got your modern movement and aiming controls, complete with dynamic crosshair, the camera is third person shoulder, etc. The zombies are slightly unpredictable, etc. How this differs from REmake 2 in gameplay, is the inventory and ammo management. The inventory is in real time, like System Shock 2, so you can't piddle around in it when there's something about to claw your face off. Then there's the ammo management, kind of reminiscent of RE Outbreak's reloading system. Daymare has the RE7 problem where the enemy variety is few. You got zombie, steroido zombie, other steroido zombie, acid zombie, and.... final boss. That's about it. The puzzles are hit or miss depending on which one it is, and then one was flat out glitched (compass puzzle), displaying the wrong text with the selected setting, making the puzzle more confusing than it already was. There are small packets of Engrish throughout the game, and even some mismatching subtitles. The developers are Italian, after all, but after all this time, you think they would have spellchecked and fixed these mistakes by now. I could have fixed these grammatical mistakes for them in 2 days, tops. Paul Haddad (OG RE2 Leon VA) voices the "narrator" of the game, and ironically sounds like Oswell E Spencer in this. Rest in peace, Paul, you're still the best Leon. I'd give Daymare a 3.5/5 (or a 7/10), most of it's pretty decent, not too bad for one of their first games... then it had to leave a sour taste in my mouth around the finale. The 2nd last phase of the final boss gets a hard to avoid instadeath move while you're trying to escape from him. This kind of ruined the entire game for me. It was that bad.

90's VA and writing so that is a nostalgia I don't miss. This graphics and gameplay is a reminder of the low budget tiles on the PS3/360. Unpolished and dated feel to it all.

Want my money back.