Pep's Season of Spooks - Game 9
Oh, dear dear dear. Where do I start with this?
No one can accuse the developers of Daymare 1998 of not being ambitious; the stylish cutscenes, multiple protagonists and expansive (if unoriginal) story prove that. But sadly this is all marred by some absolutely baffling design decisions.
Why are half of the in-game documents locked behind a real website that you have to go to to read them? Why is every scene of dialogue at least twice as long as it needs to be? Why is the reloading system so frustrating? There are other complaints too, such as the lack of enemy variety, poor writing/voice acting and the annoying inventory system. The developers use the “zombie hiding around corner” trick way too many times.
The levels are incredibly linear compared to other survival horror games, which usually have one central location but you’re constantly backtracking and unlocking new areas. The gaps in the game’s story are filled out in a long, slow exposition dump post-credits. What’s more, Daymare just feels so slow and sluggish compared to other games of its ilk.
This game also commits two of the absolute biggest crimes to me in video game design: mocking players who want to play on easy mode, and dialogue/subtitles not matching and saying completely different things. The latter is especially aggravating to me. For example, in one voice log the voice actor pronounces the word “hubris” as “hurbis”. In another log, the voice actor says the name “Ronald” instead of the correct name “Roland”. I noticed several other times where the dialogue the character was saying was completely different to what was in the subtitle, along with a lot of spelling mistakes in in-game documents. It just really gives the feeling that the developers didn’t care about what they were doing when it came to writing and acting.
It’s obvious that this is supposed to be a love letter to the Resident Evil series as a whole, trying not to come off as a simple rip-off. But the ways in which Daymare tries to be different just make me wonder why I couldn’t just be playing Resident Evil instead.
There are bad games out there that still have entertainment value by being unintentionally funny. But Daymare 1998 is worse - Daymare 1998 is a boring bad game.
Scary Rating 4/10 - Overall Rating 3/10
Oh, dear dear dear. Where do I start with this?
No one can accuse the developers of Daymare 1998 of not being ambitious; the stylish cutscenes, multiple protagonists and expansive (if unoriginal) story prove that. But sadly this is all marred by some absolutely baffling design decisions.
Why are half of the in-game documents locked behind a real website that you have to go to to read them? Why is every scene of dialogue at least twice as long as it needs to be? Why is the reloading system so frustrating? There are other complaints too, such as the lack of enemy variety, poor writing/voice acting and the annoying inventory system. The developers use the “zombie hiding around corner” trick way too many times.
The levels are incredibly linear compared to other survival horror games, which usually have one central location but you’re constantly backtracking and unlocking new areas. The gaps in the game’s story are filled out in a long, slow exposition dump post-credits. What’s more, Daymare just feels so slow and sluggish compared to other games of its ilk.
This game also commits two of the absolute biggest crimes to me in video game design: mocking players who want to play on easy mode, and dialogue/subtitles not matching and saying completely different things. The latter is especially aggravating to me. For example, in one voice log the voice actor pronounces the word “hubris” as “hurbis”. In another log, the voice actor says the name “Ronald” instead of the correct name “Roland”. I noticed several other times where the dialogue the character was saying was completely different to what was in the subtitle, along with a lot of spelling mistakes in in-game documents. It just really gives the feeling that the developers didn’t care about what they were doing when it came to writing and acting.
It’s obvious that this is supposed to be a love letter to the Resident Evil series as a whole, trying not to come off as a simple rip-off. But the ways in which Daymare tries to be different just make me wonder why I couldn’t just be playing Resident Evil instead.
There are bad games out there that still have entertainment value by being unintentionally funny. But Daymare 1998 is worse - Daymare 1998 is a boring bad game.
Scary Rating 4/10 - Overall Rating 3/10