sawyfabj
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Bokura
2023
I feel like I'm a different person after playing this.
Bokura
2023
As with Fire Watch, this is another game I played alongside my wife as a sort of couples activity for us. However, unlike with Fire Watch, this is a game we actually played together! It’s something she’s been talking about playing together for a good few months now, and she bought us each a copy on Steam when it recently went on sale. I really had no idea what to expect from it, but I absolutely trust her judgment when it comes to looking for interesting games for us to get into together~. It took us about 3.5 hours to complete the English version of the game together.
“Bokura” means “us” in Japanese, and has an implication that the people being spoken of (or at least the person speaking) is a boy. Accordingly, Bokura is a story about two boys. The narrative starts with one of them sitting on a train as an adult, on their way home from work. Lost in their thoughts, they start to reminisce about an unforgettable winter they spent with their best friend at the time, and the story begins from that flashback.
The thing is, Bokura, as a game, can only be played with two people who each have a copy of the game. It’s impossible to play it by yourself, and each player chooses one of the two boys to play as at the start, and they see the story from their respective boy’s perspective. Most of the story is shown to the both of you, but there are several points where you’re separated and view a scene different from what the other person is seeing (the game even instructs you not to speak to one another during those times apart, which is a very interesting design choice). The game’s main gameplay gimmick ties in heavily with its main themes like this. Seeing the world through your own perspective, and needing to communicate and compromise with those who see the world differently from you. It ties all this together with a much larger theme of dealing with loss, and it’s quite a well told story. It’s got some pacing issues with how long some of the inter-story puzzle sections go on, but it’s by and large a quite well written story that the both of us enjoyed quite a bit~.
The gameplay is a co-op puzzle platformer (bold choice for a story-focused indie game, I know ;b). This game isn’t just metaphorically about seeing the world differently. Each player not only has a totally different graphics style for what they’re seeing, but they also have different things in the world that they can see and interact with. A moveable box for one player might be an impassible barrier for the other, while a scary monster for one can be a harmless platforming aid for the other. There are also certain parts of each level that only one player can interact with, making playing through the game twice a not unreasonable choice if you wanted a taste at what the other player got to do while you were in your world.
It’s a game that trends surprisingly tough, overall, but it’s a quite fun little puzzle game. I think we finished it a bit faster than some others might because we have a bit more experience with platformers, but that shouldn’t be something that dissuades you from trying it out. This game doesn’t have combat or particularly challenging reflex tests, so even those who struggle with 2D action platformers can absolutely find fun here. My one piece of advice would be that the person with the most experience with platformers should probably choose the boy in the green coat, as we found that he had more difficult platforming stuff than the boy in blue. Similarly, if either of you has issues with seeing blood or gore, then that person should probably play the boy in the blue coat, as the imagery in green’s (while certainly not being a modern Resident Evil game by any means) is a fair bit more graphic than what blue has to deal with.
Aesthetically, I think the game succeeds very well at doing what it sets out to do. The normal world along with the two worlds the boys see are all set apart very well in their graphical styles, and it aids the narrative themes and gameplay very well. The game has some slight net code issues here and there, and you can certainly see some weird screen tearing and graphical glitches here and there when things get a bit more animation intensive, but it’s nothing that made the game more difficult to play (even with her on the east coast of the US and me here in Japan). The graphical style is very pretty pixel art, and the music is quite good too~.
Verdict: Recommended. I’d like to recommend this game more highly, but it’s a fair amount of little things that keep me from doing that. For sure, it’s far from the only well put together story-focused indie puzzle platformer out there, and that’s certainly part of it, but the fact that you NEED a partner to play through it with in co-op is another big part of it that’s going to be a meaningful hurdle for a lot of people. Add that in with that you also need to have some kind of voice communication ability (whether it’s over Discord or just sitting across from each other) to do a lot of the puzzles, and that’s one more thing that makes this a bit more difficult to engage with simply by the nature of how the game was designed. All that said, if you’re willing to spend a little over 10 bucks (and that’s when it’s not on sale) for something that you and a buddy can spend an afternoon doing together, this is a really great way to do it~.
“Bokura” means “us” in Japanese, and has an implication that the people being spoken of (or at least the person speaking) is a boy. Accordingly, Bokura is a story about two boys. The narrative starts with one of them sitting on a train as an adult, on their way home from work. Lost in their thoughts, they start to reminisce about an unforgettable winter they spent with their best friend at the time, and the story begins from that flashback.
The thing is, Bokura, as a game, can only be played with two people who each have a copy of the game. It’s impossible to play it by yourself, and each player chooses one of the two boys to play as at the start, and they see the story from their respective boy’s perspective. Most of the story is shown to the both of you, but there are several points where you’re separated and view a scene different from what the other person is seeing (the game even instructs you not to speak to one another during those times apart, which is a very interesting design choice). The game’s main gameplay gimmick ties in heavily with its main themes like this. Seeing the world through your own perspective, and needing to communicate and compromise with those who see the world differently from you. It ties all this together with a much larger theme of dealing with loss, and it’s quite a well told story. It’s got some pacing issues with how long some of the inter-story puzzle sections go on, but it’s by and large a quite well written story that the both of us enjoyed quite a bit~.
The gameplay is a co-op puzzle platformer (bold choice for a story-focused indie game, I know ;b). This game isn’t just metaphorically about seeing the world differently. Each player not only has a totally different graphics style for what they’re seeing, but they also have different things in the world that they can see and interact with. A moveable box for one player might be an impassible barrier for the other, while a scary monster for one can be a harmless platforming aid for the other. There are also certain parts of each level that only one player can interact with, making playing through the game twice a not unreasonable choice if you wanted a taste at what the other player got to do while you were in your world.
It’s a game that trends surprisingly tough, overall, but it’s a quite fun little puzzle game. I think we finished it a bit faster than some others might because we have a bit more experience with platformers, but that shouldn’t be something that dissuades you from trying it out. This game doesn’t have combat or particularly challenging reflex tests, so even those who struggle with 2D action platformers can absolutely find fun here. My one piece of advice would be that the person with the most experience with platformers should probably choose the boy in the green coat, as we found that he had more difficult platforming stuff than the boy in blue. Similarly, if either of you has issues with seeing blood or gore, then that person should probably play the boy in the blue coat, as the imagery in green’s (while certainly not being a modern Resident Evil game by any means) is a fair bit more graphic than what blue has to deal with.
Aesthetically, I think the game succeeds very well at doing what it sets out to do. The normal world along with the two worlds the boys see are all set apart very well in their graphical styles, and it aids the narrative themes and gameplay very well. The game has some slight net code issues here and there, and you can certainly see some weird screen tearing and graphical glitches here and there when things get a bit more animation intensive, but it’s nothing that made the game more difficult to play (even with her on the east coast of the US and me here in Japan). The graphical style is very pretty pixel art, and the music is quite good too~.
Verdict: Recommended. I’d like to recommend this game more highly, but it’s a fair amount of little things that keep me from doing that. For sure, it’s far from the only well put together story-focused indie puzzle platformer out there, and that’s certainly part of it, but the fact that you NEED a partner to play through it with in co-op is another big part of it that’s going to be a meaningful hurdle for a lot of people. Add that in with that you also need to have some kind of voice communication ability (whether it’s over Discord or just sitting across from each other) to do a lot of the puzzles, and that’s one more thing that makes this a bit more difficult to engage with simply by the nature of how the game was designed. All that said, if you’re willing to spend a little over 10 bucks (and that’s when it’s not on sale) for something that you and a buddy can spend an afternoon doing together, this is a really great way to do it~.
Muck
2021
Warning: Rating based on vibes, not gameplay.
Daymare: 1998
2019
This review contains spoilers
Daymare 1998, a survival horror game developed by the indie italian game studio Invader Studios. This is a game that I’ve had a decent bit of history with, a game that came out years ago but had even more years in the oven. It originally started as a fan made Resident Evil 2 remake, something that made me excited back in the day. I’ve always been a fan of survival horror, even if I sucked at it completely due to its mechanics, and the idea that someone was remaking RE2 in the third person had me a bit excited. Back then and even now, I tend to dwell into the indie scene of unknown and rising star video games, videos often made by Youtubers who have only a couple hundred to a couple of thousand subscribers. I’m not sure how I saw this, but I saw footage of this remake and got excited. However a little bit after that, the mod was shut down and everything surrounding it seemed to be wiped.
I don’t really know what had happened, but I figured it was a case of copyright infringement. All I remember was that the Resident Evil 2 remake rumors had popped off, and having followed Invader Studios for a bit I had learned of a Kickstarter campaign that I contributed to, whose link I’ll post down below. In this campaign, I had learned that Capcom had invited the group to their offices to show off their work on the actual RE2 Remake while also imploring them to cancel their remake and use their work to create their own property. This was the result of that, with the support of numerous gaming industry veterans like Kazuhiro Aoyama (the director of Resident Evil 3 OG and now Production Associate), Satoshi Nikai (a Code Veronica enemy designer now working as an enemy designer for Daymare) and Kenichi Iwao (a writer on Resident Evil OG as well as the director of Parasite Eve 2) among others. Features potentially promised for this game on the website revealed a fixed camera system, a telephone book with names of backers next to save points, special outfits and more. However the Kickstarter failed meaning not a lot of it (as far as I’m aware), didn’t make the cut. I had gotten the 14 dollar “Life Was Cheaper 1998” tier, which included a credit, a special outfit and a digital copy.
Since it failed however, they kept working on it to the point where it actually got teased and released in September 2019 for Windows and console ports for Playstation 4 and Xbox One in April of next year. However, I didn’t really pick it up and play it when it came out. Surprisingly, I had forgotten about it and had just moved on, only remembering it when someone brought it up here and there. It sat in my wishlist for a while, until eventually GOG came out and gave it for free to people for a short period of time. I removed it from Steam for that reason and sort of bided my time. However, this year I had a goal: beat one game for each console/platform that I own. By the time of writing this review, the only ones I haven’t done were Shadowman for N64 (which I’m working on), and trying to find a Gamecube game to play; that and having been streaming games for a friend and having failed to have fixed/played The Suffering on GOG (because the port fucking sucks), I decided to give this game a spin. I played around 10 hours of the game, and here is how I felt playing it.
The plot opens to a group of masked special forces flying to a secret base named Aegis Laboratory. This group is a part of an organization named H.A.D.E.S. (or Hexacore Advanced Division for Extraction and Search), a private military section in the Hexacore Biotechnology Corporation. What is their mission? Why to rescue samples of biological weapons named “Castor” and “Pollux” from their lab whilst also eliminating all traces of Hexacore involvement. Right off the bat I like this idea, I love the old survival horror games but sometimes I want to play the evil bastard and right off the bat it gets the vibe right. This is the first chapter, and you play as HADES member Liev, a real douchebag of a soldier who doesn’t hesitate in killing all witnesses and following through with his corporate overlord’s wishes, or so it seems. While here if you pick up and read certain documents, you also learn of the origins of these viruses. It goes that it was originally founded or created during World War 2, specifically by the Japanese military as a weapon (named “Shujin”) against the United States. However, the dawn of the war had led to the Japanese losing, and as a last ditch effort by the Emperor led to a group of soldiers grabbing the virus and committing themselves to spreading it across U.S. soil, hoping to wipe them out in revenge. However, something went awry and the submarine carrying the virus crashed off the coast. Eventually, Jellyfish got into the sub and experienced enhanced healing properties before the biological agent spread into a nearby fishing town. Having heard of a strange outbreak, Hexacore (or the military) sectioned it off and a cover-up was ensued, and experiments were done in a Hexacore/U.S. Military collaboration to create…drum roll please…super soldiers!! However the result was obviously the zombies, and though it was explained in a way that was actually really interesting and unique to me (through these super soldiers needing to feed on human hormones in order to survive), the wiki doesn’t have much in the way of information on this to really help other than “This was a biological weapon”.
Regardless, Liev does his job diligently and manages to acquire the viruses as well as finding out certain bits of information. The outbreak at this lab originally happened not because of an accident, but that an outside party named “K” had bought out one of the researchers to sabotage the entire facility and steal the Castor samples in exchange for money. Of course with this in mind, Liev assassinates the technician who told him this and escapes with everything, including the sample of Pollux and the chemical canisters containing the “Castor” gas. However, things don’t go well on the ride back. See, Liev’s characteristics are that he’s a really convincing douchebag, and through a series of camera angles and long winded threats, a fight breaks out on the helicopter and someone ends up shot. What we see is Liev holding the pilot and squad leader, Sandman, hostage and a dead body right next to him. The implication is that Liev has decided to betray the company, and that the vial of Pollux was smashed into Sandman’s face. Liev goes off on a long tangent about Sandman and his hatred and it’s hinted that this tension was going on for a while due to mentions of “Groom Lake”. Sandman gets shot repeatedly, the co-pilot Raven gets thrown by Liev from the helicopter, Castor gets dropped onto the streets below and the helicopter proceeds to crash. Their location to head back to was Keen Sight, a town firmly under the grasp of their employers Hexacore. Liev survives the helicopter crash and crawls out of the water to find that the town of Keen Sight, Idaho has already been overwhelmed by the Castor gas, of which he fights through. Having escaped into a warehouse, Liev proceeds to call up HQ to presumably frame Sandman for bungling the mission (you’ll see why I say presumably).
The second chapter revolves around forest ranger Samuel Walker, who is taking a shift guarding one of the many towers in the Vermillion Forest. However, the helicopter flying overhead of his tower makes his medication fall off the tower and down below into the forest. Sam proceeds to contact his wife Sarah to let her know what had happened, and after an argument of sorts goes to sleep. However, waking up everything goes wrong literally as well as mentally. See, Sam has a condition called “Daymare Syndrome” (which will be explained later), where he experiences hallucinations (in a reddish hue of course) and migraines amongst many other symptoms. Having made it back home after realizing his replacement didn’t wake him up, he goes to greet his wife in his cabin in the woods only to find her without an arm and a mutated and very much angry Major Sandman choking her to death. Sandman knocks Sam out of a window and escapes, and having taken off after hearing Liev contacting HQ through their D.I.D. device (their radio/inventory management device), Sam resolves to take down the bastard that killed his wife. Why did Sandman kill Sam’s wife? My guess was that Pollux made him bloodthirsty for the chemicals inside of her blood but there are other things that lead into this, and other theories I read were that she was actually a zombie and that Sandman put her out of her misery. Regardless, things don’t look good as Sandman stole his car and after overhearing that he’s going to a nearby hospital (where Liev escaped to call for a helicopter), Sam goes after him through the forest (after comically telling his dead wife to stay put, even though she’s dead Sam where the hell is she going to go?) and onto a cable car sending him to the city. Having gotten there, Sam witnesses Sandman murder Liev after Liev’s big mouth leads to his downfall, as well as having his arm chewed off and fed upon. Both Sam and Sandman escape into the hospital; however Sandman has been captured by a doctor in a facility having drugged Sandman and uses Sam for favors. In exchange for revenge on Sandman, the doctor sends Sam on numerous errands throughout the hospital, mostly destroying evidence on Hexacore’s experiments on the town of Keen Sight. Sam discovers that he’s been a part of these experiments in the hospital, having been born and raised in Keen Sight and that the company is responsible for Sam’s Daymare syndrome, named the “Truman Project”. Throughout the games there have been hints to all sorts of experiments from water supply tampering to mentions of an MKUltra successor named MKNaomi. They’re both experiments in real life from our fabulous government, and in all honesty they’re fascinating to read up on so if you don’t know about them then read up. Regardless I like how the real life conspiracies tie up into the game’s plot, it definitely gives a bit of a 90s atmosphere to it.
In fact, before moving on with the plot, I want to mention how this game is a series of nonstop references to 90s culture. The first survivor that you kill as Liev in Chapter 1 is a black guy named Al Powell, a reference to Die Hard. You’ll find numerous X-Files “I Want to Believe” posters everywhere. Posters parodying and referencing movies from Tremors to Die Hard will pop up everywhere in town, and certain files will reveal names like C. Ryback (a reference to Steven Segal’s character in Under Siege). Numerous advertisements show a parody of Windows 98 named…Doors 98? I don’t know, it’s a strange thing but regardless the whole game is a whole fucking tribute to that era, though as much as I respect a good homage or two I do feel like at some point it does get a bit stale. It’s a whole pastiche that while I can’t always explain it properly due to the fact that the wiki isn’t updated properly and going in game and re-reading everything would be time consuming and painful, it makes for a unique sort of vibe. Regardless however, Sam gets back to the doctor only to learn that the doctor is dead and that Sandman escaped out of the hospital. Sam resolves to kill Sandman yet again and walks off.
Chapter 3 starts as Raven, who surprisingly survived his fall and landed straight into Keen Sight ...into Invader Studios’s office building and no radio signal. That’s right, another meta reference of sorts. Regardless, Raven’s wondering what the hell is going on and fights through Keen Sight and the numerous undead with the goal of making his way to the crash sight to find out if Major Sandman died while also cursing Liev. He makes his way through the town and even through the sewers (yay, a sewer level…), where he learns that a lot of the people who disappeared investigating Hexacore ended up dissolved in acid barrels and dumped in the sewers mafia-style. Regardless, he makes his way through and eventually finds the remains of the helicopter, which alas he learns that Sandman is in fact, not dead. However, he does fight off two boss creatures named Castor Hades. It’s later learned throughout the game through documents and later exposition that Castor Hades is a special strain that infects members of the HADES division only, due to the fact that members of the division mess about with H-Additives (a special booster of sorts) and that genetically tampers with them enough to make them extremely resilient. After the fight, Raven fights his way to the nearby Keen Sight Dam in order to make contact with Sandman, which he does and they agree to meet up there and get a helicopter to make their way out of there.
Chapter 4 consists of Sam overhearing their conversation on his D.I.D. (which he stole off of Liev’s corpse) and fighting to make his way over to the Dam. Honestly that’s literally it as the final two chapters are also the shortest, but you do learn that Hexacore had a system for cutting Keen Sight off from the rest of civilization, as well as working with the government to suppress evidence as well as take down all the undead by force which didn’t work out for anyone involved. The final chapter however contains the most revelations even if it is short. Raven can discover an email from Sarah Carmichael, Sam’s wife, that reveals that she was heavily involved in Hexacore experiments as well as the fact that she was potentially planning on exposing one of her closest friend’s acts of potential terrorism to the Hexacore HR department. However this is only a draft, and she didn’t go through with it. The name of this friend isn’t revealed however, and Raven makes his way through the labs where he’s ambushed by a mutated tentacle creature who I can only describe as this game’s B.O.W. (Resident Evil’s version of a special creature intent to kill you). After a boss battle involving trapping this creature in a cage of electricity, it’s revealed that this creature is a mutated Liev and he’s very intent on not dying. Raven meets up with Dr. Mason in the room above, where Mason reveals that in certain individuals that Castor and Pollux flourished together into a new abomination entirely. Raven makes his way to nearby elevators as Mason starts a self destruction process, but runs into mutated Liev and nearly dies making his way to the elevator. A final boss battle against mutated Liev leads to Sandman brutalizing his old nemesis offscreen before being injected by Raven with something called “Golden Fleece”, an antiviral agent that I forget where Raven picked it up from. Regardless, they’re both okay until Sam arrives and holds them both by gunpoint. Sam demands retribution for his dead wife while also suffering hallucinations from her, while Sandman tries to explain that he was friends with his wife and tells him to “fight off the hallucination”. The tense encounter leads to everyone holding each other hostage and a bullet going off before a fade to black.
That is until the final epilogue, where a mysterious man goes over the plot entirely in chess terms. What I forgot to mention was that in between the chapters that this mysterious man is hinted at playing everyone from the beginning to start this incident as a plan to destroy Hexacore from the very beginning. The identity isn’t revealed, however several things are. One of those things is that Sandman was the traitor and that he originally started the shootout on the helicopter by shooting the other guy before Liev hit him in the face. See Liev was a bastard but he was actually following orders, and I actually liked this little misdirection as you’d never really think that Sandman was the one who planned to do everything due to Liev’s behavior. Whether others think that’s a good twist? Who knows, but I enjoyed it so I guess I can’t complain. Another reveal is that Sandman became the traitor because his daughter was dying from a deadly disease, and that his employers at Hexacore wouldn’t pay for the experimental treatment. However, “K” (aka Kuronusu Enterprises) promised that they would help save his daughter’s life and from then on, Sandman worked under them secretly. However, having developed a friendship with Sarah, he warns her to leave Keen Sight with her husband and escape the outbreak that’s going to happen. Another piece of evidence that pops up is a recording from Sarah to her husband, who reveals that while she was truly in love with him, that she was placed in charge of Sam as his handler to report back all the data of the Daymare experiments to the company and that they’ve been experimenting on everyone since the 40s and that hundreds of people have this disease. Finally, there’s Sarah’s I.D. as well as a bunch of diary entries that reveal that she was a willing participant in refining the Truman Project. She also fell for both Sam and Sandman at the same time but chose to focus on Sam after he proposed to her, and that Sandman’s daughter seemed to have died and having thought to have given up on his plan and caring for her friend, she didn’t sell him out to HR. However, after this man (named “The Cleaner” on the Wiki) wipes out all the evidence and permanently framing Hexacore for the tragedy, a little girl appears in a liquid container behind the computer showing that Sandman’s daughter is actually still alive.
I like the plot here a lot, the 90s conspiracy collaboration between the pharmaceutical companies and the government, pretty much everything I do like. There are some plot holes, like if Sandman’s daughter supposedly died then why did he continue with his plan anyways? That could’ve been a result of him willingly giving them over to Kuronusu but who knows. I love the origin being a Japanese bio-weapon that they don’t explain at all, and the fact that Keen Sight is under the complete control of the company. It all makes for a fascinating lore, one of which I’m interested in seeing further. HOWEVER, I do feel like sometimes it’s not delivered in the best ways, specifically the whole website intel thing but I’ll go on to gameplay for that. The misdirection with Sandman and Liev is cool, though I can understand if people don’t like it due to the fact that Liev is comically an asshole. However, this does get frustrating when Liev could’ve just as easily had told Raven on the helicopter that Sandman attacked everyone; however whether or not he would've been believed due to his demeanor, who knows? It’s also interesting how many differences there were between the Kickstarter campaign and the final product with cut points like Sam and Sarah having a kid being one of the more prominent differences that I wonder what could’ve been. Regardless however, I just know I came out of this enjoying the plot they had gone with here, it’s not perfect but I’m interested and I want more.
The gameplay has the usual survival horror stuff: conserving ammo, limited inventory space, third person over the shoulder stuff, etcetera and the like. If you’ve played any other survival horror game that’s third person over the shoulder then a lot of stuff will be familiar. However, Daymare has some stuff in it that’s different, sometimes to its own detriment. Starting out on the main campaign, the game doesn’t have an overall hub world with different paths but functions more as a Chapter structure. The first chapter honestly feels like the perfect pace, introducing Liev as he heads into a secret base to steal a virus. It’s not overly long, it helps introduce mechanics and brings the rest of the conflict ahead. The playtimes for the next couple of chapters are a little different though. Chapter 2 feels a bit longer but plays well enough, while Chapter 3 is the full course meal with the entire chapter taking a couple of hours for me to play on the first try. Chapter 4 and 5 on the other hand feels shorter and more to the point, and the truth is I don’t know how to feel about this in relation to the chapter structure. Instead of feeling precise, it kind of feels stretched out a little bit and it makes me wish it took on a structure more like the original games where things loop back in on itself. It never feels like safe rooms are put in accessible places because the game’s structure naturally feels like a constant state of moving forward, so to me it always felt like a drag running all the way back to certain safe room stuff (of which I never felt like there were enough anyways) that eventually I just stopped running certain items back and just dropped them for the most part. Some of these safe rooms are secret Hexacore operative shelters hidden behind walls in public spaces, only able to be found due to the D.I.D. on your wrist beeping near them and some of them you kind of have to go out of your way to find. The safe room issue isn’t helped by the auto save system, which is great for the most part to have but it kind of feels like it relies on it as a sort of crutch kind of? I say kind of because if you have an auto save, I feel like you should have the checkpoints be semi regularly and sometimes it didn’t really spread it out for me though I only noticed it in Chapter 1.
Another thing I’ll add to the differences is the healing/crafting system. You don’t craft your own ammo as far as I’m aware, though there is a sort of mixing feature they put in for health and other benefits. In order to do this however, you have to find a needle called an H Additive and you have to mix it with different items like energy drinks or mental drops. Different effects you can have are the obvious health boost (which you can also take the energy drink by itself or eat an energy bar for small increases), a boost where you can have infinite stamina for a short period of time, or a “mental” boost, which I assume helps you aim more precisely. I didn’t really end up using or mixing anything with the latter two and I ended up being able to just play the game only using the health stuff. Some of these injections can be found in your surroundings, and very rarely they’ll be mixed together to provide some combination of both attributes. You can also trade in certain ingredients at the save room computer in exchange for items, though I don’t personally feel like you get enough to actually make that worth your time. However, ironically enough, if you play the game in the usual survival horror way, you’ll be flushed with ammo and health stuff for the most part. It’s a strange mix, I’ll never complain about the game letting me off easy myself, but the disparity between the amount of stuff you get and the trade-in system not feeling balanced is a strange one so I ended up ignoring it entirely next to using the mental drops or the stamina boost. They also have a system where you can “overdose” if you use too much of any injections but truth be told I never overdosed once, and you kind of have to try to overdose on purpose to actually do it.
The puzzles for the most part are pretty solid and simple, with the answers that you need for the most part existing within the area that the puzzle takes place in. Chapter 1 had at least two that were so simple that I looked back while struggling on them and actively face palmed. Chapter 4 had one which had me turn valves, the answer of which was right above the valves themselves on a diagram. You’ll also find hidden lockers around the city which require a combination of sorts (which can be a bit more difficult, requiring some collectible stuff and backtracking) for items or alternatively you’ll need some hacking tools (which are kind of finite and is required to get it right on the first try) to break into some lockers. The hacking pretty much just has you clicking one bar onto another bar while they both move, and while I make it sound more confusing than it actually should, once you know what you’re doing you can get the hang of it and get it right for the most part on the first try. The only puzzle I can genuinely say I can’t get the hang of is one at the end of Chapter 4 that involves some sort of morse code tapping bullshit, and I hate these because I personally never understand how the fuck I’m supposed to find out what the hell to look for so I just looked up a guide answer. Not saying that anyone else can’t do it of course, maybe I’m just a simpleton but I also had issues in Penumbra doing the morse code puzzle.
Collectibles consist of three different kinds: there are deer bobbleheads that you can shoot throughout the game hidden in certain places that reference certain horror and action movies and even a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure reference (one which I didn’t understand until the person I was streaming for explained it to me). As far as I’m aware, you don’t really get anything for shooting these bobbleheads other than a trophy so for that I just followed the guide I linked down below for help on that. Now comes one of my main problems: most of the collectibles you find have a website link (which I’ll post below) and a password to the corresponding collectible. In order to read certain bits of intel, you have to actively get on your computer or phone, go to this website (which says it’s “Not Secure” on my PC by the way) and type in the password for each individual document. I’ll be honest, I respect the whole metanarrative thing they’re going with but this fucking blows. I’m not interested in logging onto my real life device to look this stuff up when I’d rather be playing the game. Some of the documents you do get that you can read in game on your arm tablet, and while that’s fine I would’ve rather had them bring back the original document pop up then read small print on the in game phone. There’s a similar thing they do with the dog tag collectibles, only found in HADES Dead End (which is PC exclusive apparently) and is basically this game’s Mercenaries mode from what I understand. I say from what I understand because I didn’t play it, nor am I going to right now, but I’m glad they have that mode for players who like the game and want more.
Another thing I want to follow up on is Sam, who has Daymare syndrome whose characteristics include hallucinations. This also factors into gameplay and I like the idea of how they integrate his condition in game. The main way they do it is by having certain zombies be hallucinations within the game itself, such as attacking zombies. Not every zombie is a hallucination of course, but some of them are and when they grapple you they don’t do any damage. I like the idea of having to tell the difference between both of them and choosing whether to spend ammo on something that’s potentially not real, though I wish they gave a more telltale sign (even if small that I’d have to keep a lookout for) that something IS a mirage, especially considering that Sam points out something that’s one hundred percent a hallucination (though that one was kind of obvious). Other than that, it’s an interesting feature that makes for some tense scares during gameplay.
To bring up one more difference that I can remember, there are two different modes (other than difficulty). There’s Old School and there’s Modern Day. I played on Old School, and I’ll say that to me I personally think that it’s the best way to play the game. You can’t skip puzzles (which are easy for the most part), and you have to balance your weapon ammunition more. For example, there are two reload types: Fast and Slow. Slow switches out your current magazine for another one with current ammo while fast is mostly used for on the move against the undead and drops your current magazine on the ground which you’ll have to pick up later or possibly permanently lose it if you forget about it. You’ll have to reload it all in your inventory screen manually, which makes encounters tense and you can potentially flub up if you don’t know what you’re doing. The modern take mode you don’t have to worry about most of that stuff and you can skip puzzles, which if that’s what you prefer is a perfectly valid way to play the game if that’s what you want to do. I’ll put a wiki link that could explain it better than I do, but overall I like the tension of the old school system and I feel it’s the way that this game should be played. This only counts towards pistols though, so you won’t have to worry about shotguns. In fact, if there is one thing I’d love to mention is that I wish there were more variations of weapons like they promised in the Kickstarter. The most you get is different pistol types like a Beretta, a revolver, a desert eagle, and a shotgun just to name a few. There aren’t any assault rifles, grenade launchers or anything big or crazy and it’s kind of sad but understandable I suppose. Only other piece of advice I have for this is that for the magnum in chapter 3, collect as much ammo as you can and get the magazine for it around the gas station. Trust me, you’ll need it for the boss and it’s one of the only places to get it in the game and you could potentially fuck yourself if not done right.
Overall though, I want to add that while I have my criticisms towards certain aspects of the game and how it does stuff, I like the fact that they tried some new things while also keeping a lot of the old survival horror aspects together. I want to emphasize that they didn’t do a bad job here, in fact that’s where I feel like the game excels in for the most part despite a few ups and downs. I had played the game on Old School normal difficulty and didn’t die once except for a late game boss fuckup, in which I exited and reloaded the manual save and still got the GOG achievement for it anyways. There is the “Daymare” difficulty, which is the highest you can possibly go if you’re a masochist but I’m also a scared little bitch boy so there’s no way in hell I’m going to do that.
The sound design is pretty solid for the game too: the weapons feel like they have impact, footsteps sound good, doors creak creepily, I mean everything that you think that the game should do right, I feel they did right. I felt like the environmental sound design could’ve come straight out of Resident Evil 2 so that’s pretty solid. What helps add to everything with the actual sound design is the soundtrack as well. While it’s not the most unique, it does have some tunes that I could remember being decently catchy. The main theme song has a sort of dramatic and dark string vibe that’s tragic and ominous both, while “Safe Place” harkens back to the safe room themes of old survival horror. I’m not sure of the track that plays during infected Liev’s boss battles in Chapter 5 but they’re mad stressful and do a good job and put tension out there. For the most part, expect to hear your dramatic strings and some electronic stuff here and there. The composer was Alessandro Galdieri and if I can say one thing that I felt he did a good job here is capturing the survival horror essence, again it specifically feels like it could’ve came out of the other Resident Evil remakes and seeing as this is definitely a homage game, it hits the mark perfectly.
The voice acting however, is something that could’ve been a tad bit better? Truth be told, I’d say this is more of a translation/subtitle issue than something really on the voice actors. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a homage to old Resident Evil’s campy style of dialogue, but I didn’t take it as such especially considering that the subtitles are sometimes straight up false. Sometimes the Apple Blossom Fair is mistaken for the Cherry Blossom Feast, one line delivery from Sam had him awkwardly saying “He’s going there…then he’ll be there..” in a line that straight up made me cackle and brought me out of the moment. There was one part where one of the characters is ambushed by a guy with a wrench, but is told by the other character to “Drop your gun”. Subtitles are misspelled sometimes or awkwardly phrased, and while I wasn’t really bothered with that because the developers were Italian and cross translation is hard work, it did sadly pull me out at some moments.
The graphics of this game looks pretty decent for the most part; the environment work is stunning with the town of Keen Sight being an interesting and lively place with a history dating back to the Lewis and Clark days. Keen Sight as a town looks phenomenal, though while it’s a town ruined and destitute by undead, conveys a familiar and homely yet abandoned town at the same time. I would say that walking through the town is where the game shines the most from its pride in its history with their monuments, taking shortcuts through back alleys and into buildings with tight claustrophobic spaces. It feels like a real place, a sort of maze that truth be told I wish was the whole game. That being said, I don’t hate that the game has secret government labs or forest sections or whatever but they pale in comparison to the town itself. I would even dare say that this town, to me, feels like it belongs up in the pantheon with the most interesting settings next to Willamette, Colorado or Raccoon City, ironically both being Capcom games. I don’t really have much criticism to give with the environmental stuff other than they look how they would in a Resident Evil game otherwise, and that’s what the developers were looking for I feel, so mission accomplished there.
If I were to give any criticism in regards to graphical fidelity, then I would say it’s the models themselves. I know it’s an obvious indie budget thing, and I’m not going to disrespect the effort put into making these. However, there are a lot of models (at least the human ones) that feel sort of…artificial. Like I can tell these were made with a limited budget, it reminds me of the Friday the 13th counselor models. That’s not to say they’re inherently bad, though I’d say that sometimes they don’t really look…human? Especially in the animation department because by god, the lip syncing isn’t great and the facial movements could be a lot less stiff with the human characters. Maybe it was a sort of budget thing with them being an inexperienced indie game studio however, and with that in mind I don’t want to judge too harshly because it does add to a sort of campy charm, even if it’s inadvertently so. To finish off, the only other things I can really point out are that there were points where if I wasn’t following the story that I would get Liev and Raven mixed up, looking nearly identical wise and being bald as hell so they could’ve differentiated them a bit there. That, and while streaming me and my friend noticed that Sam’s got a pretty nice bulge LOL. Ironically enough however, the enemy models such as the zombies and special infected look pretty damn creepy and look the part in playing a foreboding atmosphere for the game. Between the “Hunters”, the Melted Men, Castor Hades or even the regular zombies, they all look all sorts of fucked up with jaws missing, looking skinned alive or severely deformed that they’re pretty damn effective in the intimidate department.
In short, I came out of this game pleasantly surprised and kind of ashamed that I forgot about this. It was a bit janky in some places, sure; but I had really enjoyed my time playing this title. Invader Studios didn’t create a perfect game, but I felt they had made a fun one and sometimes that's all that really matters. There were only a few places where I truly rolled my eyes out of dislike, and that was mostly towards the second to final boss in the game running towards the elevator and the website intel system. Otherwise, if you’re willing to put aside some of the more imperfect aspects and you’re really itching for a survival horror homage filled love letter then I would suggest trying this title out. In fact, there’s a part of me that questions why this has so many mixed reviews, although logically in the back of my mind I KNOW the reasons why. However, since the release of Daymare: 1998 they had also released a prequel to the game: Daymare 1994: Sandcastle, on August 30th which I also didn’t know about and/or forgot about. Maybe it’s a recurring theme of sorts? Who knows. Maybe I’ll give the prequel a go here someday soon and be hopefully pleasantly surprised again with potential quality, though the reviews aren’t looking that great either, but time will only tell.
Links:
https://www.neoseeker.com/daymare-1998/walkthrough (Guide I used)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pJ1g7MElpg&ab_channel=GamesSoundtracksOST (Soundtrack)
http://hexacorebiogenetics.com/intranet/mission-reports-archive/ (Intel Website)
https://daymare1998.fandom.com/wiki/How_to_play_guide_for_Daymare:_1998#Gameplay_modes (Certain Gameplay Aspects)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/invaderstudios/daymare-1998tm-bringing-back-the-survival-horror (Old Kickstarter Page)
https://daymare1998.fandom.com/wiki/Collectibles_in_Daymare:_1998 (Passwords included for the Hexacore Website)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Daymare1998
https://daymare1998.fandom.com/wiki/Daymare:_1998
https://invaderstudiosofficial.com/site/
I don’t really know what had happened, but I figured it was a case of copyright infringement. All I remember was that the Resident Evil 2 remake rumors had popped off, and having followed Invader Studios for a bit I had learned of a Kickstarter campaign that I contributed to, whose link I’ll post down below. In this campaign, I had learned that Capcom had invited the group to their offices to show off their work on the actual RE2 Remake while also imploring them to cancel their remake and use their work to create their own property. This was the result of that, with the support of numerous gaming industry veterans like Kazuhiro Aoyama (the director of Resident Evil 3 OG and now Production Associate), Satoshi Nikai (a Code Veronica enemy designer now working as an enemy designer for Daymare) and Kenichi Iwao (a writer on Resident Evil OG as well as the director of Parasite Eve 2) among others. Features potentially promised for this game on the website revealed a fixed camera system, a telephone book with names of backers next to save points, special outfits and more. However the Kickstarter failed meaning not a lot of it (as far as I’m aware), didn’t make the cut. I had gotten the 14 dollar “Life Was Cheaper 1998” tier, which included a credit, a special outfit and a digital copy.
Since it failed however, they kept working on it to the point where it actually got teased and released in September 2019 for Windows and console ports for Playstation 4 and Xbox One in April of next year. However, I didn’t really pick it up and play it when it came out. Surprisingly, I had forgotten about it and had just moved on, only remembering it when someone brought it up here and there. It sat in my wishlist for a while, until eventually GOG came out and gave it for free to people for a short period of time. I removed it from Steam for that reason and sort of bided my time. However, this year I had a goal: beat one game for each console/platform that I own. By the time of writing this review, the only ones I haven’t done were Shadowman for N64 (which I’m working on), and trying to find a Gamecube game to play; that and having been streaming games for a friend and having failed to have fixed/played The Suffering on GOG (because the port fucking sucks), I decided to give this game a spin. I played around 10 hours of the game, and here is how I felt playing it.
The plot opens to a group of masked special forces flying to a secret base named Aegis Laboratory. This group is a part of an organization named H.A.D.E.S. (or Hexacore Advanced Division for Extraction and Search), a private military section in the Hexacore Biotechnology Corporation. What is their mission? Why to rescue samples of biological weapons named “Castor” and “Pollux” from their lab whilst also eliminating all traces of Hexacore involvement. Right off the bat I like this idea, I love the old survival horror games but sometimes I want to play the evil bastard and right off the bat it gets the vibe right. This is the first chapter, and you play as HADES member Liev, a real douchebag of a soldier who doesn’t hesitate in killing all witnesses and following through with his corporate overlord’s wishes, or so it seems. While here if you pick up and read certain documents, you also learn of the origins of these viruses. It goes that it was originally founded or created during World War 2, specifically by the Japanese military as a weapon (named “Shujin”) against the United States. However, the dawn of the war had led to the Japanese losing, and as a last ditch effort by the Emperor led to a group of soldiers grabbing the virus and committing themselves to spreading it across U.S. soil, hoping to wipe them out in revenge. However, something went awry and the submarine carrying the virus crashed off the coast. Eventually, Jellyfish got into the sub and experienced enhanced healing properties before the biological agent spread into a nearby fishing town. Having heard of a strange outbreak, Hexacore (or the military) sectioned it off and a cover-up was ensued, and experiments were done in a Hexacore/U.S. Military collaboration to create…drum roll please…super soldiers!! However the result was obviously the zombies, and though it was explained in a way that was actually really interesting and unique to me (through these super soldiers needing to feed on human hormones in order to survive), the wiki doesn’t have much in the way of information on this to really help other than “This was a biological weapon”.
Regardless, Liev does his job diligently and manages to acquire the viruses as well as finding out certain bits of information. The outbreak at this lab originally happened not because of an accident, but that an outside party named “K” had bought out one of the researchers to sabotage the entire facility and steal the Castor samples in exchange for money. Of course with this in mind, Liev assassinates the technician who told him this and escapes with everything, including the sample of Pollux and the chemical canisters containing the “Castor” gas. However, things don’t go well on the ride back. See, Liev’s characteristics are that he’s a really convincing douchebag, and through a series of camera angles and long winded threats, a fight breaks out on the helicopter and someone ends up shot. What we see is Liev holding the pilot and squad leader, Sandman, hostage and a dead body right next to him. The implication is that Liev has decided to betray the company, and that the vial of Pollux was smashed into Sandman’s face. Liev goes off on a long tangent about Sandman and his hatred and it’s hinted that this tension was going on for a while due to mentions of “Groom Lake”. Sandman gets shot repeatedly, the co-pilot Raven gets thrown by Liev from the helicopter, Castor gets dropped onto the streets below and the helicopter proceeds to crash. Their location to head back to was Keen Sight, a town firmly under the grasp of their employers Hexacore. Liev survives the helicopter crash and crawls out of the water to find that the town of Keen Sight, Idaho has already been overwhelmed by the Castor gas, of which he fights through. Having escaped into a warehouse, Liev proceeds to call up HQ to presumably frame Sandman for bungling the mission (you’ll see why I say presumably).
The second chapter revolves around forest ranger Samuel Walker, who is taking a shift guarding one of the many towers in the Vermillion Forest. However, the helicopter flying overhead of his tower makes his medication fall off the tower and down below into the forest. Sam proceeds to contact his wife Sarah to let her know what had happened, and after an argument of sorts goes to sleep. However, waking up everything goes wrong literally as well as mentally. See, Sam has a condition called “Daymare Syndrome” (which will be explained later), where he experiences hallucinations (in a reddish hue of course) and migraines amongst many other symptoms. Having made it back home after realizing his replacement didn’t wake him up, he goes to greet his wife in his cabin in the woods only to find her without an arm and a mutated and very much angry Major Sandman choking her to death. Sandman knocks Sam out of a window and escapes, and having taken off after hearing Liev contacting HQ through their D.I.D. device (their radio/inventory management device), Sam resolves to take down the bastard that killed his wife. Why did Sandman kill Sam’s wife? My guess was that Pollux made him bloodthirsty for the chemicals inside of her blood but there are other things that lead into this, and other theories I read were that she was actually a zombie and that Sandman put her out of her misery. Regardless, things don’t look good as Sandman stole his car and after overhearing that he’s going to a nearby hospital (where Liev escaped to call for a helicopter), Sam goes after him through the forest (after comically telling his dead wife to stay put, even though she’s dead Sam where the hell is she going to go?) and onto a cable car sending him to the city. Having gotten there, Sam witnesses Sandman murder Liev after Liev’s big mouth leads to his downfall, as well as having his arm chewed off and fed upon. Both Sam and Sandman escape into the hospital; however Sandman has been captured by a doctor in a facility having drugged Sandman and uses Sam for favors. In exchange for revenge on Sandman, the doctor sends Sam on numerous errands throughout the hospital, mostly destroying evidence on Hexacore’s experiments on the town of Keen Sight. Sam discovers that he’s been a part of these experiments in the hospital, having been born and raised in Keen Sight and that the company is responsible for Sam’s Daymare syndrome, named the “Truman Project”. Throughout the games there have been hints to all sorts of experiments from water supply tampering to mentions of an MKUltra successor named MKNaomi. They’re both experiments in real life from our fabulous government, and in all honesty they’re fascinating to read up on so if you don’t know about them then read up. Regardless I like how the real life conspiracies tie up into the game’s plot, it definitely gives a bit of a 90s atmosphere to it.
In fact, before moving on with the plot, I want to mention how this game is a series of nonstop references to 90s culture. The first survivor that you kill as Liev in Chapter 1 is a black guy named Al Powell, a reference to Die Hard. You’ll find numerous X-Files “I Want to Believe” posters everywhere. Posters parodying and referencing movies from Tremors to Die Hard will pop up everywhere in town, and certain files will reveal names like C. Ryback (a reference to Steven Segal’s character in Under Siege). Numerous advertisements show a parody of Windows 98 named…Doors 98? I don’t know, it’s a strange thing but regardless the whole game is a whole fucking tribute to that era, though as much as I respect a good homage or two I do feel like at some point it does get a bit stale. It’s a whole pastiche that while I can’t always explain it properly due to the fact that the wiki isn’t updated properly and going in game and re-reading everything would be time consuming and painful, it makes for a unique sort of vibe. Regardless however, Sam gets back to the doctor only to learn that the doctor is dead and that Sandman escaped out of the hospital. Sam resolves to kill Sandman yet again and walks off.
Chapter 3 starts as Raven, who surprisingly survived his fall and landed straight into Keen Sight ...into Invader Studios’s office building and no radio signal. That’s right, another meta reference of sorts. Regardless, Raven’s wondering what the hell is going on and fights through Keen Sight and the numerous undead with the goal of making his way to the crash sight to find out if Major Sandman died while also cursing Liev. He makes his way through the town and even through the sewers (yay, a sewer level…), where he learns that a lot of the people who disappeared investigating Hexacore ended up dissolved in acid barrels and dumped in the sewers mafia-style. Regardless, he makes his way through and eventually finds the remains of the helicopter, which alas he learns that Sandman is in fact, not dead. However, he does fight off two boss creatures named Castor Hades. It’s later learned throughout the game through documents and later exposition that Castor Hades is a special strain that infects members of the HADES division only, due to the fact that members of the division mess about with H-Additives (a special booster of sorts) and that genetically tampers with them enough to make them extremely resilient. After the fight, Raven fights his way to the nearby Keen Sight Dam in order to make contact with Sandman, which he does and they agree to meet up there and get a helicopter to make their way out of there.
Chapter 4 consists of Sam overhearing their conversation on his D.I.D. (which he stole off of Liev’s corpse) and fighting to make his way over to the Dam. Honestly that’s literally it as the final two chapters are also the shortest, but you do learn that Hexacore had a system for cutting Keen Sight off from the rest of civilization, as well as working with the government to suppress evidence as well as take down all the undead by force which didn’t work out for anyone involved. The final chapter however contains the most revelations even if it is short. Raven can discover an email from Sarah Carmichael, Sam’s wife, that reveals that she was heavily involved in Hexacore experiments as well as the fact that she was potentially planning on exposing one of her closest friend’s acts of potential terrorism to the Hexacore HR department. However this is only a draft, and she didn’t go through with it. The name of this friend isn’t revealed however, and Raven makes his way through the labs where he’s ambushed by a mutated tentacle creature who I can only describe as this game’s B.O.W. (Resident Evil’s version of a special creature intent to kill you). After a boss battle involving trapping this creature in a cage of electricity, it’s revealed that this creature is a mutated Liev and he’s very intent on not dying. Raven meets up with Dr. Mason in the room above, where Mason reveals that in certain individuals that Castor and Pollux flourished together into a new abomination entirely. Raven makes his way to nearby elevators as Mason starts a self destruction process, but runs into mutated Liev and nearly dies making his way to the elevator. A final boss battle against mutated Liev leads to Sandman brutalizing his old nemesis offscreen before being injected by Raven with something called “Golden Fleece”, an antiviral agent that I forget where Raven picked it up from. Regardless, they’re both okay until Sam arrives and holds them both by gunpoint. Sam demands retribution for his dead wife while also suffering hallucinations from her, while Sandman tries to explain that he was friends with his wife and tells him to “fight off the hallucination”. The tense encounter leads to everyone holding each other hostage and a bullet going off before a fade to black.
That is until the final epilogue, where a mysterious man goes over the plot entirely in chess terms. What I forgot to mention was that in between the chapters that this mysterious man is hinted at playing everyone from the beginning to start this incident as a plan to destroy Hexacore from the very beginning. The identity isn’t revealed, however several things are. One of those things is that Sandman was the traitor and that he originally started the shootout on the helicopter by shooting the other guy before Liev hit him in the face. See Liev was a bastard but he was actually following orders, and I actually liked this little misdirection as you’d never really think that Sandman was the one who planned to do everything due to Liev’s behavior. Whether others think that’s a good twist? Who knows, but I enjoyed it so I guess I can’t complain. Another reveal is that Sandman became the traitor because his daughter was dying from a deadly disease, and that his employers at Hexacore wouldn’t pay for the experimental treatment. However, “K” (aka Kuronusu Enterprises) promised that they would help save his daughter’s life and from then on, Sandman worked under them secretly. However, having developed a friendship with Sarah, he warns her to leave Keen Sight with her husband and escape the outbreak that’s going to happen. Another piece of evidence that pops up is a recording from Sarah to her husband, who reveals that while she was truly in love with him, that she was placed in charge of Sam as his handler to report back all the data of the Daymare experiments to the company and that they’ve been experimenting on everyone since the 40s and that hundreds of people have this disease. Finally, there’s Sarah’s I.D. as well as a bunch of diary entries that reveal that she was a willing participant in refining the Truman Project. She also fell for both Sam and Sandman at the same time but chose to focus on Sam after he proposed to her, and that Sandman’s daughter seemed to have died and having thought to have given up on his plan and caring for her friend, she didn’t sell him out to HR. However, after this man (named “The Cleaner” on the Wiki) wipes out all the evidence and permanently framing Hexacore for the tragedy, a little girl appears in a liquid container behind the computer showing that Sandman’s daughter is actually still alive.
I like the plot here a lot, the 90s conspiracy collaboration between the pharmaceutical companies and the government, pretty much everything I do like. There are some plot holes, like if Sandman’s daughter supposedly died then why did he continue with his plan anyways? That could’ve been a result of him willingly giving them over to Kuronusu but who knows. I love the origin being a Japanese bio-weapon that they don’t explain at all, and the fact that Keen Sight is under the complete control of the company. It all makes for a fascinating lore, one of which I’m interested in seeing further. HOWEVER, I do feel like sometimes it’s not delivered in the best ways, specifically the whole website intel thing but I’ll go on to gameplay for that. The misdirection with Sandman and Liev is cool, though I can understand if people don’t like it due to the fact that Liev is comically an asshole. However, this does get frustrating when Liev could’ve just as easily had told Raven on the helicopter that Sandman attacked everyone; however whether or not he would've been believed due to his demeanor, who knows? It’s also interesting how many differences there were between the Kickstarter campaign and the final product with cut points like Sam and Sarah having a kid being one of the more prominent differences that I wonder what could’ve been. Regardless however, I just know I came out of this enjoying the plot they had gone with here, it’s not perfect but I’m interested and I want more.
The gameplay has the usual survival horror stuff: conserving ammo, limited inventory space, third person over the shoulder stuff, etcetera and the like. If you’ve played any other survival horror game that’s third person over the shoulder then a lot of stuff will be familiar. However, Daymare has some stuff in it that’s different, sometimes to its own detriment. Starting out on the main campaign, the game doesn’t have an overall hub world with different paths but functions more as a Chapter structure. The first chapter honestly feels like the perfect pace, introducing Liev as he heads into a secret base to steal a virus. It’s not overly long, it helps introduce mechanics and brings the rest of the conflict ahead. The playtimes for the next couple of chapters are a little different though. Chapter 2 feels a bit longer but plays well enough, while Chapter 3 is the full course meal with the entire chapter taking a couple of hours for me to play on the first try. Chapter 4 and 5 on the other hand feels shorter and more to the point, and the truth is I don’t know how to feel about this in relation to the chapter structure. Instead of feeling precise, it kind of feels stretched out a little bit and it makes me wish it took on a structure more like the original games where things loop back in on itself. It never feels like safe rooms are put in accessible places because the game’s structure naturally feels like a constant state of moving forward, so to me it always felt like a drag running all the way back to certain safe room stuff (of which I never felt like there were enough anyways) that eventually I just stopped running certain items back and just dropped them for the most part. Some of these safe rooms are secret Hexacore operative shelters hidden behind walls in public spaces, only able to be found due to the D.I.D. on your wrist beeping near them and some of them you kind of have to go out of your way to find. The safe room issue isn’t helped by the auto save system, which is great for the most part to have but it kind of feels like it relies on it as a sort of crutch kind of? I say kind of because if you have an auto save, I feel like you should have the checkpoints be semi regularly and sometimes it didn’t really spread it out for me though I only noticed it in Chapter 1.
Another thing I’ll add to the differences is the healing/crafting system. You don’t craft your own ammo as far as I’m aware, though there is a sort of mixing feature they put in for health and other benefits. In order to do this however, you have to find a needle called an H Additive and you have to mix it with different items like energy drinks or mental drops. Different effects you can have are the obvious health boost (which you can also take the energy drink by itself or eat an energy bar for small increases), a boost where you can have infinite stamina for a short period of time, or a “mental” boost, which I assume helps you aim more precisely. I didn’t really end up using or mixing anything with the latter two and I ended up being able to just play the game only using the health stuff. Some of these injections can be found in your surroundings, and very rarely they’ll be mixed together to provide some combination of both attributes. You can also trade in certain ingredients at the save room computer in exchange for items, though I don’t personally feel like you get enough to actually make that worth your time. However, ironically enough, if you play the game in the usual survival horror way, you’ll be flushed with ammo and health stuff for the most part. It’s a strange mix, I’ll never complain about the game letting me off easy myself, but the disparity between the amount of stuff you get and the trade-in system not feeling balanced is a strange one so I ended up ignoring it entirely next to using the mental drops or the stamina boost. They also have a system where you can “overdose” if you use too much of any injections but truth be told I never overdosed once, and you kind of have to try to overdose on purpose to actually do it.
The puzzles for the most part are pretty solid and simple, with the answers that you need for the most part existing within the area that the puzzle takes place in. Chapter 1 had at least two that were so simple that I looked back while struggling on them and actively face palmed. Chapter 4 had one which had me turn valves, the answer of which was right above the valves themselves on a diagram. You’ll also find hidden lockers around the city which require a combination of sorts (which can be a bit more difficult, requiring some collectible stuff and backtracking) for items or alternatively you’ll need some hacking tools (which are kind of finite and is required to get it right on the first try) to break into some lockers. The hacking pretty much just has you clicking one bar onto another bar while they both move, and while I make it sound more confusing than it actually should, once you know what you’re doing you can get the hang of it and get it right for the most part on the first try. The only puzzle I can genuinely say I can’t get the hang of is one at the end of Chapter 4 that involves some sort of morse code tapping bullshit, and I hate these because I personally never understand how the fuck I’m supposed to find out what the hell to look for so I just looked up a guide answer. Not saying that anyone else can’t do it of course, maybe I’m just a simpleton but I also had issues in Penumbra doing the morse code puzzle.
Collectibles consist of three different kinds: there are deer bobbleheads that you can shoot throughout the game hidden in certain places that reference certain horror and action movies and even a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure reference (one which I didn’t understand until the person I was streaming for explained it to me). As far as I’m aware, you don’t really get anything for shooting these bobbleheads other than a trophy so for that I just followed the guide I linked down below for help on that. Now comes one of my main problems: most of the collectibles you find have a website link (which I’ll post below) and a password to the corresponding collectible. In order to read certain bits of intel, you have to actively get on your computer or phone, go to this website (which says it’s “Not Secure” on my PC by the way) and type in the password for each individual document. I’ll be honest, I respect the whole metanarrative thing they’re going with but this fucking blows. I’m not interested in logging onto my real life device to look this stuff up when I’d rather be playing the game. Some of the documents you do get that you can read in game on your arm tablet, and while that’s fine I would’ve rather had them bring back the original document pop up then read small print on the in game phone. There’s a similar thing they do with the dog tag collectibles, only found in HADES Dead End (which is PC exclusive apparently) and is basically this game’s Mercenaries mode from what I understand. I say from what I understand because I didn’t play it, nor am I going to right now, but I’m glad they have that mode for players who like the game and want more.
Another thing I want to follow up on is Sam, who has Daymare syndrome whose characteristics include hallucinations. This also factors into gameplay and I like the idea of how they integrate his condition in game. The main way they do it is by having certain zombies be hallucinations within the game itself, such as attacking zombies. Not every zombie is a hallucination of course, but some of them are and when they grapple you they don’t do any damage. I like the idea of having to tell the difference between both of them and choosing whether to spend ammo on something that’s potentially not real, though I wish they gave a more telltale sign (even if small that I’d have to keep a lookout for) that something IS a mirage, especially considering that Sam points out something that’s one hundred percent a hallucination (though that one was kind of obvious). Other than that, it’s an interesting feature that makes for some tense scares during gameplay.
To bring up one more difference that I can remember, there are two different modes (other than difficulty). There’s Old School and there’s Modern Day. I played on Old School, and I’ll say that to me I personally think that it’s the best way to play the game. You can’t skip puzzles (which are easy for the most part), and you have to balance your weapon ammunition more. For example, there are two reload types: Fast and Slow. Slow switches out your current magazine for another one with current ammo while fast is mostly used for on the move against the undead and drops your current magazine on the ground which you’ll have to pick up later or possibly permanently lose it if you forget about it. You’ll have to reload it all in your inventory screen manually, which makes encounters tense and you can potentially flub up if you don’t know what you’re doing. The modern take mode you don’t have to worry about most of that stuff and you can skip puzzles, which if that’s what you prefer is a perfectly valid way to play the game if that’s what you want to do. I’ll put a wiki link that could explain it better than I do, but overall I like the tension of the old school system and I feel it’s the way that this game should be played. This only counts towards pistols though, so you won’t have to worry about shotguns. In fact, if there is one thing I’d love to mention is that I wish there were more variations of weapons like they promised in the Kickstarter. The most you get is different pistol types like a Beretta, a revolver, a desert eagle, and a shotgun just to name a few. There aren’t any assault rifles, grenade launchers or anything big or crazy and it’s kind of sad but understandable I suppose. Only other piece of advice I have for this is that for the magnum in chapter 3, collect as much ammo as you can and get the magazine for it around the gas station. Trust me, you’ll need it for the boss and it’s one of the only places to get it in the game and you could potentially fuck yourself if not done right.
Overall though, I want to add that while I have my criticisms towards certain aspects of the game and how it does stuff, I like the fact that they tried some new things while also keeping a lot of the old survival horror aspects together. I want to emphasize that they didn’t do a bad job here, in fact that’s where I feel like the game excels in for the most part despite a few ups and downs. I had played the game on Old School normal difficulty and didn’t die once except for a late game boss fuckup, in which I exited and reloaded the manual save and still got the GOG achievement for it anyways. There is the “Daymare” difficulty, which is the highest you can possibly go if you’re a masochist but I’m also a scared little bitch boy so there’s no way in hell I’m going to do that.
The sound design is pretty solid for the game too: the weapons feel like they have impact, footsteps sound good, doors creak creepily, I mean everything that you think that the game should do right, I feel they did right. I felt like the environmental sound design could’ve come straight out of Resident Evil 2 so that’s pretty solid. What helps add to everything with the actual sound design is the soundtrack as well. While it’s not the most unique, it does have some tunes that I could remember being decently catchy. The main theme song has a sort of dramatic and dark string vibe that’s tragic and ominous both, while “Safe Place” harkens back to the safe room themes of old survival horror. I’m not sure of the track that plays during infected Liev’s boss battles in Chapter 5 but they’re mad stressful and do a good job and put tension out there. For the most part, expect to hear your dramatic strings and some electronic stuff here and there. The composer was Alessandro Galdieri and if I can say one thing that I felt he did a good job here is capturing the survival horror essence, again it specifically feels like it could’ve came out of the other Resident Evil remakes and seeing as this is definitely a homage game, it hits the mark perfectly.
The voice acting however, is something that could’ve been a tad bit better? Truth be told, I’d say this is more of a translation/subtitle issue than something really on the voice actors. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a homage to old Resident Evil’s campy style of dialogue, but I didn’t take it as such especially considering that the subtitles are sometimes straight up false. Sometimes the Apple Blossom Fair is mistaken for the Cherry Blossom Feast, one line delivery from Sam had him awkwardly saying “He’s going there…then he’ll be there..” in a line that straight up made me cackle and brought me out of the moment. There was one part where one of the characters is ambushed by a guy with a wrench, but is told by the other character to “Drop your gun”. Subtitles are misspelled sometimes or awkwardly phrased, and while I wasn’t really bothered with that because the developers were Italian and cross translation is hard work, it did sadly pull me out at some moments.
The graphics of this game looks pretty decent for the most part; the environment work is stunning with the town of Keen Sight being an interesting and lively place with a history dating back to the Lewis and Clark days. Keen Sight as a town looks phenomenal, though while it’s a town ruined and destitute by undead, conveys a familiar and homely yet abandoned town at the same time. I would say that walking through the town is where the game shines the most from its pride in its history with their monuments, taking shortcuts through back alleys and into buildings with tight claustrophobic spaces. It feels like a real place, a sort of maze that truth be told I wish was the whole game. That being said, I don’t hate that the game has secret government labs or forest sections or whatever but they pale in comparison to the town itself. I would even dare say that this town, to me, feels like it belongs up in the pantheon with the most interesting settings next to Willamette, Colorado or Raccoon City, ironically both being Capcom games. I don’t really have much criticism to give with the environmental stuff other than they look how they would in a Resident Evil game otherwise, and that’s what the developers were looking for I feel, so mission accomplished there.
If I were to give any criticism in regards to graphical fidelity, then I would say it’s the models themselves. I know it’s an obvious indie budget thing, and I’m not going to disrespect the effort put into making these. However, there are a lot of models (at least the human ones) that feel sort of…artificial. Like I can tell these were made with a limited budget, it reminds me of the Friday the 13th counselor models. That’s not to say they’re inherently bad, though I’d say that sometimes they don’t really look…human? Especially in the animation department because by god, the lip syncing isn’t great and the facial movements could be a lot less stiff with the human characters. Maybe it was a sort of budget thing with them being an inexperienced indie game studio however, and with that in mind I don’t want to judge too harshly because it does add to a sort of campy charm, even if it’s inadvertently so. To finish off, the only other things I can really point out are that there were points where if I wasn’t following the story that I would get Liev and Raven mixed up, looking nearly identical wise and being bald as hell so they could’ve differentiated them a bit there. That, and while streaming me and my friend noticed that Sam’s got a pretty nice bulge LOL. Ironically enough however, the enemy models such as the zombies and special infected look pretty damn creepy and look the part in playing a foreboding atmosphere for the game. Between the “Hunters”, the Melted Men, Castor Hades or even the regular zombies, they all look all sorts of fucked up with jaws missing, looking skinned alive or severely deformed that they’re pretty damn effective in the intimidate department.
In short, I came out of this game pleasantly surprised and kind of ashamed that I forgot about this. It was a bit janky in some places, sure; but I had really enjoyed my time playing this title. Invader Studios didn’t create a perfect game, but I felt they had made a fun one and sometimes that's all that really matters. There were only a few places where I truly rolled my eyes out of dislike, and that was mostly towards the second to final boss in the game running towards the elevator and the website intel system. Otherwise, if you’re willing to put aside some of the more imperfect aspects and you’re really itching for a survival horror homage filled love letter then I would suggest trying this title out. In fact, there’s a part of me that questions why this has so many mixed reviews, although logically in the back of my mind I KNOW the reasons why. However, since the release of Daymare: 1998 they had also released a prequel to the game: Daymare 1994: Sandcastle, on August 30th which I also didn’t know about and/or forgot about. Maybe it’s a recurring theme of sorts? Who knows. Maybe I’ll give the prequel a go here someday soon and be hopefully pleasantly surprised again with potential quality, though the reviews aren’t looking that great either, but time will only tell.
Links:
https://www.neoseeker.com/daymare-1998/walkthrough (Guide I used)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pJ1g7MElpg&ab_channel=GamesSoundtracksOST (Soundtrack)
http://hexacorebiogenetics.com/intranet/mission-reports-archive/ (Intel Website)
https://daymare1998.fandom.com/wiki/How_to_play_guide_for_Daymare:_1998#Gameplay_modes (Certain Gameplay Aspects)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/invaderstudios/daymare-1998tm-bringing-back-the-survival-horror (Old Kickstarter Page)
https://daymare1998.fandom.com/wiki/Collectibles_in_Daymare:_1998 (Passwords included for the Hexacore Website)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Daymare1998
https://daymare1998.fandom.com/wiki/Daymare:_1998
https://invaderstudiosofficial.com/site/
Baldur's Gate 3
2020
Personal campaign : Paladin Oath of Vengeance - Shadowheart, Gale (Made him use the orb twice), Sir Fuzzalump
Hours Played : 50
-------------REVIEW--------------
Gameplay : Tic Tac Toe
Plot : None
Lore : Marvel + Medieval Fantasy ChatGPT
OST : Down The River
Down The River - Instrumental
Down The River - Summer Mix Compilation
Score : GOTY 🔥
Hours Played : 50
-------------REVIEW--------------
Gameplay : Tic Tac Toe
Plot : None
Lore : Marvel + Medieval Fantasy ChatGPT
OST : Down The River
Down The River - Instrumental
Down The River - Summer Mix Compilation
Score : GOTY 🔥
Echo
2017
"Feelings unspoken are unforgettable."
Every single one of Andrei Tarkovsky's films are contenders for my favorite film of all-time. Every single one of them. However, this is the one that speaks to me the most strongly, the most personally. It reminds me of my father, who passed away only a short two years ago. It reminds me of my home, which I love and miss so dearly. It reminds me of my past, my childhood. There is so much going on in Nostalghia, so much to take in, that to some, it may come off as perplexing.
To those people I say, "I understand," because indeed it is a very complicated, even mystifying film. Therefore, instead of going on and on about how much I love the film, I am going to provide a number of brief theories as to what I believe this film is about.
Keep in mind that this is only one man's word, and as Tarkovsky would say, "poetry is untranslatable, like the whole of art."
Things to keep in mind while watching Nostalghia...
- Materialism has had a strong influence on modern society, and it's important to separate yourself from this influence as much as possible, in order to stay in touch with your true self.
- People are constantly transforming in ways both good and bad; one of the most miraculous transformations that a human being can experience (or even observe) is that from daughter to mother.
- There is no need for our world to be so divided, so broken up. We must come together as one and be kind to all souls who dwell on this Earth.
- It can be very difficult to leave your home, and your family, but the world is a gorgeous place - a place worth exploring.
- There is great beauty, even in darkness.
- Stay faithful to those you love; resist temptation.
- Love even those who (attempt to) betray you.
- The creation of life is a miracle worthy of pondering, worthy of deeply appreciating.
- Human beings can learn great things from their memories. One should not stray away from these thoughts, but rather, use these thoughts to better themselves.
- People can be cruel; they always have been. That will most likely never change.
- Bring light into the world. It is your responsibility.
- Learn to accept the person you have been, the person you are, and the person you are becoming, or you will be met with great melancholy.
- While the world is beginning to end, it is not yet beyond repair.
- A child's innocence is not only precious, but divine.
- There are many paths that one can take through life, and it is up to each living spirit to decide which path is best for them to take.
- Death is not the end of life.
This is one of the few films that I can safely say has made me a warmer and more caring person. To those of you who haven't seen Nostalghia, it comes highly recommended from me; to those of you who have seen it but remain unsure about the film, trust me, it gets better with each and every viewing.
I'll leave it at that for now. Remember:
"One drop plus one drop makes a bigger drop, not two."
Every single one of Andrei Tarkovsky's films are contenders for my favorite film of all-time. Every single one of them. However, this is the one that speaks to me the most strongly, the most personally. It reminds me of my father, who passed away only a short two years ago. It reminds me of my home, which I love and miss so dearly. It reminds me of my past, my childhood. There is so much going on in Nostalghia, so much to take in, that to some, it may come off as perplexing.
To those people I say, "I understand," because indeed it is a very complicated, even mystifying film. Therefore, instead of going on and on about how much I love the film, I am going to provide a number of brief theories as to what I believe this film is about.
Keep in mind that this is only one man's word, and as Tarkovsky would say, "poetry is untranslatable, like the whole of art."
Things to keep in mind while watching Nostalghia...
- Materialism has had a strong influence on modern society, and it's important to separate yourself from this influence as much as possible, in order to stay in touch with your true self.
- People are constantly transforming in ways both good and bad; one of the most miraculous transformations that a human being can experience (or even observe) is that from daughter to mother.
- There is no need for our world to be so divided, so broken up. We must come together as one and be kind to all souls who dwell on this Earth.
- It can be very difficult to leave your home, and your family, but the world is a gorgeous place - a place worth exploring.
- There is great beauty, even in darkness.
- Stay faithful to those you love; resist temptation.
- Love even those who (attempt to) betray you.
- The creation of life is a miracle worthy of pondering, worthy of deeply appreciating.
- Human beings can learn great things from their memories. One should not stray away from these thoughts, but rather, use these thoughts to better themselves.
- People can be cruel; they always have been. That will most likely never change.
- Bring light into the world. It is your responsibility.
- Learn to accept the person you have been, the person you are, and the person you are becoming, or you will be met with great melancholy.
- While the world is beginning to end, it is not yet beyond repair.
- A child's innocence is not only precious, but divine.
- There are many paths that one can take through life, and it is up to each living spirit to decide which path is best for them to take.
- Death is not the end of life.
This is one of the few films that I can safely say has made me a warmer and more caring person. To those of you who haven't seen Nostalghia, it comes highly recommended from me; to those of you who have seen it but remain unsure about the film, trust me, it gets better with each and every viewing.
I'll leave it at that for now. Remember:
"One drop plus one drop makes a bigger drop, not two."
Half-Life 2
2004
Holds up amazingly well in 2023. Such a phenomenal game for it's time. The gameplay isn't so amazing but considering how old it is, it's insane. Atmosphere and setting are incredible as well
God of War Ragnarök
2022
God of War: Ragnarok is an absolute triumph of game design and storytelling. It is a work of art that showcases the very best of what the video game medium can achieve.
From the moment you start playing, you're drawn into a world of breathtaking visuals and an immersive soundscape that transports you to the realm of Norse mythology. Every detail, from the intricate character models to the stunning landscapes, is crafted with meticulous attention to detail.
The gameplay is a masterclass in balance and pacing. It's a perfect blend of intense, visceral combat and thought-provoking exploration, with puzzles that are challenging but never frustrating. The combat system is a work of art in its own right, with each move and counter feeling weighty and satisfying.
But what truly sets God of War: Ragnarok apart is its storytelling. It is a tour de force of character development, with every character feeling like a fully realized individual with their own motivations and flaws. The story is epic in scope, but grounded in human emotion, and the relationships between the characters are complex and nuanced.
Kratos, the game's protagonist, is a character who has been with us for over a decade, and yet he feels as fresh and compelling as ever. He has evolved and grown in ways that feel natural and earned, and his interactions with his son, Atreus, are some of the most emotionally resonant moments in gaming history.
In short, God of War: Ragnarok is a masterpiece. It is a game that will stay with you long after the credits roll, and one that will be remembered as a defining moment in the history of the medium. It is a work of art that demands to be experienced.
From the moment you start playing, you're drawn into a world of breathtaking visuals and an immersive soundscape that transports you to the realm of Norse mythology. Every detail, from the intricate character models to the stunning landscapes, is crafted with meticulous attention to detail.
The gameplay is a masterclass in balance and pacing. It's a perfect blend of intense, visceral combat and thought-provoking exploration, with puzzles that are challenging but never frustrating. The combat system is a work of art in its own right, with each move and counter feeling weighty and satisfying.
But what truly sets God of War: Ragnarok apart is its storytelling. It is a tour de force of character development, with every character feeling like a fully realized individual with their own motivations and flaws. The story is epic in scope, but grounded in human emotion, and the relationships between the characters are complex and nuanced.
Kratos, the game's protagonist, is a character who has been with us for over a decade, and yet he feels as fresh and compelling as ever. He has evolved and grown in ways that feel natural and earned, and his interactions with his son, Atreus, are some of the most emotionally resonant moments in gaming history.
In short, God of War: Ragnarok is a masterpiece. It is a game that will stay with you long after the credits roll, and one that will be remembered as a defining moment in the history of the medium. It is a work of art that demands to be experienced.
I will subject the human species to an unprecedented level of suffering
Old School RuneScape
2013
How about this: you can make all the funny haha jokes that you want, but this game is democracy, capital, and soul. Want like 500 point and click grim fandango adventures built into your fucking MMO? Here it is. Want to trade literal stocks? You've got it. This is a game that you do not quit. I don't care if you started playing it in 2004 or 2018. You will think about it every few months and resub. Get fucked. This video game is a PILLAR of the internet and if you disagree you weren't there or it's not for you. There are people that started playing this within the last few years that are engaged with it like it's 2007. And for as much as people think playing efficiently is the norm, you will find that there are droves and droves of new players that will fill you with the same feeling you could get back in the golden era, mostly thanks to the mobile port. Again, fuck you.
