I always happy to support whenever some indie devs able to make a game and got a recognition of it from most gamers community around.
It's a living proof that sometimes an underdog can surpass the big ones by making a breakthrough.
I bought this one, because of my respect to Paul Haddad. And the other reason why, is because this game was his final role as one of the incredible voice actors most of us knew and recognized through all these years.

If you loved Biohazard/Resident Evil game series with the earliest original concept mechanism, then Daymare can provide you that feeling. Though it's also perfect for new generations who prefers modern mechanism and not a fan of tank-ish movement, the game setting has both of those preferences. Old school or modern. We can choose the one we like the most, and even more stuff to adjust it just the way you like to play.

The longer I played Daymare. The more I felt that it's a familiar game with a touch of old school survival horror but somewhat also got the modern feeling at the same time.
Still, most important thing is, it's fun to play plus the retro horror factors are quite spot on! Call it a homage or even a love letter to the most well known original survival horror games out there.
And yes, I won't make a comparison with other similar games, it will be unfair so to say. Because no creations are ultimately perfect, each has their own flaws.
You may or may not like it. But I appreciate and enjoy Daymare, from the very beginning to the end.
Thank you, Paul Haddad.
The original Leon Scott Kennedy from Biohazard 2/Resident Evil 2 back in 1998.

The game is mostly ok I guess? Although it does have issues but if you can overlook it, this game is alright.

This game was originally going to be a fan made Resident Evil 2 remake, but Capcom I think contacted this developer and told them to stop making it. So instead of this being a RE2 remake the developers decided to turn that project into an original one and so it became Daymare 1988. Also fun fact this game has the original voice actor for Leon from RE2 Paul Haddad, this was his last project he worked on before he sadly passed away.

I really did not care for this games story, and I thought the characters and their dialogue was kind of bad and edgy. Gameplay is sort of similar to the RE2 Remake, but a bit more linear and fairly easy. The first enemy I thought that was kind of a pain was the zombie that the game calls "Correct Form". Which the ideal way of killing it I think is with the shotgun which knocks it on its ass, and usually I wait for it to come back up and then I keep knocking it down until it won't come back. The only real dangerous enemy in this whole game imo was its RE3 Nemesis knock off. The sewer section is terrible, the game really likes placing zombies around corners to instantly ambush you which I find a bit unfair, similar to how Call of Duty has those campers that just sit in a corner of a map and just wait for people to walk by to kill. There was this one point in the sewers where I was trying to aim and shoot a zombie in front of me, and then suddenly the game spawned a zombie behind me that wasn't there before.

The game sort of has a "unique" way of reloading your ammo, which you may or may not like. I've played some first person shooters where if you reloaded your gun, your character would reload the entire magazine and the remaining ammo in the gun that got replaced would be gone entirely. The way this game handles reloading is a bit more "realistic" than your average survival horror game. During the game you can find ammo boxes, now to use these ammo boxes you need to combine them with magazines you have in your inventory and then you need to combine that magazine with your gun. It's a bit tedious because the game doesn't allow you to use your mouse to navigate the inventory screen, you have to tap your keyboard. The game has two different types of reloads a "fast" reload where if you tap the reload key the character will reload the gun quickly but drop its old magazine on the floor which he needs to pick up. And then there is the "slow" reload where if you hold the reload key the character does a slower reload animation and does not drop his old mag. The mechanic doesn't really add much imo, the way I got around that was by going into the inventory and then combining the ammo boxes into the gun every time I fought a enemy, the only times I used fast or slow reload is when I ran out of ammo in the gun during a fight which I don't think was often? The game does give an alternative option if you don't like its reload mechanic which is its "Modern-Take" mode which has a simple reload system. The game also gives an option if you don't want to see your ammo count on the hud for immersion which is a good option for horror games.

Game is a few years old apparently as I am righting this now, it's still kind of buggy. I tried playing this game with a controller and I ran into a bug where I couldn't close my inventory screen for some reason, so I played through the entire game with mouse and keyboard. The other bug I ran into is when I got to the boss battle in chapter 3 where I was supposed to run into 2 zombie monsters. When the battle for that started it only spawned one of them, after I killed it I had to restart to the last checkpoint because the game would not progress cause I couldn't kill the last boss that was supposed to spawn. I also had a weird audio glitch where for some reason the game would not play sounds for cutscenes, I restarted the game and it worked fine after that.

After you finish the main campaign the game has an additional game mode called "H.A.D.E.S. Dead End". It's similar to some of Resident Evils additional game modes specifically the one where you play through one of the levels in the campaign, but they give you objectives to complete in it and you try to finish it as fast as possible for a high score.

This game also likes its references to various games/movies/tv shows even though some of them aren't from the horror genre for some reason. Ranging from stuff like TMNT, Back to the Future, Lord of the Rings, Half life 3, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, and the sitcom Friends and the devs even modeled their studio office into the game. You can see screenshots below in this link of the references they added that I found, but be warned you will encounter the only scary thing that this game has, and its a Super Nintendo Console with a abnormally large SNES controller.

https://imgur.com/a/references-to-random-media-daymare-1988-gbW2AH1

This game has a sequel (prequel I think?) I am curious what that game is like

Daymare: 1998 was conceived as a fan-made remake project for Resident Evil 2. Instead of cancelling and banning it like a Japanese developer does with Nefarious Deeds, Capcom suggested devising a standalone story. It would be brought out with another name, despite the affinity that this game harbours for Resident Evil seeds and DNA. This is how it managed to survive and retrieve the classic style of survival horror. This is Daymare, a proposal born and oriented towards Japanese horror.

The story begins with the narrator, secured in a laboratory, stating that a plan is being carried out. They are all like chess pieces on a rigged board. Dr. Rebecca Jorden made an emergency call, averring that a corrosive agent was released and is eradicating all facility staff in the Aegis laboratory, located in the Northfall Islands. She requests an evacuation due to the contagious mishap. The pharmaceutical company Hexacore sent a special unit, H.A.D.E.S., with the tasks of infiltrating, erasing evidence, and securing top secret samples and documents. Without going into detail, this mission comprises part of a spine-chilling prelude, and the horror adventure thus commences.


If we take a moment to listen to the soundtrack, we cannot downplay the pervasive presence of Resident Evil and other contemporary horror games that reside on Daymare. The mixture of dark ambient and synthwave with flecks of drone and classical music stirs up a nostalgia akin to a spooky atmosphere in mainstream horror films. The settings also depict a dreary and claustrophobic atmosphere owing to the lighting, the darkness, and the locations where the fearsome monsters roam. However, its dominant point is the design of the maps, but the opposite happens to be evident in the design of the characters. The creatures are frightful, but the humans lack any authentic expressions. They are soulless and robotic dolls with unconvincing gestures, whose dramatic moments fail to convey their intimate emotional moods. The surroundings look lonely and dour, although they still deserve better care in the ambiance and lighting balance, not to mention the textures and optimizations.

Both the setting and the story rely on many references to movies and video games. In fact, it is so chock-full of them that it's usually tiresome, since it means maybe the developers don't know how to bury an Easter egg. Every reference must be esoteric so that the player's eye discovers for itself the unstated intention of the developer (or the story). At each phase of the path, there is a reference. I don't recognise what is unique regarding the game —its identity and originality are not discernible. Nor does the game assimilate what it has borrowed. I don't imagine any script being jam-packed with phrases (quips or punchlines) excerpted from movies at all times.

Daymare can look like a clone. However, the game finds a way to stick out for its offbeat theme and how the characters unfold in a thread tying everything together. The characters serve as a part of the plot, offering a synergistic climax that connects with a shocking backdrop. The characters are empathetic owing to the voice actors. They manage to convey the proper vibrancy in each scene. It's obvious that some scenes happen to be utilised as footage. It comes off like a movie, but without ditching the interactivity. What matters is how the story is told. The game imparts a spine-chilling context just by conjuring up when poring over notes or surveying the environs. The effort to create a creepy world in the story can be commended. This seems to be a parallel world to the fictional universe of Resident Evil.


The game is a third-person survival horror. This can be played classically, like old games, or modern. What both modes share in common is the reduced inventory, resource management (shortage of bullets and supplies), compounding fluids (to get health, stamina, or mental stimulants), and saving games as well as storing in the H.I.V.E. terminals. The solving of puzzles whose clues are in documents is present. Like the process of going back (backtracking) to the same location when we got the key to unlock new areas. When we die, we reload the saved game. Except in the modern one, there are checkpoints on many occasions.

Now, what is different is the way the weapon is reloaded. There is a manual mode whereby the process is sequential: a bullet is loaded into the magazine, and it is loaded into the gun. It can be performed by combining it from the inventory or by pressing the reload button on time. Half-empty magazines also waste bullets. Another mechanic is in the fluids, so we can regenerate our health, boost our stamina, or turn on our perception. Hence, the character may experience an overdose, although I'm uncertain about its discernible consequences. The existence of fluids is an essential mechanic of the plot. On the other hand, there are two important devices. We can exchange things at the H.I.V.E. stations. And we also carry a device (D.I.D.) that assists us with data, maps, inventory, and objectives.

The plot proposes to embody three characters. This features an intriguing narrative rhythm, especially the way the characters evolve. However, I detect something illogical in the gameplay. Firstly, there aren't many weapons. Only the magnum types differ between the characters. And the first one uses an SMG. Although some of them are special forces, their ability in combat is not evident. Their movements are clumsy (as in hand-to-hand combat) and plodding, and they take as long to aim as they do to shoot. The movement effect feels rustic and shabby. I finish running, and then I aim. Everything happens in slow sequences. The actions don't take effect almost immediately, which is sometimes irksome. I died many times because of this logical deficiency of action. Especially when characters who are soldiers are unfamiliar with how to use a weapon. So I suggest playing it on easy if you're not used to these gameplay mechanics.


I agree with the quasi-originality of the story, taking as a starting point an obscure secret that already occurred in the Second World War in Japan. It addresses perplexing concepts and elicits curious narrative twists and turns. I was rendered speechless when I became aware of the omnipresent narrator (the voyeur puppeteer). Hence, I liked how this game tells its story and the careful writing style in the documents, offering Japanese-style horror literature with a sci-fi slant. The soundtrack is also a surprise, something that is enjoyed in itself and provides a part of the atmosphere of the game. Although, the music isn't used satisfactorily due to the lack of cohesion and synchronization with the scenarios, the music expresses something separate from what the scenarios seem to convey.

The gameplay elements were a bit off-putting, especially the movements. As I indicated, I suggest playing on easy difficulty. The adventure can be short once we've completed the first round, where the puzzles and tasks to perform are now much simpler. A story narrated in chapters where a chemical agent results on a dreary island controlled by monsters. It's a prologue to a suspenseful story. It's worth playing.