Daymare: 1998

About Daymare: 1998

Daymare: 1998 is a third-person survival horror game by Invader Studios, released on PC in September 2019 and on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in April 2020. The team began with a fan remake of Resident Evil 2; after Capcom asked them to stop, they turned the work into an original game of their own, and its debt to the late-1990s classics is plain.

The story starts at a secret research facility, where a special security team is sent in after a deadly chemical weapon gets loose. What begins as a security breach spreads to Keen Sight, a quiet town in the Idaho forests, whose people are turned into mutated, bloodthirsty monsters. You play three characters in turn: an elite soldier of the H.A.D.E.S. team, a helicopter pilot and a forest ranger, each with their own view of what happened.

It plays the old way on purpose. Ammunition is limited, you save only at save points, you backtrack through areas you have already cleared, and you solve environmental puzzles to open the way. Enemies take a lot of punishment and can be dismembered. Your inventory, health and position are checked on a wrist device rather than on screen menus.

Reception has been divided. Players who wanted a new game in the style of the original Resident Evil games tend to enjoy its atmosphere and difficulty; others found it clumsy and its story hard to follow. Critics gave it middling scores. It suits survival horror fans who like scarce resources and backtracking, and who will forgive rough edges. A prequel, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, followed in 2023.

How to play Daymare: 1998

1. Explore in third person and aim your weapon to fight the mutated townsfolk.
2. Count every bullet: ammunition is limited, so decide which enemies to fight and which to avoid.
3. Check your inventory, health and map on the wrist device.
4. Look for clues and documents to solve environmental puzzles and open new paths.
5. Save your progress at save points, since the game does not save for you everywhere.

Tips

• Enemies are hard to kill, so aim carefully rather than spraying shots.
• Read the documents you find; they hold puzzle clues as well as the story.
• Remember locked doors and blocked paths; you will backtrack to them later.
• Save whenever you reach a save point before heading into new areas.

Questions