Review

Daylight

Being a fan of Survival Horror games, It’s great to see that the gaming industry has renewed its interest in the genre. I only wish that there were more “concepts” to choose from. It seems like everyone is making the same scary game, just in different settings. Let’s see, do we have a first-person perspective? Check. No way to defend yourself? Check. Interesting narrative delivered via poor exposition and random notes or audio logs scattered around an environment? Check. Throw in the philosophical ramblings of a mad man and you’d have the blue print for today’s horror title!

Now, don’t get me wrong. There have been some great games released as of late. And I’m no stranger to repeated themes; I could always use “a little more zombie” in my survival horror. I just want developers to explore other ideas, before stagnation sets in. This brings me to Zombie Studios and their latest title, Daylight. A title I was looking forward to playing that, unfortunately, was made somewhat shallow because of the aforementioned checklist. In Daylight, you play as Sarah Gwynn – the game’s protagonist who wakes up in the lobby of the abandoned Mid Island Bay Hospital. On the floor next to her is a phone with, I assume is a doctor’s voice on the other end. He explains that she should search her environment for clues on how to escape while being wary of the shadows. As Sarah explores the ruins of the hospital, she’ll come across remnants (pictures, news clippings, etc.) that depict a little of what went on there. Apparently the island has a violent history, one of which is tied to Sarah’s past.

The gameplay centers on getting out of eerie environments while avoiding deadly apparitions. To do this, you’ll need to collect a certain number of remnants in each level; once collected the game will reveal an item needed to unlock a magically sealed door somewhere within the maze. What this boils down to is an unbalanced game in terms of quality. When I first started playing, I was unnerved to say the least. If it wasn’t a door opening by itself that gave me the creeps, it was a shadowy figure that vanished when I looked in its direction. The game’s use of the normal bangs, bumps and screams helped to create a dread-filled atmosphere. Basically, walking around and searching for remnants using the glow of my cell phone as a light source was intense. What pushed things over the top for me though was the randomness of the levels. You see, each level is procedurally generated as you play. When entering a new location, the game will put together different corridors, rooms, and the like to make a unique-ish place.

Besides certain set pieces, these the random environments resulted in the seemingly random appearance of ghosts and an absence of triggered scares. There was one particular scare in the prison level that nearly made me fall out of my chair; I felt that I was being followed, turned around and was greeted with two shrieking ghosts. As far as I can tell, the encounter wasn’t scripted. Thankfully I popped a flare, the only thing that keeps them at bay, right before they attacked. These rare moments were really terrifying as I didn’t see them coming…at first.

Going back to the list of the overused survival horror mechanics, there were some telltale signs that almost ruined the experience. One of these were the remnants themselves. Now remember, in order to escape you are required to collect a certain number of these per level. Similar to the game Slender, viewing the remnants will increase your threat level; the higher the level the more often the ghosts will spawn. This takes the edge off a little as the game tells me when I should be more cautious. Not only that, all of the scary sounds are for naught as a low threat level means it’s relatively safe to proceed. Even if a ghost spawns, if the threat level is low they’ll disappear before ever hurting you. Then there’s the need to collect them at all. I mean, looking for scrapes of paper isn’t very engaging gameplay even if they do add to the story.

Then there are the way the levels are built that hinders the gameplay. Yes, it’s cool that that each level is randomly put together. Unfortunately, those random parts used to build the levels are repeated way too often. This makes it super easy to get lost. I’d end up second guessing where I’ve been because it seemed like I passed the same place multiple times. To be fair, it makes sense for the same assets to be used for say a prison cell as they generally look the same in real life. Also, the game uses a nifty map that’s displayed on Sarah’s phone at all times to help with navigation. Still, having multiple rooms with the same over turned chairs and broken mirrors just added to my confusion.

Getting lost isn’t as scary as one might think. Simply put, the game wasn’t going to progress until I found my way out; instead of being fearful for my life, being lost just made me frustrated. The good news is that Daylight gets scary again in last third of the game. This is mainly because it throws out some of the established rules. Though you still have to collect remnants during the second half, it doesn’t matter if your threat level is low or not. The ghosts will be more aggressive in general. This later part is also where the game changes up the environments; instead of the tight corridors of a prison or hospital we’re given a wooded area to trek through. The open space made me feel more vulnerable with less places to hide or walls to put my back against.

A complete playthrough of Daylight can take around 2-3 hours. While it is rather short, the idea is for gamers to experience the narrative multiple times – for one that’s the only way to collect all of the remnants containing snippets of the island’s past. That said, I didn’t want to play through the whole thing again. Though the game’s lore was interesting there were too many details held in the background. Searching through each remnant to find the new ones added with each playthrough is too much work to get the full story. It comes off as a convoluted way of telling a simple plot. Besides, the ending leads me to believe there isn’t much more to the story worth exploring. It’s really a shame because Daylight has promise and it did succeed in scaring my shocks off. My hope is that Zombie Studios will build on some of the mechanics they’ve included here in their next game; namely the procedurally generated environments and unscripted scares. As it stands, Daylight is a survival horror game that goes from being scary to uneventful and somewhat frustrating, back to scary, all before ending anticlimactically. Not inherently bad but not really good either.

Honorable Mention: Besides the random elements, the developers included a new feature that allows for viewer participation. Those watching your stream via Twitch can type words into the chat that can affect the game, scaring the player. I didn’t add it the review because I played the game before it released. During that time the in-game Twitch app wasn’t working. Still, it’s something new that I felt should be mentioned!