Take Daylight's claims to procedural generation with a grain of salt; while the corridor mazes change somewhat from one playthrough to the next, layouts remain consistent enough that you can easily rush through them when making return visits. In fact, given the lukewarm nature of the game's scares, I took to rushing through the game at full speed on my second playthrough; you can sprint indefinitely, which isn't conducive to terror, but handy if you want to finish in 25 minutes or so. Daylight makes for an interesting experiment in audience participation, but no crowd of online viewers can make the poor writing any better or the themes any less hackneyed. In creating a game designed for return visits, Zombie Studios ironically forgot to make a game worth playing in the first place.

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Daylight has a good foundation of scary atmosphere and interesting bits of story. All of that is squandered by the first half, where poor level design, unnecessary box-pushing puzzles, and impotent enemies deflate the scares before it even gets going. By the time I reached the more interesting second act, I’d grown immune to its tricks and could only see it as a mediocre series of fetch quests.

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I would be lying if I said Daylight didn't scare me, because it did, and often. It's kind of fascinating to see how much of its mechanical design was crafted in the interest of eliciting an emotional response from the player; all the theory and psychology behind its scares. But those moments of fear and panic were just that — moments — amid a whole campaign of boredom and frustration.

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While Daylight is a bit on the stereotypical side, with you running circles inside an asylum where the good doctor wasn't actually that good, and the dementia that the patients were experiencing was more than just a figment of their imagination, it does a good job in the presentation department.

From the eerie voice that haunts you from a time long past, to the cries and moans of the protagonist and the unsettling noises coming from the next room, making you dread going forward and having to open the door, all the little details come together to deliver an engaging experience that is guaranteed to offer you at least a couple of thrills.

It explores a darker style of gameplay experience and doesn't get lost in meaningless complications, offering a raw and visceral experience that is supported by a captivating storyline, offering a palpable reason for the preternatural encounters and ending in a twist.

It offers just enough to keep you interested, while not ruining or taking over the part your imagination plays in horror stories by parading embodiments of the grotesque around until they feel like adorable puppies.

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Daylight is a victim of its most-touted feature. When the random generated items and enemies work, every step carries a palpable sense of dread and unease. But the immersion’s lost when the player gets caught in an enemy spawning loop with too few flares is hard to get back. The story’s climax works better on paper, and bland visuals just make maze navigation aggravating. The $15 price is also a bit much to ask for what will last most players up to 3 hours without much of a reason to replay it. For the few moments when it all clicks, Daylight is the best we could have hoped for out of the Slender craze. The rest of time will have you remembering why it was a craze to begin with.

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Daylight alleges to alleviate the replay problem for games of this type. It certainly does that with its procedurally generated world. The problem is, I don’t think Zombie Studios makes a compelling enough argument to play again in either the story or gameplay department. Daylight will be available on April 29th for the PC and PlayStation 4.

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Daylight is a neat tech demo for the UE4, but as a game it utterly fails in the story, the gameplay and the scares. While it offers replay value, the base experience is utterly worthless of replaying. At a low price point of 10 dollars, it could offer some scares via the Twitch interface, but the sole game by itself is not worth your money.

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While Daylight is able to bring some fear into play that doesn’t just rely on jump scares, the story and dialogue is lacking any distinguishable tale to tell. Thus, it removes any sense of dread in navigating the poorly lit areas. For those looking for a better way to spend your time and money, recent releases like Outlast or Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs will tell a more compelling story that will generate genuine fear. I was able to complete a playthrough in just 2 hours my first time, and subsequent playthroughs under 50 minutes. In speaking with other reviewers, they were able to whittle their playtime down to just 30 minutes. Without being exceptionally long or interesting, the price point is excessive for the poor experience you get in return.

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Daylight has neither the creeping sense of psychological dread of Fatal Frame nor the poster man antagonist of Slender, and its reliance on cliché lacks distinction. But if the game's straightforward purpose was simply to panic and upset its player then it is an indisputable success, no matter how cheap the tricks employed.

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Pestilence11 said:

Maybe this one should've never seen the light of day.

Spoiler

I know that sucked

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henhowc said:

So did chobot do ok with the story at least? Was kind of rooting for her.

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Beck said:

Well here's a more positive review to go along side Softpedia's.
Hardcore Gamer - 4/5

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Delta Assault said:

Well shit... I'm a hardcore gamer. This site really speaks to my needs.

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big_z said:

I wrote this game off as soon as chobot said jump scares, monsters and gore is what makes a good horror back in that interview she did. I was kind of hoping she would surprise but after listening to bombing the AM and seeing the reviews it seems this was destined to be a turd from day one.

its a shame but at least I have fatal frame 4 on the back burner to fill the horror void.

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Daylight makes for an interesting experiment in audience participation, but no crowd of online viewers can make the poor writing any better or the themes any less hackneyed.

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In creating a game designed for return visits, Zombie Studios ironically forgot to make a game worth playing in the first place.

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funkystudent said:

I am only interested in this game because its the first UE4 game.

So any talk about how it runs or if its doing anything graphically to write home about?

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Delta Assault said:

Well shit... I'm a hardcore gamer. This site really speaks to my needs.

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Roshin said:

I got this for free with my graphics card. I would have preferred the latest AssCreed onstead, but I guess they cheaped out on me.

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