Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle - The First Preview

ign.com:

Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle may sound like a bizarre game of word association, but it’s actually the name given to the prequel to Daymare: 1998, the third-person survival horror game that proudly wore its Resident Evil 2 influence on its sleeve like a stitched-on S.T.A.R.S. badge. Yet while Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle might have a slightly cryptic title, its intentions are certainly clear - to take the medkit-collecting, corridor-creeping, survival horror-shooting of its predecessor and upgrade it with nifty new gadgets and electricity-charged enemy types in order to elevate it above simple homage.

Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle introduces a brand new protagonist, H.A.D.E.S. special agent Dalila Reyes, who comes equipped with a standard issue shotgun, a standard issue submachine gun, and a standard issue script of survival horror dialogue. The ‘Sandcastle’ in question is the codename given to the special operation that lures Reyes into a top secret US government facility; a shadowy structure run by shadowy people conducting mysterious experiments that clearly haven’t gone to plan. If the bloodsoaked bodies on the floor aren’t enough to convince you that something very bad has recently gone down, then the anguished audio recordings will.

Fortunately special agent Reyes is able to stay frosty, quite literally so. A major point of difference for Sandcastle over the original Daymare adventure, is Reyes’ unique ‘Frost Grip’ tool, a wrist-mounted ice cannon that has multiple different uses. The Frost Grip can be used to clear paths through the environment; extinguishing flames in a battle-scarred boiler room to uncover hidden ammo pickups or alternate routes to an objective, as an example. It can also be used to solve puzzles, as was the