DAYMARE1998 Combat Guide

DAYMARE1998 was a game I was incredibly hyped for - a gory survival horror game that is published by the notorious Polish developer Destructive Creations (who developed HATRED, Ancestors Legacy, IS Defense; all amazing games with a dark, grim tone brandishing blood-gore violence) who are a company I fell in love with since their claim to fame with HATRED and therefore, from that point on, I became compelled to support their every endeavor. Destructive Creations know how to do violence and gore very well.

However, DAYMARE1998 was developed by Invader Studios, an indie studio based in Italy who prior to DAYMARE1998, worked on the short-lived "Resident Evil 2 Reborn" before upgrading to DAYMARE1998 - a game influenced by the Resident Evil series. To celebrate the occasion and help new players into the game, I decided to write this guide after dying too many times and barely scraping by - serving as a spoiler-free boot camp of sorts.

The name of the game is ammo conservation because it doesn't fall out of your enemies so your gun is the very last resort; you could dodge and outrun your enemies most of the times. To make outrunning easier, go for the LIGHT STUN: shoot your enemies in the knees to stagger them. Since the enemies here love to grab you for massive damage, the light stun would prevent them from doing that as you run past them to gain distance. However, only do this when in an open area.

As the name implies, it's slower but more effective against a single enemy - essentially its a combo of shooting the enemy in the knee and melee attacking them while they are staggered; causing the enemy to collapse and remain incapacitated for enough time to do a tactical retreat.

The worst mistake you could do when leaving a room in DAYMARE1998 is not checking your ammo and magazines in your inventory - this would get you overwhelmed and killed since inventory screen doesn't pause the game. Make sure to combine boxed ammo (what you find in the levels) with your weapon's magazines (as shown in your inventory.)

Failing to do that will not allow you to reload your gun regardless of the amount of boxed ammo you have; ammo in the box is NOT the same as ammo in the magazine. Finally, there are two ways to reload your guns; the quick and the slow where the former is faster but requires you to pick up the dropped magazine while the latter is obviously slower but puts the magazine back to your inventory. Needless to say, if you got only one magazine in your inventory and you forget to pick it up after a fast reload - you won't last too long.

Often, you would be in situations where you run out of ammo and thankfully, DAYMARE1998 gives you a melee attack that is effective enough to rely on; stunning a target with one hit and flooring it with two. However, the challenge is getting the timing right because as soon as the enemy gets within arms distance; prepare to go to war with your keyboard to throw them off. Usually, it's best to punch the enemy as soon as they take one step towards you - resulting in stun and an opportunity to floor the enemy with a follow-up hit.

Sprinting and melee attacks use stamina (a cat knows that) but in DAYMARE1998 you are good for either 2 melee punches or 6 seconds of sprint time; on a single bar from an idle state. It is not recommended to melee after sprinting because chances are that you would fail to even initiate an attack.

Overall, DAYMARE1998 is not a shooter however, there would come a time when you would have no choice but to fight back without the luxury of powerful weapons, fast movement speed, and durable protection therefore, you need to fight with technique and timing. The above makes the combat more tactical, almost as much as SWAT4 in the way you use your guns - fire only when you have to and when you do, make every shot count; gauge your distance, retreat when need-be and understand that the goal is to survive and not kill.