Daylight

Hardcore Gamer Magazine (4 out of 5) (80%)

Daylight’s shortcomings will scare away genre detractors. The gameplay is repetitive, the level design annoying and backtracking quickly becomes a chore. It falls short because because of these things, yet remains an amazing experience. As a survival horror junkie, I had a blast running and screaming my way through the three hours of terror Daylight has packed in and will undoubtedly dive back in at a later time to experience it all again. This is the kind of game you have to be a survival horror fan to get, but if you are, it will push all the right buttons and you will be able to ignore the shortcomings in the actual gameplay.

Hooked Gamers (7 out of 10) (70%)

It is quite the up and down experience that only takes about two hours to beat.

Eurogamer.it (7 out of 10) (70%)

Se siete in cerca di un titolo che vi spaventi, da giocare al buio e con il telefono staccato, tenete presente Daylight: anche se non è una rivoluzione del genere, potrebbe essere quello che fa per voi.

Gamegravy (6.5 out of 10) (65%)

The idea and concept in Daylight of using a cell phone for light and having randomly generated levels are excellent and extremely fun. The gameplay was solid but can be repetitive at times with fetch missions. If you are a hardcore horror survival fan, you’ll enjoy Daylight for a bit but may get bored as its not truly a horror survival game, you can’t really die. However, if you are into horror games in general like myself or want to check out a scary fully immersive experience you should definitely check out Daylight. It’s no requirement but if you own a Oculus Rift or plan on getting one this is an experience you’ll want to check out!

Darkstation ( ) (60%)

Overall, I enjoyed getting scared by horrible, scary-looking spirits. My previous statement of screaming and dropping the controller could be seen as contrary to that, but I thoroughly enjoyed being genuinely scared. If this ever happened, I would only hope that my cell phone is that reliable during that kind of situation. Actually, I would hope it would be that reliable in any situation.

4Players.de (59 out of 100) (59%)

Es hätte so schön werden können: Daylight bringt mit seinen unübersehbaren Anleihen bei Slender alle Voraussetzungen für packenden Survival-Horror mit. Im Ansatz gelingt es den Zombie Studios sogar, dank des guten Sounddesigns eine beklemmende Atmosphäre aufzubauen. Doch zu schnell fördert die ständig aufgewärmte Suche nach Zetteln und Siegeln eine Ideenlosigkeit zutage, die sich auch in der oberflächlichen Spielmechanik manifestiert. Schlimmer noch: Die übernatürliche Kreatur kann trotz ihrer hässlichen Fratze und visuellen Anleihen bei japanischen Horror-Klassikern wie The Grudge oder The Ring kaum Panik entfachen. Warum nicht? Weil ich mich dank meiner unbändigen Sprint-Kondition, Endlos-Akku im Handy und Anti-Geist-Fackeln meist viel zu sicher fühle!

PC Games (Germany) (58 out of 100) (58%)

Atmosphärisch kann man Daylight wenig vorwerfen, die Psycho-Terror-Stimmung kommt teilweise wirklich bedrohlich rüber und verursacht Gänsehaut – aber in Sachen Spielspaß ist der Grusel-Thriller eine Enttäuschung. Die Levels sind eintönig, die Gegner extrem nervig, abwechslungsreiche Elemente nicht vorhanden. Zudem sieht die Optik trotz Unreal-Engine-4-Technik so matschig aus wie ein Sandkasten im Dauerregen. Sparfüchse werden nun sagen: „Es kostet aber doch nur 15 Euro“, ich entgegne: „Kauft euch dafür lieber ne Kiste Bier!“ Denn die macht einfach mehr Laune als dieser müde Schocker.

GameStar (Germany) (52 out of 100) (52%)

Es gibt noch eine Parallele zwischen Slender und Daylight: Beide Spiele sind technisch und spielerisch eigentlich entsetzlich. Aber im Kern funktionieren sie. Auch Daylight liefert seine Schreckenswerte ab. Allein, im abgedunkelten Raum und mit ordentlicher Spiellautstärke, muss man recht abgebrüht sein, um nicht doch ab und an zusammen zu zucken. Es sind oft billige Tricks, aber sie retten Daylight immerhin vor dem totalen Verriss. Anders als Slender wollen die Zombie Studios aber für ihr Horrorexperiment bares Geld sehen und ihre Kern-Innovation bringt schlicht keinen echten Mehrwert. Tatsächlich passt sie sich so unvollkommen in das Konzept ein, dass der Eindruck entsteht, die Zombie Studios hätten die prozedural generierten Level für ein anderes Spiel entwickelt und Daylight ist das Abfallprodukt davon. Ein Testlauf, der gut genug geraten ist, um ihn auf den Markt zu stellen.

Polygon (5 out of 10) (50%)

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.

Jeuxvideo.com (8 out of 20) (40%)

Débordant de problèmes à tous les niveaux, Daylight fait plus penser à une version à peine évoluée de Lost in the Rift qu'à l'excellent Outlast. S'il parvient à provoquer quelques sursauts et que son scénario n'est pas inintéressant, même s'il aurait gagné à être beaucoup moins prévisible, le titre de Zombie Studios ne cherche jamais à se sortir d'une progression longitudinale donnant l'impression au joueur d'être un rat piégé dans un labyrinthe. Alors certes, les sentiments de solitude et d'enfermement restent les deux mamelles du survival mais quand tout ce qui tourne autour de ces deux concepts s'effondre comme un château de cartes, autant dire que l'ennui supplante rapidement la peur.

Svenska PC Gamer (35 out of 100) (35%)

Ja, Daylight ger dessvärre utslag. Över hela kroppen.

411mania.com (3.2 out of 10) (32%)

Daylight was a thoroughly unpleasant experience for me to try and play. The gameplay is boring, it’s not a horror game, it’s ugly looking, the logic is bad, and after about 20 minutes, the game would crash on me. I would wager that you would get more scares, or just basic enjoyment, out of almost any other horror game around right now.

Games TM (3 out of 10) (30%)

The ultimate problem for Daylight is that, as of now, the horror genre is booming, particularly on the PC/indie scene, at least, as much as it can be. The likes of Slenderman have opened up a world of free experiences, while Amnesia and company prove there's money to be made here too. Even Outlast, in spite of its flaws and unoriginality, manages to make itself a worthy horror experience. There is great horror to be had out there, especially on PC - you just have to know where to find it. You won't find it, however, in Daylight.

Games Arena (3 out of 10) (30%)

Nu pot recomanda Daylight sub nicio formă. Sunt jocuri de groază mai bune, la prețuri mai mici. Sunt jocuri de groază mai bună chiar gratuite. Chestia aia cu Containment cum îi mai spune, este adesea un joc de groază mai bun decât Daylight. Dar ar fi un lucru bun la el. Am un secret să vă spun, de ceva vreme, am ajuns să iubesc Metacritic. Nu pentru că este radiația ce alimentează un cancer malign în industrie, ci pentru că îmi arată exact cine habar nu are despre ce vorbește într-o recenzie, și ar trebui ignorat pe veci vecilor, alături de cei care l-au angajat. Și vă asigur, oricine i-a dat lui Daylight o notă bună habar nu are despre ce vorbește. Iar prin notă bună, adică orice ar da impresia că merită sub orice formă jucat sau băgat în seamă. Mi se pare și mai bizar faptul că a luat note mai mari pe PC decât pe PS4. Aș putea să jur că Amnesia a fost lansat pe PC, ca un standard de comparație. Dar hei, are suport pentru 3D, asta îl face cool, nu? Nu.

Game Over Online (25 out of 100) (25%)

By the end of the game, all the remnants start to add up to a pretty thin story about an orphan and twelve witches, one of the doctors at the hospital and some cursed ground. Whatever. There are also some other minor game elements such as flipping various switches, closing valves, and dragging a very few boxes around so you can climb over things, and that’s about it. For those who are interested, I found the fastest way to get through Daylight (and believe me that you want Daylight over as quickly as possible) is to light a flare and simply run through the levels. The flares burn long enough that you can, if you’re speedy, collect all the remnants, blasting ghosts to gouts of sparks, and get to the exit on just one or two, and there are enough flares scattered about that you don’t have a serious problem running short. Using that method I cleared my second play through in just under an hour. Yay! Guh indeed.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun N/A

Armchair designer time here - I'm confident keeping the protagonist in a state of Freeman silence would have been far more effective. As it is, there's too much dissonance in the fact she can be simultaneously stuttering "who's there?" three times in a row while confidently picking up flares or pushing door unlock buttons. The character's pantomime fear is not the player's silent but far more strongly-held fear, and that jars throughout.