Daylight Critic Reviews

One of the best in its class. It is a game that encapsulates the spirit of horror in any form of media and offers suspense, terror, panic and a mystery to solve. The procedurally-generated levels and fantastic design not only make the game challenging, but create an intense and energetic atmosphere, aided by the sparse resources that must be painstakingly preserved for that crucial, life-or-death moment.

Daylight offers a short, but ultimately terrifying experience. The procedurally generated levels offers a unique twist on subsequent playthroughs, and the excellent sound design and powerful visuals really sell what Zombie Studios was going for here.

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.

If horror games are to be judged by their scares, then Daylight gives players their money’s worth. The game never failed to hit me with numerous jump-inducing moments, and smartly keeps the tension ratcheted through its mazes, only to let it out slowly in between — but just barely. Though short, the procedural generation adds replay value to the overall package, as does the Twitch functionality that makes streaming a bit more than just an experience in watching someone else scream like an idiot.

All in all, Daylight is a respectable addition to the modern horror lineup that packs enough scare into its roughly three hour playtime to justify its modest $15 price tag.

Slender was a short and sweet horror game, which worked well because it kept things simple and duration short. Daylight feels lackluster because it tries to do too much with a concept that was only good for a single short-form horror game.

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.

Although repetitive after a while, Daylight manages to fulfill the promise of shaking our breath while we cautiously walk in its procedurally-generated corridors. We fear those shadows, we know they’re there, even if we don’t see them.

In closure, Daylight as a whole does not reach the pinnacle of fear factors it strives for.

It holds some scary moments and manages to entertain, but it fails to deliver something now. If you haven't played any horror game from the Amnesia/Slender wave, it might be surprising. If you have, it feels like yet another survival horror relying on the very same gameplay.

Daylight is a common horror game, following the lead of Slenderman. It is, from time to time, scary enough to thrill the player, but it's also too short and poorly presented.

When I finished, I didn’t expect Daylight to stick with me as much as it did. The story did very little new; the levels weren’t novel; the ghosts were ones I’d seen before. But when I closed my eyes that night, all I could see was that Shadow at the end of the hallway, watching me.

Daylight is an horror game that despite its many limitations in gameplay and longevity, manages to keep its scary promises mainly thanks to a dark setting of great effect. The fear, though, is not enough to make a good horror game.

The procedural concept behind Daylight is quite charming and the game is full of potential, but it fails to deliver.

Daylight is a good survival horror game for PC and PS4. In this game, Zombie Studios give to the players a huge amount of frights that will make them scream for a while. In addition, Daylight incorporates procedurally generated environments that invite the players to complete the game all over again.

I also ran into a series of technical problems, including crashes, falling through the ground, and audio glitches. These technical missteps are distracting, but they aren’t the most serious problem. Daylight’s inability to terrify you and present a world you want to explore is its ultimate undoing.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a rather creepy game and it can still frighten even the boldest of players, but in the end, it is a single play through game that lasts four hours at the most.

It's just let down by the repetitiveness and enemies that soon reveal themselves to be nothing more than a nuisance. Ultimately, the biggest shock Daylight gave me was the realisation that I was out to collect stuff instead of surviving the horrors around me. Don't say you weren't warned.

Daylight starts off scary and ominous, but repeating gameplay and enemies makes the game tedious and mediocre by the end.

Overall, I enjoyed getting scared by horrible, scary-looking spirits.