Daymare: 1998

Honestly i am having a great time with this game. The dark, eerie atmosphere really pulls you in, and it's got that classic survival horror feel. Creeping through pitch-black halls with just a flashlight feels nerve racking in the best way.
The enemies are genuinely creepy, and the scares hit just right without feeling cheap. Daymare: 1998 keeps the pressure on, making every encounter a tense fight for survival. Definitely a solid pick if you like your horror dark and intense.
I'm still pretty new to the full on horror games but Daymare's creepy vibes really made me feel the fear.

One of the best first era RE clones with modern quality of life features and enough options to customize your play style.

Survival horror meets indie charm
Daymare: 1998 is clearly and without a doubt inspired by Resident Evil, and it honestly really nails some of that atmosphere and gameplay. The environments are gloomy and creepy, the soundtrack builds tension in all the right ways, and the enemy design is unsettling enough to keep you on edge. It genuinely plays like a weirder version of the RE2/RE3 remakes. It’s not a complete copy though, because it does do some things differently. The inventory and ammo management system is probably the most unique feature here - you don’t just reload as you usually would, you have to manage magazines for your weapons, meaning you have to swap them out, and keep track of which magazines are loaded and ready for use and which are not. It adds a nice extra layer of pressure during fights and keeps you thinking a step ahead, and it makes the gunplay more realistic (this can be disabled though if you prefer just reloading weapons without having to manage the magazines). You can also buy and sell items on top of the usual combining feature, which helps a great deal with inventory clutter.
That said, the execution of the game is kind of a hit or miss situation. The controls are a bit stiff, aiming feels slightly clunky, and combat isn’t as smooth as it should be. Animations sometimes look awkward, and character movement can feel sluggish compared to the intensity of the encounters. The story also doesn’t quite land the way it tries to. It jumps around between perspectives (meaning you alternate between different characters in different chapters), which is an interesting concept in theory, but the pacing is quite uneven and the dialogue comes across as cheesy B-movie script. The awkward voice acting and writing at times doesn’t help that situation either. One of the main characters also constantly has some sort of hallucinations, which I find extremely annoying because it makes the gameplay awkward instead of scary, and another character is just plain insufferable. For some players all that might be part of the charm, but others will definitely find it awful. I honestly didn’t mind all too much, because this game was made by an indie studio with limited resources, so, considering that it’s not an AAA game, it’s understandable, and nothing is game-breaking. The one thing I did find annoying is that sometimes random enemies spawn in locations you previous cleared out just to add random jump scares when you’re backtracking. It’s not the worst thing, but them just magically appearing, especially in closed spaces, is kind of meh. All in all, as far as the gameplay is concerned, not going to lie, for an indie studio they actually came extremely close to modern Resident Evil standards.
In terms of visuals, sound and atmosphere, I have to give it to them, they really did a great job. Especially the atmosphere of the game is absolutely fantastic, it really feels like a zombie apocalypse the entire time. Some sections are especially well-made. My personal favorite was a creepy chapter in a hospital, which was overrun by zombies. For an indie project the game definitely looks rather nice and the ambience is absolutely spot on.
Here are some examples:
Another thing that they did quite well are the puzzles. It’s also designed in RE fashion, but they’re a bit more difficult, and, to be honest, it’s great that they’re not just braindead straightforward fetch-and-insert puzzles. One of the first ones in the game is a puzzle where you pass some paintings of Greek gods and mythology stuff, and are then expected to read the descriptions and enter the proper names of things as password in a computer. Seems simple enough, right? Well, thing is, the keyboard is also Greek letters, so you have to use the Greek alphabet to do it. All you get as guide is a typewriter (RE easter egg!) as a little hint to compare the letters to the keyboard of the PC. Another puzzle requires you to use actual real life morse code. You have to listen carefully and replicate the words in written morse code on your own (dashes and dots). So, kudos to them for such puzzles! There is, however, an option for skipping the puzzles entierly in case you’re not a fan of such things and don’t want to bother with that stuff.
All things considered, Daymare: 1998 is quite an ambitious homage to modern RE-style survival horror. It captures the mood, ambience, and tension of the genre and introduces a few fresh mechanics of its own on top of it, but it’s somewhat held back by the rough controls, slightly uneven pacing, and technical flaws. If you’re a die-hard fan of the genre and you can overlook some of those issues, you’ll probably really appreciate what it tries to do. For everyone else, it’s worth picking up on sale, but don’t go in expecting the polish of a modern Resident Evil remake, because, like I said, this is an indie game. I ended up liking it quite a lot, despite some of the shortcomings I mentioned. If you also end up liking it, the game already has a sequel (which is actually a prequel story-wise) as well, and they plan to work on a third game in the future too as far as I’m aware.
This is the sequel:

It's ok-ish. You have to start someone when making games. This is very obviously inspired by Resident Evil & it does some parts well & other parts are miserable. The voice acting is some of the worst you will ever hear AND I understand that this game was done on a budget so you have to make cuts somewhere. I had the most fun w/ the gameplay & the level design isn't too bad. I paid 2 bucks for the game & I finished the whole thing. I think it's a decent palate cleanser type of game if you're into RE / Survival horror type games. I played it because I wanted something like RE while waiting for RE9.

Played this game and I think its overall good. Some real janky gameplay, bugs and a sharp difficulty curve - this game isn't easy by any means especially towards the end. But overall the environments are built well and you can tell a lot of love went into making this game. Good job. Gameplay mechanics are somewhat outdated but if you've been a gamer in the 90s and 2000s this isn't a big deal at all. Voice acting isn't good by any means and the game gets a pass despite that - it's that good.

Daymare
Fighter of the Nightmare
Champion of the Sun
You're the master of Karate
And friendship
For everyone

I really enjoyed what I played of this game. Sadly a lot of people accuse this game of being a Resident Evil clone but in actuality that game originally started out as a fan remake of Resident Evil 2 before Capcom sent them a cease and desist and then invited them over to the studio so they can give input of RE2 Remake. Then Capcom lent them some staff to help with the game.