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Daylight

Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4
Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Zombie Studios
Release Date: April 29, 2014 (US), April 2014 (EU)

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'Daylight' (ALL) Introduces Protagonist, Details Story - Screens

by Rainier on Dec. 13, 2013 @ 6:56 p.m. PST

Daylight is a procedurally generated psychological horror game where each time you start the game, the entire world will be different; from the layout of the level, the location of items you find, and, most importantly, the encounters you stumble into.

Only the bravest souls will find all the messages and clues scattered through Daylight's labyrinthine twists of derelict hospital corridors and other creepy environments, where procedurally generated levels ensure no two playthroughs will be the same.

Daylight is told in the first-person perspective and begins with players regaining consciousness in an abandoned hospital with only a cell phone to use as a source of light. The ominous atmosphere, powered by Unreal Engine 4 gives players the immediate feeling that they need to escape. But since each level is procedurally generated, no clues, haunted corridors, life-saving flares or lurking specter will ever be in the same place twice. Daylight was written by industry veteran Jessica Chobot, who also provides the quavering, terrified voice of the protagonist.


Daylight's main character, Sarah Gwynn wakes up in the lobby of Mid Island Bay Hospital, but we don't know a lot about the history of Mid Island. Prior to present day, the last major interaction with Mid Island was nearly 30 years ago. In the early 80s, Mid Island Bay Hospital was a major interest to the G&C Investments Corp, who had designs on renovating the old hospital and turning it into a high-end hospice catering to the wealthy.

After spending a lot of money with the officials from the township of New Kipling, which claims Mid Island as its own, G&C was in the final stages of completing its due diligence to take control of the island and its property. They sent a team of contractors and experts to do on-site research, but after a short time G&C abruptly cancels the deal and leaves New Kipling altogether. Curious, the township sends in a team to follow up on G&Cs research, discovering, amongst other things, an abandoned excavation site with 12 grave-sized holes dug in the ground.

1948-1983

Mid Island Bay Hospital rots away in obscurity, left as a decrepit relic on the forgotten island. The doctors, nurses, patients, orderlies, and rest of the staff appear to have just left everything and disappeared one afternoon in the late 1940s. Furniture, files, and records were left with no hesitation, leaving a full shell of a hospital to age.

1939-1948

In the late 30s, a tourist steamboat caught fire and capsized off the coast of New Kipling, drowning more than 1000 passengers. The bodies of the victims washed up on the shores of Mid Island, and the hospital was quickly converted into a makeshift morgue to handle all the corpses. The remaining survivors of the shipwreck were treated at MIBH, but with limited resources and growing costs, the MIBH was unable to recover from the specter of a tragedy of that magnitude. The hospital closed its doors abruptly one day in 1948.

Zombie wants to keep players exploring and on the right track, so the current (and not guaranteed to be final) version uses Sarah's mobile phone as a mapping feature to aid explorability. But the map will only complete for rooms that you explore, and doesn't have too much detail on it, so it won't become a crutch for players. Not to mention, it'll still be subject to any sort of outside interference....


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