Before Exit: Gas Station - Daylight DLC Review

Daylight is a clever, unnerving pivot for Before Exit: Gas Station a shift from the claustrophobic, night‑shift dread of the base game into something quieter, stranger, and more investigative. Instead of scrubbing floors and dodging your boss in the dark, you’re stepping into the shoes of the missing employee’s wife, combing through the station in broad daylight, camera in hand, trying to piece together what happened. And somehow, the daylight makes everything feel worse. You're not safer, you're just exposed.

CHECK OUT OUR REVIEW OF THE CORE GAME HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cswcrj9yD_E

You’re no longer the employee; you’re the person who loves him, searching for answers across seven consecutive days. That emotional shift alone reframes the entire gas station. Gone are the chores. Instead, you’re hunting for anomalies, subtle, uncanny disturbances that don’t obey logic. You document them with a camera, and missing even one crucial detail forces you to restart the entire inquiry. The DLC leans into the unsettling idea that horror doesn’t need darkness. The sun illuminates every corner of the station, but the more you see, the less you understand.

Daylight trades jump scares for a slow, investigative tension. It’s the kind of horror where you’re squinting at shelves, walls and reflections but not because you’re scared of what’s hiding, but because you’re scared of what’s changed. The photography mechanic is simple and it turns every room into a puzzle box and every anomaly into a breadcrumb in a larger, unnerving trail. The seven‑day loop adds pressure: one mistake, and you’re back to day one, retracing your steps, wondering what you missed.

This structure makes the DLC feel almost like a paranormal detective sim, kind of like Observation Duty meets Firewatch, but with the emotional weight of searching for someone you care about. The DLC is also extremely well priced (less than £2.50 on Xbox!), it's not the longest however, you can get through the entire DLC campaign in about an hour if you don't make mistakes to send you back to the beginning.

 Pros

• Fresh narrative angle — playing as the missing employee’s wife adds emotional weight and a new lens on the station.

• Daylight horror done right — the bright setting makes every anomaly feel exposed and uncanny.

• Photography-based investigation gives the DLC a tactile, detective-like rhythm.

• Seven-day loop builds tension without relying on jump scares.

• Expands the lore in a way that feels intentional and satisfying.

• Strong environmental storytelling — the station feels familiar but wrong in subtle, creeping ways.

Cons

• Miss one anomaly and you restart the whole loop, which can feel punishing rather than tense.

• Less frantic than the base game — players who loved the chore-based pressure may miss that energy.

• Daylight visuals lack contrast, making some scenes feel flatter than the Midnight DLC.

• Repetition creeps in during later loops if you’re stuck hunting the same elusive detail.

Daylight is a confident, thoughtful expansion. It's not louder, but sharper. It trusts players to sit with ambiguity, to notice the wrongness in the ordinary, and to feel the ache of searching for someone who may already be gone. It’s not just “more gas station.” It’s a reframing of the entire experience, told through a lens (literally) that makes the familiar unsettling again. If Midnight was about surviving the shift, Daylight is about understanding the aftermath.

XPN Rating: 4 out of 5 (GOLD)

Daylight DLC is available Now!