Delve into the enigma of a living Doll House. Guide Alisa through the winding halls and find out what the place really is.
For some, living in a dollhouse can be a dream. Who doesn’t want to go on adventures with Barbie or GI Joe? In Alisa Developer’s Cut, you come to experience having to navigate through such a place. It can be a fantasy for many. Fantasies, however, can be good or bad. Many stories centered around a Doll House can be entertaining in a non-scary way. Only time will tell if such is the case for the soldier.
Criminals hide in all manner of places. And just like the average adult human, they are unique in some minute way. Alisa Developer’s Cut gives the impression that more than simple criminal activity is at work here. Why was the suspect running away when encountered? And what do they have to do with the mysterious dollhouse? Are they responsible for the things that stalk the hallways? From the mind of Casper Croes comes a survival horror game that pays tribute to the early 90s horror genre.
When playing a mystery horror title, you hope to be on the edge of your seat. There needs to be a sense of urgency when it comes to completing objectives. With an arsenal of weapons, any would-be hero can usually take on a long list of daunting tasks. When it comes to the Alisa Developer’s Cut, journeying through the world becomes a bit of a struggle because of the controls.
Controls for movement are pretty simple. But that’s where simplicity for game controls ends. There are about four different movement settings. And while there are at least four settings to choose from, only one of those settings felt like it actually worked for the game. Default movement settings made it extremely hard to play Alisa Developer’s Cut, as attempting to move her forward often made her simply spin in place.
Once controls are finally handled, navigating the maze of rooms is a little easier. Much like other classics, certain keys will only work with certain doors. For example, the ‘hand key’ is found on a different floor than the doors that share the same symbol. You do not simply walk up to a door and use the key, which feels extremely odd.
An inventory screen must be opened, the corresponding key selected, and the door should unlock once the use button is pushed. It just seems like a really roundabout way to open a door. There are simpler ways to code such actions.
Before leaving the room that Alisa wakes up in, a gun, key, and letter can be found in the drawer of the bedside table. It’s a little weird, but the letter implies that the person who guided her to the Doll House did not have a choice. The tone suggests that their actions were taken under duress.
Early on, you come into contact with a puppet that goes by the game of Pol. After Alisa threatens the puppet with a gun, it states it can help the military officer. Paying in “tooth-wheels”, you can acquire various items from the puppet.
Pol offers things such as medkits, a military saber, pistol ammo, rifle ammo, and a few armor outfits. The tooth-wheels are not easy to find either. Picked up from defeated enemies, the amount acquired depends on the enemy defeated.
Auto-aim is a great way to ensure that most bullets hit an enemy. But it comes with a caveat: choose to activate auto-aim, and fewer tooth-wheels will be gained from any defeated enemy. Having Alisa actually aim directly at them with the press of a button relieves so much frustration when attempting to target enemies.
With the feature turned off, you have to rotate the character seemingly faster than the enemies, which is not possible. The player character’s ability to manually rotate feels slow as molasses compared to enemy movement. Having auto-aim off guarantees a short playthrough, as enemies can move far faster than the characters themselves.
Like many classics, there is a lot of fetching of keys. While it isn’t hard to find them, many of these keys are hidden behind puzzles. For example, the ‘left hand’ key is locked in a block siding puzzle. This is perhaps the easiest puzzle in Alisa Developer’s Cut for acquiring any item.
That being said, it is always a bit of fun to try and solve these particular head-scratching riddles. Personally, it does not feel hard enough. As thankful as I am to acquire a ‘key item’ so quickly, I do like a challenge when it comes to puzzle solving.
Enemies range in difficulty from simply frustrating to absolutely aggravating. The walking doll creature, despite never running, can overwhelm a person if they aren’t careful. It has no projectile weapons to speak of, and it isn’t at all fast. Allowing this creature in Alisa Developer’s Cut to get me stuck in a corner only ever ends badly. It’s best to keep this one at a distance and fire at it with the pistol weapon.
Some enemies are shaped like giant heads with legs. These enemies make excellent targets for the pistol or the blunderbuss weapon. Because of their size, they are not fast at all. Encountering these creatures everywhere is preferable to most of the enemies you encounter. Though, at first glance, they will make any player nervous. Giant heads with tiny legs are probably one of the hardest things to feel any fear of.
One of the more frustrating enemies is dolls with missing legs. Tiny in stature, these particular enemies’ armies crawl everywhere, thanks to their lack of lower limbs. While extremely fast, it only takes about three or four shots to end them. Sure, it only takes a few shots, but they are annoyingly fast.
Unfortunately, because their erratic movement makes it hard to land a shot, it is best to wait until they are at Alisa’s feet until the bullets fly. Every time I wait for this creature to be in front at a distance, I find myself wasting bullets and never landing a shot on the target.
Far enough into the Doll House, you will come upon what looks like the center of a big-top circus tent. Sitting in the stand are dozens of living dolls, clapping and raising their arms in joy. There is no particular thing keeping their interest. But some enemies are located within the halls around the circus arena.
When first coming upon the circus, you will have to deal with a pair of dolls on tricycles. This enemy type in AIisa is absolutely confusing. While they do attack at certain times, their movement consists of different-sized circles, making them harder to hit than the legless doll creatures.
Graphically speaking, there isn’t much worthy of note when it comes to Alisa Developer’s Cut. The title presents with pixelated graphics, which is fine. Many titles on the Nintendo Switch are pixelated and still have a beautiful aesthetic. This title is highly lacking in environmental detail and design.
Even if the characters themselves are a little plain, a beautiful environment is a good way to keep a player interested. Character design is also pretty bland, with the main character’s outfits having some of the lowest detail despite being worn by the main character.
Enemies in Alisa Developer’s Cut come in a variety of shapes and sizes. While this is a mystery horror title, there’s nothing particularly scary about enemy encounters. Sure, there are plenty of ‘creepy’ things in Alisa, such as the operation room full of scalpels, amputation saws, and other various medical-related tools.
Additionally, the door with the eyes that follow the main character is one of the game’s creepiest parts. That says a lot about a game that seems to rely heavily on the visuals delivering the ‘scare/creepy’ factor.
Alisa Developer’s Cut’s audio leaves even more to be desired than the visuals. An unknown party has imprisoned the main character, and she needs to escape. Whenever she speaks, the voice lines always fall flat. A game should always be given a chance, even when the audio isn’t great. With this title, however, ‘not great’ in regards to the audio is an understatement.
There are times when conversations with Alisa are seemingly meant to invoke a sense of panic. It is not hard to do with the right voice lines and surrounding events. But, when my ears hear these characters speaking, it’s hard to believe that the voice actors showed any emotion on their faces while recording the dialogue. I want to like the story and dialogue that goes along with it. Unfortunately, the dry dialogue makes it very hard to stay invested in anything any character says.
All the notes scattered throughout the Doll House are far more interesting. It would serve Alisa Developer’s Cut better if the story were told through notes instead of audio dialogue. What is located in each note does far better at world-building than the audio. There is just something about scattered notes that makes the whole ‘clue-finding’ aspect far more fun than hearing anybody talking.
Alisa Developer’s Cut has a great deal of potential as a mystery horror title. That being said, many of its lackluster details affect how good the title is. There is only one place in the entirety of the game where a person can save the game. The game can be saved only by journeying back through the entire Doll House and back to the puppet.
There is nothing interesting, good, or dynamic about restricting the ability to save to a single room on the second floor. Backtracking is fine, but only when there’s more than a single place to save a game.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing spectacular about Alisa Developer’s Cut or the world it takes place in. The story is loosely centered around some unknown face stealing blueprints. You never find out what the blueprints are or why they are even important. After finding yourself in the Doll House, the stolen blueprints feel like they were never really an important part of the story in any way.
Frustrating controls, lack of detail in environment/character design, and the scarcity of useful items compound things into a less-than-stellar experience. I can’t say that this game has a very high replay value. But maybe it would be good for a person who likes the challenge of always having to return to a single save point. Other than that, I can’t recommend the game to anyone looking for a good story and gameplay because this title does not have either.
