Be it films, TV exhibits, books or video games, the horror style usually tends to work finest when it focuses on one or two central themes to construct tales round. A few of the finest works within the style are likely to double down on this, full with recurring motifs that are likely to circle again to the story’s central themes. Even video games like Silent Hill 2 explored the idea of guilt, whereas a franchise as campy as Resident Evil nonetheless managed to incorporate attention-grabbing themes like that of household within the newer video games. Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror’s main theme revolves round inheriting the implications of the sins of your ancestors.
Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror places you within the footwear of celebrated singer Eliza de Moor. The story largely revolves round Eliza exploring her previous in an effort to seek out herself once more. The setup is sort of easy; one night, throughout a efficiency, Eliza out of the blue collapses. On waking up, she finds that she has no reminiscence of who she is or what occurred, and has been taken into the care of Dr. Stern – a person claiming to be fairly shut with the de Moor household. Within the early minutes of the sport, Eliza and Dr. Stern come to an settlement about making an attempt out an experimental remedy that guarantees to be further spooky.
“The horror is ramped up in a short time when you really attain Ravenhill”
Most of Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror takes place within the quaint city of Ravenhill, which was as soon as nicely regarded for its dollmaking trade. The horror is ramped up in a short time when you really attain Ravenhill and attempt to get to the de Moor household mansion, which is referred to by the individuals of the city because the Dollhouse. Curiously, there aren’t any characters that you simply work together with all through your time exploring Ravenhill. The story is sort of fully advised both via vivid hallucinations, or via notes you discover strewn about within the city and the Dollhouse. Even Dr. Stern, who is meant to be accompanying you on this journey down reminiscence lane, decides to take care of his distance from you with a view to be sure that the “remedy” works.
On this approach, Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror does a fairly respectable job at establishing its environment. Because you’re all the time alone, the sense of isolation is extremely thick. Curiously, regardless of the shortage of individuals in Ravenhill, the sport does a great job in making you imagine that there is likely to be hope across the nook. Good utilization of lighting via hanging lanterns and candles all the time offers you the impression that, “perhaps this home is protected and has somebody I can speak to.”
By Ravenhill, the sport is ready to inform an attention-grabbing story of the downfall of a small city. Largely advised via environmental storytelling, like how sure homes is likely to be in disarray whereas others are surprisingly clear, you get a fairly respectable thought of what went down when the dolls inevitably rose as much as battle in opposition to their masters. And finally, you begin having to take down these dolls as nicely.
A lot of the gameplay in Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror feels paying homage to Resident Evil 7. You’re largely going to be exploring via dense environments, meticulously in search of clues and objects that may assist you determine a approach ahead. Alongside the way in which, you’ll discover cryptic puzzles that it’s important to remedy, like discovering the fitting statues to shoot within the right order. And from time to time, you’ll have to make use of the extra deadly qualities of your weapon to tackle deranged dolls which might be making an attempt to kill you.
The puzzle design right here isn’t notably noteworthy. You’re not going to get head-scratching riddles that depart you working round in search of solutions for hours on finish. A lot of the puzzles have been pretty easy, and even managed to be fairly self-contained to particular areas. If, for instance, you occur to discover a lock that requires a mixture of numbers, you received’t must go too far to discover a letter that provides you the reply. The statue capturing instance I used earlier was additionally confined to the identical small space.
“By Ravenhill, the sport is ready to inform an attention-grabbing story of the downfall of a small city”
Apart from having to battle in opposition to senseless enemies with restricted assets, you additionally get similarly-cryptic but simplistic puzzles, and even a minor crafting system that lets you get extra ammo. And contemplating the enemy AI, even preventing in opposition to dolls evokes a sense just like enjoying the Resident Evil HD Remake with fashionable controls that allow you to merely run round enemies with out having to instantly take care of them. Even the well being and stock system UIs really feel like they is likely to be from early drafts of a Resident Evil sport.
The fight encounters in Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror don’t come about too usually, however nearly each single time you do must battle one thing, the sport feels a lot worse for it. The fight feels extremely clunky because of monotonous enemies and an excruciatingly-slow motion pace, and the quantity of ammo you get from early on tends to erase fairly a little bit of the strain that you simply may in any other case anticipate from a combat-centric horror title. Nearly each little bit of environment the sport slowly builds up because of its creepy environments and story tends to get obliterated the second it’s important to have interaction in fight, and the sport would have general been a lot stronger had it merely skipped having a fight system to start with or you understand, made it higher.
One of many huge twists in Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror revolves round using mirrors. Now and again, you can find mirrors that allow you to enter a unique model of the world you’re in. Typically, this model may simply be a glimpse into the previous. Different instances, it’d find yourself being a way more surreal expertise. These mirrors are used as a technique to transfer ahead, usually marking a major level within the sport’s story. Sadly, there isn’t far more to those mirrors than only a sequence that sometimes occurs. There aren’t any optionally available mirrors that you will discover that may increase additional on the plot, and they have a tendency to remain on the linear path ahead via the story.
“Nearly each little bit of environment the sport slowly builds up because of its creepy environments and story tends to get obliterated the second it’s important to have interaction in fight”
One other space the place the sport loses fairly a little bit of its steam is in its visuals. Whereas I’m a agency believer that stable artwork path is far more necessary to a sport wanting good than uncooked visible constancy, Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror positively loses a variety of what it was going for from the very starting. On the danger of veering into the realm of hyperbole, Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror may simply be one of the uninteresting and drab wanting titles on the market. Even at its highest settings, nearly each floor appears to be like like a muddy mess due to low-resolution textures, and the few characters you do meet early within the sport are likely to appear to be they is likely to be ripped proper out of an early PS3 sport.
The one purpose any of the thick environment of the sport is ready to land is essentially because of the intelligent use of lighting and the inherent creepiness of human-shaped dolls. The lighting is very doing a variety of the heavy lifting right here, and performs a giant half in instilling any sense of worry that may come up from the very thought of turning round a nook.
Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror is a little bit of a disappointment. There are some attention-grabbing concepts in its story and the creepy dolls that you simply usually must take care of find yourself largely being window-dressing. Whereas there are some frights available, largely because of the superb lighting all through, the overall monotony introduced on by the sport’s clunky fight system, poorly-designed enemies, and excruciatingly-slow motion pace are likely to make the very thought of enjoying the sport a slightly boring expertise.
This sport was reviewed on PC.
