Be it films, TV reveals, 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. Among the finest works within the style are inclined to double down on this, full with recurring motifs that are inclined 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 major theme revolves round inheriting the implications of the sins of your ancestors.
Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror places you within the sneakers of celebrated singer Eliza de Moor. The story largely revolves round Eliza exploring her previous in an effort to search out herself once more. The setup is sort of easy; one night, throughout a efficiency, Eliza immediately 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 attempting out an experimental therapy that guarantees to be further spooky.
“The horror is ramped up in a short time when you truly 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 truly attain Ravenhill and attempt to get to the de Moor household mansion, which is referred to by the folks of the city because the Dollhouse. Apparently, there aren’t any characters that you just work together with all through your time exploring Ravenhill. The story is nearly solely instructed both by vivid hallucinations, or by 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 keep up his distance from you with the intention to ensure that the “remedy” works.
On this method, Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror does a reasonably respectable job at organising its environment. Because you’re all the time alone, the sense of isolation is extremely thick. Apparently, regardless of the dearth of individuals in Ravenhill, the sport does a very good job in making you consider that there is perhaps hope across the nook. Good utilization of lighting by hanging lanterns and candles all the time provides you the impression that, “perhaps this home is protected and has somebody I can discuss to.”
By means of Ravenhill, the sport is ready to inform an attention-grabbing story of the downfall of a small city. Largely instructed by environmental storytelling, like how sure homes is perhaps in disarray whereas others are surprisingly clear, you get a reasonably respectable thought of what went down when the dolls inevitably rose as much as struggle in opposition to their masters. And finally, you begin having to take down these dolls as nicely.
Many of the gameplay in Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror feels paying homage to Resident Evil 7. You’re largely going to be exploring by dense environments, meticulously in search of clues and objects which may assist you determine a method ahead. Alongside the way in which, you’ll discover cryptic puzzles that you need to remedy, like discovering the best statues to shoot within the appropriate order. And once in a while, you’ll have to make use of the extra deadly qualities of your weapon to tackle deranged dolls which are attempting to kill you.
The puzzle design right here isn’t significantly noteworthy. You’re not going to get head-scratching riddles that go away you working round in search of solutions for hours on finish. Many of the puzzles had 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 need to go too far to discover a letter that offers you the reply. The statue taking pictures instance I used earlier was additionally confined to the identical small space.
“By means of Ravenhill, the sport is ready to inform an attention-grabbing story of the downfall of a small city”
Apart from having to struggle in opposition to senseless enemies with restricted assets, you additionally get similarly-cryptic but simplistic puzzles, and even a minor crafting system that permits you to get extra ammo. And contemplating the enemy AI, even preventing in opposition to dolls evokes a sense just like taking part in the Resident Evil HD Remake with trendy controls that allow you to merely run round enemies with out having to instantly cope with them. Even the well being and stock system UIs really feel like they is perhaps from early drafts of a Resident Evil recreation.
The fight encounters in Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror don’t come about too usually, however nearly each single time you do need to struggle one thing, the sport feels a lot worse for it. The fight feels extremely clunky due to 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 just may in any other case count on from a combat-centric horror title. Nearly each little bit of environment the sport slowly builds up due to its creepy environments and story tends to get obliterated the second you need 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 realize, made it higher.
One of many large twists in Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror revolves round the usage of mirrors. Once in a while, you can see mirrors that allow you to enter a special model of the world you’re in. Typically, this model may simply be a glimpse into the previous. Different occasions, it would find yourself being a way more surreal expertise. These mirrors are used as a technique to transfer ahead, usually marking a big level within the recreation’s story. Sadly, there isn’t far more to those mirrors than only a sequence that sometimes occurs. There aren’t any non-obligatory mirrors that you will discover which may increase additional on the plot, and they tend to remain on the linear path ahead by the story.
“Nearly each little bit of environment the sport slowly builds up due to its creepy environments and story tends to get obliterated the second you need 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 strong artwork course is far more necessary to a recreation wanting good than uncooked visible constancy, Dollhouse: Behind the Damaged Mirror positively loses a number 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 crucial boring and drab wanting titles on the market. Even at its highest settings, nearly each floor seems to be like a muddy mess due to low-resolution textures, and the few characters you do meet early within the recreation are inclined to appear like they is perhaps ripped proper out of an early PS3 recreation.
The one cause any of the thick environment of the sport is ready to land is essentially due to the intelligent use of lighting and the inherent creepiness of human-shaped dolls. The lighting is particularly doing a number of the heavy lifting right here, and performs a giant half in instilling any sense of worry which 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 just usually need to cope with find yourself largely being window-dressing. Whereas there are some frights available, largely due to the wonderful lighting all through, the final monotony introduced on by the sport’s clunky fight system, poorly-designed enemies, and excruciatingly-slow motion pace are inclined to make the very thought of taking part in the sport a fairly boring expertise.
This recreation was reviewed on PC.
