Dollhouse Review

It’s been over twenty years since the Horror genre was thrust to the forefront of gaming with the release of the now Iconic Resident Evil. Such was its impact and contribution to the industry that it’s arguably the reason we are still getting a healthy flow of horror titles (and bowel movements) like Dollhouse today.  Does Creazn Studio and SOEDESCO Publishing have a contender here that can proudly share the horror genre space with that iconic series? Is it even a fair question to ask?

Perhaps not.

Dollhouse bills itself as a first-person film noir horror story. The premise is that you must survive a horrifying trip into the mind of a woman named Marie, a detective trying to unravel the secrets of her past, all while trying to escape her mysterious pursuer and decipher her story. Overall, it’s an engaging enough story - the less is said the better. To give too much away would be a disservice to the game. Safe to say that the main premise is an interesting one that invites you, the player, to come and see for yourself the events that transpire.

The games main driving goal is that in order to complete each level, you need to locate memory reels scattered throughout, all while avoiding your stalker. The game allows you to see through this enemy’s eyes at any given time, giving you both its location and any nearby items (including those necessary memory reels). The clincher is that, when viewing through its eyes, it is drawn closer to you. It’s a neat risk-reward mechanic that definitely made the experience more interesting. You must navigate maze after maze, seeking out these memory canisters to put into Memory Machines. This allows you to go and solve a puzzle in order to get a master key to proceed to the next level. All while being stalked by an unrelenting killer, being attacked by mannequins, and avoiding deadly traps. Simple!

Thankfully, you are more than capable to perform these tasks. You can customize and upgrade your character with around 40+ Abilities and Passives that are acquired through leveling up. There’s nothing particularly imaginative here, run faster, make more chalk so you don’t get lost so easily etc but it’s nice to have an additional layer to the gameplay to work with. The gameplay loop is basically: Survive. Collect. Improve. Continue. If you die, you lose everything. This includes all the memories you’ve collected. So, there are some stakes adding to the tension. Having to go and find your body to retrieve what you lost upon death is not an original idea, but it serves the context well here. All in all, the foundation is there for a solid game.

Visually, Dollhouse is a very…. grey affair. There’s nothing outstanding on display here. It’s dark, moody and about as cheerful as a film noir setting can be. If you’ve ever been hungover and needed sunglasses inside your house in the middle of the day just to feel normal again, then you’ll feel right at home.  It won’t win any awards in the graphics department, but its solid and mechanically sound. The game controls similarly to titles like “Layers of Fear” or the classic “Outlast” series. You view the action in first person through the eyes of Marie (or your pursuer when you choose to risk it). The game uses this perspective to good effect and there can be moments where the restrictive view genuinely causes tension naturally, just by its limitations. Of course, this is nothing ground-breaking or new, but it is welcome all the same.

Dollhouse features cooperative and competitive play. Again, an invisible pursuer must be escaped while investigating within a time limit through procedurally generated campaigns. Multiplayer includes a mode which allows players to fight one another with an intense Free-For-All game of cat and mouse with 14 playable “nominees” with unique abilities. Here, like the main game you collect Memories while hunting down your assigned target while someone else is hunting you. It’s an interesting feature that adds to an otherwise very short game. However, it was difficult to find and maintain matches. This may be because it’s perhaps early days for the title or it could be that most people prefer their horrors as a solo experience. I know I do personally.

There are unfortunately a number of issues holding this game back from being great. Firstly: The gameplay loop, though solid, is very noticeable and repetitive. The entire game basically takes the form of an extended fetch quest, with a certain number of memory reels needed in order to advance to the next level. The scenery may change slightly, a new type of trap or enemy may be introduced. However, you’re doing the same thing you just did in the previous level. And the level before that. It loses its appeal very early on and as a result can grow boring. A great gameplay loop doesn’t feel like a grind or a chore. But at its lowest moments, Dollhouse does.

Although the film noir look is a classic one, it can grow tiresome with little obvious variations from level to level. What started out as an interesting visual representation, started to feel quite dull on progression. Dollhouse also has quite a few bugs. In fact, I ran into a game-breaking bug that prevented me from continuing. An object that was supposed to spawn surprisingly, did not. This, in turn, prevented me from escaping a certain room. A quick google search showed I was not the only person experiencing this issue.  Lastly: Dollhouse clocks in at just under 5 hours to complete. For its price, I would begrudgingly find it acceptable if it was a stellar experience from start to finish or had substantial replay value. Sadly, however, Dollhouse did not tick either of these boxes. There was no real desire to immediately jump back in like there was with the B scenarios or new game plus modes of other titles in the genre. Though you can at least choose a different narrative style when starting. Which is a nice touch, but not enough to invest in another playthrough.

Performance

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In terms of performance the game runs well enough, with only a few noticeable drops when looking at certain detailed backdrops. I was running the game on a GTX980 and I7, easily meeting the recommended requirements. All in all, I was pretty satisfied with the performance. As mentioned earlier there’s nothing really pushing the hardware here that could warrant the occasional stutters, so they did come as a surprise. But there was nothing here that ruined the experience.