Alisa: Developer’s Cut Review

thesixthaxis.com:

I don’t think Sigmund Freud was much of a gamer but if he were, Alisa would probably be his favourite game. Freud’s seminal discussion of the Uncanny remains one of the clearest accounts of what makes certain things incredibly creepy to us – and chief amongst his examples is the animated doll. Alisa takes this creepiness and puts it centre stage, taking an intricate love letter to the origins of survival horror and replacing the zombies with dolls. It makes for a timely and appropriate change of focus.

The opening cutscene to Alisa: Developer’s Cut (as the console version is named) sets the scene for the creepiness to follow as it features a slowed down view of a bullet destroying the head mechanism of a doll. This serves to establish both the similarities and differences to the usual zombie enemies of the genre and is a wonderfully stylish – and stylised – opening. Once past this the start game screen appears. There are a few options available in terms of controls and visuals, the former of which I’ll go into more detail about later, but the main decision to make is whether to start with auto-aim or not. While having this enabled is an initial benefit it limits the currency that enemies drop so I’d advise against it. The game has an icon by your ammo count that changes when you are aiming at an enemy so I’d recommend getting familiar with that instead.

Graphically, Alisa absolutely nails the early PS1 jagged aesthetic. This also applies to the animation as the enemies all boast creepy, uncanny movement that really gets to you. The pre-rendered backgrounds are pure original Resident Evil – the main mansion is almost overly familiar to be honest – and there’s a surprising range of locations to explore. Music is also fabulously unsettling, not least in a circus area that absolutely sent my coulrophobia (fancy name for fear of clowns) into overdrive. Voice acting is another matter, though, as this is spectacularly awful. The credits show that most of the characters are