Alisa (v2023.08.16)

A pursuit through a rain-soaked, early-20th-century world turns into a nightmarish stay inside an elaborate mansion filled with clockwork dolls. Alisa casts players as a royal agent whose hunt for a wanted thief ends at the gates of a deeply unsettling estate, where every corridor conceals another bizarre threat or locked-door mystery. Its tone balances genuine unease with deliberately oddball humor, evoking the stiff, theatrical charm of late-1990s survival horror rather than modern cinematic scares. Pre-rendered backdrops, fixed camera angles, and uncanny mannequin-like enemies give the Dollhouse a memorable identity.

Play revolves around carefully searching rooms, solving inventory-based puzzles, finding keys, and deciding when combat is worth the ammunition and risk. Alisa uses a deliberately old-school control feel and asks for patience during encounters, as hostile dolls can hit hard and poor positioning quickly becomes costly. Weapons and equipment provide meaningful options, while dresses and armor alter her stats so players can lean toward survivability, mobility, or other advantages. A strange currency economy and shop system add another layer to resource management, making each purchase feel like a tactical decision instead of a routine upgrade.

What separates Alisa from simple retro-horror imitation is how confidently it embraces the era’s rough edges while building its own eccentric fantasy setting around them. The mansion’s detailed scenery, surreal enemy designs, costume system, and escalating set pieces keep its familiar Resident Evil-style framework from feeling like a museum piece. Difficulty can be punishing, especially for players used to generous checkpoints and abundant supplies, but overcoming its demanding combat makes progress satisfying. Fans of classic Resident Evil, Clock Tower, and modern throwbacks such as Tormented Souls should find plenty to enjoy, while newcomers should arrive ready to learn its intentionally rigid survival-horror rhythms.