Alisa Developer’s Cut

Genre: Graphic Adventure / Horror

Players: 1

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Review:

Alisa is a Graphic Adventure game with Horror elements released on PC in 2021 and then brushed up in this Developer’s Cut and released in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game puts players in the role of a member of an elite security force tracking down a man who has stolen national secrets, only to find her pursuit take an unexpected turn when she is ambushed by monsters. When she awakens, Alisa finds herself dressed in unusual clothes and trapped within a strange mansion filled with murderous clockwork mannequins and other monstrosities.

Alisa was clearly designed to evoke memories of classic games in the Survival Horror style, such as the original PlayStation release of Resident Evil, the first Alone in the Dark, and other games that followed in their footsteps. To this end, the presentation largely succeeds, meaning that the game consists of low-polygon characters with low-resolution textures in front of flat, pre-rendered backgrounds, joined by poorly-recorded, poorly-acted voicework. If you’re a fan of the early era of Horror games, this will likely be an absolute delight, but if not, this will likely seem highly dated to you.

It seems like the gameplay is much like the presentation, in that it is highly dated in a way that only those with a fondness for very old Horror games will appreciate. The static camera angles make for jarring changes in perspective on a regular basis that force you to reconsider the controls in ways that are clunky and frustrating even if you opt to trade out “tank controls” for “modern controls” in the options menus.

Even worse, the combat is absolutely abysmal, not only forcing you to contend with horrible controls, but making you take out tough or speedy characters extremely early in the game before you’ve even become properly acquainted with those controls. Even if you have a nostalgia for the era of games this evokes, the poor pacing and sharp difficulty curve of this game is something only the most masochistic of players will enjoy.

It’s not like retro-inspired Horror games can’t be good. Just last year, Homebody gave us a solid example of a game using this same style of game in ways that still made for an enjoyable game while preserving that feeling of nostalgia. Alisa, on the other hand, seems to celebrate all of the worst qualities of games from that era, and I do not think that will make for an even remotely enjoyable experience for most players in 2024.

tl;dr – Alisa is a Graphic Adventure and Horror game about a woman trapped in a mansion with clockwork monstrosities. This game is clearly going for a celebration of classic games in the “Survival Horror” style, but it feels like it only succeeds at highlighting the worst qualities in those games and reminding us why games aren’t like that anymore. I cannot recommend that anyone play this frustrating ordeal of a game.

Grade: D

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Winner:

Most Overrated (81) – I have nothing against retro games that revisit a genre as it was in a bygone era. Heck, I celebrated the game Homebody for doing exactly that with the same genre Alisa aims to resurrect, the classic old-school “Survival Horror” game. However, I can’t help but feel like the nostalgia goggles blinded other critics to this game’s horrible flaws – its absolutely disastrous combat, its terrible game design with far too many enemies far too early into the game, and its complete lack of anything that’s actually, you know, scary. I think someone needs to remind a few game critics that you can revisit what was so great about older games without rehashing all of the worst of those games’ flaws.

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