Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror puts you in the shoes of celebrated singer Eliza de Moor. The story largely revolves around Eliza exploring her past in an effort to find herself again. The setup is quite simple; one evening, during a performance, Eliza suddenly collapses. On waking up, she finds that she has no memory of who she is or what happened, and has been taken into the care of Dr. Stern – a man claiming to be quite close with the de Moor family. In the early minutes of the game, Eliza and Dr. Stern come to an agreement about trying out an experimental treatment that promises to be extra spooky.

"The horror is ramped up very quickly once you actually reach Ravenhill"

Most of Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror takes place in the quaint town of Ravenhill, which was once well regarded for its dollmaking industry. The horror is ramped up very quickly once you actually reach Ravenhill and try to get to the de Moor family mansion, which is referred to by the people of the town as the Dollhouse. Interestingly, there aren’t any characters that you interact with throughout your time exploring Ravenhill. The story is almost entirely told either through vivid hallucinations, or through notes you find strewn about in the town and the Dollhouse. Even Dr. Stern, who is supposed to be accompanying you on this journey down memory lane, decides to maintain his distance from you in order to make sure that the “therapy” works.

In this way, Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror does a pretty decent job at setting up its atmosphere. Since you’re always alone, the sense of isolation is incredibly thick. Interestingly, despite the lack of people in Ravenhill, the game does a good job in making you believe that there might be hope around the corner. Good usage of lighting through hanging lanterns and candles always gives you the impression that, “maybe this house is safe and has someone I can talk to.”

Through Ravenhill, the game is able to tell an interesting story of the downfall of a small town. Largely told through environmental storytelling, like how certain houses might be in disarray while others are surprisingly clean, you get a pretty decent idea of what went down when the dolls inevitably rose up to fight against their masters. And ultimately, you start having to take down these dolls as well.

Most of the gameplay in Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror feels reminiscent of Resident Evil 7. You’re largely going to be exploring through dense environments, meticulously looking for clues and items that might help you figure out a way forward. Along the way, you’ll find cryptic puzzles that you have to solve, like finding the right statues to shoot in the correct order. And every now and then, you’ll have to use the more lethal qualities of your weapon to take on deranged dolls that are trying to kill you.

The puzzle design here isn’t particularly noteworthy. You’re not going to get head-scratching riddles that leave you running around looking for answers for hours on end. Most of the puzzles were fairly straightforward, and even managed to be quite self-contained to specific areas. If, for example, you happen to find a lock that requires a combination of numbers, you won’t have to go too far to find a letter that gives you the answer. The statue shooting example I used earlier was also confined to the same small area.

"Through Ravenhill, the game is able to tell an interesting story of the downfall of a small town"

Aside from having to fight against mindless enemies with limited resources, you also get similarly-cryptic yet simplistic puzzles, and even a minor crafting system that allows you to get more ammo. And considering the enemy AI, even fighting against dolls evokes a feeling similar to playing the Resident Evil HD Remake with modern controls that let you simply run around enemies without having to directly deal with them. Even the health and inventory system UIs feel like they might be from early drafts of a Resident Evil game.

The combat encounters in Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror don’t come about too often, but just about every single time you do have to fight something, the game feels much worse for it. The combat feels incredibly clunky thanks to monotonous enemies and an excruciatingly-slow movement speed, and the amount of ammo you get from early on tends to erase quite a bit of the tension that you might otherwise expect from a combat-centric horror title. Just about every bit of atmosphere the game slowly builds up thanks to its creepy environments and story tends to get obliterated the moment you have to engage in combat, and the game would have overall been much stronger had it simply skipped having a combat system to begin with or you know, made it better.

One of the big twists in Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror revolves around the use of mirrors. Every now and then, you will find mirrors that let you enter a different version of the area you’re in. Sometimes, this version might just be a glimpse into the past. Other times, it might end up being a much more surreal experience. These mirrors are used as a way to move forward, often marking a significant point in the game’s story. Sadly, there isn’t much more to these mirrors than just a sequence that occasionally happens. There aren’t any optional mirrors that you can find that might expand further on the plot, and they generally tend to stay on the linear path forward through the story.

"Just about every bit of atmosphere the game slowly builds up thanks to its creepy environments and story tends to get obliterated the moment you have to engage in combat"

Another area where the game loses quite a bit of its steam is in its visuals. While I am a firm believer that solid art direction is much more important to a game looking good than raw visual fidelity, Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror definitely loses a lot of what it was going for from the very beginning. At the risk of veering into the realm of hyperbole, Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror might just be one of the most dull and drab looking titles out there. Even at its highest settings, just about every surface looks like a muddy mess because of low-resolution textures, and the few characters you do meet early in the game tend to look like they might be ripped right out of an early PS3 game.

The only reason any of the thick atmosphere of the game is able to land is largely thanks to the clever use of lighting and the inherent creepiness of human-shaped dolls. The lighting is especially doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, and plays a big part in instilling any sense of fear that might arise from the very idea of turning around a corner.

Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror is a bit of a disappointment. There are some interesting ideas in its story and the creepy dolls that you often have to deal with end up largely being window-dressing. While there are some frights to be had, largely thanks to the excellent lighting throughout, the general monotony brought on by the game’s clunky combat system, poorly-designed enemies, and excruciatingly-slow movement speed tend to make the very idea of playing the game a rather boring experience.

This game was reviewed on PC.

The Sessions series has been made to give players more details about the first-person horror title, including information on some of its characters and how gameplay will work.

Dollhouse: The Broken Mirror’s story will revolve around Eliza de Moor. Once a celebrated singer, her life was changed when she fell unconscious in the middle of a stage performance. Years later, Eliza wakes up disoriented and with no memory of how she ended up in a sanatorium.

Doctor Stern seemingly has a solution – an experimental treatment that might help Eliza regain her memories and maybe even allow her to leave. As part of this treatment, Eliza has to visit Ravenhill Village, once known for manufacturing dolls but long left abandoned.

The village is also home to the de Moor family mansion, known colloquially as the Dollhouse mansion. Eliza must explore its depths and the surrounding village to discern what happened to her. Throughout her time, Eliza will discover the fate of her various family members. The video describes their stories as being “as tragic as it is mysterious”.

Incidentally, Doctor Stern and his father have ties to the de Moor family. Both are esteemed psychiatrists running the Stern Sanatorium, and their ties to the de Moor family go back generations.

While exploring the de Moor mansion, Eliza will travel through two distinct realities. One will be in the conscious world, where Doctor Stern acts as her guide, and the other will be in the subconscious world, where she will experience the world from the eyes of her younger self. The dolls all over the place have also seemingly taken on lives of their own.

Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for a March 28 release.

Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror puts players into the broken mind of once-celebrated singer Eliza de Moor. Eliza is now trapped within a labyrinth made of her own forgotten memories, and has no other choice but to make use of Doctor Stern’s experimental medicine.

As Eliza, players will be able to explore two different worlds—reality and a strange, horrifying world behind a broken mirror. As Eliza makes her way through this harrowing journey, she will be faced with many challenges, including hordes of horrific dolls that watch her every move, and even puzzles scattered throughout the game’s worlds.

Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror will be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. While it doesn’t yet have a solid release date, the game is set to come out later this year.

"The idea came to us when we were watching old movies, specifically Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. There was something eerie about films in black and white. It made the visuals feel unnatural, and since people associate noir with the past, we felt that it was a natural aesthetic evolution for the game."

What led to the idea of blending a noir aesthetic with a horror tone?

Andrew Tsan: The idea came to us when we were watching old movies, specifically Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. There was something eerie about films in black and white. It made the visuals feel unnatural, and since people associate noir with the past, we felt that it was a natural aesthetic evolution for the game.

Sam Kerr: Andrew is completely colorblind.

Can you elaborate on how the Focus mechanic works in the game?

Andrew Tsan: There are Memories players need to collect to progress in each chapter. The Focus mechanic allows players to see through the eyes of their pursuer, and the pursuer can see the memories. Players can “ping” them, so when then return to their normal vision they can hunt for them. This puts them into dangerous situations where they are perpetually getting closer to the monster to collect these memories.

Is there any particular media you have looked to for inspiration during development?

Andrew Tsan: We looked at older horror movies and narrative cues from Stephen King stories. If players look hard enough there are a lot of Easter eggs with hints of where we take inspiration from.

Sam Kerr: For me it was not exactly a media, but I drew inspiration from social issues of past decades. We have a mostly female cast, so I wanted to highlight the struggle of women in the past. Alcoholism, infidelity, and abuse weren’t discussed and often swept under the rug. In Dollhouse we exposed the dark side of this aspiration for a picture-perfect family. I wrote characters who were struggling with their identity in that era, just as Marie struggles with her amnesia in Dollhouse.

How much can the players expect the campaign’s story to branch out depending on their choices?

Sam Kerr: Discovering lost memories and journals influences the story that players uncover. It’s up to players to choose what they believe. Without giving too much away, I’ll share that decisions and interactions with memories change who they become as the game progresses. Dollhouse does not have a predetermined ending.

Andrew Tsan: Each narrative can be treated as a retelling of one another, where the sequences play out differently depending on which campaign they choose to start. We cannot go into further details beyond this to avoid spoilers.

"Each narrative can be treated as a retelling of one another, where the sequences play out differently depending on which campaign they choose to start."

The idea of piecing together memories is an interesting one, especially from a narrative viewpoint, but is it something that will factor into the gameplay as a mechanic as well?

Sam Kerr: Memories factor into several gameplay mechanics. One of the coolest features that I enjoyed working on was collecting fragments of journals. There’s a feature where the player pieces together these stories, with a small catch. There comes a point where players need to decide for themselves what they believe is true, and it can become quite conflicting.

Andrew Tsan: Yes, this is a core gameplay mechanic that is integral to the game’s narrative structure. It isn’t a throwaway thing.

On the multiplayer side of things, the concept of each player having having a specific target assigned while someone else hunts you down is a very interesting one. Can you go into a little bit of detail on how exactly that will work?

Andrew Tsan: Sure! There cannot be any duplicate characters by default except for ‘one’ to make finding their targets easier. Players are given their target at the beginning of each round. They have a short period of time to find their target, kill them, and take their memories. This creates an interesting ‘cat & mouse’ style of gameplay. Players can risk trying to hunt down their target if they have a decent amount of memories on them, or they need to spend this time running around and using focus to collect memories.

How will the multiple playable characters in the multiplayer component differ from each other?

Andrew Tsan: Each character has their own unique Abilities, Passives, and Inventory Size. This is coupled with thousands of possible loadouts players can create with 40+ unlockable skills.

How does character progression work with regards to the unlockable abilities and passives?

Andrew Tsan: In multiplayer, players unlock XP while playing the game, and can earn more depending on how well they did in the match. Players use XP to unlock tokens, which are currency used to purchase more skills.

Why did you choose to go with procedurally generated maps for the game?

Sam Kerr: Replay value is one reason, but chaos was just as important. Feeling familiar with your surroundings creates a certain level of comfort, and Marie is truly lost in the world of Dollhouse. If she can’t remember where she is, the player shouldn’t either.

"Feeling familiar with your surroundings creates a certain level of comfort, and Marie is truly lost in the world of Dollhouse. If she can’t remember where she is, the player shouldn’t either."

Is there a reason why this game is a console exclusive to the PS4?

Andrew Tsan: We didn’t have the resources to develop for Xbox, but we will not rule out porting in the future.

What resolution and frame rate is the game running on the PS4 Pro and base PS4?

Andrew Tsan: PS4 should be running at 30fps and PS4 Pro should be running at 60fps.

Next gen is coming sooner or later. From a development perspective, what is your biggest expectation from PS5 and Xbox Scarlett?

Andrew Tsan: Streaming will definitely become standard. We will also potentially see a rise in VR games that are more precise and immersive.

What is your take on Sony’s reluctant policy on cross-play with Xbox and Switch?

Andrew Tsan: As a fellow gamer, I do want players to play with others instead of being segregated by individual platforms and their restrictions. However, we still need to respect the policies in play and just hope it gets less restrictive moving forward to the next gen.

Do you think cross platform will be one of the defining features of next-gen consoles?

Sam Kerr: Honestly, I would love to see that happen. It’s up to gamers to voice what they want.

Andrew Tsan: I sure hope so, I think we’ve all been there, where we wanted to buy multiple copies of the same game to play with different friends. Let’s hope that you only need to own one copy going forward. 

What is your take on the ongoing drama of loot boxes and microtransactions?

Andrew Tsan: I feel like it really depends on the type of game and what the micro transactions are. If it’s a games as a service model, I don’t think it’s bad as a form of continuing support for the game as long as its not a pay to win model. As for loot boxes, I don’t think it’s healthy for anyone as it brings out the worst habits in people, especially the younger gamers.

Sam Kerr: Personally, I don’t purchase loot boxes or make micro transactions, even though I play games that offer them. It’s a steep slope and having gambling-like features with real-world prices available to kids is a strange thing. In a controlled setting they could be beneficial to developers and extend the life of a game, but I think we need more regulation. Game developers work hard to keep interest in their games and using behavioural-psychology to their advantage isn’t unheard of.

"We didn’t have the resources to develop for Xbox, but we will not rule out porting in the future."

What is your position regarding the ongoing platform-war between Steam and Epic Games?

Andrew Tsan: I don’t think it’s healthy to segregate what once was a unified community. I hope both these platforms reach a healthy resolution as tensions seem to be heating up instead of dying down.

Do you have any plans to launch on Stadia?

Andrew Tsan: Not at this time.

Do you think Google’s Stadia has a future especially given the infrastructural issues?

Andrew Tsan: There are a lot of potential issues for sure, having the infrastructure is the most notable one. However, I feel like it’s a step in the right direction.

What are your thoughts on Stadia’s specs?

Andrew Tsan: The specs seem to be fine, however my question to this is similar to what a lot of people’s thoughts as well. What is the price point?

Do you expect PS5 and next Xbox to be as powerful as Stadia in terms of specs?

Andrew Tsan: Based on what the internet tells me, yes it will be.

The upcoming Dollhouse will see an open beta on Steam from April 12^th at 7:00 am ET to April 17^th at 10:00 am ET. Any interested users will be able to sign up and get into the beta one day sooner. You can see details on how to sign up here, as well as links to the developer’s various social media to follow the game.

The beta will include two chapters of the single player component, which follows the story of Marie, once known as “The Greatest Detective in the World,” suffering from amnesia as she’s seemingly trapped in the sinister Dollhouse where all the doors are locked and clocks have stopped. She mentally battles personas in her mind as she tries to escape and reclaim her memories, including the truth about what happened to her deceased daughter, Emily.

The beta will feature not only two chapters of the single player, but also two maps from the multiplayer, where up to eight players can try and hunt each other down. Dollhouse will release on PlayStation 4 and PC on May 24^th (as of now there are only plans for a PC beta).