Dollmare Spiel
It’s yet another horror game from yesteryear with a ‘find an anomaly’ mechanic. However, Dollmare is less an anomaly game than more a job simulator game. Job simulator is a subgenre which focuses on “simulating” real life job — in this game, a doll inspector. The premise of the game is rather straightforward. The protagonist has gotten a job in a doll factory as a doll inspector, who now needs to examine the toys before they can hit the shelves.
The job of doll inspection, as a gameplay mechanic, leaves much to be desired. The inspection is done by simply holding the doll in one hand and bobbing it around with a mouse. It’s odd that the game doesn’t have a station to speak of to properly and industriously examine the dolls in large quantities. Instead, the player must examine a doll by walking toward, for example, to an x-ray machine. It diminishes the point of calling it a factory when an employee must walk over to a station, instead of handing it off on an assembly line. In my opinion, it’s less a factory than a workshop. Most of the job, thereby the gameplay, is in walking.
What’s even more odd is the overarching employment system. In my playthrough, the money earned from daily shifts was of no value. The player does not need to cover living expenses with it and cannot reinvest it toward upgrading gears or stations in the factory. Each shift is also not timed. You can examine a doll however long you like, but there is no repercussion for slow performance. With no rewards and no penalties, it’s not incentives for players to venture forth to find out the horrors either.
Most of the horror in the game stems not from the job itself, but from the environment and the plot. Doll-related horrors are adequately designed to give creeps when they are necessary. One could make an argument the game is merely paying homage to doll horror stories, because the central arc of the Dollmare is too bland to stand out. The game attempts to explain away the haunted phenomenon occurring in the factory. But with overused clichés on characters, settings, and even the dolls, it’s less an explanation but yet another homage to doll horror plots.
Conclusions: Why a Doll Factory Horror?
There are a lot to be desired from Dollmare: doll, factory, and horror. I believe the game delivers on showing what horrors we had seen with dolls, but the game does not explore the new avenue of doll in horror stories. As a factory, or a job simulator, it lacks the core system to keep the players on their toes. The overarching horror, aside from the usage of dolls, is classical one at best. As an indie game priced at $4.99, while it offers a different kind of horror, but I cannot help but feel the game quickly became dull, then terrifying.