Many retro-styled games aim to recreate the feeling of a bygone era. However, many forget important details, covering blemishes with modern technical prowess. The likes of Habroxia 2 and Project Downfall handle at a pace unthinkable in games of yesteryear. UnderDungeon and the recent Saga of the Moon Priestess are The Legend of Zelda inspired titles that present a pseudo 8-bit look, with significantly more detail than the NES could handle. Alisa Developer’s Cut comes closer than most to recreating the feel of those early Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles. Albeit, minus the door loading screens and fog.
From the 4:3 ratio of the game to the low framerate during cutscenes, the game does a great job of making you believe it’s a re-release of a mid-90’s title. Of course, as a game that debuted on PC in 2021, it needn’t have these issues. They are artificially created to inspire nostalgia. And it works admirably.
30 years is a long time however. Many games and series have come in the genre since, both survival horror retro games and more modern takes. Alisa Developer’s Cut may look and feel like a retro game, but its gameplay design has clearly not ignored all that’s happened in the genre in the intervening years. The opening section of the game is a slow and methodical walk through fields and a small town with only one living resident. A visit to a local wood and an unexpected encounter. All of this taking you through many screens of pre-rendered backgrounds. Far more than would’ve been considered necessary – or perhaps even possible – on CD based media.
Once the game starts true, you find yourself awakening in a house with no recollection of how you got there. Nor why your outfit has been changed. The story of the game has you piecing together clues in this creepy, elaborate ‘doll house’ which is not too dissimilar to Spencer Mansion. Keys with symbols and matching locks, item-and-hole puzzles, and brain dead enemies that will unrelentingly pursue you. Alisa Developer’s Cut apes the original Resident Evil so closely any fan of the original trilogy will know exactly what to expect.
This is of course for better and worse. Alisa Developer’s Cut offers both tank style and modernised input methods. Great. It also has a scatty appreciation of both when entering a new area with a different camera angle. Not so great. Its aiming mechanic is intentionally frustrating, as is the save system. The difficulty level seems fair until it wipes an hour of exploration from you because you were a few pixels too close to an object you didn’t realise would kill you. Alisa Developer’s Cut has all the trappings of its source material. And there are undoubtedly many gamers out there who will love it for exactly that reason.
However, if you’ve developed a taste for all the comforts of modern survival horror games, you may well find Alisa Developer’s Cut‘s intentional flaws a little too jarring. It’s not a game you’re meant to speed through guns blazing. It’s a game intended to make you stretch the ‘survival’ element of ‘survival horror’ as far as you can. Be that with limited ammo, health regeneration or patience. Alisa Developer’s Cut is destined to find an audience that will love it; and that’s the same audience that prefer the original Resident Evil 3 over its remake.
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