Alisa Reviews

Controller not working, game unplayable to me without it.

Really fun! It's what I expected from a game that tries to go for the oldschool survival horror genre.

ONLY RECOMMENDED IF YOU ARE UNHINGED LIKE ME ABOUT ARCHAIC DESIGN. There's a lot to appreciate but also a lot to get frustrated with from a variety of bugs to inexplicably odd design choices or unintended consequences of them. Visuals, sounds, atmosphere come strikingly close to be the of time period it was inspired by, only falling ever so slightly short to truly evoke the appearance of a 90's PSX-game. But even as early as RE1 there was certain QoL and design choices that just aren't here (deliberately or not). Maps do not mark safe rooms (as few as they are) nor to they mark what door is marked by what key, etc. There's also no shortcut to the map. Keys have to be manually used on doors, with no indication whether a specific key was exhausted, which stays in your inventory permanently. Stuff like that. Combat is probably by far the most egregious aspect of this title. Something crazy has had to happen to make your basic sabre your most reliable weapon over the massive variety of firearms and other melee choices. Seeing how ineffective pistols and other weapons were really diminished the resource management the game attempted as buying other guns is a waste of currency so the only resource to manage really becomes the amount of medkits you carry and the currency to buy medkits with. I had to force myself not to savescum to undo my purchases of other guns because none of them would work any better than the 12-piece sabre you can buy at the start. Some of the enemies also have really bad hitboxes. Even with the sabre being the most reliable weapons, some enemies can seemingly punch and scratch *around* your block and parry, because they were tilted one too many degrees to a certain direction phasing through your defence entirely, losing health for no good reason. This would cover most examples of frustrating design and underbaked development. Some won't be improved or fixed anymore at this point, but from what it looks like the dev will take the feedback he has gotten on this game to heart and we will see how the eventual sequel will turn out. This is a passionate game but too many things hold it back.

I am so baaaaad at tank controls and the auto aim inst working. I might have to tough it out and get good because this game looks so good.

at the top of the pyramid of games that pay homage to earlier decades of the genre. where many fail by having some elements pop out from the low-fidelity into either modern or lazy, he gets everything right (especially FMVs)

I'm going to be honest- I couldn't get into this one. I love Resident Evil games, and there's so much I like about this one; Choice of tank or standard controls, effective melee weapons, and customization options. This was it, I was ready to give it my time and energy, and man- it DOES feel like someone's first game. There's a, "unlock this door to get this key to unlock this door" mindset baked in, and it's a little too shallow to truly ignore. The puzzles aren't anything crazy, and the enemies are either way too easy, or forget about not taking at LEAST a hit type engagements. I imagine you could beat the game in well under 2 hours with all the knowledge, and I think the game wants me to do that to unlock everything- and from I hear, you can softlock yourself out of achievements if you don't play it right from the beginning. Not a huge fan- hope the sequel's better, because the dreaminess of the world is worth exploring.

Do you like old-school Resident Evil? Do you like Alice in Wonderland? Do you like survival horror? DEFINITELY give this game a try. Alisa is a passion project of a game that faithfully re-creates all the aspects of old-school survival horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, while still feeling unique and interesting! It is fixed-camera, and has tank controls, and has save-rooms similar to old Resident Evil, so this may not be for everyone. I'd highly recommend it, and I had a blast playing it, and can't wait for more!

Fantastic atmospheric survival horror game. One of the best I’ve ever played.

very fun I had more fun with this game then I did with Resident Evil Zero. I think the armored knight outfit is best for exploration and the bullet cowgirl outfit paired with the rifle is best for boss fights. I hope the people who made this make a sequel.

Nostalgia can be a good starting point but for some people, nostalgia is where is starts and ends. I don't mean to sound judgemental but nostalgia can also be consumed by those who weren't actually there and their interpretation is often drawn onto a piece of paper to create a work of art that is only recognized as a work, inspired by that misinterpretation. Alisa however has color-banding on its pre-rendered backgrounds. There's games that I can see and instantly know that it was created last year, inspired by the year of 1996. However, what Casper has created here is a game that at points truly transcends nostalgia and enters the realm of the uncanny. It not only knows the resolutions and controls that those games used to feel like 1996 but it also knows how that tech and controls influenced not only the art direction but the art itself. Alisa is a game that looks like if HUMAN entertainment made a Resident Evil clone instead of Click Tower but plays like Alisa. And that's something you can't get anywhere else but this game.