Doll comes to life on Windows PC

Written by Jack Allin — December 21, 2019 at 14:06

Did you get a Doll for Christmas? I'm not talking about a kid's toy, but rather the recently released horror adventure by that name from indie French developer Braisque.

Story details are sparse, but the game doesn't have you playing with a doll, but rather as a doll named Jeudille. Waking on a train with no memory, Jeudille doesn't believe she's a doll (and indeed she looks, speaks and moves just like a girl) even though her fellow passengers refer to her as such. En route to an unmapped town called Lorgna, Jeudille must "interact with people to discover who she is, what she is, and what [this] place is."

Described as a "visual novel with a complex story, of horror and exploration," Doll plays out more like a side-scrolling, keyboard-controlled adventure, albeit one that heavily emphasizes dialogue over puzzles. Presented in a distinctive hand-drawn black-and-white aesthetic, the game delivers its horrors not through jump scares or overt danger but rather through the eerieness inherent in the "very existence of the people of Lorgna." In order to piece together the mystery, you will have to "carefully observe" your surroundings for clues on your way to one of four different endings, the first of which you should be able to reach in "about two hours" in total.

Doll is available now for download on Windows PC from both Steam and itch.io.