While, admittedly, indie horror games as a whole haven’t tended to be great, there are some styles that fare worse than others. With too many reliant on cheap jump scares, constantly being chased by some horrible beast, or taking the form of a walking simulator with horror, the hits have been limited. That said, the new kid on the block, ones where you’re on the lookout for anomalies and periodic weirdness ensues have tended to be depressingly shallow. Dollmare, thankfully, has taken that general concept and at least combined it with a work simulator of sorts to make something at least slightly more interesting.

The premise is pretty simple. You’re a new hire at a factory that makes dolls, and you’ve been placed in the role of quality control. You’ll check each doll as it comes off the line, give it a quick inspection, and then either put it on the belt if it meets the standard, or down the trash chute if there’s anything wrong with them. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the factory, and a fair portion of the dolls as well, may be haunted. Just a small detail, nothing to worry about, just don’t leave any of the doors open and if you see bloody notes on the wall be sure not to pay them any mind. What I appreciate about this effort is that there’s at least a little more to do here than pick up dolls, decide if they’re OK, and then repeat that narrow task until either you feel like you’ve seen everything or simply get bored with it. This actually feels a little more like a work sim where you’re trying to make the most of a job at a very sketchy and scary factory, where you may die if you’re not careful. 

The problem with that though, is that not everything is well explained mechanically, and some frustrations with completing your tasks can overwhelm at least being mildly entertained by the creepy stuff going on around you. Fulfilling custom orders is a good example, as it isn’t hard to understand in principle what you need to do, but the steps you need to mechanically perform, and how, aren’t terribly intuitive and could have easily been streamlined or simply better set up to not allow it to be a potential stumbling block. It just feels like more care could have been put into making the gameplay experience as smooth and clear as possible, allowing the player to focus on the fun. Nevertheless, I think of the anomaly-oriented games I’ve played, this feels like it has made the most honest effort to make more of a game of it on the whole.