Doll Impostor is the latest game from HeadArrow, the studio that made its name thanks to the small but atmospheric horror titles such as SLASHERS, 8AM, and others. In this short but frightening tale, you have to find the Impostor, a doll that came to life to kill you. There is just enough time until the morning to find out which of the 20 dolls is the murderous one.
The game first guides you through a short tutorial that will briefly explain the very core of the gameplay process. Players will get a chance to explore the rules and solve their very first task by following the generously given prompts.
Essentially, there are twenty dolls sitting (or not) in their boxes, and a room where they live and do certain actions. Additionally, there is a board with a short description of every doll: what it likes, what it hates, which other dolls it is friends with, and so on. A kind of dossier on each one of the twenty dolls.
You get to enter the aforementioned room and watch the dolls to try and figure out which one has come to life and is now attempting to kill you. Based on your observations and comparisons with the dossier information, you can draw your own conclusion about the possible murderer. You can also set up traps and see how the culprit reacts to your actions: turning on the light or the TV, putting on some music, opening various boxes, and more. Since dolls might like the light or the music, prompting your little murderer and seeing if they stay on will let you weed out all the dolls that do not like these factors.
On the easy level of difficulty, you have a lot of time and there are plenty of clues that can help you figure out the identity of the Impostor. However, once you swap to Normal, that’s when the real fun begins. The dolls are no longer labeled, the clues stop being displayed on the board, and the dolls themselves become more active.
The “easy” Impostor only commits 3–4 actions, such as turning the TV on or off, writing a couple of messages in blood, and by the end killing other dolls, as if irrevocably admitting its guilt. But when you ramp up the difficulty, especially if you decide to check out Nightmare, then the culprit will go all out. Creepy tea parties, arranging dolls in the ways only it understands, killing other dolls, building blood-chilling scenes, and more. And the most important: ALWAYS keep the door to the dolls’ room locked. Once you leave it open even once, the doll may well change the notes on your dossier, crossing out or completely cleaning the list of suspects, removing the notes… Or even just outright killing you.
If you are looking for a leisurely and calm game, the Easy difficulty is the one for you. It even allows you to turn off screamers. Whereas both Normal and Nightmare are providing much less time, fewer if any hints, and the Impostor no longer waits for you to act but is rather active on its own.
With no names displayed above the dolls and the Impostor’s actions becoming more inventive in nature, it can be quite interesting to try and pinpoint who is the culprit. On higher levels of difficulty you have to be more attentive and fast in your reactions, listen to the sound of the breaking glass, check if the music, TV or the lights are turned on, which dolls have changed their positions, and so on. Not only the actions, you should also try to memorize dolls’ faces and names.
Sometimes just a couple of actions are enough to figure out who the Impostor is. For example, someone tossed a rock at Flora, and now sits in front of the TV. But when you check, Flora has only one enemy doll of her own. And that enemy is also the one who can move around on its own. However, there are also times when you have to take every single little clue into account.
On the Hard difficulty, you are pretty severely limited in time. Additionally, the board does not feature the doll pictures, and you have to remember their names and features just from the boxes themselves.
And the Nightmare will press you to immediately identify the culprit, with some of the doll features being hidden, and the outcome of the run depending solely on your patience and luck. After that, you will unlock the mode that randomizes the characteristics, which gives the game a nice replayability.
Meanwhile, the Race mode only gives you 3 minutes to figure out the case with everything being pretty randomized. You have to act quick and smart to come out on top in this one. And, finally, there is also the Endless mode where you can set records by completing the Race night-after-night.
Currently, there are only three maps: the House, the Circus and the Kindergarten, each with its own atmosphere and features, rules and actions. Even the jumpscares differ between the locations!
I enjoyed my time in Doll Impostor, however, this is likely not the type of game that you can play day in, day out. However, flexing your muscles and testing your brain for a couple of runs is perfectly doable. The game features smart surroundings and pleasant sounds that add to the atmosphere of horror, and an attractive idea that will bring fans of such niche horrors many fun, fear-filled hours.
