Weeping Doll serves as proof that it's not just the Wii U that has astoundingly bad shovelware. I got Weeping Doll as part of a two-pack download during a recent PSN Flash Sale, and I'm extremely glad that I got the two for $5 instead of the usual $20 because, truthfully, even $2.50 is overpaying for this game. The basic premise is that you're a maid to some rich family that calls you freaking about something trying to kill them. Naturally, you immediately set to work cleaning the house. Once you start hearing suspicious sounds, however, you realize "Hey, maybe something's amiss here" and start trying to figure out what's going on. 45 to 60 minutes of rudimentary puzzle solving and sub-par voice acting later, you're at the end of the game. About five minutes after that, you actually realize you're at the end of the game. The problem with the ending is that there isn't one, really; the story wraps up, but you're given no prompt that you've finished the game. You just wander aimlessly until you either get frustrated and quit or wander back into the foyer where you started and notice that all of the portraits on the walls have been replaced with the faces and names of the development team (although, truthfully, I'm not sure I'd want my name or face associated with this game). Oh, and when you're doing this wandering? There's no actual "movement" per se; you can pick where you want to go by positioning the character's ghostly looking outline, and then you press X to "warp" there pretty much. It's dumb. The visuals look terrible even by PSVR standards, the sound effects are bare-bones and uninspired, and the voice acting is so bad that it wouldn't be the slightest bit out of place in the late 1990s. The story itself is moderately interesting for a little bit, but it quickly loses any charm it may have initially held. Add all this to the fact that the sound kept cutting out on me - which I originally thought was my ear buds messing up until I found that no other VR game gave me that issue - and you've got what could graciously be described as "a hot mess." Weeping Doll is a straight cluster. The visuals are terrible, the sound effects are boring, the story is mundane, and the voice acting is horrendous. The puzzles do little more than insult your intelligence, and there's not a single scare to be found, either jump scare or atmospheric dread. There's seriously nothing redeeming about this game at all except "It's in VR" if you like virtual reality (I do), but even then, with Resident Evil VII's PS VR support, why would you even need this? If you can afford a PS VR headset in the first place, you can afford a game that's actually worth playing because this sure as hell isn't that. My Rating - F |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
April 2024
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