Do mechanisms always result in a series of strategic games being played out?
I'm not sure what you mean by "results in a game".

When doing mechanism design, after you've fixed a mechanism, the resulting mathematical structure can be identified with a game which we solve using the tools of game theory. That is, the choice of a mechanism induces a game. I suppose you could take this to mean that it results in a game.

Just because that game has dominant strategies does not mean the game doesn't "take place". In fact, I don't even know how you can speak of dominant strategies when you don't (even if only implicitly) have a game in mind when doing so.