Review | Death’s Door

LifeisXbox’s Death’s Door review | From one experience to another, we keep exploring new games that keep us thinking about how it can be that the world has this many great games. The past week, I had the pleasure of having such an experience with Death’s Door! It’s a carefully put-together game by the people over at Acid Nerve, and it totally made me enjoy action RPGs again! So let’s dive into the experience together, shall we?

ℹ️ | Xendacine played Death’s Door for 5 hours on PC. This game is also available on Xbox, Microsoft Store.

What we liked!

• Story | Normally, I am not really the person that follows the story in a game. This time I got hooked on the story about this little crow following his destiny to reap souls. He meets interesting people along the way that will help him in weird ways. Overall a touching story (trying to keep this a bit shorter to not spoil the experience)
• Graphics | Normally, when I look for games to enjoy, I check screenshots to see how well a game will look. Because, well, I love visually appealing experiences. And here, the screenshots pulled me in. The bosses and arenas looked populated, but it just isn’t overdone. It seems like other developers want to just cram as much into their stage as possible, but Death’s Door just knows how to be perfect. It’s this blank world that is filled with experiences that will stay with you for a while. I even included a screenshot below of the middle of a boss battle that should illustrate perfectly how unique the atmosphere is! Also, the game just scales perfectly with an ultrawide monitor, and this adds to the emersion in a way that felt magical!
• Music | When I opened Death’s Door for the first time, I thought the music would be boring because the opening screen is just sooo relaxing. But I was proven wrong instantly. Instead, the game is filled with unique tracks that are all originals (50 in total, according to the Steam page). Each song adds its own vibe and feeling that helped me immerse myself further and further into my gameplay.
• Boss Battles | You will quickly notice that you have only 4 health points when you are playing your way through the arenas. So you can get hit 3 times, and then you die. This gave some battles a really intense boost which they could use. But that was nothing in comparison to having to battle these ginormous creatures of bosses with only 3 chances! Did I die? YES, but the game has a significant saving method, so it wasn’t too much work to get back to your battle.
• Economic | I wasn’t expecting when playing this game that there would actually be some sort of currency. Not only is there a currency, but it is a currency that significantly impacts the game. You can collect small soul fragments, which you can use to upgrade all your abilities! Why can’t every game have something like this? You get rewarded for killing enemies, and you get more potent thanks to it! That being said, the prices are balanced, and the return in power is great! So a great system here!
• Saving | Another aspect I enjoy is saving the game by walking through a portal door. At first glance, this might seem normal, but some are spawned in the middle of the arenas. So if you want, you can pass through those doors to heal! Also, there are moments where you just want to go back to a different part of the map, and having the doors as a way of travel makes things a lot quicker. Especially if you do, the arena’s in multiple takes.

Somewhere between

• Controls | One thing that bummed me out was that the game felt hard to control at some times. Don’t get me wrong, once you get used to how your character moves, the game feels fantastic. Still, it feels just a little bit hard for my Autistic brain to push multiple buttons to move in a straight line because the map was rotated a bit. Also, I found that the mouse and keyboard felt a lot better than the controller version. At least, that was my personal opinion about it.

What we disliked

• Puzzle complexity | The puzzles are complex, but that isn’t bad if you know what you are doing. Sometimes there is a slightly cryptic explanation about what you have to do (or I magically skipped over 3 of them), and you just have to figure it out. This will please many puzzle fans, and if that is you, be happy by all means! But for me, this was rather annoying. I found myself walking back multiple times, just in an attempt to figure out what I had to do. So I will tell you, I had to google the answer 2 times. And usually, I see puzzles quickly. So maybe it was just a wrong moment there for me, or perhaps the answer was too well hidden.  

How long to beat the story | Around 10 hours
How long to achieve all achievements| 14 hours
Similar with | Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Dungeons & Dragons, Biomutant, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

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