REVIEW : Death’s Door (PC)
Nobody is fond of the administration. Anybody. Procedural, demanding, and frequently unpleasant, the visible face of the State rarely creates a positive impression on those who have to interact with it. We believed this craziness had spared the animal kingdom; it has not: the crows have also established a rigorous organization to govern the fate of the deceased, of which you are simply one of the cogs.
Do you have the blue form?
Death’s Door thus begins in a black and white cosmos, which does not fail to highlight with comedy the depravities of an eternity handled every day by your companions, like the master Toriyama there is a few decades ago. Because someone has to stick to it, your raven, a soul hunter by trade, is assigned by its management with gathering the spirits of the deceased who have missed the boat. However, to complete this duty, our avatar must travel to the actual world, where he becomes mortal again and must fly in the feathers of his opponents to survive. It’s just that no one wants to deal with the additional paperwork that your death will certainly bring.
From these depressing two-colour offices, it will be essential to embark on an adventure by borrowing the title’s eponymous doors, which are understood as several entry routes to a much more colourful terrestrial realm, in which three Great Souls must be urgently acquired. Like so many locations constructed around a core axis, Three souls makes Death’s Door a pretty organic game, where the slightest detail appears to have been the focus of careful attention, beginning with the strikingly beautiful soundtrack.
The primary theme is gradually re-orchestrated, giving place to winds or a dry guitar on edge for guaranteed immersion and a unique representation of the instrument in the computer game. As a result, we cannot advocate playing with headphones enough, as the ears will also relish the trip.
Take the Door
A few years ago, those who conquered the Titans will be struck by the visual and artistic contrast that divides the two Acid Nerve games. Death’s Door’s isometric dimension and pastel appearance soon distinguish it from its predecessor despite a concept that stresses battle and dodging. Yet, we’ve seen it: on Earth, the elements come back to life and colours, and whether one is traversing a swamp forest or stretches of stones carried by the wind, the game never fails to surprise with its graphic authenticity. Death’s Door manages to provide readable, recognized, and original surroundings without becoming a thunderbolt of war since there is more to life than just conflict.
Acid Nerve gives birth to a clever level design once more, for a voyage filled with minor puzzles and other systems that are impossible to trigger on the first visit. The many adventure zones need you to discover your path as the advantages rise, always presenting an opportunity to strengthen your capacities. They are open and tricky without becoming convoluted. Aside from death, we don’t put anything at risk in the end, with the doors leading back to the central office frequently punctuating the adventure.
The mechanics are simple, practical, and reduce the number of wasteful round trips. But beware of those who put their progress on hold for too long: a solid understanding gained through frequent practice is highly advised.
No mercy for croakers
The ability to travel from one dimension to another is even more useful because it allows you to replenish your life bar, which is a luxury when you consider how quickly it depletes. On the other hand, the difficulty is present but progressive: each opponent has a set of patterns that must be tamed before they multiply, at the same time as the reflexes. No, death comes soon since recovery is nearly non-existent; it is hard to take advantage of any temporary invincibility to scrape a few more strikes. Be careful, eh: despite everything, we try it anyhow. However, it is never successful. Would you please take our word for it?
What begins as a series of melees progressively expands throughout the ten or so hours required to see Death’s Door through already resourceful with his blade, our raven sees his palette take a little more in each area. Colours aid solve puzzles, while arcs, fire spells, and other catastrophic munitions are included. Because the gauge required for their execution is recharged by destroying the different pieces of the surrounding scenery, the game encourages you to experiment and have fun with these new powers. Unfortunately, their employment has some latencies, which makes the experience difficult since the tiniest touch might be a game-changer in certain instances.
We’ve seen it: the events don’t repeat themselves, and Death’s Door, therefore, traces a road riddled with dangers to access in the best possible way in front of each of the game’s three major adversaries, who are unavoidably devious. But first, you must travel through incredibly effective dungeons and arena sentences that end with a fist spontaneously raised to the sky, so you sometimes need eyes everywhere in the last third. And we’re hungry for more.
The crowpetency tree
Death Door is undeniably a nervous title, and the well-calibrated rhythm of the combats with continuously changing conditions succeeds in keeping the desire to go further alive. In the end, regardless of your inclinations, exploration and fighting are rewarded: the environments hide bonuses of life or magic to be obtained. At the same time, each defeated foe releases something that increases their speed, power, or magic assaults by borrowing the first Door that passes through them. On the other hand, we will have to make certain decisions, with the adventure not allowing us to maximize all of the categories and the presumed choice that works given the range of motions available to us.
