“With your assignment incomplete, your death is now an inevitability…”
It’s fair to say that Death’s Door took me by surprise. Developed by Acid Nerve and published by Devolver, I was intrigued by the premise of the game – you’re a crow and your job is to go forth and reap souls. I had only seen the launch trailer and, well, I got a lot more than I bargained for.
The game begins with you, a lowly soul-reaping crow, clocking in at the Reaping Commission HQ – a greyscale affair that hugely contrasts the colour of the living world beyond its doors – and heading off on your latest assignment. However, just before you can shove the freshly captured soul in your bag, you get smacked over the head and the soul is stolen from you! Losing a soul is a dangerous affair for soul-reaping crows. It makes you mortal, for a start, and that’s how you’ll stay unless you recapture your assigned soul. So, off you trot in search of it… and thus the world, and the adventure, open up before you. Soon, you discover you must obtain the souls of three powerful creatures – a witch, a king, and a beast of untold years – to use in an attempt to open… Death’s Door!
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One thing that wasn’t immediately obvious to me is that there’s something of the early Zelda games about the sprawling, non-linear and puzzle-filled land in Death’s Door. That, combined with the typical Metroidvania game trope in the gaining of tools and abilities so as to backtrack and advance into previously unreachable areas, make this a game where exploration is rewarded. Though, you won’t quickly level up or get amazing weapons from it. Even after battling one of the three big bads, I was still left wielding just the basic (though, cool looking with its stand out red glow) sword, a deadly umbrella, and only had one new spell added to my repertoire, for example. You’re a tourist in this world. Take in the sights. Talk to the weird and wonderful characters.
Speaking of which, it’s with the plethora of supporting characters that a lot of the humour in the game, and emotion, comes from. It begins with the smart-mouthed crows of the Reaping Commission and then, out in the world, you meet such personalities as Steadhone, the seemingly immortal gravedigger who just wants to die; Pothead, a lively and enthusiastic chap with a pot of soup for a head and; Jefferson, the owner of a bar and amazing cook who doles out hints and is definitely not an octopus controlling the body of a dead human as if it were a puppet.
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Death’s Door is a beauty to look at, as well as being a joy to play. The greys of the Reaping Commission and graveyard give way to soft shaded earthy tones and greens of the Urn Witch’s lands to the north, for example. Though, you can add your own input to the landscape as your enemy’s blood and the detritus of battles are left strewn across in your wake – until things are reset by hopping through a door back to the Reaping Commission, that is. Or, you die.
Combat often requires patience and thought rather than just button bashing. On one hand, it doesn’t overly punish, on the other, it can be unforgiving. You have to find the balance, and the pay-off is great. Sometimes, you could be thrown into a locked room, having to kill some lumbering behemoth whilst also being outflanked by a seemingly endless stream of smaller, faster bad guys and by the seventh/eighth/ninth attempt could be getting pretty frustrated to the level of considering throwing the controller down. This is where the game rewards you taking a breath. Relaxing a little. Look at things from a different angle. Try something else. Dodge around more. Hang back and see what the enemies actually do. Then the whole thing clicks and boom – next time you’re trapped in a room with these guys, it’s over in less than a minute and you waltz out of there like you’re king of the hill.
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In this, the combat with all enemies – all the way up to the big bosses of the game – is yet more puzzles to solve. Just more fast-paced than the mostly stationary puzzles strewn throughout the landscape.
Beautiful and often unforgiving, emotional and humorous, Death’s Door is a journey to savour and a game that will constantly have you coming back for more.
Visit the official website and Steam page.
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