Death’s Door turns you into an employee of the mortuary bureaucracy to reap souls while solving puzzles and taking on Bosses. Know the details in this note!
Let the fashionable indie run, here it comes Death’s Door, a title with a rare and spectacular style. This time we are facing the new from Acid Nerve, which in 2015 presented us with that curious almost “demake” from Shadow of the Colossus titled Titan souls, and that this time they show their love for the classics Zelda overhead view. This new title is an adventure game with an isometric view that puts us to explore life after death, and death after life thanks to its excruciating difficulty that will keep you hooked while you work for the bureaucracy. Before it was available exclusively for PC and Xbox, but now we tell you our impressions on the occasion of its arrival on PlayStation and Switch.
On Death’s door You are Death, but instead of being a sparse, ugly and waveless skeleton, you are a black raven with a lightsaber. Your task is to reap souls to take them to the boss until one day they take out one that cost a lot to get and you have to recover it, but for that you will have to open the Death’s Door that has three keys. There is no locksmith that is going to help you in this: to open it you have to beat a lot of very tough bosses that will drive you crazy and make you want to flip your joystick out of the fight, but don’t worry, it’s a matter of exploring, arming yourself of patience and improve. To help you along the way, there are tons of puzzles with upgrades, challenges, shortcuts, and items to help you on your adventure.
A la Zelda, you will come and go as you gain new tools to solve puzzles that become apparent once you have the right equipment and your curiosity is going to be the one to guide your journey. This is a wide world, through which you are going to come and go while you get all kinds of improvements, among which the most valuable is life because you are going to be beaten like a breaded with old meat. Luckily, the little crow we control is not only cute but also has a sword that eventually glows like Darth Maul’s saber so you can kill enemies while you can roll to dodge damage. Imagine an accelerated combat, one of those that Devolver games have us used to, where it is not only key to dodge at the right moment but also to position yourself so that they do not hit you. You are constantly going to have to balance between your greed to do a little more damage or dodge that huge attack that you know is coming.
Among your tools you are going to unlock remote magic attacks, the possibility of returning attacks with your sword (very Zelda) bows, and more. The funny thing is that the magic recharges as you fight so you are constantly combining styles and trying new things like a frantic dance. It’s like dancing a foursome in the bathtub twisted into the cord of a plugged-in toaster, a false step is enough to make you stop moving … forever! No, lie, you have infinite lives and the music is rather epic.
Another detail is that we will also have a variety of weapons to use, each with its respective combos that allow you to attack faster or more powerful, and will adjust to your style of play. For more pleasure, as you kill enemies you will get their souls that you can take to the office and exchange them for improvements in your speed, strength, or other statistics, which ends up being a great decision because you can switch between them at any time and all they will continue to be usable even if you don’t have the right statistics. What’s more, souls are not lost when you die, so as difficult as the game is, you are not going to lose your progress.
The best of Death’s doorOf course, it’s the bosses from each of the three regions that are incredibly memorable moments by combining everything you know about combat with unique puzzle moments. It is not a duel of pure skill, but also of observation, of activating things and of dodging while using your tools in a very creative way. Yes, it is more difficult than a Zelda in 2D, but nothing that perseverance will not allow you to overcome.
In conclusion
Death’s door is one of those games that makes you say “ok one more“And actually there are five more, or a”ok, I pass this part and leaveAnd instead, you die 10 times. The combat is spectacular and the best you will experience in this genre, so if you know what Devolver games are like, you know what to expect. With beautiful art, incredible music, and more than precise gameplay, this game is not for the easily frustrated.
RELEASE DATE | November 19, 2021 |
DEVELOPER | Acid Nerve |
DISTRIBUTOR | Return |
PLATAFORMS | Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, PC |