Crows are often confused with Ravens and are usually considered a black omen with dark days ahead. The reality is that crows symbolize change and transformation. While that may not be immediately apparent in Death’s Door, the story we’re given is one of transition, revision, and revolution. We’re introduced to Death’s Door’s world through the eyes of our white-collar crowtagonist who is nameless though lovingly referred to as ‘Beakface’ by another character. Beakface is a reaper, given a job to collect a soul by his middle manager and given a door to his quarry. Once there, we’re treated to a fun and interesting boss fight but things take a turn when Beakface goes to collect his soul. Another crow dashes through, takes it, and takes off through another door. Once we catch up with this new nameless crow, Beakface finds more than he bargained for.
Death’s Door
Developer: Acid Nerve
Price: $20
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series X (Reviewed), PC
As a crow, you’ll be pushing beyond the reality of time and space, existing in the crow office and being able to travel anywhere through a series of doors. All thanks to the Lord of Doors who uses soul energy to summon doors. Unfortunately, souls are a little hard to come by these days. It’s not that living things aren’t dying, rather, there’s not much left TO die. Why isn’t there new life? Beakface wasn’t seeking this answer before his mark’s soul was stolen from him, but his goal is to solve this riddle with the soul as leverage.
Death’s Door is a combat-focused Legend of Zelda-style action-adventure game. Much of your time is spent fighting enemies, solving small puzzles, and exploring your surroundings. There are a few things that make Death’s Door more combat-focused, primarily the quick dodge roll and having multiple weapons. There are five weapons in the game and each has a different style, mostly around timing. You can also upgrade your strength and agility with souls collected from enemies. Along with upgrading your strength and agility you can increase the speed your character dodges and their magic damage. Magic is primarily there to help you solve puzzles in the form of a bow and arrow, fire spell, bomb, or hookshot.
When I say that Death’s Door is more combat-focused, I mean that the game is built around fighting minibosses and clearing rooms. While puzzle-solving is ample, it’s hardly the game’s focus. Each dungeon has a large door that desires souls. As you explore the dungeon you’ll have to fight minibosses to liberate these souls and send them to the door. Once full, the door opens up and transports you back to a part of the office you couldn’t get to before. It’ll lead you to a giant treasure chest that leads to yet another battle. Combat is plentiful. Most of the upgrades are locked behind combat, and if it’s not something that gels with you, you’re probably not going to like Death’s Door.
Each magic ability can be upgraded by solving a series of small puzzles that leads to a miniboss fight. Upgrading your magic isn’t necessary but will make using magic during combat a much easier task. Checkpoints are handled by doors back to the office and along the way you’ll find pots full of dirt and seeds scattered throughout each area. Planting the seeds in the pots will cause them to sprout healing plants. These plants are single-use unless you leave the area and come back.
Artistically, Death’s Door is an absolute masterpiece. I’m not strictly talking about the aesthetic or the graphics, but the level design as well. Make no mistake, Death’s Door is astonishingly gorgeous. Developer Acid Nerve created one of the most beautiful and compelling worlds I’ve visited in a long time, and they managed to do so with such an unusual and almost cartoonish aesthetic. Consider that you’re controlling a crow that has a weapon (sword, daggers, umbrella) and can conjure fireballs or shoot a bow and arrow. Yet, the design is both a fun animation and a grim and realistic fantasy. Likewise, Acid Nerve does an excellent job walking the line between humor and seriousness when ushering you through the story.
Animations are very deliberate and do an excellent job of relaying to the player what exactly is happening. Boss fights are reactionary; art and animation play an incredibly important role in these boss fights. A boss will tell you exactly what it’s about to do just before it makes a move or attack. Not only is this good game design, but it’s done in such a beautiful and explosive way that even some of the normal encounters you’ll have will be fun to play and watch. Even the death screen is highly enjoyable, showing off a giant block-lettered “DEATH” over the screen as a window into the world.
The level design in Death’s Door is something that should be studied. Truly, though Death’s Door is incredible in every other aspect, level design is it’s best quality. As you navigate through the world of Death’s Door you won’t just find new outlets and paths around to either find secrets or new puzzles, but unlock areas you’ve already seen. So often while exploring the world you’ll find areas you can’t get to only to discover their location again later accidentally. Likewise, each area is crafted so beautifully and done in such a way to teach the player its mechanics.
Before the first dungeon, the game teaches you about shooting arrows through fire to set other things on fire. If you don’t get that, there’s a puzzle that blocks you from moving forward. Next to the fire, there’s a statue with a bow pointed at the fire and the plaque at the bottom reads, “Burn your weapons and spread joy.” A brilliant message explaining the mechanic to the player. Acid Nerve did a truly incredible job with just about everything in this game, but messaging to the player needed to be noted.
Musically, Death’s Door offers a soundtrack I could and have listened to outside of playing the game. While much of the music is incredible and absolutely sets the tone for what’s happening in the game, the overall soundtrack could be enjoyed on its own. Specifically though, the track Avarice has been stuck in my brain for the past several weeks. An absolute banger in its own right, standing tall alongside giants, it is but one of many great tunes that help create the masterful experience that is Death’s Door.
The Final Word
Death’s Door is currently my Game of the Year. While it frustrated me occasionally, I’d be hard-pressed to find a single thing I think the game does wrong. Very few games get as much right with their formula as Death’s Door does.
MonsterVine Rating: 5 out of 5 – Excellent
