Game Review: Death’s Door (Xbox Series X)

Death’s Door is an action-adventure video game developed by Acid Nerve and published by Devolver Digital, releasing in 2021. The player takes on the role of a small crow who works as a “reaper” collecting souls for the Reaping Commission Headquarters.

For the first mission of the game, the character is sent to collect the soul of a monster who does not want to leave life willingly. After defeating it, a large, old crow intervenes and steals the soul before telling him of a potential conspiracy regarding the disappearance of other crows. The old crow explains that the player must make their way through three dungeons in order to collect three “Giant Souls” needed to open Death’s Door. Throughout the game, more information is revealed about the Reaping Commission’s background and leader, the Lord of Doors. Using an array of weapons, projectiles, magic, and dodging, the player travels through several areas, all of which link back to Headquarters via a door, defeating three bosses to collect Giant Souls.

The crow starts with a sword, and bow and arrow. Sword strikes string together into combos and ammo for the bow is replenished by using the sword. Four other weapons and three magic projectiles become available as the game progresses. At the start, the player has four health points, with all damage causing one to be depleted. Health is recovered by collecting and planting seeds in pots which appear throughout the world. The seeds grow into plants which restore full health and eventually regrow.

Doors to and from the afterlife area exist as checkpoints throughout the game. When the player dies, they respawn at the nearest door without otherwise losing progress. New items and abilities allow access to new areas in previously explored levels, and solving puzzles with available tools is required to complete dungeons. The game uses souls as a currency, collected by killing enemies and finding secret pick-ups, which can be used to upgrade basic abilities.

Death’s Door has drawn comparisons to games such as Dark Souls and of course The Legend of Zelda. The similarities to those games are obvious. I could be coming right out of left field with this but it really made me think of PS1 classic Medievil. It feels like a sort of mash up of all of those games except with its own unique story to boot.

The concept is random but it just works so well. This gothic, office-like, bureaucratic, mundane afterlife setting doesn’t take itself entirely seriously which makes it a lot of fun. Put it this way, I never expected this game to deliver moments of emotion. Nor did I think it would serve as a touching commentary on death but here we are.

The combat is really tight and responsive mechanics wise. Yes, it’s challenging but fair. I’ve played a couple of souls-like games and this doesn’t come close to them in terms of difficulty. There wasn’t any one moment that made me pull out my hair or anything. Still, it feels really satisfying when you overcome the challenge. Truly, it strikes the perfect balance in that regard.

Visually, Death’s Door looks really nice with some lovely attention to detail in its environments. Additionally, it uses a variety of colours that pop beautifully in the best way. At the same time, there’s some delightful use of light and shadow effects. Also, each environment has its own soundtrack. I found myself really enjoying the music and have been humming it even when not playing, it’s good stuff.

Unfortunately, there are a few negatives but they are most certainly minor. Firstly, having no way of knowing how many life seeds you have in any one location is frustrating. There’s no map to speak of so navigation is often troublesome. The isometric camera angle doesn’t help matters in this regard. Certain settings are maze-like so it can be very easy to get lost. Also, the game asks you to backtrack a few too many times.

However, like I said these are small problems that should in no way stop you from checking this fantastic game out.