Death’s Door review: A more generous ‘difficult’ type of game

A simple screenshot of The door of death evokes its Dark Souls influence without you even needing to know it’s the sequel to Acid Nerve’s previous top-down boss-killer, Souls of the Titans. The door of death captures that FromSoftware sadness in an instant, but it’s a much more forgiving experience than its inspiration.

Where Soulsborne games build walls seemingly impossible to break from the start, The door of death Carefully increases its difficulty to create a fair and complete experience. It’s always a challenge, but The door of death reduces the likelihood of hitting an impassable wall by slowly pushing your limits.

What is The door of death?

Image: Acid Nerve / Digital Devolver

The door of death is a top down 3d action game. You play as Crow, but everyone simply calls you a “Reaper”. It’s your job to travel from the bureaucratic afterlife to claim the lives of three mighty souls and use them to open a titular door that has been sealed.

The game plays out as one of the top to bottom Zelda titles. You sprint through the outside world, take out baddies, and then dive into a dungeon to solve puzzles. Sometimes in the dungeon you will unlock a new weapon or spell that will allow you to enter new areas, unlock new secrets, and create new shortcuts. The outside world is divided into zones, and by defeating the boss of each zone, you can move on to the next, then the next.

The structure is similar to Zelda, but the tone is reminiscent of FromSoftware games. There is a melancholy in The door of death it comes from the clash between charming NPCs, a dark world, and your role as the forerunner of death. Mechanically, The door of death concerns weapons, stat boosts, dodging and boss monitoring. As you collect souls (their actual names in The door of death), you can upgrade Crow’s strength or magical ability. You’ll find new weapons that change things like attack speed, damage, and range. And, of course, you will die. It’s a toned down version of FromSoftware’s RPG attributes, but it’s there.

Except death never punishes in The door of death. It is simply a way for you to learn and improve yourself.

Fail slowly

Image: Acid Nerve / Digital Devolver

Challenging games want you to be successful; some are just more sadistic than others.

The door of death starts out as a relatively friendly game. The first enemies you encounter have simple attacks and you only face a few at a time. The first bosses have comically long wind up animations. They exist to teach you a singular idea, such as the fact that greedily finishing your combo can get you killed.

When you die, you are quickly teleported to a nearby door, which serves as a portal to the central game world. After death, you retain both your combat knowledge and the souls you have collected along the way. There are no corpses in The door of death.

Instead, the difficulty comes from returning to the boss in full health. The door of death has a seed-based health bar, which means each attack removes only one glitch from the bar. It’s both a blessing and a curse: there are no attacks you can just take on the chin and keep fighting, but nothing can counter you either.

The healing is here Death door punishes you for teaching a lesson. You are not carrying a healing flask or potions. Instead, you can plant seeds in pots scattered around the world. These seeds are collectible and there is a limited supply (although I had so many at the end that it was never a problem). The seeds turn into plants that allow you to heal completely. The plant then hibernates a bit and should be re-established the next time you die. But without being able to heal until you find a plant, each hit against you makes the road more dangerous.

This journey back to a boss is stressful – one stray hit can put you at a significant disadvantage – but it also gives you a chance to practice the skills you need for combat. If you died on your last boss attempt because you couldn’t dodge the boss, The door of death wants you to practice dodging on the way back.

Each boss is harder than the last, but only slightly. In my own game, I went from not taking a hit during the boss in the first dungeon, to almost dying the second, dying a handful of times the third, and then banging my head against the last two.

Dark Souls games place great barriers in front of you. They test the soft skills before letting you move forward in the rest of the game. You will have to learn, but FromSoftware leaves the choice of lesson plan up to you by offering you seemingly overwhelming bosses that you will eventually learn to overcome, by learning their patterns. ‘attack or by over-leveling. The door of death offers more of a guided ramp, helping players by placing obstacles slightly higher than the last ones in front of them. He wants you to push and push so that you end up looking back and being amazed at how small the first boss looked in comparison.

For Dark Souls veterans, The door of death provides a less stressful yet moody journey through a new world that offers familiar gameplay from a new top-down perspective. But for gamers who have never played a game like this before, The door of death gradually leads you into the deep end.

The door of death is available on Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The game was rated on Xbox using a reviewer purchased copy of the game. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find more information on Polygon’s ethics policy here.