Death's Door Review (jdgonzo82)
i was going to be nice to this game and give it a decent review but the more I play it the more I dislike it...and this is due to it running out of steam very quickly and showing me that resorting to cheap tricks is how it makes itself longer in gameplay and more challenging in combat. It's not terrible but it's been done so much I'm not sure why these games keep coming out...Devolver seem to be very good at creating a lot of pointless games that never really seem to achieve much.
They often have one thing that attracts people to their games but the games themselves revolve around that one thing...and that's it. Gimmick games I guess...which is a shame as most of them, if fleshed out more, would be great. But like them, Death's Door just feels empty at times...and so desperate to be like one of the classics it bases so much of it's gameplay on. The thing is, I can't help but think "if it's not as good or better than your source material, as such, then why bother??" If I wanted to play a game like this then I'd just play an older Zelda game. If I want a challenge then I'll try a new build out in one of the souls games...I guess games like this can help new gamers into the challenging/action puzzler genre...?? Not sure...I'd say the art was worth seeing but the graphics are basic, the music is predictable and the story is just not interesting at all...the crow's cool but that's not really enough to make me excited about investing time into your game...again..it's just a gimmick...
Death's Door is too small in scope to be the game it wants to be. And to get to my main point quickly...the combat is so, so, so boring. The enemies are so, so boring. The bosses are really boring and also fans of cheap moves. An example being one of the bosses that is coded to jump every time you hold the button to throw magic. Every time...you hold the button...he jumps at you. Now, this is pure...unadulterated cheese and I do not enjoy playing games that cheat to make an artificial challenge.
I will brute force my way through this but unfortunately it falls victim to the same issues Below...Hyper Light whatever...if the combat is not interesting the game fails. If the world is not interesting the game fails. Can't tell you the number of times I've just quit out due to the game just being so annoying and rubbish.
I feel a more arcade like/skill based combat system would have worked better and would have been more fun. Death's Door made by a bigger company and a bigger budget could go somewhere but as it is...I just don't see the point of recommending it. But again, I'm not saying it's a bad game...I just feel the industry is not moving anymore and we're too busy trying to recreate old ways as if there isn't anything new to do anymore. If anything I'd give this to my kids to play when they were new to games to introduce them to this genre...but still, that's a hard sell as the older Zelda games would be a much better experience!!
And guess what!? Just to make the end game fun they even throw in a slippery ice level!!! It's amazing...it's like they went out of their way to remove the fun in this game...Oh, and they make you do puzzles on the ice too!! I know so many people got this game for the puzzles... :/
5/10 - Probably worth getting in a sale to cure boredom or for your steam deck on holiday. Just be warned though, if you've played a lot of games this one's gonna bore you quickly. I cannot stress how thinly what is there has been spread out to make a game. It's almost infuriating as your walking around as you can see all of the things that you'll be backtracking for. And it really, really, really sucks when you put time into back tracking through previous areas as, not only are they bland and empty, they are mazes...pointless mazes only there to expand your playtime. Oh...and I forgot to say...you do all of that backtracking just to pick up an unusable collectable OR...and strap yourself in for this one...you get a pink ball!!! Worth 100 "souls"...yeah I know...amazing huh!!! ABSOLUTELY, 100% NOT WORTH YOUR TIME!! Go play something else...