[h1]Death's Door[/h1]
☑ Loved it
☐ Liked it
☐ Not for me
[b]Weighted rating[/b] out of 5
[h3]4.11[/h3]
[h2]Summary[/h2]
[b]Death's Door[/b] is a isometric action-adventure blending tight combat with dungeon puzzles.
[b]Best for:[/b] Fans of classic Zelda dungeon-crawling and Souls-like combat who want a gentler, more compact experience. Players who appreciate memorable boss fights.
[b]Skip if:[/b] You dislike backtracking.
[h1]Review[/h1]
First of all, I love the [i]feel[/i] of this game. It is part chill puzzle to progress through areas, part tight action with expectations to keep an eye on multiple things at once. This makes the progression feel great, and the pacing to stand out. The enemies have this "[i]charge/wind-up[/i]" visual effects to indicate what they're about to do, helping set up an intuition for what's about to happen. Challenge is added through a busier screen, not more complicated mechanics. And the mechanics themselves are introduced in steps, to later be merged into the same fight. Even when I died, I often felt "Yeah, fair, so that's how it works. I can beat this." Like mentioned, the pacing is strong. There are some hiccups but I think those just enhanced the balanced between intenser and calmer moment. [spoiler]I'm thinking especially about the Betty encounter, where I [i]really[/i] appreciated the switch over to something more calm and exploratory after the fight.[/spoiler]
Loved the art. Loved the way the weapons felt, and looked. Loved the variety of the tools available. The design of the boss fights is particularly enjoyable. [spoiler]Not looking at you Betty.[/spoiler] Character design in the game is second to none. I appreciated the aim assist: can't imagine I'm as good at aiming as they made it feel. There also seems to be a sort of throttle to how much damage you take in the same moment. If you get hit by multiple things in a short time window, only one health seems to be deducted.
All in all, many Ws. But also a few Ls. Specifically two things: when I died (and I died a lot) I had to rerun parts of the chapter. [spoiler]And the gauntlet section of the final boss... Tedious.[/spoiler] At times, the respawn points can be more than a minute away from where you died, and now I had to run for a good minute whilst dodging respawned enemies. There's an argument to be made here about punishing deaths, but it came across as disruptive and discouraging.
The second L is the soundtrack. All the foundations are there. But it's repetitive. And doesn't add to the immersion. I did buy the soundtrack. It's just, in the game they really felt annoying hearing the same loop over and over.
[h1]Grading[/h1]
[h3]Game Design & Game Play[/h3]
[b]Core Game Loop[/b]
☑ Magnetic
☐ Engaging
☐ Solid
☐ Repetitive
☐ Tedious
[b]Arc & Pacing[/b]
☐ Impeccable
☑ Well-judged
☐ Functional
☐ Uneven
☐ Ruinous
[b]Narrative & Thematic Coherence[/b]
☑ Masterful
☐ Compelling
☐ Serviceable
☐ Weak
☐ Incoherent
[b]Systems Breadth[/b]
☐ Vast
☑ Broad
☐ Adequate
☐ Sparse
☐ One-dimensional
[b]Systems Depth[/b]
☐ Emergent
☑ Deep
☐ Qualified
☐ Exhaustible
☐ One-dimensional
[h3]Sensory & Aesthetics[/h3]
[b]Art[/b]
☑ Breathtaking
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Fair
☐ Poor
[b]Sound Design[/b]
☐ Seamless
☑ Immersive
☐ Fitting
☐ Muddy
☐ Grating
[b]Soundtrack[/b]
☐ Transcendent
☐ Memorable
☐Pleasant
☐ Forgettable
☑ Annoying
[b]Controls & Interactions[/b]
☐ Intuitive
☑ Attentive
☐ Adequate
☐ Frustrating
☐ Unplayable
[h3]Longevity & Value[/h3]
[b]Longevity[/b]
☐ Enduring
☐ Substantial
☑ Adequate
☐ Meager
☐ Ephemeral
[b]Replayability Structures[/b]
☐ Bottomless
☐ Plentiful
☐ Adequate
☑ Low
☐ None
[b]Value Density[/b] (picked up for [b]3,31€[/b] @ -75% off)
☑ Exceptional
☐ Strong
☐ Proportional
☐ Vague
☐ Predatory
