Death’s Door is an isometric action adventure game with a fairly unique setting. The protagonist is a crow. Yup. A crow. But not just any crow! In this world, crows serve as grim reapers. Perhaps more interestingly, these reapers are all a part of a large bureaucracy, working in an otherworldly office space at desks, filing paperwork.
The journey in this game begins when your silent protagonist crow is given an unexpected assignment to venture into a realm that – for some mysterious reason – has not been visited in quite some time. As such, the beings you encounter in this part of the world have souls that are “past their expiration date.” When souls are not harvested at the proper time, they become corrupted, and is the in-game reason you encounter so many baddies that are out to get you.
The moment-to-moment gameplay is quite engaging. It consists of a combination of puzzles and combat, similar to what you might find in the Legend of Zelda series. But the star of the show here is definitely the combat. Generally speaking, the crow has a melee attack and a small variety of ranged attacks that are unlocked as the story progresses. Ranged attacks will consume spell energy, of which there’s a very limited quantity. Landing a melee attack will restore that spell energy, however. This creates a satisfying push and pull with each encounter. And of course, movement and the dodge roll feels responsive and effortless. All that said, don’t expect the game to go easy on you. The combat is quite challenging, it really exposes the depth behind the simplicity of the system at play.
The ranged attacks mentioned above also serve as abilities that unlock more of the world as you explore. They also serve as the avenue to solve some of the aforementioned puzzles as well. Considering the fact that you use combat abilities to solve puzzles, it was no surprise that a handful of them end up testing your reflexes a little bit. I don’t know that I’d say any of them were particularly noteworthy, but they did provide a nice break from the often hectic combat.
Considering the game is focused on the concept of death, the setting is a rather somber one. The environments all give off a sense that the world you’re exploring is a physically cold one, and while there is a large amount of gray and brown in the color palette, I’d say there’s enough color to keep it interesting. As far as the music is concerned, it serves the atmosphere very well. Soft foreboding piano really brings the setting to life just about everywhere you go. Another positive in my book, even if there’s not anything here an average player will listen to outside the context of the game.
Despite taking an overall serious tone, the game does make an effort to lighten the mood rather frequently. There are many cutscenes that remind the player that the silent protagonist is in fact, just a bird, portraying mannerisms you might expect to see from a curious bird in real life. I laughed out loud when I encountered the Frog King and Jefferson the sailor. And this light-heartedness didn’t really take away from the main message, nor did it clash with the atmosphere. I had a surprisingly good time strolling through a land full of things that were out to get me.
From a gameplay perspective, I had a really great time up until I started discovering and collecting all of the hidden secrets that you can’t achieve until the end of the game. The gameplay didn’t necessarily change at this point, but there is a certain change to the world that you must make to discover everything, and it ends up really dampening the mood. And some of the collectibles and activities you’re asked to find and do really broke my sense of immersion with the game. In other words, I felt like I was doing these things just to do them, rather than to achieve any sort of end goal. And on top of it all, your opinion on the “true” ending of the game will likely hinge entirely on whether or not you’ve played the developer’s previous game, Titan Souls (which is a very good ~3-hour experience that I’d also recommend, for the record. It is a bit more cryptic than Death’s Door though). A minor disappointment from an otherwise fantastic experience. It’s a shame it happened at the end of the game.
Though, thinking more about it, in a way, by playing the game to 100% completion, ironically, you might consider this last stretch to be playing the game beyond its own expiration date. So perhaps it is poetically fitting that the last stretch of the game felt empty, in a way.
What Death’s Door Gets Right
Perhaps my favorite thing about this game – and the reason I decided to write this review in the first place – is its stance on the inevitability and the gravity of death. Early on in the game, you will discover the titular Death’s Door, and you’ll be asked to find a way to open it. You also learn that in order to open it, you will need to collect powerful souls belonging to this game’s take on end of level bosses. So, off you go on a quest to defeat these big bads, whose souls are well past their expiration date.
As you travel through the regions in which these monsters live, you encounter several characters who will vouch for your targets’ wickedness and misguided ambitions. And of course, as you get closer to the final showdown with each one of these bosses, the bosses themselves will come out and interact with you. These interactions also typically confirm the reports of their subjects, who you encountered earlier. So by the time you’re ready to fight, there’s no question in your mind that you’re doing the right thing (…right?).
It’s also made clear that most of these characters’ negative traits came about from a desire to cheat death, and then were magnified when they succeeded in doing so. I don’t know that I have a whole lot to say here other than the fact that we need to come to terms with the fact that some day, we will die. Not being at peace with our own inevitable death is a recipe for our own unhappiness, and – as demonstrated by Death’s Door – a potential burden for those around us. I certainly hope I don’t become a curmudgeon near the end of my life, unwilling to leave the world behind me.
As you claim victory over each tyrant, a character called the Grave Digger arrives on the scene. For each of these large souls you collect, he insists that a funeral be held for each life you’ve reaped. For no other reason than “a life is a life, and in death we are all united.” Ultimately, in this context, it is a small gesture, but its impact has lingered with me since I finished the bulk of the game seven months ago. (Hey, writing is hard work, okay?)
Reflecting on it, I don’t know that I’ve seen a respect for life portrayed in this way in a video game. At first, the gesture struck me as a bit of comic relief – and I think that’s definitely a part of the intention here. But the more I think about it, the fact that this does serve as a small bit of relief is a sign about where our society seems to stand today. Why is it so odd or unusual that we would perform a gesture that respects the value and dignity of a human life (or anthropomorphized frog life, in this case), even if that life was responsible for some controversial or downright evil actions?
I think it’s become clear that a lot of people in the culture today seem to have become detached from the lives of others. Not to get too political here, but as I write this at the end of 2024, I think it’s safe to say that our country’s current president-elect is the source of quite a bit of controversy, regardless of what side of the debate you land on. But for the sake of this review’s relevancy, two attempts were made to take this man’s life in the lead-up to the presidential election this year. In the wake of these events, I was floored at the amount of jokes or comments that were made that seemed to suggest we might be better off if those attempts were successful. There were also many much more sobering and respectful takes on the matter from both sides of the political spectrum, but the fact that the comments of the former category made the light of day is worrisome to me. There’s no doubt that if either one of those attempts were successful, it would absolutely be a tragedy.
At some point in life, to some degree, we are probably all tempted to think that if one person in our lives would just happen to disappear, things would be better. But that is not how God calls us to think and behave. There is value in every life, regardless of how far they’ve fallen into the clutches of evil and temptation. We are to make every attempt we can to wake these individuals from their slumber, in preparation for the day they come face to face with God. Because one day, we too will come face to face with God, and when we consider that the outcome of that encounter is entirely dependent on His mercy, perhaps we ought to extend that mercy to our enemies as well.
Overall, I’d highly recommend Death’s Door from both a gameplay perspective and a spiritual one. It is an experience that will ask you to “memento mori” (remember you must die) in a thoughtful way that probably won’t get you too deep in the dumps. It’s also a game that will provide most experienced players a satisfying challenge to boot.
Parental/Morality Warnings
The ESRB gives this game a Teen rating for blood, violence, and use of tobacco, which I found to be accurate. Combat takes a somewhat fantasy spin, with the use of spells (often fire), swords, bows, etc. Each strike that is landed on the player or an enemy will leave a small spot of blood (or other similar fluid, depending on the enemy) on the ground. When enemies take damage, they actually begin to visibly crack, revealing a red glowing essence inside of them. This gives the impression that the beings you engage with are actually just vessels to hold souls, which both fits the theme, serves as an artistic alternative to health bars, and serves to provide impact to combat without emphasizing its bodily violent nature. As far as tobacco use is concerned, I think there’s one crow who uses a pipe. I honestly don’t remember seeing much in this regard.
While it’s not in the rating, I do recall exactly one instance of a character swearing, and it does come as a surprise. It served as a cheap way to add shock value, more than anything else. Other than that, I’m not sure that there’s much else to report. I wouldn’t say there’s any sort of agenda or viewpoints on display here that undermine its elements of truth.
Scoring: 90%
Gameplay: 5/5
Visuals 4.5/5
Sound and Music: 4.5/5
Story: 5/5
Replayability: 3.5/5
