Death’s Door Explained: Why Players & Critics Are Praising The Game

Death’s Door has only been out for a couple of weeks, but the game is drawing high praise from the gaming community. Exclusive to Xbox consoles and PC, the indie game has made quite an impression on users, drawing over 100,000 players in its first week of release. Death’s Door is being praised for a number of different things, ranging from combat encounters, in-depth level design, and overall presentation.

Death’s Door was developed by Acid Nerve, a two-person team based in the United Kingdom that primarily focuses on making 2D gaming experiences. Death’s Door serves as a follow-up to the studio’s 2015 game Titan Souls, a 2D top-down action-adventure game where players fought many monsters called Titans that could defeat players in one hit. The game was heavily influenced by games like The Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls, and Death’s Door builds upon Acid Nerve’s previous work.

The story of Death’s Door revolves around Crow, an immortal protagonist who works for an agency centered on the reaping of souls that are transitioning into the afterlife. On a routine assignment to gather a soul, Crow has their case stolen by another larger crow that lets the soul pass through the titular Death’s Door, which leaves the protagonist without their immortality. To gain back their eternal existence, Crow must hunt down and defeat three boss souls that will open Death’s Door.

What Players Are Enjoying About Death’s Door

Death’s Door has been receiving a lot of praise from critics and fans alike, with one of the main aspects receiving attention being the presentation. The game is a 3D top-down adventure, with each area in the game having its own distinct color palette that IGN states, “gives the impression of exploring locales long past their prime.” Reminiscent of Hollow Knight, every area Crow visits also has its own musical composition for players to enjoy as they journey, with Fanbyte saying that each theme “lingers in your mind and feels timeless.”

Combat and difficulty are other elements of Death’s Door that players seem to be enjoying, with Crow using a mixture of arrows and magic abilities found along the way to deal damage to the enemies and bosses they face. Polygon describes the approach to difficulty in Death’s Door as “more of a guided ramp, helping players by placing hurdles that are slightly taller than the last in front of them.” This allows Death’s Doors to serve as a more accessible “difficult” game in comparison to games like the Dark Souls series. The three main bosses in Death’s Door are being praised as well, with Kotaku saying that each boss fight has “its own mechanics, multiple phases, and characters at the center of them that imbue each encounter with extra personality.”

Acid Nerve’s level design in Death’s Door has also garnered positive attention, with each area of the game having puzzles, optional secrets, and twisting layouts that GameSpot says are “engaging to uncover as you explore.” This approach to level design is clearly inspired by the Metroidvania subgenre, allowing players to revisit past areas after acquiring new skills and weapons, and stray from the main story path to explore the world around Crow. It seems that Acid Nerve has a winner with Death’s Door, delivering a gaming experience that does a lot of things right in the eyes of players and critics alike.

Sources: IGN, Fanbyte, Polygon, Kotaku, GameSpot

About The Author

Mason Teague
(150 Articles Published)

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Mason is a freelance Game Features Writer for Screen Rant with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Media from Wingate University. Being involved in video game journalism has always been a goal of Mason’s, and being able to contribute his gaming knowledge to Screen Rant is a dream come true. Working out of North Carolina, Mason spends his free time trying to catch up on his backlog of games or finishing one of the 10 TV shows he’s currently watching.

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