The absolute squeal I had when I spawned into the game as a tiny adorable crow has already sold me on the entire theme of this game.

Developed by Acid Nerve and published by Devolver Digital, ‘Death’s Door’ is a game about reaping the souls of the world to fuel a dark and mysterious door, working as the battery that allows us to continue reaping said souls. Entering through this door, however, makes us become mortal as our little bird friend enters the realm to collect the assigned souls to continue our vicious cycle.

The story is very attentive and appealing to the player and requires you to pay attention at every turn. Its story and cute character are definitely the two parts of this game I absolutely get myself invested in. Your first mission is to enter the gate and fight your first big boss so you can reap its soul, however, after defeating the big bad the soul is taken and you have to chase after it to another realm and fight to save the soul again.

After wandering for a while in the main office, I discovered you can collect different weapons. The attack options are limited but are simple and progressive throughout the story, especially after collecting new weapon types. After learning two different types of attack; your standard sword swing and shooting a bow, which recovers ammo by hitting the enemy characters, you will be on your way.

To use either ability is a left and right click and aiming with your mouse. The boss fights are well developed and have multiple stages to complete, but are easy enough with the simple mechanics of each stage.

The design of this game is very appealing to me. I love the different crows in the main home building and how crows were a suitable choice, given they are normally associated with death, and I adore the idea of wandering around as a tiny crow fighting multiple enemies for the soul’s return. The combat system fits into the design of the characters, along with the combat music which fastens in pace and had me panicking the first time I faced a big screen with DEATH scrawled across it after my first death.

Now that Death’s Door is in full release, I continued to explore every inch of the map, moving on to new areas and discovering how the game functions with its different views in the castle area, the mountain guardian I stumbled across, or the big areas of dangerous enemies, each with unique patterns of attack you have to master. There is a lot this game can offer you in terms of its content and story.

Death’s Door is an adorable combat-orientated fantasy platformer. I enjoyed exploring all of the areas I could with the amazing attention to detail in all map designs and the creation of all the characters. I would highly recommend Death’s Door to all those who are interested in platformers. Its story is very unique in how it uses the crow concerning death, and it’s very beautiful to watch the story unfold.

This game has a lot for people to do. There’s the platforming aspect to it, but that’s not all this game is. There’s an amazing story that depicts how crows reap souls to make their business function, the different characters you meet, and a lot of maps to explore and regain anything lost along the way. I highly recommend it to anyone who stumbles across its cute aesthetic, and I hope they play through the entire story.

Written by: Caitlin