Death’s Door: Charming Zelda-like breaks 100k players, meets developers ‘wildest expectations’

By Jayden Eppcohen // Contributing Writer

Devolver Digital and developer Acid Nerve launched their brilliant Zelda-homage “Death’s Door” on July 20 to an overwhelmingly positive response. The Xbox and PC exclusive reached 100,000 concurrent players on steam within its first week and boasts a 95% positive rating.

“Death’s Door” follows the tale of a Crow, a 9-to-5 dealer of death and reaper of souls tasked with reclaiming a particularly valuable giant soul, only for it to be stolen away before the Crow could claim it. You journey through a beautifully rendered world reminiscent of the gloom of the “Dark Souls” franchise, slaying creatures and beasts, facing down bosses and solving carefully designed puzzles.

Along their journey to recover their stolen mark, the player meets funny and charming characters such as the nigh-immortal gravedigger “Steadhone,” a ridiculous reference to the headstone he wears strapped to his head (see image).

Speaking to 9news, David Fenn, one of the two developers at the Acid Nerve team, said that “Nothing could have been better,” regarding the games praise and incredible first-week numbers. Given its style of gameplay mirroring past Zelda games, there has been a lot of demand for a Switch port.

“There’s no current plans [for a switch port] we can announce today, but switch is a very popular request for game developers these days.” Fenn stated. “It was always an Xbox exclusive, that was the plan from the very beginning.”

In our time with the indie game, we were impressed with its appealing art-style and soundtrack, both of which do a lot to add to the ambience of the level design. As you move to a different elevation, such as with a ladder, the rest of the environment blurs away with ambient occlusion to simulate that new depth.

For a game about reaping souls, it manages to mix in quite a bit of humor, adding some brevity and keeping the game light and simple to play, even for the uninitiated. Its learning curve is much more forgiving than other similar Souls-like action games, gently easing the player into the more challenging areas.

The combat is simplistic yet tight and challenging, and once the mechanics are mastered creates incredibly rewarding gameplay. Dying in “Death’s Door” never felt cheap or frustrating, which made repeated treks across the same level much more bearable. New concepts and ideas are slowly filtered down to the player level by level, such as the very first boss proving the importance of staying in motion instead of trying to finish combos.

The wide variety of monsters and minions which stand against you have charming attack animations and visual effects that allow you to quickly recognize their move set and react appropriately. At first you may only face a few at a time, yet as the game progresses more and more will rise to face you. Bosses are more difficult; given the character’s limited HP, making it to the boss with full health is paramount to success. Beating one on the first try is completely possible but their patterns are designed to be learned and predicted so even dying is a valuable learning experience for the next attempt.

Acid Nerve has done a wonderful job world-building the lore around “Death’s Door,” resulting in an intriguing story without hindering the action-element of the game story or the player feeling railroaded into the narrative. There are plenty of opportunities to explore the levels and take in the different parts of the world, each of which feel totally unique to one another with little to no reused assets. Unfortunately, it can be easy to get a little lost in the winding levels, especially when certain puzzles and obstacles require backtracking through previous areas.

For a punishing action game, “Death’s Door” provides an excellent experience for newcomers and veterans alike with its familiar and satisfying gameplay and astounding game design.