The Door (2025)

⠀

Around 10 minutes long story driven puzzle platformer walking sim. Enjoyed the area with the tree.

Stumbled in the dark while a French narrator berated my decisions.

Story: Door Atmosphere: Door Experience: Door Replay-ability: Door Skill Level: Door Horror Level: Door Jump scares: Door Overall Personal Opinion: Door

The Door is a short psychological adventure that I found more interesting the more I thought about what its strange environments were trying to represent. The basic idea is that every door leads into another part of my own mind, with the game using choices, puzzles and symbolic spaces to explore ideas such as solitude, failure and resilience. I liked the fact that the game is more interested in making me reflect than throwing a large amount of conventional gameplay at me. The puzzles are built around interaction and lighting, which gives the experience a slightly abstract feeling. I enjoyed figuring out what each strange space wanted me to notice rather than simply searching for keys and switches. The puzzles are not incredibly difficult, but they work well because they support the themes rather than distracting from them. The choice system is also important. Each door presents some kind of dilemma, and I liked having to think about what my decisions meant within the context of the story. The game does not turn these choices into a huge branching adventure, but they help reinforce the feeling that I am exploring different parts of myself. The atmosphere is easily the strongest p…

A very short and overly simplistic game filled with nonsense design choices. First of all: The game is French, but you can only enable English subtitles. No proper language options. For some bizarre reason, moving forward is bound to the Z key by default. The first few minutes look interesting and atmospheric, but after that nothing makes logical sense anymore. The entire game basically consists of three parts: A) Two small rooms where you interact with lamps and have to find a completely illogical hidden path. B) A timed section where you repeatedly choose between two doors, with nothing but vague philosophical texts as feedback. C) A sudden platforming section that feels unfair, frustrating, and completely out of place and is likely where most players quit. That’s it. No payoff, no real progression, no satisfying conclusion. Once the initial atmosphere wears off, there is nothing of substance left. Save yourself the time and skip this one.