I grew up in the 1980s/90s, back when point and click games were a popular genre for game developers. I always enjoyed this style of game because they could last a very long time if you got stuck, as there were no internet guides or YouTube to help you out! I remember being stuck on Maniac Mansion for years until I met a friend at school who had a printed off guide she had got from her dad’s computer in the early days of the internet! Back then I used to wait for my monthly game magazine to arrive and hope they had printed a guide for a game I was stuck on. It truly was the dark ages… if you are younger than me and never experienced this, you don’t know how good you have it now!
Anyway!! It’s nice to see that point and click adventure games have made a comeback in recent years on consoles, in the form of remasters and brand new games, as I had always had a soft spot for the genre. Now, this genre isn’t for everyone, if you’re used to first-person shooters and PVP, then most likely you will find these games a bit slow! I, however, enjoy a good mix of genres and sometimes I want a game I can sit back, play and chill out with. Enter The DOOR!
Now, it’s worth saying that I don’t have a PSVR headset so I played The DOOR in ‘flat’ mode (non-VR). It’s nice you have the option to do this as there are many PSVR games I like the look of but they don’t have an option to play without it, and quite frankly, VR just doesn’t really interest me.
The DOOR consists of a story covering 5 chapters and has collectables for three of the main characters to collect. If you miss any of the collectables, you can go back to get them via a chapter select which is always a good feature for trophy hunters.
The DOOR is a mystery horror game where you play as Jacob, a research doctor who’s trying to save his daughter, Amy, from an unexplained illness with his lab assistant Clara. I won’t go into the story any further than that as if I spoil it, there is no point you playing it is there?!
There are a lot of puzzles to solve in The DOOR in order to advance the story. Not all of them are necessary for completing the game, however, completing them will give you Jacobs collectables if you’re going to 100% completion. They all range in difficulty from simple to rather difficult – on a few occasions I got really stuck and had to resort to YouTube for answers. God bless YouTube and this modern world we now live in.
The controls for The DOOR are simple enough, move your camera with the right stick, point with the left stick, press Cross to examine items and Triangle to display your inventory. (Rob – Judging from the videos I’ve seen of the game, and the way it operates, it seems very similar to Dead Secret – a murder mystery with horror elements in which you can play in or out of VR as you investigate the victim’s house. Also, it has a similar look and feel to the ‘18 Floors‘ escape room game.)
The DOOR is a Korean horror game with an age rating of 18. Personally, I didn’t find it scary enough to warrant this rating. Maybe the experience is more intense and/or spooky if you play it within VR? However, as I stated previously, I don’t own the headset and I’ve not used one so I can’t really comment on how or if the gameplay would be any different within the Virtual Reality. It’s worth noting though that I didn’t find ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ scary either so maybe I’m just getting braver in my old age, although I did only last about 10 minutes into Outlast before I had to turn it off, so take that as you will.
The audio is suitably creepy and while I thought the voice acting was atmospheric to start with, after a while I started to notice that it was a bit unconvincing when you really focused on it.
There are only 13 trophies in The DOOR and this doesn’t include a platinum which at the price of £39.99 is just wrong, very very wrong. Five of the trophies are chapter related and the rest are collectables, there was only one I really struggled with and I blame this mainly on the fact that the game is so dark you can easily miss things.
It took me about five hours to complete the story and a few more hours to clean up the rest of the trophies. This is another reason I think that The DOOR is overpriced at £39.99. I feel The DOOR would have sat better at around £15 and this will probably affect the sales or leaving people feeling a bit annoyed that they didn’t much value for their money. (Rob – Whereas I agree that the overall experience does seem pretty short for the price you’re paying, as it’s also VR I would expect a slightly higher than usual price. The DOOR is $35, so here in the UK, it should have been around £28-30 instead of a higher GBP price. Even so, Nicola feels the £30 mark is still too high for the experience you’ll get this time). *Updated – the price was readjusted to £28.99*
Official Trailer:
Final conclusion:
If you enjoy point and click puzzle or escape room games, then The DOOR is a good game in these genres. It’s not that scary, so don’t be put off by the horror element. However, I do feel it’s overpriced for both the length of the game and the fact there is no platinum trophy to unlock. These have, unfortunately, affected my overall score. My suggestion would be to wait until it’s about £15 in a sale as that’s about the right price in my opinion.
Perhaps if you do have the PSVR equipment then you will find this justifies the £39.99 price tag, but if you are playing it without VR then it’s really not justified.
A copy of the game was kindly provided for review purposes
The DOOR
£39.99
The Good:
- - Good story
- - Engaging puzzles
- - Easy controls
- - Can be played with or without PSVR
- - No bugs, crashing or glitches
The Bad:
- - No platinum
- - The price
- - Too short
- - Voice acting could be better
