About Death Zone:
Death’s zone is a charming isometric action game inspired (but, unlike Titan Souls, I wouldn’t say deeply influenced) by the most recognisable principles in Dark Souls game design. If you’ve played games like Hob or even side-scrollers like Hollow Knight and Ori, you can understand the ‘feel’ of this kind of indie game – that is, it’s a highly-polished, well-rounded experience that sets out to do a few things and does them well, using wonderful presentation to stand out. I felt this game was both serviceable and highly enjoyable in parts despite its inconsistent difficulty and periods where exploration felt a little tiresome. Yet I was very surprised when I saw just how small the team that made Death’s Door actually is. They’ve outdone themselves in that regard – going up against teams with dozens more development staff to play with. The game doesn’t innovate deeply compared to some similar titles (apart from having the guts to implement a checkpointed healing system, which I like). There are no fundamentally unique concepts here like in Hob, where you could refit areas of the level based on the clockwork adjustability of its lever system, and I’d say a good portion of the minibosses are less of a threat than I expected. That said, what you do get is a beautiful world with some fantastic level design, a streamlined and enjoyable combat system, irreverent but tasteful writing, and some great milestone bosses, particularly towards the end. Impressively, I encountered zero bugs, which again, is amazing for a team of this size. It seems there’s a fair amount of content post-game too, and a plethora of relatively hidden achievements to get, which I’ll plod away at over the coming weeks. Somehow, Death’s Door also felt like it has no pretension to its design or concept at all. It felt like a full experience from start to finish crafted by devs who love what they do. It might not be best in class in my opinion, but it’s a solid experience worth your time. If you’re looking for a comforting indie game you that will entertain you for around a dozen hours or so, you can’t go wrong here.
