Indie Horror: The Last Door

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 29, 2014

I was kinda skeptical of this one. Yes, even as a retro-gamer, I had issues with giant-pixel graphics running at VIC-20 resolutions (albeit with way more colors). But I broke down and tried The Game Kitchen’s adventure,  The Last Door: Collector’s Edition. The entire game is available free-to-play as an online Flash title, which you can play in episodic format right now. It’s donation-ware. Otherwise, you can pick up the Collector’s Edition – an enhanced version – for download.

And you know what? I got used to the pixellated style pretty quickly.

The Last Door is an old-school style graphic adventure game of horror set in the year 1891. It is inspired by Lovecraft, but I couldn’t help but think Poe as well in style and mood. It must have been because of the ravens / crows. It has a highly pixellated art style, which cause some players to hesitate. I did at first, but the end result was that I ended up imagining more of what was happening on the screen than I was really seeing. I’m sure that was the point (as well as the ability to crank out content very quickly), but it’s not exactly an awesome sales pitch. But… it works.

The story begins, oddly enough, with a suicide that acts as a tutorial. That sets things off with a disturbing scene, especially as you must click on things to move the game along. As a player, you feel like an accomplice to suicide. But it’s a classic intro to a dark story like this one, teaches the player the simple interface, and sets the mood for the rest of the episode.

The Collector’s Edition covers the first ‘season’ of the game – the first four episodes, with enhanced sound, new locations, and other bonuses.

I’d really like to joke about how “hunt the pixel” is a lot easier with so few pixels, but honestly, the “hot” cursor areas around objects are pretty large and easy to identify. Likewise, the puzzles did not seem too difficult from what I’ve played. Each episode is short and can be played through pretty quickly.

In fact, the thing I found so delightful about the game – besides the creepy atmosphere – was the fact that it was a relatively painless adventuring experience. The puzzles did not seem particularly obtuse and were well-hinted; the writing was solid; the commands and interface were simple; the sound (and especially the excellent music) were well-done, and the minimalist graphics did not obscure important items.

If you are a beginner to adventure games, these might be a great place to start. Even though I don’t really qualify as a beginner, I found the game to be refreshing and enjoyable. I don’t know if this was in the original Flash-based games (which I’ve not played), or if this came from the extra polish for the Collector’s Edition with the assistance of the indie publisher, Phoenix Online. But as I’m not the hardcore adventure gamer I might have been back int he 90s, things were just my speed and felt “right.”

Overall, if you are willing to try an adventure game (you don’t even have to currently be a fan), and aren’t too afraid of oversized pixels, The Last Door is a creepy little horror title that may be worth checking out.

 

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Impressions, Indie Horror Games - Comments: Comments are off for this article



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