The Last Door - Season One is a game that's a conglomeration of four chapters; each that were released on Kickstarter throughout 2013. At first, developer The Game Kitchen saw very few backers, but that gradually changed with the creation of each new episode. Finalized and bundled into one season title, The Last Door has seen great success with the gaming community, and it has received many awards since its release in May of 2014.
The player will control Jeremiah Devitt, a man who receives a letter from his old schoolmate and friend, Anthony Beechworth. The arcane contents unsettle Devitt, and so he goes out in search of the whereabouts of his former classmate. What disentangles is a vague, perplexing mystery as Devitt uncovers long forgotten secrets from his youth. Each episode takes place in a different area of Victorian England, ranging from a creepy old manor to an unsettling nunnery, and even crypts. The story is very convoluted and at times dry, it's definitely not something that is going to appeal to a large variety of people. As well, one couldn't necessarily call this a horror game so much as it is a mystery title at best.
The Last Door has been heavily inspired by the works of famous authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Jorge Luis Borges, and Edgar Allan Poe. Judging by many of the reviews and comments on this game, people seem to believe that it's more so Lovecraftian than anything, but I did not have this perception during my 4 hours with the title. If anything, The Last Door feels overwhelmingly Poe inspired; not only given the large amount of ravens that are dealt with, but the overall writing style. There's nothing here discussing the void, abyss, cosmos, or anything else that would indicate a huge presence of Lovecraft, though the obscurity of the storyline may fall into a Lovecraftian twist category.
In relation to other point and click pixel graphic games, The Last Door doesn't stand out much from the crowd. The art is well done, but it's also become a fairly standard style within the last couple of years. Objects are easy to spot since they're highlighted when you mouse over them, and there's only so many items that you can click on; needless to say, the puzzles are relatively easy to solve, so long as you don't mind a bit of repetitive wandering. There are plenty of notes and diaries to read to delve further into the story, and there are a handful of "minisodes" to explore that last between 1-3 minutes. The soundtrack on the other hand is absolutely incredible, it's extremely dramatic and it easily overwhelms the senses. It's nice to know that as of September 6, 2016, the developer has included the OST with the game for free.
I'm personally a big fan of Victorian Gothic style, and I love the works of Poe and especially Lovecraft. That being said, I didn't find The Last Door to be everything that people have hyped it up to be. The story can come off really dry at times, and it's shrouded in mystery; you get the general gist of what's going on by the end, but nothing is revealed for certain. The gameplay doesn't have very many puzzles so much as simply running around and collecting items to use at a later time. The Last Door is neither bad nor something to praise to the sun and back, it's really just an average Victorian Gothic point and click.
Rating: 3.0/5.0 - Average, can take it or leave it.The Horror Network
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