Preview | Doors of Insanity

A game that has deck building and RPG? And also some roguelike elements? Count me in! Doors of Insanity, a new game by developer OneShark and publisher Another Indie, is currently in Early Access on Steam. The concept of this game got me excited, and this game did not disappoint. Let me take you through what I liked and dislike about Doors of Insanity so far.

Wow, I love this game!

Doors of Insanity has caught my attention, damn. I immediately enjoyed the gameplay and was sucked into this game within minutes. There are four areas and you have to get through them in one run. So if the boss in area 3 beats you, you have to start again from the very beginning. You go through various doors and every area has a set amount of doors you need to go through before reaching the boss. These doors can be normal or elite battles, the merchant, something random, a witch, a well (for your health), etc. I liked this very much!

Balancing offensive and defensive cards correctly was so very important because you don’t want to face a boss at the end of an area with barely any health left. Right now, there are four areas in the game and it’s not as easy as you think to get through them all. There’s also a PvP mode but I couldn’t find any opponents to play against so I stopped trying. And honestly, I loved the area clearing a lot, so I didn’t mind at all.

The game also offers some other noteworthy elements. There is a dice system where you can a new die every turn. As you all know, a die has six eyes, so you can get a number between one and six every turn. You can either drag the die to your own character, which will gain you absorb (damage that you can absorb without losing health during the opponent’s turn). If the die says 2, then you’ll get 4 absorb, so it’s always double. You can also drag the die onto your enemy, which will do damage to them (a die with five will do 10 damage). I wasn’t so sure about the dice at first, but they did come in handy when, for example, I didn’t have any defensive cards in my hand.

Besides this, the game has a great art style that I really enjoyed. There’s also some lame humor, like when you die, you’ll see a bunch of dancing skeletons with a coffin and the text ‘You’re dead bud’. Or when you level up, it says ‘you’re a big boi now’. It’s simple, yet satisfactory. You can also upgrade your character with some cool gear, like cool hats, or body armor and weapons. These actually update your attack and defense, alongside how you look.

But still, I have a few notes

I had some difficulties with the health. It’s so damn hard to get your health back, and that really sucked. This is definitely what made the game most difficult. Like, no matter how hard I try, I cannot get past area 3 because I just don’t have enough health when it comes down to it. It took me a while to get past the boss at the end of area 2, but that cost me so much health that I was never able to survive for a long time in area 3. I honestly can’t wait to beat this game (let’s hope I can someday). I would also love to see more variety when it comes to the enemies, but I saw that is on the dev’s list for the full release, yay!

Another thing that could potentially enjoy a lot of people, is that you always start out with the same cards. Even though you acquire new cards throughout an area, when you beat the boss, you only get to take one card back to purgatory. So, you’re left with one new card. Of course, you can buy cards at the merchant, but still. Playing with the same basic cards, again and again, can get annoying. It didn’t bother me that much, but it could be an issue for some.

In conclusion

This is not a perfect game, but for an Early Access title, this is really showing potential. The gameplay is very fun, and I can see myself enjoying this game a lot more in the future. Currently, the price tag is 17 Euros, and at first, I thought this was a lot for an EA game. However, after playing it, I think it’s definitely worth this price. Better get on it because the price will increase after it leaves EA!