A House of Many Doors is a hidden gem of a game, that could have used a bit more funding and style to bring it to greatness.

BY SCUTTLE GAMEZ

• 

The Game:

A House of Many Doors is a choose your adventure RPG, with elements of a rogue-like and resource management game on the side. It comes to us from Indie Dev Pixel Trickery, and it’s their only game released to date.

In A House of Many Doors you are a train captain of the land of The House. This house is not just any house though, no, that’s just the nickname the residents have given it. In reality, The House is a multi-dimensional mystery. Is it alive? Does it have a will of its own? One thing is for certain, The House consumes. Every person and place within it once belonged elsewhere, until they were snatched away by The House. Once taken, that is where they stay. At least, they have until now. Perhaps you will find the door leading out.

• 

A House of Many Doors focuses on three main elements of play: story, inventory management, and travel / combat. Story is handled like a, well, storybook. You’ll do a lot of reading in this game, and a lot of choices need to be made. Most situations you find yourself in have multiple ways to deal with them, favoring different personalities of character and abilities you’ve gained along the way. Choose wisely though, as there is no saving between choices, and it is very possibly to die in this game.

You won’t be alone during your travels either. There are a plethora of side characters to meet and take along, each with a story to tell of their own, and some even hold romance in their hearts.

The game outside of the narrative segments is mostly taken up by travel. You move your train car across screen after screen of The House’s wilderness from an eagle eye view, and maneuver with the WASD keys. Inventory management is nothing new here. You have a weight limit, a space limit, and will need to find a good balance of things you need to survive (food and fuel) versus everything else.

• 

• 

The combat in A House of Many Doors is one of tactics and learning. Upon entering a fight you’ll be whisked away to a battle screen, where your train and your opponent’s are shown side by side, the distance between the two changing as you speed up or slow down. From there it’s a battle of outgunning your opponent, as well as choosing more soundly in what to strike and how far away to be when you fire / receive fire.

• 

The Good:

Story! Story! Story! This game has a ton of it, and you don’t want to miss it. Everything from the little adventures you find yourself on at random cities, to the romances to get involved in are a thrill. And, best of all, the main plot is a real page turner. Anything having to do with story had me enthralled, and I put over a dozen hours into the game on just reading the various plots and learning about the places of The House alone.

It’s not a story everyone will love though. There is a lot of weirdness, mystery, and chaotic happenings abound. You’ll talk to fallen gods, evil angels, humble zombies, and so, so, much more. You kind of need to be able to go with the flow on this one, if not, it might not be up your alley.

Music is another area of perfection for A House of Many Doors. It sets the mood just right in every situation, and made for a wonderfully macabre journey through the fathomless deep of The House.

The Mixed:

Art in this game is a real hit and miss. On one hand, the hand drawn scenes and depictions of locations and events that come up in narrative segments are gold. They portrayed the strange horror and beauty of The House, and added a lot to the game overall. I would honestly buy an art book alone for this game, and not regret it even for a moment . . .

And then we come to the ‘art’ and graphics of the game outside of those more amazing sections. The House itself is rather boring. It’s littered with tons of average quality debris, which have the look of an asset store buy, and there it not much variation in them either. It was a real juxtaposition between the high quality and care of the story scenes, and it was a shame that not more thought was given to these areas of the game as well.

• 

The Bad:

If were to point a finger at one specific thing in A House of Many Doors that will push people away, it’s the massive amount of time you’ll spend on travel in this game. The House is huge. This is good, as there are tons of places to see. But, to get to them you need to trudge back and forth in the dark, a dark filled with not much to see.

Something needed to be down to spruce this experience up, and it pulls the game down a peg. With how narrative focused the rest of the game is, I almost wish the developer had just gone for gold and axed the segments outside of narration entirely.

The Verdict:

Despite some parts of A House of Many Doors being clearly left out in the cold, travel art and travel as a whole, the game is a true worthwhile experience. I loved my time in A House of Many Doors, and for those gamers who enjoy tons of reading, story, and a good multi-dimensional parasite monster house to explore, it is 100% worth a buy.

A House of Many Doors can be purchased on Steam for 10.99$, and it’s soundtrack separately for 6.99$.