Doors of Insanity

At the time of writing, more and more deck building games are coming to the forefront of mainstream gaming. You of course have the frontrunners like Gwent and Hearthstone. Then you have the smaller titles such as Daft Disputes, Neoverse and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories to an extent. What we are getting at is, without very clever design and slick gameplay, it’s very easy to get lost in the crowd. A fate that Doors of Insanity avoids, but only just.

This game plays rather similarly to the aforementioned Neoverse as well as titles like Monster Train and Dungeon Tales. The game essentially aims to provide an aesthetically pleasing and technically sound card game experience and in a lot of respects, it succeeds. But to what extent you may be wondering. Well, we find out in our review of Doors of Insanity.

Doesn’t Go for Broke

A theme we have seen within this genre is developers aiming to be super unique. Then, as a result, putting together a game that no longer resembles a card game. Doors of Insanity is thankfully self-aware enough to avoid this pitfall and instead makes small tweaks to a basic setup to set itself apart. Players can take advantage of dice mechanics which allow you to attack or defend as a bonus move alongside your card-based strategies.

Plus, the game incorporates a levelling system which makes this game almost feel like a card-based roguelike. Between games, the player will be able to advance their stats, make their attacks more powerful, make their defence more resilient and will also be able to buy new items. Overall, it’s a fun way to increase retention but for hardcore deck builder fans, this will feel a little cheap and we can only assume that it will stop this game from growing into a top-end franchise with balanced gameplay like Gwent or Hearthstone.

Found Lacking In Key Areas

A card game can be weak in some areas and still be great. However, one area that has to captivate the player right from the get-go is the cards. You need to have a strong library of usable cards with a plethora of cool designs and effects. Sadly, Doors of Insanity only provide the latter. The cards on offer are generally quite cool and fun to play around with. However, there simply aren’t enough in the game to offer enough tactical options to players.

We can see exactly where the developers sank their time into after they made sure the mechanics were solid and that was the aesthetic. The game’s animations are fun and well-rendered, the humour in this title is quirky but in a good way. Plus, the ‘insanity’ is very much front and centre with a series of scenarios that are weird and unpredictable, but once again, in a good way.

We wish that the developers would have offered more tactical options to keep the gameplay fresh but we suppose we can make peace with the wacky and well-presented aesthetic as a trade-off.

The Verdict

Pros:

• Quirky presentation and humour
• Interesting mechanics

Cons:

• Levelling system makes success feel cheap
• Card library is underwhelming