Taking a break from Planescape: Torment to play The Last Door.

Alone in a dusky room, all hope lost. A rope, a chair. The only option left is to end it all.

After all the things I’ve seen, after all the things I’ve done… My life is on a course that I can’t escape from. It’s too late for me now. I just hope you could forgive me someday.

Yours sincerely, Anthony Beechworth

Thus begins The Last Door, ominously. You play as the childhood friend of the daunted late Mr. Beechworth, investigating the mysterious circumstances of his death, starting with examining the very house in which he lived and died. A web of mystery and secrets emerge.

It’s a point and click game, meaning there isn’t really much by way of gameplay, mostly you walk around exploring, finding and using items, solving problems, so the main value resides, as it must, in the story, characters and atmosphere. Visually, it’s going for a striking pixelated retro-style (with some modern elements.) It’s a horror-mystery-adventure with some melancholy thrown in for good measure, and overall it’s somewhat in the vein of Lovecraft — deliberately so, successfully. 

I like it. It’s a competently crafted and (so far) well written atmospheric little indie game with a decent soundtrack. I’m not even halfway through the first episode, but I’m looking forward to experience more of this world and to getting some answers. Maybe I’ll write some more when I’ve finished the game.