Multi-Faceted Murder Doors [Mark of the Ninja]
Mark of the Ninja is an incredibly polished little indie stealth-platformer that’s all about slickly traversing your environment and taking out enemies with all the power of a cool ninja. And doors are a big part of stealth games — games like The Last of Us: Part 2 included doors for a very important reason. By closing doors, you can break line-of-sight with enemies and re-establish stealth, something that was much harder to do in the previous game. Mark of the Ninja uses door mechanics in the same way, but expands them.
By leaning against a door in Mark of the Ninja, you get an immediate preview of what’s on the other side. You can perform a killer strike from a door, or you can generate noise to lure enemies through doors to their doom. The handiest part of a door — after an enemy walks through, you can close it again and take out your target in private. Doors aren’t just boring wooden rectangles. They’re powerful stealth tools!
Virtual Reality Doors Have Arrived [Half-Life: Alyx]
And finally, we have to talk about the most advanced, cutting-edge doors of the generation. Half-Life: Alyx is the VR game killer app. It’s the kind of game that will get players to try VR, even if they aren’t that interested in the general hassle of VR headsets, calibration… all that stuff. Half-Life: Alyx is good enough to get people to look past it all.
What’s so special about the doors in Half-Life: Alyx? You can open them just like in real life. Grab a handle, and slowly push open a door with one hand while peaking through the crack in another. You can use doors as cover against Combine Soldiers, or you can slam a door shut to crush any headcrabs that try to lunge themselves at your face. It’s weird to say a door can be realistic, but the doors in Half-Life: Alyx feels true-to-life in a way other doors don’t.
Did we really just write 2,000 words about doors in video games? You bet we did! There are so many great doors, there are plenty we left off the list. Do you love the cool sound of Doom doors opening? Think Resident Evil doors deserve a spotlight? Let us know!
