Originally released on PC back in 2020, we’re finally treated to a bit of indie puzzling action in Seven Doors. It’s a short affair, though not without charm and – crucially – a decent challenge.
We’re literally thrown in without a guiding hand, the only explanation being that there are seven puzzle doors ahead of us to get through. Entering the first room sees us left to our own devices to not only solve the puzzle, but to figure out what the puzzle is in the first place.
Granted, this first room is pretty simple – there’s only a couple of things we can interact with, and the clue pretty much nails the solution on the head – but it’s fairly smartly done. It also does a decent job of preparing us for the rooms ahead, as things get somewhat tougher pretty quickly.
Each room offers a different challenge type, from logic and code deciphering to reflex or pattern spotting. Difficulty depends on your penchant for certain puzzle types – I breezed through some rooms whereas the final door proved to be a bit tougher as it required a sort of planning that doesn’t suit my way of thinking generally.
All in all, I got to the end of the Seventh door in just about an hour (after accidently restarting the game right at the end and having to run the previous six doors again).
A handful of secret doors are unlocked upon completion that are thankfully available from the main menu should we need to leave and come back. These offer an extra challenge and are a welcome bonus to the slim runtime.
The puzzles are enjoyable then, though I must mention a few pet peeves within Seven Doors – namely the controls. Firstly, there’s no option to invert the Y axis in game which is always frustrating, though remedied via the Xbox accessories app at least. Mainly though is the general feel of control in game. We can run via a button press, but it almost randomly cut out or didn’t function, seemingly tied to slightly pivoting the analogue stick by accident – or sometimes kicking in on it’s own. It gave a very stop start feel to movement which caused a little motion sickness feeling. Thankfully this didn’t last long and overall didn’t impact my enjoyment of the puzzles much.
Conclusion
Seven Doors is short but entertaining puzzle title. The fact each puzzle tests us in different ways is a nice touch, although this will impact the difficulty differently for different players. We’d like to see the movement smoothed out a bit, but as it is this is worth a look for those looking for some quick hit puzzling action.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
