"Oh, my God! What...what is this place?! WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!?"

Think that's a tad melodramatic? Well, if you're gonna buy this game, you'd best get used to it.

In Doorways: The Underworld you play the single most hysteria-prone supernatural-investigator-of-evil-people's-minds that you will ever meet. Even after being chased down narrow, bendy, all-but-completely-dark tunnels by ♥♥♥♥♥♥-up dudes who look like they just stepped out of a Clive Barker novel, he's still prone to jump-scaring HIMSELF with the comparatively mild sight of a clean-picked skeleton or two. Seriously, the guy is kinda crazy: He talks to himself persistently, asking more silly questions than a six year-old child being raised in an Eastern European brothel, and they're all completely rhetorical because apart from the odd tortured, animalistic guy with a wheel in place of a pair of legs, HE'S ALL ALONE.

I mean, if the first sign of madness is talking to oneself, then the second must surely be skulking about in unfeasibly dark places when you're as unsuited to scaring yourself as an incontinent schoolgirl with a rare heart condition. This game's approach to scares brings two words to mind: "Heavy" and "handed". In roughly that order. Having said that, it IS quite genuinely scary at times, almost in spite of itself.

Proceedings get off to a particularly poor start, in any case, with a sub-Amnesia style bit which succeeds neither as "stealth" nor "pursuit", and yet BOTH are integral to getting through it. It's a bit trial-and-error to say the least, and I for one nearly gave up on the game there and then, not even ten minutes in. Fortunately things DO get better from there - at least until the heavily glitch-ridden finale - and there's actually quite a lot of really good stuff in this game if you stick with it. I certainly wouldn't recommend it, however, to anyone just "discovering" the horror genre for the first time. There's every chance you'll just throw in the towel with frustration, and never bother playing another horror game for as long as you live.

The first Doorways game (Doorways: Prelude) somehow turned minimal mechanics and an almost total lack of regular, mobile "enemies" into a strangely compelling and satisfying experience. Somehow, by adding more typical gaming mechanics, this second entry has done itself a bit of a disservice. With a bit of luck I'll find that by the third and final game in the series, the devs have ironed things out a bit, and consolidated the best aspects of the first and second game into some kind of harmonious whole. I have faith: Saibot Studios are far from stoopid or untalented, they just need to give themselves a bit of a kick in the arse from time to time.

Verdict: 8/10.

(PS Nice little "homages" to Outlast and Penumbra in the sewer section. You'll know what I mean when you see them, BELIEVE ME!!!)

"Oh, my God! What...what is this place?! WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!?" Think that's a tad melodramatic? Well, if you're gonna buy this game, you'd best get used to it. In Doorways: The Underworld you play the single most hysteria-prone supernatural-investigator-of-evil-people's-minds that you will ever meet. Even after being chased down narrow, bendy, all-but-completely-dark tunnels by fucked-up dudes who look like they just stepped out of a Clive Barker novel, he's still prone to jump-scaring HIMSELF with the comparatively mild sight of a clean-picked skeleton or two. Seriously, the guy is kinda crazy: He talks to himself persistently, asking more silly questions than a six year-old child being raised in an Eastern European brothel, and they're all completely rhetorical because apart from the odd tortured, animalistic guy with a wheel in place of a pair of legs, HE'S ALL ALONE. I mean, if the first sign of madness is talking to oneself, then the second must surely be skulking about in unfeasibly dark places when you're as unsuited to scaring yourself as an incontinent schoolgirl with a rare heart condition. This game's approach to scares brings two words to mind: "Heavy" and "handed". In roughly that order. Having said that, it IS quite genuinely scary at times, almost in spite of itself. Proceedings get off to a particularly poor start, in any case, with a sub-Amnesia style bit which succeeds neither as "stealth" nor "pursuit", and yet BOTH are integral to getting through it. It's a bit trial-and-error to say the least, and I for one nearly gave up on the game there and then, not even ten minutes in. Fortunately things DO get better from there - at least until the heavily glitch-ridden finale - and there's actually quite a lot of really good stuff in this game if you stick with it. I certainly wouldn't recommend it, however, to anyone just "discovering" the horror genre for the first time. There's every chance you'll just throw in the towel with frustration, and never bother playing another horror game for as long as you live. The first Doorways game (Doorways: Prelude) somehow turned minimal mechanics and an almost total lack of regular, mobile "enemies" into a strangely compelling and satisfying experience. Somehow, by adding more typical gaming mechanics, this second entry has done itself a bit of a disservice. With a bit of luck I'll find that by the third and final game in the series, the devs have ironed things out a bit, and consolidated the best aspects of the first and second game into some kind of harmonious whole. I have faith: Saibot Studios are far from stoopid or untalented, they just need to give themselves a bit of a kick in the arse from time to time. Verdict: 8/10. (PS Nice little "homages" to Outlast and Penumbra in the sewer section. You'll know what I mean when you see them, BELIEVE ME!!!)