I Love A Good Video Game Door

Lords of the Fallen’s well-paced world

Alex Rowe
7 min readJul 17, 2024

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The customizable player character of Lords of the Fallen opens a giant metal door framed by a stone-covered rock wall and a muddy puddle.
Lords of the Fallen (2023) game screenshot taken by the author.

I will always enjoy opening a door in a video game.

I love it when they’re physics based. I love it when they have elaborate animations. I love it when they’re more mechanical or breakable. I love bashing through them and kicking them down. I even love it when they’re just simple animations disguising a loading screen. There’s a whole spectrum of cool video game doors out there, and 2023’s Lords of the Fallen stands proudly among them.

After a few false starts, I’ve been fully sucked in to last year’s Lords of the Fallen sequel, which went through a comical number of titles during its development before hilariously settling on the exact same name as its predecessor. This Souls-like game has detailed modern visuals, a responsive action combat system with fast dynamic combo attacks that set it apart from the Souls pack, and a beautiful gothic realm to explore with a story that builds on the lore established in the first installment ten years ago.

It also has excellent doors.

Video game doors serve many functions. They act as transition points between areas, giving the player a pointed break in the world progression, and often giving the game a chance to load whatever is behind them. Sometimes doors function as direct mechanics in…

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Alex Rowe
Alex Rowe

Written by Alex Rowe

I post commentary about gaming, tech, and sometimes music. I’ve written professionally about games since 2005. Look mom, I’m using my English degree!

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