DOOR:Inner Child has you moving through worlds created from the pain in peoples’ hearts, solving puzzles and soothing the agony that has shaped these places.
The game’s many realms are all inspired by some aspect of human emotion, drawing from that feeling to create places of loneliness, sadness, and anger to create a look and color scheme that expresses those sensations. Certain mechanics will also draw from those same emotions, making for stages that play differently depending on what feeling it wants to put across. You might find the screen torn into several pieces, the camera locked into a single perspective, or your movement may be affected depending on what the developer wants you to feel in each area.
While these lands represent some dark emotions, you are trying to bring them to a better place, so you will see a more positive and hopeful world come together as you work through puzzles and help people with their pain. Even these dark places have a compelling beauty to them, though, one that reflects the humanity that still exists within us, even when we’re hurting. Not that our pain is beautiful, but that our hurts can, in some ways, join us together, helping us to achieve and feel something wonderful in working through them together.
DOOR:Inner Child offers a handful of intriguing worlds to explore, each with a striking look and play style that keeps things fresh. That it’s also quite beautiful, even in darkness, makes it an even more intriguing world to spend some time in.
DOOR:Inner Child is available now on Steam Early Access.
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