The White Door Review
Posted: 5 weeks ago.
Author: Andy Robertson.
Overview
You play Robert Hill, who wakes up in a Mental Health facility and suffers from severe memory loss. To do this you follow the facility’s daily routine, see his dreams and slowly aid him in getting back his memories. As you do this, an unusual challenge arises: identifying what's missing.
The game tests your willingness to trust the facility and your carers. It does this by asking obedience to ever more prosaic tasks like brushing your teeth at the same time every day. Between these tasks you visit Robert's dreams and start to form a story of how he ended up here.
It's easy to play in terms of mechanics and puzzle challenges. What's harder is the theme and emotions. It's a game about the hope of feeling better when life has lost its colour. Can you find happiness in small things. The game handles this topic with care, and creates an involved way to experience what it's like to suffer from memory loss.
Details
Rating: PEGI 12+, ESRB TEEN
Release Date: 09/01/2020
Platforms: Android, Mac, PC and iOS.
Developer: @RustyLakeCom
Tips
View our choice of games like The White Door. This game is good if you want to:
Commitment
Costs
Age Ratings
Accessibility
Difficulty
How you can adjust the challenge of play, and assistance the game offers when you fail or get stuck.
Assistance
Assistance When Stuck: The game notices if you get stuck and provides assistance, such as skipping levels, hints or tutorials.
Practice Area: You can practice freely without opponents or time pressures.
Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials, instructions and tips.
Reading
How much reading or listening comprehension is required, and how accessible this is.
Simple Minimal Reading: Minimal reading is required.
Large Clear Text: Text is large and clear, or can be adjusted to be.
Any spoken content has subtitles: All spoken content has subtitles, or there is no speech in the game.
Speaker Indicator: Captions or icons and speech bubbles indicate who is speaking.
Some Dialogue is Voiced: Some of the game dialogue and narrative is voice acted.
Controls
How you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.
One Motion Targeted: Play with touchscreen, tap and swipe or hold gesture.
Rapid Pressing Optional: Quick, repeated button pressing not required or can be skipped or disabled.
Vibration Optional: Controller vibration not used in the game or you can disable it.
Image
How you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.
Visibility
Bright Colourful Palette: Game uses bright colours and is generally high contrast.
Outline Interactive Elements: Characters, platforms and enemies can be outlined for visibility.
Visual Distractions
No Flashes: No flashing strobe effects or you can disable them.
No Screen Shake: No screen shake effect or this can be disabled.
No Busy Backgrounds: No distracting backgrounds or you can make them static or blank.
Audio Cues for Visual Events: Audio is provided to indicate visual events.
Motion sickness friendly: Option to reduce motion sickness (motion blur, depth of field, field of vision).
Colourblind friendly: Game doesn’t rely on colour or can switch to colourblind friendly mode.
Clear Interface: The game navigation, maps and information are clear to read, large or adjustable.
Audio
How you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.
Balance Audio Levels: Set music and game sound effects separately.
Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well
System Settings
Android has accessibility settings including ways to navigate and interact, although not all games support this. Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators. iOS has a very extensive suite of accessibility settings including ways to navigate with voice and comprehensive screen reading, though most of the features don't work with games... read more about system accessibility settings.
Supported by PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors: Andy Robertson
Games Like The White Door
The following games are like The White Door. They address a similar topic or offer a similar way to play. They are good options to play next and also good alternatives to The White Door for younger age ratings.
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