Doorways: The Underworld Review

The horror genre has undergone a genuine revival of late, birthed from the rising popularity of YouTube gamers and their reaction videos. Walkthroughs of games like Slender Man (inspired by a community-generated cult story on Something Awful) provided a vicarious thrill without direct confrontation, paving the way for a cavalcade of me-too titles that pander to these quasi-celebrities. With the paper-thin marketing budgets these small studios operate on, it’s no surprise that YouTube is being targeted as a source of free advertisement, yet it has encouraged a deluge of what can only be termed as shovelware to flood Steam’s “New Releases” page. Doorways doesn’t conform to that description, but does it possess enough personality to stick its head above the mass of fermenting corpses and masked psychopaths?

Doorways: The Underworld is the third chapter of the Doorways series, which follows agent Thomas Foster as you search for a maniacal doctor that’s long since contravened her Hippocratic Oath. Inevitably, on your quest to locate this unscrupulous medic you’ll encounter the products of Katherine Stein’s ghoulish experimentation – dismembered, maimed and tortured humans intended for a classified section of the German military. So far, so trite, then.

You’ll be spending a lot of time in these sewers

The plot is unspooled through Doctor Stein’s diary entries, the frenzied scribbles of her unfortunate inmates and field notes from Doorways agents long since perished. These are mostly verbalised by the protagonist, who is voiced by Sam A. Mowry (the man behind Alexander in Amnesia: The Dark Descent). Mowry’s bassy tone lends gravity to proceedings, which is important when ropey voice acting can scythe through meticulously crafted tension like a mid-coital laugh.



Great horror cultures a nerve-jangling disquietude by presenting a threat and teasing the reveal or release. Alfred Hitchcock famously articulated in an AFI seminar the secret to mastering cinematic tension, insisting that shock scares provide very little payoff to the viewer. He argued that being aware of the danger but not knowing when it will strike is the key to true horror. It’s the difference between five seconds of surprise when a concealed bomb wipes out a main character, to the five minutes of burning anxiety when you’re aware of the bomb’s presence but are helpless to inform those in peril.

While Doorways doesn’t fall foul of this common pitfall, it could’ve made greater attempts to cultivate unease before Doctor Stein’s twisted inventions are let loose. The medical notes – which chart the inmate’s journey from suggestible volunteer to mutilated humanoid – do a decent job of formulating a picture in your head but there’s little else at play to build that knowledgeable apprehension. To that end, the flashbacks – which are used sparingly to flesh out the backstory – could’ve been employed more effectively, chronicling the transformation of the patients from both a physical and mental standpoint.

Platforming sections like this one feel tacked on and unnecessary

That being said, this is far from a cheerful romp through the countryside. As always, a constant low-level ambient hum prevents you from ever dropping your guard, while your first encounter with Stein’s creations can be creepy if you’ve invested enough into the game’s atmosphere and suspended your disbelief sufficiently.

Ultimately, Doorways greatest failing is the banality of the puzzles that serve to elongate its playtime. Your first task is to locate handles that fix on to a central water pump. Turning each handle will raise the water level in sequence, thus opening up new sections of the map that house further handles. Upon raising the water level enough to exit the chamber, you’ll find ostensibly the same exercise awaits you in the next room. This quickly becomes a tedious grind, as you traipse through the sewers on auto-pilot. It also leads to over-exposure with the bloated monstrosity that roams these tunnels, dispelling any initial fear you might’ve experienced after first evading its clutches.

It’s not until the latter stages – when the Flashback mechanic is introduced – that the puzzles become more engaging. Flashback, as the name suggests, enables you to cast a transient retrospective eye on your surroundings. Not only does this unveil hidden switches and exits to rooms, but it also returns you to a time when something particularly chilling stalked the corridors. This plays into Doorways final test, where you’re required to activate switches that are only revealed through Flashback, leaving you vulnerable to attack as a consequence.

Three platforms and three keys to find

As neat as this section is, the developers definitely missed a trick. When you first acquire this power by picking up a magically imbued pocket watch, there’s a scene where you’re plunged into darkness and Flashback acts as your only means of brief illumination. A sense of dread envelops you when this happens, the thought of something skulking in the shadows preying heavy on your mind. Yet this moment is over within seconds and that fear dissipates – an opportunity wasted.

AlthoughDoorways starts to find its feet in the concluding segments, the closing shots of the chapter feel desperately anticlimactic. Raising an enticing question or presenting a potent cliffhanger is integral to episodic content, yet the chapter fizzles out with a whimper that hardly implores you to partner Thomas Foster’s for the rest of his nightmarish expedition. One can only hope there’s not a sewer in sight when his unenviable quest continues.