Narrative horror game

god opens the door is a short visual novel game authored by indie developer splicekid. It features a child neglected by her mother and locked inside a room. However, one day through an opened window, she was able to get out of the room and go about the house once more. A warning, though: the game is filled with lots of disturbing scenarios. If you are prone to emotional turmoil, you might want to skip this game. 

Not your ordinary horror game

god opens the door is not your usual horror role-playing game. For one, it lacks the usual horror game tropes of jumpscares and haunted locations—but it is dark. As noted, it follows the story of a young girl who was neglected by her mother. One day, the window in her room was left open, and she was able to get out and eventually see the whole house.

Here starts the dark plot. While going around the house, she saw her mother flush something in the toilet before going back to bed to sleep her drunkenness away. From the toilet bowl, the girl heard the voice of a child crying because of loneliness. However, the weird part does not end there. The girl then gets up on the crack in the ceiling, where she meets “god.”

From the opening scene to the credits, everything in this game is disturbing. It talks about a lot of dark themes, including child abuse, neglect, alcohol, abortion, and even murder. There are also lots of trigger scenes that are not appropriate for people suffering from mental health problems. 

Disturbing from start to finish

Gameplay-wise, god opens the door is one of those casual games where you don’t really have to do much, aside from choosing some actions for the characters to do. An issue here is how dark the plot is and how it relays sensitive topics so nonchalantly. In the end, though, it is not the jump scares that make this game fit the horror genre, but its disturbing plot and execution.