After years of drift towards third-person action, survival horror finally returns to its roots: dunking your entire arm into every single trashcan you can find and showing disobedient vending machines and lockers the righteous fury of your boot heel.
Thank God the indie market is so robust these days, because the increasing homogenization of the modern big budget game and shrinking genre space therein means you wouldn't get proper survival horror otherwise. Crow Country and others like Signalis have been filling that void, but despite clearly playing to the charm of PlayStation era horror with its visuals - especially with its character models, which look as though they've been unearthed from an old Net Yaroze kit - Crow Country is no tired pastiche. It's safe rooms, puzzles, and resource management might harken to a design ethos that was at one point more commonplace, but these elements feel authentic and borne from a place of appreciation and understanding.
Nowhere is this more strongly felt than in the park's layout and the way in which the player navigates it. The amusement park theme allows for neatly defined areas with their own theming and unique attractions, with hidden passages, back rooms, cast tunnels, and a subterranean network serving as the connective tissue between each "land" in a way that feels appropriate for the setting while serving to make the park feel highly interconnected. Crow Country is great at providing a sense of space while conveying where the player should go and what to do next. I never felt lost or completely stumped by a puzzle and was consistently engaged and encouraged to revisit old locations to explore - the part of my brain that starts processing how I want to route my way through a game activated pretty early, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a sign that a survival horror game is living up to the promise of its genre.
The setting is also small. Crow Country is less Disneyland, more Santa's Village, so one way developer SFB Games succeeds in making repeated loops through the park threatening is by gradually introducing more enemies and traps to familiar locations. As the time of day progresses, rain and darkness further obscure the player's vision, and boobytrapped pick-ups begin to litter the map to prey on the sense of trust they've developed with their environment. I sprinted my way through the opening two hours, juked most enemies and picked up any crap I saw laying on the ground. By hour five, I was walking everywhere, stopping frequently, side-eyeing boxes of ammo, and finding that I actually had to conserve what I had due to the increased expectation that I shoot some damn "guests."
I also appreciate Crow Country for telling a complete and coherent story, something I think a lot of horror games have pushed away from. I think the Five Nights series has poisoned the genre and led a lot of other indie horror creators to believe a complex and intentionally vague narrative is the best way to ensure franchise longevity. Keep posing questions, provide no answers. I get it, sometimes it's best to let the audience fill in gaps, you don't want over-explain horror, but in the hands of a weak writer, the "unknown" can just be a euphemism for "nothing."
That's not to say Crow Country fails to raise any questions of its own, rather that in true PSX survival horror fashion, you're given all the clues you need to form the big picture through memos, context, and dialog. How well you do that is entirely dependent on how much you're paying attention, and whether you view Crow Country as being so cliched that its horror can be explained by way of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. I was extremely satisfied by the ending, which leaves just enough unanswered that you'll still have something to think of without feeling like you'll need to consult a YouTube series or read like, seven fucking books and play a dozen more games. An indie horror game with a conclusion that is both cogent and earned, thank christ.
So make the most of your Memorial Day weekend and bring the whole family down to Crow Country. Come ride our newest attraction: The Seven Seas, and discover new types of bacteria. Remember, vets and children under 6 get in free!
Thank God the indie market is so robust these days, because the increasing homogenization of the modern big budget game and shrinking genre space therein means you wouldn't get proper survival horror otherwise. Crow Country and others like Signalis have been filling that void, but despite clearly playing to the charm of PlayStation era horror with its visuals - especially with its character models, which look as though they've been unearthed from an old Net Yaroze kit - Crow Country is no tired pastiche. It's safe rooms, puzzles, and resource management might harken to a design ethos that was at one point more commonplace, but these elements feel authentic and borne from a place of appreciation and understanding.
Nowhere is this more strongly felt than in the park's layout and the way in which the player navigates it. The amusement park theme allows for neatly defined areas with their own theming and unique attractions, with hidden passages, back rooms, cast tunnels, and a subterranean network serving as the connective tissue between each "land" in a way that feels appropriate for the setting while serving to make the park feel highly interconnected. Crow Country is great at providing a sense of space while conveying where the player should go and what to do next. I never felt lost or completely stumped by a puzzle and was consistently engaged and encouraged to revisit old locations to explore - the part of my brain that starts processing how I want to route my way through a game activated pretty early, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a sign that a survival horror game is living up to the promise of its genre.
The setting is also small. Crow Country is less Disneyland, more Santa's Village, so one way developer SFB Games succeeds in making repeated loops through the park threatening is by gradually introducing more enemies and traps to familiar locations. As the time of day progresses, rain and darkness further obscure the player's vision, and boobytrapped pick-ups begin to litter the map to prey on the sense of trust they've developed with their environment. I sprinted my way through the opening two hours, juked most enemies and picked up any crap I saw laying on the ground. By hour five, I was walking everywhere, stopping frequently, side-eyeing boxes of ammo, and finding that I actually had to conserve what I had due to the increased expectation that I shoot some damn "guests."
I also appreciate Crow Country for telling a complete and coherent story, something I think a lot of horror games have pushed away from. I think the Five Nights series has poisoned the genre and led a lot of other indie horror creators to believe a complex and intentionally vague narrative is the best way to ensure franchise longevity. Keep posing questions, provide no answers. I get it, sometimes it's best to let the audience fill in gaps, you don't want over-explain horror, but in the hands of a weak writer, the "unknown" can just be a euphemism for "nothing."
That's not to say Crow Country fails to raise any questions of its own, rather that in true PSX survival horror fashion, you're given all the clues you need to form the big picture through memos, context, and dialog. How well you do that is entirely dependent on how much you're paying attention, and whether you view Crow Country as being so cliched that its horror can be explained by way of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. I was extremely satisfied by the ending, which leaves just enough unanswered that you'll still have something to think of without feeling like you'll need to consult a YouTube series or read like, seven fucking books and play a dozen more games. An indie horror game with a conclusion that is both cogent and earned, thank christ.
So make the most of your Memorial Day weekend and bring the whole family down to Crow Country. Come ride our newest attraction: The Seven Seas, and discover new types of bacteria. Remember, vets and children under 6 get in free!
Despite wearing it's influences very openly, Crow Country manages to set itself apart from other survival horror revival projects; mostly due to it's comparably lighthearted nature, the diorama-like presentation, it's peculiar theme park setting, and the overall immaculate pacing. While neither the combat nor the puzzles were especially revolutionary for the genre, the captivating atmosphere and engrossing mystery had me hooked throughout this game's welcomingly modest runtime.
Wow this game surprised me!
I love the environment, the difference in areas and the whole theme of it being an abandoned theme park!
The enemies are eerie especially the lanky ones that kinda look like me ;)
The guns feel great to use! And the ammo system where you can kick vending machines or go back to bins that you didn’t find anything in before to give you ammo (as there isn’t any melee weapon until you get a B rank on your first playthrough, )so that you can progress is fantastic.
The puzzles can be a bit challenging especially the train one, that messed me up a lot, even chat couldn’t get it.
The save points I liked the feel of, all being centred around a fire and being cozy!
Characters were interesting, and added to the lore and plot of the game.
The optional bosses were different but felt way too easy if you had upgrades beforehand.
Ending was unexpected and definitely made me go “woah! Wtf!” 😂
Replay value I’d say 3 times, to play on the hardest difficulty and to do the crow hunt.
This really brought back memories of myself playing resident evil and Dino crisis back as a kid! So I applaud this studio! Please make more like this!
Some bad things about this was an achievement bugging out for me, that’s about it really lol!
I love the environment, the difference in areas and the whole theme of it being an abandoned theme park!
The enemies are eerie especially the lanky ones that kinda look like me ;)
The guns feel great to use! And the ammo system where you can kick vending machines or go back to bins that you didn’t find anything in before to give you ammo (as there isn’t any melee weapon until you get a B rank on your first playthrough, )so that you can progress is fantastic.
The puzzles can be a bit challenging especially the train one, that messed me up a lot, even chat couldn’t get it.
The save points I liked the feel of, all being centred around a fire and being cozy!
Characters were interesting, and added to the lore and plot of the game.
The optional bosses were different but felt way too easy if you had upgrades beforehand.
Ending was unexpected and definitely made me go “woah! Wtf!” 😂
Replay value I’d say 3 times, to play on the hardest difficulty and to do the crow hunt.
This really brought back memories of myself playing resident evil and Dino crisis back as a kid! So I applaud this studio! Please make more like this!
Some bad things about this was an achievement bugging out for me, that’s about it really lol!
Simplesmente um MONSTRO em ambientação. Crow Country consegue resgatar com perfeição o feeling de terror dos antigos jogos de survival horror da era do PS1, e ao mesmo tempo consegue criar uma identidade própria fenomenal.
A estética de parque de diversões abandonado se encaixa perfeitamente com o gênero, gerando uma atmosfera familiar, fofa e ao mesmo tempo sinistra, o que com certeza ajuda em deixar o jogador sempre à beira de um ataque de nervos (not me though, I'm built different).
Os puzzles são bem RE-like, com dicas de como resolvê-los espalhados pelo parque em forma de textinhos, notas, cartazes, etc. Entretanto, nem sempre são óbvios, obrigando que o jogador coloque tico e teco para funcionar (not me though, I'm built stupid...), ou que use a barraquinha de dicas, esta que ajuda a apaziguar a frustração de ficar preso em um puzzle, uma ótima adição.
A limitação de recursos sempre me deixou na ponta dos pés, mostrando que até o fim do jogo o confronto direto com os inimigos deve ser evitado, algo que RE moderno falha miseravelmente.
Se tem alguma coisa negativa para dizer sobre o jogo, são dois pontos bem bobos: Primeiro, não tem resource management, então vc consegue estar sempre carregando tudo. Segundo, o jogo é bem curtinho, com um mapa bem pequeno, mas isso era esperado de um jogo indie.
Por fim, se esse time conseguiu entregar algo desse calibre com provavelmente financiamento nenhum, fico torcendo para que o jogo faça sucesso e consigam entregar algo com tanta maestria (ou quem sabe uma continuação) em um futuro próximo. Mais um indício de que a revolução indie continua forte, e a indústria AAA continua ficando para trás.
A estética de parque de diversões abandonado se encaixa perfeitamente com o gênero, gerando uma atmosfera familiar, fofa e ao mesmo tempo sinistra, o que com certeza ajuda em deixar o jogador sempre à beira de um ataque de nervos (not me though, I'm built different).
Os puzzles são bem RE-like, com dicas de como resolvê-los espalhados pelo parque em forma de textinhos, notas, cartazes, etc. Entretanto, nem sempre são óbvios, obrigando que o jogador coloque tico e teco para funcionar (not me though, I'm built stupid...), ou que use a barraquinha de dicas, esta que ajuda a apaziguar a frustração de ficar preso em um puzzle, uma ótima adição.
A limitação de recursos sempre me deixou na ponta dos pés, mostrando que até o fim do jogo o confronto direto com os inimigos deve ser evitado, algo que RE moderno falha miseravelmente.
Se tem alguma coisa negativa para dizer sobre o jogo, são dois pontos bem bobos: Primeiro, não tem resource management, então vc consegue estar sempre carregando tudo. Segundo, o jogo é bem curtinho, com um mapa bem pequeno, mas isso era esperado de um jogo indie.
Por fim, se esse time conseguiu entregar algo desse calibre com provavelmente financiamento nenhum, fico torcendo para que o jogo faça sucesso e consigam entregar algo com tanta maestria (ou quem sabe uma continuação) em um futuro próximo. Mais um indício de que a revolução indie continua forte, e a indústria AAA continua ficando para trás.
Um survival horror que volta aos clássicos, tendo bastante consciência do que fez sucesso com aqueles jogos (puzzles bem planejados que são geralmente resolvidos com objetos e dicas deixadas pelo mapa) e do que acabou não sendo tão amado assim. Essa modernização de algumas mecânicas (como a movimentação) acabam causando o mesmo efeito que resident evil 1 teve ao remover a obrigatoriedade do tank control;
O jogo fica muito mais fácil pela agilidade com que você escapa dos inimigos.
Como a mira aqui é lenta, cada encontro deveria ser tenso, mas você facilmente dribla todo mundo e trivializa o desafio. Uma mudança importante, que resident evil 1 remake não fez, foi mudar a câmera.
Já que a movimentação é fluída, resident constantemente se enganava com a posição da câmera, fazendo o jogador andar pra trás repetidamente. Aqui isso é mais gerenciável, evitando esse tipo de problema. Mais uma vez, é um jogo que entende bem os aspectos positivos e negativos que aqueles jogos tinham.
É usar o passado como aprendizado, ao invés de nostalgia pura
Jogo notável, meu favorito lançado nesse ano até o momento
O jogo fica muito mais fácil pela agilidade com que você escapa dos inimigos.
Como a mira aqui é lenta, cada encontro deveria ser tenso, mas você facilmente dribla todo mundo e trivializa o desafio. Uma mudança importante, que resident evil 1 remake não fez, foi mudar a câmera.
Já que a movimentação é fluída, resident constantemente se enganava com a posição da câmera, fazendo o jogador andar pra trás repetidamente. Aqui isso é mais gerenciável, evitando esse tipo de problema. Mais uma vez, é um jogo que entende bem os aspectos positivos e negativos que aqueles jogos tinham.
É usar o passado como aprendizado, ao invés de nostalgia pura
Jogo notável, meu favorito lançado nesse ano até o momento
An incredibly charming game from a great little studio. This horror entry absolutely deserves your attention.
Survival horror is a genre I have never viewed as my favorite despite my consistently great experiences with these games. From the thrilling scares to great soundtracks and simple gameplay progression, survival horror has evolved over the years but retains much of what makes the genre so special. Crow Country is the most recent spiritual successor to this genre, being a stellar callback to the horror games of the 90s both in look and play and also making creative choices that make it stand out more.
The game's plot has you playing as agent Mara Forest as she is sent to the titular Crow Country amusement park to locate its owner Edward Crow. From here you set about exploring the amusement park to progress all while fighting a series of increasingly grotesque monsters. The game takes a lot of its inspiration from Resident Evil with the loop of solving puzzles and collecting key items being a staple of this genre. Outside of the usual items one would collect, such as ammo and health, there is also a load of secrets one can uncover that give both upgrades and new weapons.
One of the best aspects of survival horror is exploring every facet of a space whether it be a mansion or a space station. Slowly learning the layout of the amusement park and how it intertwines with the different parts of it is an immensely satisfying feeling. Each bit of progression in the game also causes the status of the rooms to change to be more dangerous so you are always left on your toes especially if you want to comb areas. The basic controls for the game are fine allowing you to line up your shots so as not to waste ammo. I played this game on a keyboard and I would recommend following the game's recommendation and playing with a controller as that will surely lead to a more satisfying experience. I got used to the controls after some time but I never fully felt as in control as I would have been if I used a controller.
The game is a pretty simple entry into the survival horror genre it being pretty easy in both the combat and puzzles. I would say the base difficulty was a little too easy with there being only a few moments where I felt stressed for ammo and health pickups. This also leads to the game not being super scary for me but it still succeeds in setting an unnerving tone throughout. The game is getting a Hard Mode in the future which will hopefully add to increasing the tension. For the most part, the puzzles are fun to solve and not too difficult either. There were a few cases where the solution to a puzzle is found on a note that is located somewhere else resulting in some backtracking and also requiring you to see the note in the first place. One puzzle I had to look up simply because I could not find the note that would give me the answer. This highlights a problem I have where the notes are collected in handbooks found in save rooms. I do not know why these notes could not be simply viewed from your inventory screen as it saves you from having to go back several rooms to read a note.
One aspect of the game that stands out the most for me is its very unique art style. Every part of the game looks like it is part of a plastic toy set with many of the character models looking like a Playmobil figure. This look creates a lighter tone for the game overall and is one of my favorite-looking games I have played all year. Despite its soft look, the art style is used effectively in creature designs making it hard to comprehend exactly what you are looking at at times.
Crow Country is a stellar survival horror game and one I could easily recommend as an entry point into this genre. As soon after I beat it the first time, I quickly did a second run to achieve the highest rank possible. My second run showcased how optimized the game's progression making it ripe for speedrunning. I also loved seeing all of the foreshadowing the story presents early on basically spelling out many of the late-game moments early on. This has been my favorite game to come out this year so far and one I could not recommend enough for fans of the genre.
The game's plot has you playing as agent Mara Forest as she is sent to the titular Crow Country amusement park to locate its owner Edward Crow. From here you set about exploring the amusement park to progress all while fighting a series of increasingly grotesque monsters. The game takes a lot of its inspiration from Resident Evil with the loop of solving puzzles and collecting key items being a staple of this genre. Outside of the usual items one would collect, such as ammo and health, there is also a load of secrets one can uncover that give both upgrades and new weapons.
One of the best aspects of survival horror is exploring every facet of a space whether it be a mansion or a space station. Slowly learning the layout of the amusement park and how it intertwines with the different parts of it is an immensely satisfying feeling. Each bit of progression in the game also causes the status of the rooms to change to be more dangerous so you are always left on your toes especially if you want to comb areas. The basic controls for the game are fine allowing you to line up your shots so as not to waste ammo. I played this game on a keyboard and I would recommend following the game's recommendation and playing with a controller as that will surely lead to a more satisfying experience. I got used to the controls after some time but I never fully felt as in control as I would have been if I used a controller.
The game is a pretty simple entry into the survival horror genre it being pretty easy in both the combat and puzzles. I would say the base difficulty was a little too easy with there being only a few moments where I felt stressed for ammo and health pickups. This also leads to the game not being super scary for me but it still succeeds in setting an unnerving tone throughout. The game is getting a Hard Mode in the future which will hopefully add to increasing the tension. For the most part, the puzzles are fun to solve and not too difficult either. There were a few cases where the solution to a puzzle is found on a note that is located somewhere else resulting in some backtracking and also requiring you to see the note in the first place. One puzzle I had to look up simply because I could not find the note that would give me the answer. This highlights a problem I have where the notes are collected in handbooks found in save rooms. I do not know why these notes could not be simply viewed from your inventory screen as it saves you from having to go back several rooms to read a note.
One aspect of the game that stands out the most for me is its very unique art style. Every part of the game looks like it is part of a plastic toy set with many of the character models looking like a Playmobil figure. This look creates a lighter tone for the game overall and is one of my favorite-looking games I have played all year. Despite its soft look, the art style is used effectively in creature designs making it hard to comprehend exactly what you are looking at at times.
Crow Country is a stellar survival horror game and one I could easily recommend as an entry point into this genre. As soon after I beat it the first time, I quickly did a second run to achieve the highest rank possible. My second run showcased how optimized the game's progression making it ripe for speedrunning. I also loved seeing all of the foreshadowing the story presents early on basically spelling out many of the late-game moments early on. This has been my favorite game to come out this year so far and one I could not recommend enough for fans of the genre.
Five Nights at Umbrella Corps
Crow Country is a really neat Resident-Evil styled survival horror that takes place in a theme park somewhere in the Atlanta metro. Being that I'm a huge fan of RE and the survival horror genre at large, when I saw this near the top of the highest rated Backloggd games for 2024 my interest jumped. This was everything I was looking for in a game while I await Shadow of the Erdtree. It's remarkably short (less than five hours, however I was afk for some of this,) fairly easy, has an awesome CRT aesthetic, an RE1 camera, and the lore was interesting enough and told well to keep me interested in its short run time. Plotwise it’s nothing extraordinary: You play as Mara, a girl investigating this dilapidated land of attraction. The more time you spend investigating the nooks and crannies of Crow Country, you meet more people and become further enveloped in the spooky mystery behind disappearances and fatalities alike. Zombies known as "guests" inhabit the park in various shapes and sizes. Some of these guests are large and tower over the area you're in, some nimble and move quick, others literal blobs on the map... they're remedied all the same by a few shots from whatever weapon you're using. I used the basic pistol, in RE style, for the majority of the game until the final boss and got along just well. There are several optional bosses as well, all of which went down with a few grenade tosses and a shot or two. I liked this a lot about Crow Country, its short and doesn't control all too well (I mean really, what tank control game ever did) and making combat as simple as it is just making the runtime feel better.
Now I am generally pretty positive in regard to this game, especially because it respects the players runtime, but I felt like a lot of the puzzling and item usage felt a little... random to me. This made the game for much of its latter runtime feel more like a metroidvania than an RE style survival horror than I believe was intended. Items required you to run from one end of the map to the other and sometimes puzzles felt a little obscure in their solutions. Overall I think it could take a hint from the RE2/3/4makes and be more intuitive than it was.
In all if you're a fan of survival horror, especially from indie studios, Crow Country is a must play for 2024. It's short, sweet, and wears its inspiration on its sleeves in the right way.
Crow Country is a really neat Resident-Evil styled survival horror that takes place in a theme park somewhere in the Atlanta metro. Being that I'm a huge fan of RE and the survival horror genre at large, when I saw this near the top of the highest rated Backloggd games for 2024 my interest jumped. This was everything I was looking for in a game while I await Shadow of the Erdtree. It's remarkably short (less than five hours, however I was afk for some of this,) fairly easy, has an awesome CRT aesthetic, an RE1 camera, and the lore was interesting enough and told well to keep me interested in its short run time. Plotwise it’s nothing extraordinary: You play as Mara, a girl investigating this dilapidated land of attraction. The more time you spend investigating the nooks and crannies of Crow Country, you meet more people and become further enveloped in the spooky mystery behind disappearances and fatalities alike. Zombies known as "guests" inhabit the park in various shapes and sizes. Some of these guests are large and tower over the area you're in, some nimble and move quick, others literal blobs on the map... they're remedied all the same by a few shots from whatever weapon you're using. I used the basic pistol, in RE style, for the majority of the game until the final boss and got along just well. There are several optional bosses as well, all of which went down with a few grenade tosses and a shot or two. I liked this a lot about Crow Country, its short and doesn't control all too well (I mean really, what tank control game ever did) and making combat as simple as it is just making the runtime feel better.
Now I am generally pretty positive in regard to this game, especially because it respects the players runtime, but I felt like a lot of the puzzling and item usage felt a little... random to me. This made the game for much of its latter runtime feel more like a metroidvania than an RE style survival horror than I believe was intended. Items required you to run from one end of the map to the other and sometimes puzzles felt a little obscure in their solutions. Overall I think it could take a hint from the RE2/3/4makes and be more intuitive than it was.
In all if you're a fan of survival horror, especially from indie studios, Crow Country is a must play for 2024. It's short, sweet, and wears its inspiration on its sleeves in the right way.
This is genuinely one of the better throwbacks to the genre I've played in years. I really enjoy how it feels less like a PS1 game and more like a classic DOS/Win 3.1 game like Ecstatica or LittleBigAdventure. It's such a peculiar styling that it genuinely got me more into the atmosphere than if it were just wiggly polygons on wonky vertexes and overloaded dithering.
Control is top notch as well, not a missed note in terms of giving the player enough options to maneuver in combat (and avoid it entirely if you want). Only real thing I have is I'm not huge on the waving of the aim reticle when doing more precise aiming, but that's moreso a me thing if anything.
Really my one big misgiving with recent Survival Horror titles often being too heavy on the Key-Door-Switch puzzles, especially when it feels like it goes against the world the puzzles are in. This one definitely had moments where I had to grab a guide and it kinda sucked me out with some of the longer tasks.
Thankfully the game is short, about 5 and a half hours in a single sitting for what I played and it's still very much well worth your time if you're hankering for a throwback survival horror game that actually makes an attempt to do it well.
Control is top notch as well, not a missed note in terms of giving the player enough options to maneuver in combat (and avoid it entirely if you want). Only real thing I have is I'm not huge on the waving of the aim reticle when doing more precise aiming, but that's moreso a me thing if anything.
Really my one big misgiving with recent Survival Horror titles often being too heavy on the Key-Door-Switch puzzles, especially when it feels like it goes against the world the puzzles are in. This one definitely had moments where I had to grab a guide and it kinda sucked me out with some of the longer tasks.
Thankfully the game is short, about 5 and a half hours in a single sitting for what I played and it's still very much well worth your time if you're hankering for a throwback survival horror game that actually makes an attempt to do it well.
Short and probably too easy but presentation and story go insane, really fun game
I love how this made me go "fuck off what is THAT" at every new beastie who appeared. I love how it stumped me several times. I love how grimy everything looks. I want to play it again immediately. Also I want a little wooden figurine of Mara.
Overall a great time. Its setting is fantastic, feeling diverse while still being interconnected. I loved the visuals and the narrative has some great pay offs by the end. Enemy designs are creepy and unsettling. Overall sound design is gold. Its writing balances creepy and comedic tones very well as it's suprisingly very funny. It's really easy to sing this games praises.
It's just really solid and an easy recommend to fans of the genre. It punches well above its weight and I'm sure it will be a favorite for many.
It's just really solid and an easy recommend to fans of the genre. It punches well above its weight and I'm sure it will be a favorite for many.
"I'm kind of dumb, honestly" - Real and legal federal agent
Man did I ever love Crow Country. Bite-sized survival horror throwback, nasty and cool looking enemies, a super engaging plot that had me enthralled at every moment, and some really fun puzzles and secrets. I loved the amusement park setting, every room and section was full of things to look at and explore.
It wasn't too difficult (but I did use my fair share of med packs and poison antidotes throughout) as the game is fairly generous with ammo and healing items, and I was surprised when I beat the game to see that I had 0 deaths. But it's as hard as you want to make it - you can not pick up every health item, avoid healing when damaged or kill every enemy you come across, which will give you a higher ranking in the end. I got an A on my first playthrough though which was surprising - finding all 15 secrets and having 0 deaths I think helped me get that rating.
I really wish it were longer, but as a small indie title that's fine; you'll get probably 10 hours or so here if you take your time or get stuck on a few puzzles, which you no doubt will at some point. Explore every cranny, because there's lots of cool stuff to find.
I loved this one, an easy 4 stars, but as someone with the last name Crowe, who grew up on a dirt road in the country as a kid, that gets an extra half star for me. Def one of my fave games of 2024
It wasn't too difficult (but I did use my fair share of med packs and poison antidotes throughout) as the game is fairly generous with ammo and healing items, and I was surprised when I beat the game to see that I had 0 deaths. But it's as hard as you want to make it - you can not pick up every health item, avoid healing when damaged or kill every enemy you come across, which will give you a higher ranking in the end. I got an A on my first playthrough though which was surprising - finding all 15 secrets and having 0 deaths I think helped me get that rating.
I really wish it were longer, but as a small indie title that's fine; you'll get probably 10 hours or so here if you take your time or get stuck on a few puzzles, which you no doubt will at some point. Explore every cranny, because there's lots of cool stuff to find.
I loved this one, an easy 4 stars, but as someone with the last name Crowe, who grew up on a dirt road in the country as a kid, that gets an extra half star for me. Def one of my fave games of 2024
I really liked this game but unfortunately the puzzles are basically pointless because the game gives you the solutions to them multiple times through notes and the dynamic loot system makes it so its impossible to ever be low on any resources. I really wish the game had some teeth because the visuals and story are super enjoyable. Maybe a hardcore mode or something could solve its issues.
(Edit for the Hard Mode Update at the bottom of the review)
When it comes to Survival Horror, we seem to be in another golden age right now. The Puppet Combo games, Signalis and Alisa are only a couple of the popular titles to come out of the indie space in the last few years. All of them already highly regarded and entirly unique in their own right. And now 2024 has seemingly given us a fresh classic to add to that list with SFB Games newly released title Crow Country.
Crow Country puts you in the shoes of Mara Forest: sassy teenager and special agent on her way to the abandoned Crow Country amusement park. Upon arriving at the park, it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't exactly the safest place to be, as it tends to be the case in any horror story. Of course Mara still presses on in order to find the park's missing owner, the mysterious Edward Crow, while uncovering its dark backstory. If you played more than one horror game, then this setup will sound very familiar to you, in particular if you played Silent Hill 3. At the very least the setting and the attitude of its protagonist seem more than a little inspired by Heather and her horror trip on the PS2. It's good then that Crow Country isnt just a flat copy but manages to easily carve out its own identity. Survival Horror has always had a silly side to it, with its weird puzzles, contrived story lines and absurd unlockable items. In particular, Crow Country's spiritual big brother Silent Hill is famous for its cheeky secrets upon completing a first play through. There is still an unnerving atmosphere to the environments and you'll meet all kinds of sketchy characters, but the overall ton is closer to parody than anything. It really feels like a fun treasure hunt through a haunted theme park for about 80% of the game while the rest of its serious twists and revelations are reserved for the end. It all workes quite nicely in my opinion and I quickly learned to love Mara along the rest of the cast. Those who have played the game would probably now mention how predictable its main plot twist is, but I didn't mind it. The game itself seems to treat it more like a throw away gag anyway, making it fairly obvious from the very beginning. There is of course a whole other, better twist to the story, for those who are curious enough to piece together the clues. Thats all im going to say on that, without spoiling anything.
Speaking of curiousity, I think what got most people so curious about Crow Country is its look. Me included when I first played the demo during a Steam Next Fest. The style mixes the color choices of a Silent Hill, with the general chibi charm that made the original Final Fantasy 7 so memorable. What was used back on the PS1 out of necessity because developers still had to figure out hardware limitations, is used here as a stylistic choice. All the characters have this blocky look to them, clearly showing the connecting points between their limbs and coming off relativly simple in design. It not only works great as a charming throwback to PS1 era graphics but is also used to make each character distinct and recognisable. In a line-up of silhouettes, you would instantly be able to tell everyone apart based on poses and distinctive features. Enemies follow a similar design philosophies by being these very distinct but grotesque blobs and shambling, bloody corpses. They look like someone or something turned a human inside out. Its great. The environments are equally impressive, not lacking in detail at all compared to traditionally pre-rendered backgrounds. It doesn't matter if you're standing at the looming gate of the amusement parks entrance or try to get through a spooky hedge maze, there isn't a miss here. And the coolest part is the ability to fully spin the camera around, at almost all times during the game. You can always peer at the game at wich ever angle you prefer and everything looks like a diorama, a cute little playset of sorts. That is something I havent seen in any game before and im in love with it. And the ability to spin the camera around isn't just used as a gimmick either, it's cleverly given a gameplay purpose aswell.
When it comes to the gameplay, Crow Country is as traditional as a survival horror game can get, albeit with a heavy emphasis on puzzles. That is where the majority of the focus lies and where the ability to spin the camera is often used to suss out clues and secrets. To be perfectly clear: This game won't assault you with mind-bending brain teasers. Rather, SFB Games have made the very wise decision of handing out clever puzzles, that may have you stumped for a few minutes but never interrupt the flow of gameplay in the long run. Something a lot of puzzles focused games do wrong in my opinion, where you end up frustrated and just want to get the puzzles over with so you can move on to the next part. There is always have an easily understandable hook to it, never does it withold vital information, and you will always get a satisfying reward at the end. Its only one part of an effort to make Crow Country a very accessible game to everyone.
On the topic of accessibility: I have seen some people bemoan the lack of difficulty and the argument that this makes it a lesser game somehow, but I don't see the problem in making a genre accessible to new comers. Not when everything else is so rock solid. This is, in the best possible way, babies first survival horror game. The bones of combat and decision-making are still here, but without the looming threat of getting soft locked or getting stuck on bullshit puzzles. There is a limited hint system that will more or less guide you if you're stuck on the critical path, you can optionally turn on an extra life system, so you don't have to go back to your last save upon death. There is even an exploration mode if you don't care for combat.
Was it way too easy for someone who has played so many survival horror games ? Yeah, sure it was very easy, and ultimately it did hamper my enjoyment a tiny bit, which sparked a debate with myself as to what my final rating should even be. Do I take points away from Crow Country because of the lack of difficulty or not. In the end, I came to the conclusion that you can't always throw people into the deep end when it comes to new genres. There is a place for entry level survival horror, and I'm happy to welcome every new fan who might get into the genre through games like this. Besides, the developers have already posted a roadmap with various fixes and an additional hard mode. Once that comes out, ill update my review and bump up the rating, probably. Anyway, go play Crow Country, it's a cool little game about spooky crows.
(Hard Mode Update: So SFB actually managed to drop the new update pretty shortly after release, and I'm happy to say that this adds just about everything I wanted to see. After initially dismissing the hard mode as a bit of a nothingburger update, this luckily bumps the difficulty up to a significant degree. About halfway through the game, I found myself in the big old Survival Horror ammo shuffle. No trash can diving and vending machine kicking for you anymore young lady. Resources are now actually limited and enemies are way more aggressive. Having played through the game twice already, I had new moments of surprise where I had to stop and assess my current situation. I found myself considering the clever use of traps much more, and removing the ability to run whenever you're close to death adds a lot of tension to exploration. The game frequently threw me for a loop as I had to pay much closer attention to enemie placement and traps when doing trips back and forth across the map. Knowing where some of the secrets were hidden became a big advantage. When enemies are so much faster than before, every extra magnum bullet and weapon upgrade does seem like a godsend. If I had to nitpick one tiny thing, it's the fact that I would have liked to have seen more survival staples added, like limited saves and item boxes. It's not a huge dealbreaker and the rating system has been changed to punish frequent saves, but as it stands now the game doesn't really suffer from their absence. Together with the new unlockable item for beating Hard Mode, which can now be enabled in the main menu once you unlocked it (Thank you, why the fuck wasn't that there from the beginning ?), I now consider Crow Country the full survival horror package. Now, both perfect for horror game newcomers and veterans alike. Definitely one of the best games I played in 2024 so far, and one I'm will be happy to return to in the near future. Score gets bumped up of course, good job SFB games. More developers should listen to feedback from fans like this).
When it comes to Survival Horror, we seem to be in another golden age right now. The Puppet Combo games, Signalis and Alisa are only a couple of the popular titles to come out of the indie space in the last few years. All of them already highly regarded and entirly unique in their own right. And now 2024 has seemingly given us a fresh classic to add to that list with SFB Games newly released title Crow Country.
Crow Country puts you in the shoes of Mara Forest: sassy teenager and special agent on her way to the abandoned Crow Country amusement park. Upon arriving at the park, it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't exactly the safest place to be, as it tends to be the case in any horror story. Of course Mara still presses on in order to find the park's missing owner, the mysterious Edward Crow, while uncovering its dark backstory. If you played more than one horror game, then this setup will sound very familiar to you, in particular if you played Silent Hill 3. At the very least the setting and the attitude of its protagonist seem more than a little inspired by Heather and her horror trip on the PS2. It's good then that Crow Country isnt just a flat copy but manages to easily carve out its own identity. Survival Horror has always had a silly side to it, with its weird puzzles, contrived story lines and absurd unlockable items. In particular, Crow Country's spiritual big brother Silent Hill is famous for its cheeky secrets upon completing a first play through. There is still an unnerving atmosphere to the environments and you'll meet all kinds of sketchy characters, but the overall ton is closer to parody than anything. It really feels like a fun treasure hunt through a haunted theme park for about 80% of the game while the rest of its serious twists and revelations are reserved for the end. It all workes quite nicely in my opinion and I quickly learned to love Mara along the rest of the cast. Those who have played the game would probably now mention how predictable its main plot twist is, but I didn't mind it. The game itself seems to treat it more like a throw away gag anyway, making it fairly obvious from the very beginning. There is of course a whole other, better twist to the story, for those who are curious enough to piece together the clues. Thats all im going to say on that, without spoiling anything.
Speaking of curiousity, I think what got most people so curious about Crow Country is its look. Me included when I first played the demo during a Steam Next Fest. The style mixes the color choices of a Silent Hill, with the general chibi charm that made the original Final Fantasy 7 so memorable. What was used back on the PS1 out of necessity because developers still had to figure out hardware limitations, is used here as a stylistic choice. All the characters have this blocky look to them, clearly showing the connecting points between their limbs and coming off relativly simple in design. It not only works great as a charming throwback to PS1 era graphics but is also used to make each character distinct and recognisable. In a line-up of silhouettes, you would instantly be able to tell everyone apart based on poses and distinctive features. Enemies follow a similar design philosophies by being these very distinct but grotesque blobs and shambling, bloody corpses. They look like someone or something turned a human inside out. Its great. The environments are equally impressive, not lacking in detail at all compared to traditionally pre-rendered backgrounds. It doesn't matter if you're standing at the looming gate of the amusement parks entrance or try to get through a spooky hedge maze, there isn't a miss here. And the coolest part is the ability to fully spin the camera around, at almost all times during the game. You can always peer at the game at wich ever angle you prefer and everything looks like a diorama, a cute little playset of sorts. That is something I havent seen in any game before and im in love with it. And the ability to spin the camera around isn't just used as a gimmick either, it's cleverly given a gameplay purpose aswell.
When it comes to the gameplay, Crow Country is as traditional as a survival horror game can get, albeit with a heavy emphasis on puzzles. That is where the majority of the focus lies and where the ability to spin the camera is often used to suss out clues and secrets. To be perfectly clear: This game won't assault you with mind-bending brain teasers. Rather, SFB Games have made the very wise decision of handing out clever puzzles, that may have you stumped for a few minutes but never interrupt the flow of gameplay in the long run. Something a lot of puzzles focused games do wrong in my opinion, where you end up frustrated and just want to get the puzzles over with so you can move on to the next part. There is always have an easily understandable hook to it, never does it withold vital information, and you will always get a satisfying reward at the end. Its only one part of an effort to make Crow Country a very accessible game to everyone.
On the topic of accessibility: I have seen some people bemoan the lack of difficulty and the argument that this makes it a lesser game somehow, but I don't see the problem in making a genre accessible to new comers. Not when everything else is so rock solid. This is, in the best possible way, babies first survival horror game. The bones of combat and decision-making are still here, but without the looming threat of getting soft locked or getting stuck on bullshit puzzles. There is a limited hint system that will more or less guide you if you're stuck on the critical path, you can optionally turn on an extra life system, so you don't have to go back to your last save upon death. There is even an exploration mode if you don't care for combat.
Was it way too easy for someone who has played so many survival horror games ? Yeah, sure it was very easy, and ultimately it did hamper my enjoyment a tiny bit, which sparked a debate with myself as to what my final rating should even be. Do I take points away from Crow Country because of the lack of difficulty or not. In the end, I came to the conclusion that you can't always throw people into the deep end when it comes to new genres. There is a place for entry level survival horror, and I'm happy to welcome every new fan who might get into the genre through games like this. Besides, the developers have already posted a roadmap with various fixes and an additional hard mode. Once that comes out, ill update my review and bump up the rating, probably. Anyway, go play Crow Country, it's a cool little game about spooky crows.
(Hard Mode Update: So SFB actually managed to drop the new update pretty shortly after release, and I'm happy to say that this adds just about everything I wanted to see. After initially dismissing the hard mode as a bit of a nothingburger update, this luckily bumps the difficulty up to a significant degree. About halfway through the game, I found myself in the big old Survival Horror ammo shuffle. No trash can diving and vending machine kicking for you anymore young lady. Resources are now actually limited and enemies are way more aggressive. Having played through the game twice already, I had new moments of surprise where I had to stop and assess my current situation. I found myself considering the clever use of traps much more, and removing the ability to run whenever you're close to death adds a lot of tension to exploration. The game frequently threw me for a loop as I had to pay much closer attention to enemie placement and traps when doing trips back and forth across the map. Knowing where some of the secrets were hidden became a big advantage. When enemies are so much faster than before, every extra magnum bullet and weapon upgrade does seem like a godsend. If I had to nitpick one tiny thing, it's the fact that I would have liked to have seen more survival staples added, like limited saves and item boxes. It's not a huge dealbreaker and the rating system has been changed to punish frequent saves, but as it stands now the game doesn't really suffer from their absence. Together with the new unlockable item for beating Hard Mode, which can now be enabled in the main menu once you unlocked it (Thank you, why the fuck wasn't that there from the beginning ?), I now consider Crow Country the full survival horror package. Now, both perfect for horror game newcomers and veterans alike. Definitely one of the best games I played in 2024 so far, and one I'm will be happy to return to in the near future. Score gets bumped up of course, good job SFB games. More developers should listen to feedback from fans like this).
Perfect entry into the survival horror genre. Unfortunately, it is way too easy for veteran players. Most enemies and traps can easily be bypassed without much trouble. Some great puzzles and optional hidden extras though. Would love for the devs to further iterate on it.
if the five nights kiddies get their hands on this shit their brain is going to leak out of their ears like gilgamesh eating a poptart
Crow Country wears its influences on its sleeve, lovingly embracing features and elements you’d expect to find in an entry in this genre, from tank controls to item-based puzzles. Unfortunately, its reverence for the games that inspired it (Resident Evil 1 &2, Silent Hill) can hold it back, as Crow Country never quite captures the same magic as the giants of the genre. But even with some of the proverbial rides at this theme park feeling like they could use some work, the game is still a comforting addition to the retro-horror trend.
🇬🇧 full review | 🇧🇷 resenha completa
Jogar Crow Country foi libertador para mim, porque foi essencialmente meu primeiro jogo de “terror”, mas também foi um argumento irrefutável de como um bom game design pode ajudar um título a encontrar um novo público. Sim, o Modo Exploração pode perder um pouco da diversão de atirar por aí, mas o mistério intrigante, os personagens legais e os quebra-cabeças interessantes foram suficientes para não apenas criar uma boa experiência, mas também me prender à tela por algumas noites. Talvez essas mudanças não sejam suficientes para você ficar menos assustado, mas para mim foi o suficiente e estou feliz por ter tentado.
Jogar Crow Country foi libertador para mim, porque foi essencialmente meu primeiro jogo de “terror”, mas também foi um argumento irrefutável de como um bom game design pode ajudar um título a encontrar um novo público. Sim, o Modo Exploração pode perder um pouco da diversão de atirar por aí, mas o mistério intrigante, os personagens legais e os quebra-cabeças interessantes foram suficientes para não apenas criar uma boa experiência, mas também me prender à tela por algumas noites. Talvez essas mudanças não sejam suficientes para você ficar menos assustado, mas para mim foi o suficiente e estou feliz por ter tentado.
THE GIRL HAS GIRL !!!!!!!! I am a girl... too. robnot girl
This will sound like a backhanded compliment but it almost cozy-ifies the classic survival horror. All the basics of the genre are there - the specific suite of weapons (handgun/shotgun/magnum/flamethrower), the UI aesthetics, save rooms, post-game unlocks etc. Yet both tonally and formally it is much less oppressive. Enemies and traps are plentiful but so are resources. The nasties themselves are gruesome and the environments dingy but the writing is frequently leaning towards the humorous and compassionate. The PS1-style, avowedly FF7-evoking graphics/framing of scenes, an OST that's low-key even when dissonant and lumpy character models imbue a sense of nostalgic warmth into things.
The game still carries an unnerving air as the walls groan and creak but it isn't 'scary' or tense in any real sense, more so a rather pleasant jaunt through a singular, heavily interconnected level. The satisfaction comes from the expected gameplay facets: uncovering new areas, becoming familiar with the various paths, solving the kinds of puzzles you've seen in RE/SH (with some charming mixups and occasionally multiple solutions/even multiple ways to find those solutions), finding keys, reading notes - you know the deal but it's all very well-crafted. Progression hits a sweet spot of not so taxing that you'll get stuck for ages yet sprinkles in enough moments where you have to actually stop and think or carefully observe your surroundings, with enemies more of a bit of light friction on top instead of a proper threat. There's a suprising flexibility to the order in which you can do things or when events play out to be discovered on multiple playthroughs. And, as is standard, with the genre replays are heavily incentivized via a nice compact runtime alongside getting higher completion ranks.
It's a strange experience, in a positive sense. A game that is recognisably 'survival horror' in all respects but ends up being comforting to play. Genuinely quite a feat to create something that replicates influences closely yet feels different due to just a few smart changes. The presentation is the big star of that. Every room is gorgeous and rich with atmosphere. Leverages an older style but adds to it using modern lighting techniques and grater detail, losing not an ounce of character in the process. Love some fixed camera angles but having control over the camera along only the horizontal axis is nice, it allows them to hide little things for you to find by rotating it, an almost diorama feel when combined with how the assets are constructed. Builds to a nice little mystery near the end of its story too. Strong, confident work! There's a hard mode coming in a future update for something a little spicier.
The game still carries an unnerving air as the walls groan and creak but it isn't 'scary' or tense in any real sense, more so a rather pleasant jaunt through a singular, heavily interconnected level. The satisfaction comes from the expected gameplay facets: uncovering new areas, becoming familiar with the various paths, solving the kinds of puzzles you've seen in RE/SH (with some charming mixups and occasionally multiple solutions/even multiple ways to find those solutions), finding keys, reading notes - you know the deal but it's all very well-crafted. Progression hits a sweet spot of not so taxing that you'll get stuck for ages yet sprinkles in enough moments where you have to actually stop and think or carefully observe your surroundings, with enemies more of a bit of light friction on top instead of a proper threat. There's a suprising flexibility to the order in which you can do things or when events play out to be discovered on multiple playthroughs. And, as is standard, with the genre replays are heavily incentivized via a nice compact runtime alongside getting higher completion ranks.
It's a strange experience, in a positive sense. A game that is recognisably 'survival horror' in all respects but ends up being comforting to play. Genuinely quite a feat to create something that replicates influences closely yet feels different due to just a few smart changes. The presentation is the big star of that. Every room is gorgeous and rich with atmosphere. Leverages an older style but adds to it using modern lighting techniques and grater detail, losing not an ounce of character in the process. Love some fixed camera angles but having control over the camera along only the horizontal axis is nice, it allows them to hide little things for you to find by rotating it, an almost diorama feel when combined with how the assets are constructed. Builds to a nice little mystery near the end of its story too. Strong, confident work! There's a hard mode coming in a future update for something a little spicier.
Probably the biggest home run I’ve ever seen in the category of indie spiritual successors. Has the vibe of the classic RE’s so well and controls like one plopped into the modern era. The vibe is perfect, I had fun with all the puzzles (even if they’re all pretty straightforward), and combat is satisfying…I’m the few cases you have to do it. Yeah, it’s very easy, there’s very little need to actually kill the monsters, just run around them they’re no threat. They’ll poison you but there’s so many antidotes that it hardly matters. If you get the Magnum and upgrade it, the one actually mandatory fight, the final one, becomes 2 shot. And it’s very easy to find the magnum. It’s regarded as a secret, but I found half the secrets without a guide. So I’d just go ahead and do it. The story is pretty cool but I wasn’t really paying attention fully tbh. Some shit about gold? Idk, I liked Mara and all the character interactions. Very very very good indie Survival Horror game, please play if you’re a fan of this genre.
Everything that's been built inside of this experience makes it the perfect introduction for anyone looking to get into the survival horror genre. It takes the many virtues of the classics and strings it together with such a strong sense of identity that given enough time, I think this could be seen as one of the best indie survival horrors in terms of its aesthetics. It’s a love letter to the fans of these games but also a great way to start for any new players.
So, what about specifics? Well, talking about the inspirations, this game is clearly BATHED in a variety of mechanics that makes the Resident Evil / Silent Hill franchises work so well. Resource management, environmental traps, puzzle solving, save rooms, it’s all here and all of it works fantastically. There's never really a section of the game that feels dragged out and throughout its short run-time it does a good job at giving you little pieces to the broader mystery that surrounds the abandoned ‘Crow Country’.
But why are we at Crow Country? It’s your goal, Mara Forest, to find the owner, Edward Crow, after the well known theme park shut down 2 years ago, for unknown reasons. But why is she tasked to look for him? It’s these questions that arise the further you explore the abandoned theme park, looking for any sense of clues that might tell you what happened, that keeps you hooked the most. You’ll also encounter other characters throughout the park, which not only add more questions to how deep this mystery goes but also how many are involved. Some don’t let off more information than they want to tell, hiding in secrecy, and if you connect the pieces yourself, you’ll realise what's going on before the twist, and I think that's what makes it all the more enjoyable! I also liked playing Mara as a protagonist (women protags in survival horrors my beloved), she's equally deadpan quippy as she is serious and the way she interacts with the world is so cute.
And let me tell you, they nailed the exploration. Each area looks like they put so much thought and care into making sure each one distinctively stands out so as you don’t forget where something was. Even if it's just a hallway, there's little secrets to be found everywhere, whether it be extra ammo, first aid kits or even story notes to read. It’s also great to finally see a theme park setting for this genre, which I think helps the memorability of each area, from haunted crypts to rusted aquariums. Once a couple hours have passed, I already knew the place like the back of my hand, but it was always nice to revisit an area and see what secrets I may have missed the first time entering or what puzzle I couldn’t complete at first, there's some aspects I’d even compare to metroidvanias.
The atmosphere is helped immensely with the soundtrack by Ockeroid. Distant crows cawing, the wiring of machines, all whilst a distant piano melody echoes. Just like the many survival horror soundtracks before, it's equally pretty and eerie, but also knows when to play it silly to lean into the nature of where you are, being at a theme park.
This is even further improved upon by the visuals, going for this PS1/Final Fantasy VII rubber model look, which I’ve never seen achieved before, sure a general PSX look but not this specific style. If you slapped this on a 4:3 CRT you could’ve possibly convinced me it was released in the late 90s, though granted there are some areas that have been modernised, such as the options for analogue controls instead of the tank controls of old. And I think the top down camera placement is perfect as well, it makes you want to turn and scan every room to see if there might’ve been any cubby holes or items you might’ve missed.
Weapons are mostly just the standard survival horror tropes, however mixed in with the environmental traps it can make for some interesting scenarios where, let's say for example there's an explosive barrel and you could just shoot to kill a tougher enemy in the area, but you might want to save it for when you come back later and there's more enemies so you save more resources. The creativity of the puzzles can’t also be understated. For the most part they’re quite easy to solve, but I don’t think that ruins the experience for me personally, and I still admire the ways they make it work inside different rooms, like having to shoot certain marine animals in a submarine to unlock a new weapon, or having to get certain scores in an arcade so you have to play various mini-games, they’re all fun and unique in their own way! There's also some optional secrets you can decide to do which grant you upgrades to your weapon or healing items, which is a nice addition considering how often you re-run through areas and something changes.
That being said, I do think this game can be a little too lenient when it comes to how many resources it gives to the player, at least in terms of when I played it on the standard "Survival Horror" difficulty. I’m sure this was most likely done so that maybe players don’t get stuck with running out of ammo, but I always had a ton of everything throughout my first playthrough, and even more-so when I replayed it for the higher rank. Though this is remedied by the inclusion of a hard mode (Murder of Crows) added just recently which does give you less to work with and makes enemies more volatile, so maybe one day I’ll try it out. I also like the option of adding a exploration mode that removes all enemies and makes it more about the puzzles themselves which, if somebody just wanted to dabble in the genre but doesn’t like the spooks then they can also enjoy it that way, I really like how open that is to newcomers who may find these games daunting.
There's also some replayability to be had as, depending on your final rank, for future playthroughs you’ll unlock extra gear like the crowbar, a crow rocket launcher (I'm not kidding) and some wings which help you fast travel between save rooms. I’ll always respect shorter games putting in ways to get you to try the journey with a fresh coat of paint, and whilst nothing here is substantial, it's a decent inclusion nevertheless.
As you can see, I had a great time with this game! it really does showcase how much indie games are carrying this industry in terms of new concepts being mixed with old. I can see how potentially somebody could come out of this being underwhelmed due to the inspirations it does wear on it sleeve, the difficulty and the story not being as psychological and intensive as what games like Signalis and Silent Hill 2 did respectively, but I’m very much pleased with the overall package this offers and how well made everything feels. I really hope the devs end up returning to this again in the future, because they really understand what makes the genre good.
I’d recommend you to maybe take a trip to Crow Country one day, if you so please…
So, what about specifics? Well, talking about the inspirations, this game is clearly BATHED in a variety of mechanics that makes the Resident Evil / Silent Hill franchises work so well. Resource management, environmental traps, puzzle solving, save rooms, it’s all here and all of it works fantastically. There's never really a section of the game that feels dragged out and throughout its short run-time it does a good job at giving you little pieces to the broader mystery that surrounds the abandoned ‘Crow Country’.
But why are we at Crow Country? It’s your goal, Mara Forest, to find the owner, Edward Crow, after the well known theme park shut down 2 years ago, for unknown reasons. But why is she tasked to look for him? It’s these questions that arise the further you explore the abandoned theme park, looking for any sense of clues that might tell you what happened, that keeps you hooked the most. You’ll also encounter other characters throughout the park, which not only add more questions to how deep this mystery goes but also how many are involved. Some don’t let off more information than they want to tell, hiding in secrecy, and if you connect the pieces yourself, you’ll realise what's going on before the twist, and I think that's what makes it all the more enjoyable! I also liked playing Mara as a protagonist (women protags in survival horrors my beloved), she's equally deadpan quippy as she is serious and the way she interacts with the world is so cute.
And let me tell you, they nailed the exploration. Each area looks like they put so much thought and care into making sure each one distinctively stands out so as you don’t forget where something was. Even if it's just a hallway, there's little secrets to be found everywhere, whether it be extra ammo, first aid kits or even story notes to read. It’s also great to finally see a theme park setting for this genre, which I think helps the memorability of each area, from haunted crypts to rusted aquariums. Once a couple hours have passed, I already knew the place like the back of my hand, but it was always nice to revisit an area and see what secrets I may have missed the first time entering or what puzzle I couldn’t complete at first, there's some aspects I’d even compare to metroidvanias.
The atmosphere is helped immensely with the soundtrack by Ockeroid. Distant crows cawing, the wiring of machines, all whilst a distant piano melody echoes. Just like the many survival horror soundtracks before, it's equally pretty and eerie, but also knows when to play it silly to lean into the nature of where you are, being at a theme park.
This is even further improved upon by the visuals, going for this PS1/Final Fantasy VII rubber model look, which I’ve never seen achieved before, sure a general PSX look but not this specific style. If you slapped this on a 4:3 CRT you could’ve possibly convinced me it was released in the late 90s, though granted there are some areas that have been modernised, such as the options for analogue controls instead of the tank controls of old. And I think the top down camera placement is perfect as well, it makes you want to turn and scan every room to see if there might’ve been any cubby holes or items you might’ve missed.
Weapons are mostly just the standard survival horror tropes, however mixed in with the environmental traps it can make for some interesting scenarios where, let's say for example there's an explosive barrel and you could just shoot to kill a tougher enemy in the area, but you might want to save it for when you come back later and there's more enemies so you save more resources. The creativity of the puzzles can’t also be understated. For the most part they’re quite easy to solve, but I don’t think that ruins the experience for me personally, and I still admire the ways they make it work inside different rooms, like having to shoot certain marine animals in a submarine to unlock a new weapon, or having to get certain scores in an arcade so you have to play various mini-games, they’re all fun and unique in their own way! There's also some optional secrets you can decide to do which grant you upgrades to your weapon or healing items, which is a nice addition considering how often you re-run through areas and something changes.
That being said, I do think this game can be a little too lenient when it comes to how many resources it gives to the player, at least in terms of when I played it on the standard "Survival Horror" difficulty. I’m sure this was most likely done so that maybe players don’t get stuck with running out of ammo, but I always had a ton of everything throughout my first playthrough, and even more-so when I replayed it for the higher rank. Though this is remedied by the inclusion of a hard mode (Murder of Crows) added just recently which does give you less to work with and makes enemies more volatile, so maybe one day I’ll try it out. I also like the option of adding a exploration mode that removes all enemies and makes it more about the puzzles themselves which, if somebody just wanted to dabble in the genre but doesn’t like the spooks then they can also enjoy it that way, I really like how open that is to newcomers who may find these games daunting.
There's also some replayability to be had as, depending on your final rank, for future playthroughs you’ll unlock extra gear like the crowbar, a crow rocket launcher (I'm not kidding) and some wings which help you fast travel between save rooms. I’ll always respect shorter games putting in ways to get you to try the journey with a fresh coat of paint, and whilst nothing here is substantial, it's a decent inclusion nevertheless.
As you can see, I had a great time with this game! it really does showcase how much indie games are carrying this industry in terms of new concepts being mixed with old. I can see how potentially somebody could come out of this being underwhelmed due to the inspirations it does wear on it sleeve, the difficulty and the story not being as psychological and intensive as what games like Signalis and Silent Hill 2 did respectively, but I’m very much pleased with the overall package this offers and how well made everything feels. I really hope the devs end up returning to this again in the future, because they really understand what makes the genre good.
I’d recommend you to maybe take a trip to Crow Country one day, if you so please…
This is basically baby's first survival horror, and I think that's sick. So many survival horror indies try to recapture the designs of Silent Hill and Resident Evil but sacrifice accessibility to do so. I think it's really cool that now there's a game meant to introduce people to the genre, and it's even cooler that it's super solid. It's pretty easy, but it controls like butter, the monster designs are top-notch, and exploration is encouraged and feels satisfying to engage with. A really great time; if you're a fan of the genre, you owe it to yourself to rediscover why you love it so much.
Oh this was great! Some great scares, a few tricky puzzles, a fantastic art style, and an enticing narrative that had me constantly trying to piece things together and then it adds new pieces that force me to rethink my theories.
I will say the game is a touch too easy, even as someone who hasn't played too many survival horror games, but regardless it was a fun experience the whole way through.
Also you can press Y (or X depending on your button layout) to backstep, I don't think the game ever tells you that despite telling you about most other mechanics. I legit didn't figure it out until I beat the game fghgfghj
I will say the game is a touch too easy, even as someone who hasn't played too many survival horror games, but regardless it was a fun experience the whole way through.
Also you can press Y (or X depending on your button layout) to backstep, I don't think the game ever tells you that despite telling you about most other mechanics. I legit didn't figure it out until I beat the game fghgfghj
Takes several pages out of the Silent Hill 3 playbook - it’s a story about a dual-identity teenage girl getting revenge on an unfair world (at the same time delving into a Keatsian bower realm of blood, shit and hair) with all the ambience to back it up…. for maybe the first 5 minutes? The enemy designs are really dumb, sorry. There’s a couple jumpscares that did get me (owed largely to some excellent sound design) but all tension evaporates like a fart in the wind when you see the first slug-thing enemy on the ground lol. Keeps narrative on a backfoot, all puzzles very intuitively designed, overall well-constructed and never overlong - by all measures, an excellent outing for the dev! Any RE/SH fan is gonna get a nice 10 hours out this one. Only complaint is there isn’t a nasty crow-man Mr. X chasing you throughout the game, but I guess if you want that, you can just play Fear & Hunger.
This review contains spoilers
I heard about this game incredibly recently. Came at an interesting time for me as I have started to work on game development myself. This is a throwback ps1 type survival horror game that leans very heavily on silent hill and resident evil for its gameplay inspiration and final fantasy 7(ps1) for its visuals.
Even though it borrows very extensively from its source material. I can’t help but find myself charmed by this game. It strikes the mark I feel it was intending to go for.
I find myself very drawn towards works that blend notions of cuteness with horror. There is a psychological phenomenon known as cute aggression(haven’t you always wondered why people say “ooo I’m just going to eat you up” when they see a baby? According to psycholgists the parts of our brains that appreciate cuteness is wired closely with our aggressive tendencies. I feel that this is why this game clicks so well together.
Resident evil and silent hill both have immediately hostile worlds but final fantasy 7’s world is equally hostile but feels less so partially because of its artistic direction. There is a sort of implicit uncanny feeling to early 3d modeling in video games, you can make something cute but with shadows and framing can make things seem very dark. The donkey Kong country game over screen immediately comes to mind when I think about this.
Well that whole feeling is encapsulated in this claustrophobic stuffy game. It leans heavily on it’s atmosphere which is aided by CRT filters and lighting effects to generate a game that feels like a Mandela effect lost ps1 title.
You progress through the game much the way you would through resident evil, keys scattered throughout the world. It’s one big map, with various areas.
Combat is about as fleshed out as it was in survival horror in the 90’s and 2000’s. It wasn’t the focus of those games and it’s not the focus here. You have tank controls, not as bad as resident evil or silent hill but still stiff feeling, no moving while shooting for you. Enemies never really feel like a challenge but the game will throw them at you fairly constantly but you will also never run out of bullets because the game hands it out like candy.
In hindsight, I don’t like that I didn’t feel as stressed about having enough ammo as I would in a game like dead space and also the enemies are genuinely not threatening enough. They are very scary and doll like to look at but they very easy to dispatch.
This game has ok puzzles, they are mostly basic logic stuff like look through word docs to find clues or look through a room to find a train that’s coloured blue or whatever. Honestly they are about as on par with resident evil or silent hill so that’s ok.
Story wise unfortunately, idk fellas I don’t think writing was the dev’s strong suit.
Survival horror will usually abandon lore story telling in favor of atmospheric story telling but the way this game is laid out makes me think the dev really thought he had something going.
No he did not, mining for gold and finding an interdimensional gateway that turns people into monsters is not really that interesting.
But I give a pass because honestly video games in the 90’s couldn’t really write for shit either.
The soundtrack is in my opinion, excellent. At times it does sound a little derivative of the obvious source material but the mystical, liminal vibes are held in tact.
Overall, def recommend this one.
Even though it borrows very extensively from its source material. I can’t help but find myself charmed by this game. It strikes the mark I feel it was intending to go for.
I find myself very drawn towards works that blend notions of cuteness with horror. There is a psychological phenomenon known as cute aggression(haven’t you always wondered why people say “ooo I’m just going to eat you up” when they see a baby? According to psycholgists the parts of our brains that appreciate cuteness is wired closely with our aggressive tendencies. I feel that this is why this game clicks so well together.
Resident evil and silent hill both have immediately hostile worlds but final fantasy 7’s world is equally hostile but feels less so partially because of its artistic direction. There is a sort of implicit uncanny feeling to early 3d modeling in video games, you can make something cute but with shadows and framing can make things seem very dark. The donkey Kong country game over screen immediately comes to mind when I think about this.
Well that whole feeling is encapsulated in this claustrophobic stuffy game. It leans heavily on it’s atmosphere which is aided by CRT filters and lighting effects to generate a game that feels like a Mandela effect lost ps1 title.
You progress through the game much the way you would through resident evil, keys scattered throughout the world. It’s one big map, with various areas.
Combat is about as fleshed out as it was in survival horror in the 90’s and 2000’s. It wasn’t the focus of those games and it’s not the focus here. You have tank controls, not as bad as resident evil or silent hill but still stiff feeling, no moving while shooting for you. Enemies never really feel like a challenge but the game will throw them at you fairly constantly but you will also never run out of bullets because the game hands it out like candy.
In hindsight, I don’t like that I didn’t feel as stressed about having enough ammo as I would in a game like dead space and also the enemies are genuinely not threatening enough. They are very scary and doll like to look at but they very easy to dispatch.
This game has ok puzzles, they are mostly basic logic stuff like look through word docs to find clues or look through a room to find a train that’s coloured blue or whatever. Honestly they are about as on par with resident evil or silent hill so that’s ok.
Story wise unfortunately, idk fellas I don’t think writing was the dev’s strong suit.
Survival horror will usually abandon lore story telling in favor of atmospheric story telling but the way this game is laid out makes me think the dev really thought he had something going.
No he did not, mining for gold and finding an interdimensional gateway that turns people into monsters is not really that interesting.
But I give a pass because honestly video games in the 90’s couldn’t really write for shit either.
The soundtrack is in my opinion, excellent. At times it does sound a little derivative of the obvious source material but the mystical, liminal vibes are held in tact.
Overall, def recommend this one.
I love a long ladder scene
Very good and short Survival Horror. With some unlockables and secrets to find I seem myself coming back. Big fan of the look of the game. I had one issue with a puzzle being kinda confusing but other then that most of the puzzles aren't too hard that you get stuck on them, some of the side ones on the other hand might be a little confusing of the bat.