This game is so good at mechanically evoking monster horror. It absolutely nails the feeling of crawling through the air ducts, taking out humans one by one, and inspiring terror in the rest.

As a video game, it's lackluster. It bucks Metroidvania conventions in a number of ways that don't work out in its favor, ending up highly linear and not taking nearly enough advantage of what could be very interesting combat puzzles. But it does some really cool stuff and I'm glad I played it through to the end.

Great environments and visuals in general in spite of the game being based in a run down facility. The game presents little challenge outside of one enemy type due to most enemies collapsing like paper and your monster being able to zip around at lightning speed. Spent the majority of my time being lost due to the lack of map, though this was worsened by the fact that I felt compelled to find all the optional rooms, which simply beefed up my monster further past the stage of overpowered. No real lore to speak of, and completing the optional bits didn't seem to add to the story. Thankfully isn't too long. Loses half a star for making a "Keep Calm And" reference, as much as I enjoy shit puns. What a carrion! (see)

the graphics are enjoyable, the concept is cool, controlling the monster feels great and the sound design is very well made. Too bad the game never really expands on the gameplay in interesting ways (except for in like two moments). The main mechanics feel wasted as they're never used in interesting ways to change how you play, most of the time it feels as if they're just there to make you backtrack pointlessly to progress. I get that the game might be going for a metroidvania type of progression system, but as there is no map this doesn't really work, you mostly backtrack randomly until you find an object that you couldn't previously interact with, there is never any cool moments where you actually feel like your character has gotten stronger like in most metroidvanias, just going back to look for very specific items and interacting with it once, in the same way every time, to unlock a new path. The side content (collectibles, etc.) is very lackluster as it does not provide any interesting challenges and pretty much just gives you upgrades for your energy or your damage resistance (which are completely useless as the entire game can be very easily completed without any of them). The gameplay can be kind of cool in the beginning but it never really evolves (no pun intended) and gets old really quickly, this isn't really that much of a problem as the game is very short (I was able to 100% in just 5 hours and it has next to no replayability value).

Carrion makes one of the most captivating first impressions a game can make with its "The Thing"-esque monster slithering around and chomping down on various dudes with beautifully disgusting animated gore. At first glance, this game looked like something I absolutely had to play. I imagined slinking around through vents, oozing down slowly into a group of oblivious scientists and biting all their heads off before they could react. And to the game's credit, you can very well do just that. But unfortunately, that's about all you do. The encounters get more complicated in some ways, sure, like when the guys get special electric shields and flamethrowers and stuff, but they really just serve to throw frustrating wrinkles into the gameplay rather than an interesting challenge.
As the creature, you do unlock some more mobility options and a handful of powers but it never felt like a full on cohesive metroid type, as you only really have to use each power in areas specifically designed for it.
But, the game doesn't really overstay its welcome and if you're like me, you can just play it free on Gamepass. It's not aggressively bad, and I didn't hate my afternoon spent playing it. And it does have sick ass animations.

As I finished Carrion, I felt more like I experienced a great demo than a great game. What carries Carrion as an enjoyable experience are it's aesthetic components and overall feel.

Narrative is as much bare-bones as you can get away with it and mechanically there is not much going on.

The gameplay loop is basically alternating between three sizes and their different abilities to deal with exploration, puzzles and combat. It's a functional idea but the implementation feels weak, something more akin to a demo than a full game.
One reason for that is that after about halfway through the game you've seen pretty much all the possible challenges. Another is that it's metroidvania without a map, so the game expects you to navigate through long, maze-like interconnected areas through sheer memory alone. What results is getting lost, bored and frustrated. I could go on into detail, but I'm lazy, so trust me in this one.

In conclusion, It's very good proof of concept and I hope someone builds further into it.

Giving the player the opportunity to control a terrifying and foreboding fleshy monstrosity, picking off your targets with the animalistic brutality of a pack of hungry lions - much akin to the thing from 'The Thing' or the alien from 'Alien' - Carrion has a fairly unique premise that made me eager to play the game from the day I'd heard of it. Sadly, fails to fully capitalise on the idea's potential.

I feel your mileage for this game will hinge almost entirely on how gratifying you find mindless violence and gore. Personally, I stopped playing with my food barely an hour into the game, when I realised that the enemies are little more than screaming health kits. There is no lore, no dialogue, no justification behind what is happening in this game, outside a handful of "memory" sequences, which were similarly plot anaemic. Novelty can wear thin, and there wasn't a shred of it left come the time the credits to Carrion finally rolled. Encounters and gauntlets quickly become a mere routine that no amount of upgrades could obfuscate. There's only so many times you can hit the same pinata before every last piece of candy has fallen out.

With each level being a samey-looking environment with little to no unique identifying landmarks, and no map to speak of, I found myself completely lost for progress for much of my playthrough. The spritework is stunningly detailed, but none of it clicked with me to a point where I was in awe with what I was looking at. It mostly blurred together as a grossly busy pastiche of repeating assets, vents and corridors. I don't think I ever found myself sure of my place on the map, convincing myself that any step forward I manage to make is by complete coincidence.

The puzzles in this game are impressive, but I can't help but find the size requirements to most of them to be a complete hindrance to the pacing. Pacing back and forward, to and from a blood pool to shrink yourself down so you can use a different set of abilities, then doing the same to size back up. I'm amazed I had the patience.

I can't exactly place why, but Carrion reminds me so much of the PS1 Oddworld games to the point where I wish I was playing those instead. Slig Barracks music played in my head throughout the armory section.

Que boa surpresa e que jogo gostoso. Os controles são tão fluídos e agradáveis que, para mim, são grande destaque e o que tornam o jogo especial, juntamente com os efeitos sonoros que adicionam uma camada imersão a mais. Ele tem a duração certa para não ficar cansativo, e tem um ritmo bom, onde frequentemente você está descobrindo uma habilidade nova e te motivando a explorar mais o ambiente. É muito legal essa subversão de ser o monstro e brincar com essa quebra de paradigma, por várias vezes eu estava ali, interpretando o personagem, me esgueirando por passagens e espreitando os humanos, esperando a oportunidade certa de atacar e trazer o caos, divertido demais. Também é muito interessante o jeito com que eles pensam os cenários e a movimentação de um personagem tão fora do padrão. A impressão que eu tive dos trailers e da demo era que seria um jogo que rapidamente perderia o charme e ficaria cansativo, que bom que não foi o caso e que ele se manteve interessante até o fim.

When Carrion is trying to be a linear stealth puzzle game it can be pretty engrossing. Figuring out how to take out a huge group of enemies with the monster's unique suite of abilities can be a lot of fun.

What's less fun is wandering around the map aimlessly during segments where the metroidvania map structure comes into play. What's even less fun than that is segments where you have to play as a human slowly plodding along solving braindead puzzles.

Luckily those moments are fairly infrequent and the feeling of mindjacking an enemy and then making them pilot a mech to kill all their comrades makes up for it somewhat.