This review contains spoilers
carrion-dead and putrefying flesh of animals or humans.
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preface/setting
This is my second attempt at a comprehensive review; my first was on Dying Light, but that ended up going thousands of characters over the limit, so hopefully I can trim this one down since it is a significantly shorter game.
I actually pre-ordered Carrion on a recommendation from a good friend since the game seemed right up my alley. I waited a few days to play it after it launched, and I beat it in a total of 4 hours. I revisited it the same day and got all the secrets in about an hour on the same save.
This review is going to cover my gameplay experience in full detail with minimal spoilers, but they will be marked so if you would like to skip them, you can.
story
Carrion is light on story- in fact, there's almost no story to speak of at all. That's not to say the game doesn't have narratively satisfying moments, but they're few and far between. The most significant of these moments is the ending, which I won't be describing in detail, but I will say that it was masterfully foreshadowed through the flashback sequences (the drone shooting your character was a perfect twist) and left me with that sinking "Oh shit" feeling you get after a good, ambiguous horror movie ending. It also is a very consistent narrative- towards the end of the game you're free to slaughter defenseless personnel because at that point you've completely decimated the facility's defensive force, and it's a great moment of catharsis after hours of tough battles against overwhelming odds.
gameplay loop
The gameplay loop in Carrion is simple and sweet: grab enemies and kill them by eating them or tossing them around. You get abilities throughout the game that make combat more interesting since they provide you with more options, and are exceptionally fun to use against a variety of different enemy types. Each type requires outsmarting them in different ways, and can counter a facet of your moveset with ease, making fights with multiple types a frantic and aggressive test of your quick thinking and, occasionally, quick reflexes too.
The combat segments are also broken up by puzzles, which always possess a fantastic balance between engaging and challenging, keeping you in that all-important flow state. We'll go more into puzzles in a moment, but for now I'll say that all the resources for each puzzle are always within reach; the only obstacle is figuring out how to use them together with your abilities to progress.
systems
The abilities you unlock are deeply tied to the puzzle aspect of the game. The abilities you can access are tied to the size of your form at any given time, but a pool is always within reach during the puzzle; however, you will sometimes need to exit an area and shed biomass if you enter at a size that possesses the wrong abilities. This isn't more than a minor inconvenience, though, and many of the game's best puzzles revolve around switching between sizes to interact with different objects in different ways.
The size mechanic also plays into combat, as taking damage reduces your biomass and can move you down a size threshold if you're not careful. This doesn't necessarily make you weaker, though- each form plays differently as a result of the different abilities, and going down a size forces you to rethink your approach to an encounter on the fly in a very engaging test of your decision making under stress.
As you unlock these abilities, the Metroidvania elements of the game start to stand out. As expected, new abilities can get you past specific obstacles, but you'll almost always be moving forward if you're only following the main campaign. There's very little backtracking, so you'll always have the feeling that you're pushing forward instead of having to pull every fan in the facility to find the right one to go through. It's design really cuts down on the feeling of being lost that other Metroidvania games sometimes struggle with, and it keeps you focused on your objective: escaping the complex.
replayability
If you'd like to take a break from your main objective, though, the game also houses 9 hidden containment units from which you can absorb DNA and upgrade your attributes or resistances. One unit is hidden in almost every area, and the passages to reach them are marked by a white diamond symbol. Often you'll see the symbol, have to work your way to it by fiddling with switches in the surrounding area, and you'll be able to access the bite-sized puzzle inside. I thought the marking was a fantastic edition since, once I figured out that they denoted a secret, I was thrilled that I wouldn't have to do much aimless wandering to 100% the game without a guide.
As I've said, past each glowing mark is a small puzzle, often expanding on a single gameplay mechanic and using it in ways the main story didn't- my favorite was dragging a body to a new room in order to make it pull a switch, which was something I'd been thinking about doing for hours at that point. The rewards for these puzzles are genuinely wortwhile, giving you fire resistance, more ability energy, or letting you grab up to 3 things at once.
However, the puzzles often require abilities you only recieve near the end of the game, so backtracking is discouraged unless you're almost done, since you could end up spending time finding an area's mini-puzzle and not being able to complete it due to not progressing far enough in the main story. On top of that, the game never gets tough enough that you feel like upgrading yourself is necessary. It definitely helps, but it's not even close to being required. Personally, I didn't go get these secrets until I cleared the story since the backtracking required just didn't seem worth it when no section of the game had given me trouble thus far.
guidance
Carrion's simple nature means that it's tutorials don't stretch past giving you the prompt for an ability and telling you what it does.
In it's moment to moment guidance, though, it very rarely falters. Your progression through the facility flows nicely, often putting you right in front of the door that hides the next area. However, its is occasionally easy to go down the wrong path and accidentally lock yourself in an area you've already completed. It's fairly trivial to escape from, but is often disorienting and makes you lose your sense of where you were headed to.
In one endgame sequence and in one containment unit puzzle, you have to access a passage that seems to be behind a solid wall, similar to the new Mario Bros. games- this is never taught to the player and never occurs in the game aside from these sequences. It's a bit of a weird design choice in an otherwise consistent puzzle game.
personal reflection
Carrion is exactly what I wanted from it. It's similarities to The Thing and The Horror From the Vault are front and center, and with those being some of my favorite works of fiction, I loved the opportunity to play as a creature that feels like it slithered right out of one of those stories. I was definitely left hungry for more by the time I finished the story and saw the chilling ending, but that may actually be a negative for a lot of people. At the time of writing, this game is 20 USD- that's about 4 dollars per hour if you do all the content. That's a bit steep in an age where you can drop 60 on a game designed to keep you hooked for years and get thousands of hours out of it. But let this be as clear as I can make it: this is a horror experience unlike anything else out there. The opportunity to play as an eldritch horror is such a wild ride, and if that's your jam, I wholeheartedly recommend this game. It's a tad short, but it succeeds in almost every regard during it's limited time with you. As Mark Brown said, "Instead of making a game you hope many people will like, it's sometimes better to create a game you know a few people will love."
Thanks for reading.
-----
preface/setting
This is my second attempt at a comprehensive review; my first was on Dying Light, but that ended up going thousands of characters over the limit, so hopefully I can trim this one down since it is a significantly shorter game.
I actually pre-ordered Carrion on a recommendation from a good friend since the game seemed right up my alley. I waited a few days to play it after it launched, and I beat it in a total of 4 hours. I revisited it the same day and got all the secrets in about an hour on the same save.
This review is going to cover my gameplay experience in full detail with minimal spoilers, but they will be marked so if you would like to skip them, you can.
story
Carrion is light on story- in fact, there's almost no story to speak of at all. That's not to say the game doesn't have narratively satisfying moments, but they're few and far between. The most significant of these moments is the ending, which I won't be describing in detail, but I will say that it was masterfully foreshadowed through the flashback sequences (the drone shooting your character was a perfect twist) and left me with that sinking "Oh shit" feeling you get after a good, ambiguous horror movie ending. It also is a very consistent narrative- towards the end of the game you're free to slaughter defenseless personnel because at that point you've completely decimated the facility's defensive force, and it's a great moment of catharsis after hours of tough battles against overwhelming odds.
gameplay loop
The gameplay loop in Carrion is simple and sweet: grab enemies and kill them by eating them or tossing them around. You get abilities throughout the game that make combat more interesting since they provide you with more options, and are exceptionally fun to use against a variety of different enemy types. Each type requires outsmarting them in different ways, and can counter a facet of your moveset with ease, making fights with multiple types a frantic and aggressive test of your quick thinking and, occasionally, quick reflexes too.
The combat segments are also broken up by puzzles, which always possess a fantastic balance between engaging and challenging, keeping you in that all-important flow state. We'll go more into puzzles in a moment, but for now I'll say that all the resources for each puzzle are always within reach; the only obstacle is figuring out how to use them together with your abilities to progress.
systems
The abilities you unlock are deeply tied to the puzzle aspect of the game. The abilities you can access are tied to the size of your form at any given time, but a pool is always within reach during the puzzle; however, you will sometimes need to exit an area and shed biomass if you enter at a size that possesses the wrong abilities. This isn't more than a minor inconvenience, though, and many of the game's best puzzles revolve around switching between sizes to interact with different objects in different ways.
The size mechanic also plays into combat, as taking damage reduces your biomass and can move you down a size threshold if you're not careful. This doesn't necessarily make you weaker, though- each form plays differently as a result of the different abilities, and going down a size forces you to rethink your approach to an encounter on the fly in a very engaging test of your decision making under stress.
As you unlock these abilities, the Metroidvania elements of the game start to stand out. As expected, new abilities can get you past specific obstacles, but you'll almost always be moving forward if you're only following the main campaign. There's very little backtracking, so you'll always have the feeling that you're pushing forward instead of having to pull every fan in the facility to find the right one to go through. It's design really cuts down on the feeling of being lost that other Metroidvania games sometimes struggle with, and it keeps you focused on your objective: escaping the complex.
replayability
If you'd like to take a break from your main objective, though, the game also houses 9 hidden containment units from which you can absorb DNA and upgrade your attributes or resistances. One unit is hidden in almost every area, and the passages to reach them are marked by a white diamond symbol. Often you'll see the symbol, have to work your way to it by fiddling with switches in the surrounding area, and you'll be able to access the bite-sized puzzle inside. I thought the marking was a fantastic edition since, once I figured out that they denoted a secret, I was thrilled that I wouldn't have to do much aimless wandering to 100% the game without a guide.
As I've said, past each glowing mark is a small puzzle, often expanding on a single gameplay mechanic and using it in ways the main story didn't- my favorite was dragging a body to a new room in order to make it pull a switch, which was something I'd been thinking about doing for hours at that point. The rewards for these puzzles are genuinely wortwhile, giving you fire resistance, more ability energy, or letting you grab up to 3 things at once.
However, the puzzles often require abilities you only recieve near the end of the game, so backtracking is discouraged unless you're almost done, since you could end up spending time finding an area's mini-puzzle and not being able to complete it due to not progressing far enough in the main story. On top of that, the game never gets tough enough that you feel like upgrading yourself is necessary. It definitely helps, but it's not even close to being required. Personally, I didn't go get these secrets until I cleared the story since the backtracking required just didn't seem worth it when no section of the game had given me trouble thus far.
guidance
Carrion's simple nature means that it's tutorials don't stretch past giving you the prompt for an ability and telling you what it does.
In it's moment to moment guidance, though, it very rarely falters. Your progression through the facility flows nicely, often putting you right in front of the door that hides the next area. However, its is occasionally easy to go down the wrong path and accidentally lock yourself in an area you've already completed. It's fairly trivial to escape from, but is often disorienting and makes you lose your sense of where you were headed to.
In one endgame sequence and in one containment unit puzzle, you have to access a passage that seems to be behind a solid wall, similar to the new Mario Bros. games- this is never taught to the player and never occurs in the game aside from these sequences. It's a bit of a weird design choice in an otherwise consistent puzzle game.
personal reflection
Carrion is exactly what I wanted from it. It's similarities to The Thing and The Horror From the Vault are front and center, and with those being some of my favorite works of fiction, I loved the opportunity to play as a creature that feels like it slithered right out of one of those stories. I was definitely left hungry for more by the time I finished the story and saw the chilling ending, but that may actually be a negative for a lot of people. At the time of writing, this game is 20 USD- that's about 4 dollars per hour if you do all the content. That's a bit steep in an age where you can drop 60 on a game designed to keep you hooked for years and get thousands of hours out of it. But let this be as clear as I can make it: this is a horror experience unlike anything else out there. The opportunity to play as an eldritch horror is such a wild ride, and if that's your jam, I wholeheartedly recommend this game. It's a tad short, but it succeeds in almost every regard during it's limited time with you. As Mark Brown said, "Instead of making a game you hope many people will like, it's sometimes better to create a game you know a few people will love."
Thanks for reading.