Length: Rushed 1hr 30min Full Playthrough: 4hrs
Cropped is an Exploration Horror game in which the player finds themselves in a car crash from a demonic flying creature. Waking up their wife has been taken, and they are left stranded in the centre of a farm with the demonic creature flying about above.
Cropped is primarily exploration as the player will be tasked with looking through the farm for their missing partner, and parts to repair their car. Though the farm is dangerous monsters are everywhere it’s kill or be killed for the players life. Combat is melee based and the player can collect multiple different weapons, enemies are about and some are very demonic, the player will need to learn their attack patterns to survive. Everything in the game can be killed, and everything will want to kill you.
There are multiple endings that can be found in the game, as the player can quickly escape from the farm or perhaps discover more of what is going on. The endings are varied, some requiring a lot of exploration, generally I found some of the endings funny. It was worth going through the game repeatedly to find them all, some will require a little thought though I did not find a massive challenge in getting them all.
Cropped makes use of upscaled PSX graphics and a dark grainy atmosphere to set the mood, it really makes it look like you are playing an old VHS tape. It felt a bit like watching a VHS copy of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The game really reminds of playing ‘Lethal Omen’ the game in the Gemini Home Entertainment ‘Analog Horror’ universe. The creepy atmosphere, upscales psx graphics, varied endings which require exploring the entire locations. Although Cropped is a lot more creepy, monsters everywhere and there feels like a lot more to explore. It’s the sense of abstract horror mystery that really gave me the same vibe when playing through the game.
I really enjoyed playing though ‘Cropped’ and I really recommend going through blind, as finding all of the endings was really rewarding. Combat was fun, enemies have different attack patterns and there are moments you can become overwhelmed. While the location is completely open to exploration and it is designed well, it leads you through the map.
If you are still unsure on buying the game I will leave my playthrough below, try not to watch the whole video as it will spoil all of the endings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BDUE8AZ5Vs&t=929s
Looking for more Horror games worth playing check out my growing curator page for all of your horror needs:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41770172/
