Crow Country

A loveletter to classic survival horror. Wonderful game, loved every second of it, even if the aiming is a bit strange to get used to. Normal mode isn't too challenging. Atmosphere, story and puzzles are all 10/10. My playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4P9y07EGFY

Crow Country is a surprisingly amazing addition to the survival horror genre, inspired by and directly taking from earlier classics but feeling upgraded in many ways. A huge highlight of the game for me are the environments, the set-pieces, the models of every little object and their details and of the characters and monsters. It is very reminiscent of something like classic Final Fantasy VII's pre-rendered backgrounds, but with Crow Country you actually get to move the camera around and see that the environment is modeled rather than just being a backdrop. I enjoyed looking into each detail, changes in the areas throughout the progression of the story, as well as finding all the hidden secrets and resources scattered around. The characters and story were also surprisingly well written and different in some ways compared to my expectations going in to Crow Country due to my experience with other games of the genre such as Resident Evil. Not to spoil the overall plotline or ending, but it was a refreshing take on this type of story in a survival horror game. And it was satisfying to get new context for many things that I had been theorizing about or didn't have answers for, and to play through the game again putting together "the rest of the puzzle" so to say after the ending. The ladder sequence also got my hands up in the air, absolute cinema before my eyes. I do kind of wish there was more to experience as I beat the game in ~10 hours first then ~3 hours on my S rank playthrough, but I think for what the game is it didn't need to be more or to drag on just for the sake of padding hours out, I much more appreciate the high quality of each hour of what we got here. Crow Country is a great game, highly recommend it even if you aren't familiar with the genre I think it's a perfect entry point.

[h1] PeaK SuRvivAl HoROR Experience [h1] I never expected this game to hit this hard with its story and atmosphere. I was hypnotized throughout this experience with the atmosphere and the VHS vibes. This game while having much darker tone on the surface had more wholesome and funny moments, expecially Mara, she feels like a real person in this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up situation and others do similiar things tooo except for the Giga Chad Tolman that dude was on an whole another level of greatness. On combat side of things, I would say it respects the core mechanic of survival horror of the 90s which are the darn tank controls. I mean I am not against it but a barrier of entry for certain players will be high but there are modern controls which will make the new players feel comfortable and right at home. The gun selection is limited and satisfying except for the flamethrower which I didn't use only just for puzzle and I think it was kinda lacking. All that aside other guns like handgun, magnum and shotgun was cool and they also had that "oomph" to them with the impact giving that right amount of dopamine shot. This game borrows all the right elements from the right games and thats why I give this masterpiece a straight 9.5/10 (A quite memorable experience.

My new favorite indie horror games, and very high up on my list of favorite horror games in general. Really want to see another one like it from this dev team.

I didn't like this game at first, the puzzels were hard and the combat was annoying but after finishing it it's one of my favourite games I've played recently. The atmosphere especially is amazing But seriously if you can, play it with a controller it's so much easier than mouse and keyboard

[b]“Staring into the flames, I feel something... It is a curious mixture of hope and dread. Maybe everything will be okay. Maybe it won't.”[/b] [i]-Mara Forest[/i] [hr][/hr] Incredibly beginner-friendly for those new to the survival-horror, [b]Crow Country[/b] should be treated as the gold standard for the genre from now going forward. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Survival horror is as classic as it gets: Both enemies and ammo are limited. The challenge comes not from action but from knowing where to apply resources to get rid of an obstacle, and what risk to take to maximize their effectiveness. Puzzles are the classic mix of using key items on the environment and deduction-based ones. [h1]Story[/h1] You fill the shoes of one Mara, agent(?) Mara Forest, as she investigates a missing person case that quickly evolves into a bigger mystery surrounding the titular Crow Country theme park. [h1]X-Factor[/h1] Retro survival-horror that goes for more of a cozy look than the usual grungy aesthetic. Controls have both tank movement on the d-pad and normal movement on the left stick, so you can play and switch between both on the fly. A lot of survival horror games feature puzzle elements that feel like a bizarre gamey rigamarole that doesn’t make sense within the setting itself, [b]Crow Country[/b] had the genius idea to set itself in an amusement park so it makes sense most of them to be some amusement-related entertainment. The map is quite small meaning all the fun is condensed into areas that don’t take you hours of running back and forth to traverse. [h1]Downsides[/h1] No real complaints, maybe it’s not really a scary game nor is ever tense, but maybe that’s the point. [hr][/hr] While it doesn’t do anything EXCEPTIONALLY well, it does do everything VERY well, all wrapped up in a cute short little package like Mara. It’s not a game where you will catch yourself thinking about it once you complete it, so I don’t know if I suggest this 8-hour experience at full price, I got it under 10$ and was 100% worth it at that price, wholeheartedly recommended. (extra game modes give the title more replayability if you really want to get the most bang for your buck)

SI

It's great! Lovely little Resident Evil-like about exploring the world's most suspicious theme park. I especially love the rendering style - the way the graphics are filtered makes all the of the backgrounds look prerendered even though they're actually rendering in real time. It's a fantastic illusion. But besides that it controls great, especially fun in tank controls, and was basically the perfect length to not outstay its welcome or get tedious. I wanna go back to get better ranks!