So good! I finished it in one sitting on the Murder of Crows (hard) difficulty with all secrets found. I'll definitely be replaying it at some point.
Stylistically and artistically, it's just incredible -- it blends whimsy with terror effectively. Crow Country is a theme park, and you feel the joy in its design even through the bloody lens of its current state. I'm reminded of how Team Cherry reverse-engineered the world of Pharloom in Silksong by firstly visualizing it at its golden age before considering how it fell into the ruinous state that we now know it as. Similarly, there is so much attention paid to what Crow Country looked like before the game's events, and the effect is that it truly feels haunted.
The developers know how to swing that pendulum from comforting to horrific to keep you on your toes. Crow Country some of the coziest save points in any game I've played immediately juxtaposed with inspired, horrific creature designs. The world also evolves as you play, so that you can never feel comfortable in even the most familiar of areas.
The combat, which I would consider to be the game's backbone, felt immediately classic and is satisfying to master. I enjoyed the push-your-luck system where you can do more damage when closer to enemies, but risk getting hit. I loved how different enemy designs threw your aim off in new ways, and how you are encouraged to make strategic decisions about which areas to clear to make things easier for yourself in the future at the cost of your current ammo.
Now, the weakest part of the game for me: the puzzles. I actually think the overall design of them is very good, but the game [i] really [/i] holds your hand for all of the non-optional ones, almost always just giving you the answer straight up. There was no point where I was stumped, as I could just refer to the notes and know what to do next. It's unfortunate, because I don't think any of the puzzles are hard enough (nor is the world big enough) to warrant this design choice, and it ruined the magic for me. [spoiler] There's literally a note that tells you the exact order of the items you obtain in the game, and it ripped me out of my immersion. [/spoiler] I wish the developers trusted in their design and in their players rather than resort to being safe.
Overall, though, this game is a very easy recommend.
