Crow Country is covered in a dull green veneer that makes it look like you’re playing it on a grainy tube TV in one of your friend’s rooms in 1996. The polygonal figure of its protagonist, The special agent Mara Forest, with its visible joints and a single block of purple hair, draws on a number of character designs from the PlayStation era. Likewise, the environments of Crow Country are wonderfully pre-rendered and full of additional details that contrast strongly with the simple and blocky characters. However, it’s not the static backgrounds of yesteryear, but fully interactive playgrounds that add a modern twist to Crow Country’s distinct retro sensibility.
This affectionate Nostalgia is at the service of a game that pays homage with love to the flagship titles of the Survival Horror genre while bravely standing up. Resident Evil is Crow Country’s most obvious influence, but traces of Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark also haunt the darkest corners of its 90s-inspired horror. It can be a little too authentic at times, with unwieldy actions that are tempting to ignore completely, but it’s still a real advertisement for the joys of retro-modern survival horror if executed well.
In 1990, his first impression of the titular raven country was created when Mara entered his parking lot in a white facsimile of a Volkswagen Polo. Crow Country is a dilapidated and rejected theme park that, despite its small size, is dense and labyrinthine – as if it had been designed by the same architect who worked at the Spencer Mansion and the Racoon City police station. Here Mara follows the announcement of the not found for the owner of the Edward Crow Park, but it doesn’t take long before she reveals the deepest and most intriguing secrets of the park.
The story dissolves in chronological order as you discover notes left by the staff, read old newspaper clippings and interact with a small group of relatable NPCs. It’s expertly paced, with clean writing that’s confident and contains plenty of nods to gaming and horror tropes without feeling cheesy. Finding out what happened in the two years since the park closed advances the story and captures the landing with an unforgettable ending. Above all, Crow Country does not follow a familiar pattern either, although it is a Persiflage of classics of the Genre in almost all other facets of its conception. There’s no zombie outbreak or not found woman, and the theme park’s surroundings are a refreshingly unfamiliar place that captures the same kind of uncertainty that the first Resident Evil achieved in 1996.
There are monsters in the form of divergent Cronenberg-like designs, ranging from bipedal Shamblers to amorphous Blobs. Their origins are tragic and go back to human pride and greed, but you can play the whole game without them. Crow Country offers two game modes: Survival and Exploration. The latter removes all traces of enemies from the park, allowing you to focus on exploring and solving puzzles, which gives you a good idea of the priorities of the game.
During survival mode, the park gradually fills up with grotesque creatures as you go deeper into the game’s story. In the style of survival horror, you can avoid most enemy experiences simply by passing them while saving your limited supply of ammunition. This has the effect of populating the park with additional creatures, but the presence of more enemies never seems problematic, and I only bothered to jump into action if you directly interfere with a puzzle.
This is partly because the survival aspect of Crow Country is relatively simple. Unless you action absolutely all the enemies or do not thoroughly search for them, the ammunition is enough, and the same applies to medical kits and antidotes. There are also not many real pressurize to your life. The hideous little Pinochio-like creatures are surprising at first because they are fast and the rattling of the bones that accompanies the strangely elongated skeletons could prompt you to leave hell, but both are quite rare and easy to pass.they never pose a great harmful. You will not find a pack of zombie dogs bursting through a window or experience deadly frog-like creatures in narrow corridors, so the feeling of the challenge is sorely lacking. Inventory management – usually a staple of the genre – is also distinguished by its absence. Instead of having to carefully choose the items and weapons to take with you, you can enter the final boss action with all four firearms fully stocked, which further reduces the feeling of honour in the game’s action.
Another reason why you might avoid the action altogether is because it’s not particularly engaging. Crow Country is played from an devoted isometric angle with free camera movement, which makes it instantly more palatable than the games it is inspired by. That said, aiming and striking with an isometric camera seems intentionally clumsy and awkward, especially because you are aiming both horizontally and vertically. You are locked in place in the process, which at least makes you vulnerable and adds an element of tension when playing with your laser pointer, but eliminating enemies is simple even when the controls are actioning you. There is a natural progression in unlocking weapons when you start with Mara’s service pistol before acquiring a strikegun, a Magnum and a flamethrower. However, in addition to inflicting more damage to some weapons than others, there is no noticeable difference in sensation in the middle of each weapon, so its effect is largely blunted.
Despite these shortcomings, Crow Country still manages to create a frightening atmosphere while navigating the various nooks and crannies of the park. It can be an ominous hum or the soothing – but still repulsive – music that plays in any safe space, but the game score does a great job of creating suspense with music that recalls the era. The dilapidated environment of the theme park is also an important part of the overall charm of the game, whether you are exploring the water area with its imported sand and dummy starfish, rushing past the abundance of giant mushrooms in the fairy forest or sneaking into the haunted town to reach a mansion effrayant.et crypt Jerky animatronics and the Piercing Raven theme would be strange even before monsters, broken glbody and menacing blood splatters were added to the equation.
Each Area is unique and memorable enough to make navigating the park a breeze. It also helps that the layout of the entire map is incredibly intuitive. After walking up a miniature version of Disneyland’s main street, you will arrive at an open square that serves as the centerpiece of the park, with its doors dividing into three zones. The map is open and encourages you to slowly expand your access to different areas by venturing back and forth to find all kinds of clues and objects. The interconnected shortcuts through the staff rooms and back offices eliminate the boredom of going back, and the park gradually begins to withdraw into itself, revealing a hidden depth that hides its relatively small scale. It is inherently satisfying to discover a new door leading to an earlier area where you now have the items you need to solve a secret and progress even further, and the land of Crows is full of honouring moments like these.
It’s also fun to solve the puzzles yourself, deftly crossing the line in the middle of confusing and condescending singles. Employee notes and company notes sometimes give clues, but most of the solutions are based on logic and common sense, even if the first is a separate variant of the logic of survival horror. The smaller scale of the map also works in your favor here, with many puzzles that are quite self-contained. The objects you need to solve a particular puzzle are often nearby, and even if you have to venture further, it never takes too long to get back. The Puzzle designs are also wonderfully varied, challenging you to play specific notes on a piano to open hidden compartments, discover a key by melting the head of an animatronic with acid and solve a puzzle with the names on different tombstones while a skeleton arm waves a strikegun in your face.