Is it blasphemy to call a survival horror game “cozy”? Maybe so, but as I think about my game of crow countrythe word appeared in my mind more than a few times.
From the jump, there is no doubt about crow countryPlayStation 1 influences, which its creators at SFB Games have been candid about: It's very intentionally the cute, creepy son of resident Evil, Silent Hill and Final Fantasy VII. The game, which launched on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox against an all-consuming desolation than a constant fight for your life. (A difficult way, however, is x.com/SFBDim/status/1790423223437308351″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:apparently on the way;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”>apparently on the way).
You play as Mara Forest, who must painstakingly make her way through an abandoned amusement park in the year 1990 to find its elusive and evidently corrupt owner, Edward Crow. You have to look for resources, such as ammunition and health kits. Skinless monstrosities can emerge from the shadows at any moment to grab you, and puzzles of varying complexity promise to halt your progress. There are a set of characters who, including the protagonist, seem to have questionable motives.
It's a familiar formula combined with a familiar style of character design combined with a familiar and disturbing atmosphere, but crow country he manages not to feel like he's being propped up by nods to his predecessors. With more emphasis on mood and mystery than violence (and some humor sprinkled throughout), it's unique enough to stand on its own as a distinct work. The whole experience has this air of reflection and I think the developers describe it perfectly in their own synopsis of what crow country offers: “a beautiful and strange mixture of tension and tranquility.”
In fact, nostalgia hit me like a truck as I took my first cautious steps through the eponymous Crow Country theme park as Mara. Naturally, he walks at a snail's pace and stops completely whenever he fires a gun. However, his running speed is good and you have 360 degree control of the camera angle, so you're not completely burdened with the limitations of the PS1 era (a blessing).
I was prepared to be frustrated throughout the game by the stopping to shoot part, but I got over it once I realized that monsters are also slow as hell. Well, most of them. You can walk past them in almost all situations if you wish. That made killing a choice rather than a necessity, and immediately reduced the sense of urgency with which I had approached my first encounter with the enemy. This is not bad at all. With the stakes low, I treated those fleshy monstrosities as target practice and took them out mostly for fun. That, along with the gradual realization that there wouldn't be jump scares every 5 seconds, immersed me in a much more welcoming experience than I expected.
Without anxiety fueling my every decision, I was able to take my time exploring every corner of the amusement park, making sure to stop and read every notebook or piece of paper and examine every object on the floor or hanging on the ground. walls. I could fully concentrate on the puzzles before me, some of which were really challenging. I even had to get out a pen and paper at one point. It also wasn't very difficult to stock up on necessities like ammunition, health kits, and poison antidotes, which could be found randomly throughout the park and in the vending machines, where they would sometimes regenerate so you could come back for more later. .
The Ockeroid soundtrack (which just arrived its own separate digital release) is eerily relaxing and helped create an atmosphere that completely absorbed me. crow countryThe save mechanism also leans fully into the game's contemplative mood: you can find respite in different fire fountains, which Mara will stare at before reciting a melancholy thought about hope and fear in the face of uncertainty. I played crow country on the Steam Deck, curled up with my cats on a gray and stormy day, and I can't think of a better way to take it all in.
In typical survival horror fashion, the environment becomes increasingly hostile as you progress through the game; Creatures start appearing in greater numbers, a faster one joins the mix, it starts to rain, it gets darker, someone shoots you from the shadows. But any real heaviness in Crow County It is balanced with just the right amount of joy. The characters are usually very unserious and come and go with irreverent dialogues. And you can't ignore the ridiculous crow-themed items everywhere; you rely on some of them for resources and knowledge.
Initially, crow country hints that there's more to Mara than we're told, but gives no explanation as to who she is or why she's really in this abandoned theme park. He also doesn't explain from the beginning why that park is full of writhing abominations and notoriously frequent references to the number 2106. Those mysteries served to hook me and drive me deeper as things developed. The ending tied everything together in a way that was really satisfying.
It's short, but not too short, taking between 5 and 10 hours to complete, depending on how thorough (or slow at solving puzzles) you are, and has great replay value. This game is full of secrets that aren't vital to the plot but can make your life a little easier (there's even a map to show you where they are, if you can find them) and add another layer of challenge to the whole thing. Treasure hunt. The upcoming Hard Mode could also make revisiting it even more interesting. Currently, the game gives you the option to play in Survival Horror mode (the version I played) or Exploration mode, in which “you will not be attacked.”
I missed a couple of secrets on my first playthrough, so my main goals for the next run are to find the rest and reach 100 percent achievements. I'm also curious how different choices in my interactions with other characters might affect the development of the story. In the end, I was moved by crow country for reasons that had almost nothing to do with nostalgia.
