Developer: SFB Games
Publisher: SFB Games
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PC
Crow Country – Review
Veteran gamers will probably have seen the rise (and fall) of many beloved horror franchises. We can imagine many will probably have had their first encounter with the genre when trying to survive the mansion in the original Resident Evil or trying to get out of the city of Silent Hill. While the latter franchise only recently saw signs of life again, the Resident Evil series has evolved over the years, ditching the old-school tank controls and even opting for a first-person experience. Even so, we still have fond memories of the originals, even though the recent remakes were also great titles when judging them by modern standards. For today’s review, however, we’re looking at Crow Country, a title that takes the best of both worlds by combining retro design and gameplay elements with modern technology.
Story
In Crow Country, you’ll be playing as Mara Forest, a special agent, who is sent to Crow Country, a theme park founded by Edward Crow. Crow, however, has disappeared two years prior, but you are certain that he still resides inside the park. Sadly, when you arrive in the derelict park, you notice there is an infestation of weird monsters. Nonetheless, you are still determined to find Crow, figure out what the hell is going on, and also what triggered the events in the park.
While this may sound like a vague description, we don’t want to spoil much more of the story. It’s a Resident Evil-esque mystery that slowly unfolds as you solve more and more puzzles. The narrative is great, and the characters you meet throughout the experience are properly fleshed out and all have their cross to bear.
Graphics
How a game is perceived by potential buyers is often a matter of personal preference. Some gamers may enjoy an artful approach more than a hyperrealistic one, and that’s perfectly fine. In the case of Crow Country, however, we can only say that the game’s designers masterfully crafted the graphics. The game respects the classics of the ’90s and early 2000s and nails the retro aesthetic to a T. The diverse character models look great, the enemies are truly terrifying, and the stage design is pretty much perfect. We enjoyed exploring the theme park in which the story plays out, and the different themed environments pushed all the right buttons. The overall animations again mimicked those of a PS1 game perfectly, albeit a lot smoother than those of Sony’s 1994 console.
Sound
The sound design was also superbly handled. The soundtrack is extremely varied, and it sets the mood right off the bat. While some may not find the initial trailer footage creepy, the sound effects and the supporting music really set the atmosphere, and more than once we found ourselves uneasy when progressing through the game. To us, it felt like we were playing the first Resident Evil game as kids for the first time again. The sound effects are also decent and help set the overall tone. There is no voice acting in the game, which is a bit of a shame.
Gameplay
Crow Country is an old-school survival horror game in which you navigate through the titular theme park in order to find the infamous Edward Crow. The offset is very straightforward, as you’ll be able to explore the park at your leisure, albeit when you complete the puzzles to open up new segments. The puzzles flow into other puzzles, eventually making it so that you’ll find yourself backtracking a lot to find new pieces to the many unsolved puzzles. The puzzles never get overly complex, but they are extremely satisfying to solve. You’ll still have a sizeable challenge on your hands as the park will gradually become more infested with eerie-looking monsters.
You can defend yourself against the ever-growing horde of abominations with your trusty weapons. The more you explore and try to look in every nook and cranny, the more weapons you’ll have available. Combat is not always advised, however, especially when playing on a higher difficulty setting. Ammo is scarce, and if you don’t target weak spots or use the environment to your advantage, you may find yourself defenseless. Combat is a bit trickier than one would expect, however, as Crow Country respects its retro-inspired roots and has very traditional tank controls. This makes aiming a bit more finicky, but it doesn’t take that long for you to get the hang of it. New controllers always have a second stick available, while in the past you sometimes had to do it via a D-Pad to line up your shot. This does make it a lot more manageable. We suggest you regularly save your progress at designated save points, as the game does not have an autosave function.
The game feels very polished, and you’ll be treated to great and satisfying puzzle design, creepy monsters to fight, and rewarding exploration. We only noticed a few times that the hitboxes felt a bit off, especially when trying to sprint past enemies. We sometimes didn’t see the hit connect and still took a bit of damage. While this never resulted in an unfair death, it was still noticeable enough to warrant a mention. Also worth mentioning is the great performance on Valve’s Steam Deck, as we played the majority of the game on our handheld device. We only wished the experience was a bit longer, as we beat the game in roughly five to six hours.
Conclusion
Crow Country is a sublime, bite-sized homage to survival horror titles of the 90s and early 2000s. We immediately fell in love with the retro visuals and the amazing sound design, but it was actually the puzzles and combat that truly turned this somewhat obscure horror title into an absolute gem. Some minor hitbox issues aside, if you’re a fan of survival horror games, picking this one up is a no-brainer. Even if you’re not a fan of retro games, this one is still very much worth looking into.
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