Modern survival horror games looking to recapture the aesthetics and essence of classic titles from the ‘90s often make one fatal mistake. You see, when fans who were around to play Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare on the PS1 look back, they do so with a level of fondness that, frankly, makes the games sound like the best things since sliced bread.
The truth, however, is that the earliest survival horror titles, with their awkward controls and fixed camera angles, haven’t aged particularly well; heck, there’s a reason so many of them are getting modern remakes. Veterans will forever adore them (this writer included), but newcomers often come away wondering what all the fuss was about.
So when a game launches that is effectively an homage to the survival horror boom of the late ‘90s, there’s a good chance it will fall flat without the benefit of personal nostalgia. Crow Country, thankfully, manages to avoid this problem entirely. Developed by SFB Games of Snipperclips fame, this is a genre game that effortlessly captures that distinctive ‘retro’ feeling while adding a wealth of modern conveniences to make it feel completely fresh.
Taking place in a dilapidated amusement park, Crow Country stars Mara Forest, a special agent investigating the mysterious goings-on while searching for the park’s founder, Edward Crow. Upon her arrival, it’s not long before the true horrors of the park are revealed, with gruesome creatures known as ‘Guests’ shuffling throughout an environment littered with perplexing puzzles, locked doors, and purposefully vague notes and messages.
In short, it’s the quintessential survival horror experience, but it does away with all of the dated mechanics that you might have expected. Starting with the obvious, full 360-degree movement is implemented here over tank controls, while the isometric camera can be rotated at will. This is particularly important with Crow Country, as the game’s world has been designed to be scrutinised carefully, so you’ll find yourself constantly rotating the camera to see what item might be hidden in an alcove, or which creature might be lurking in the shadows.
Naturally, you can dispatch the creeps with an assortment of guns (though like all survival horrors, simply legging it out of the way is equally viable). Firing your weapon requires you to stand still and aim with the right analogue stick, giving you complete control over where you want to sink your bullet.
It can feel a little twitchy at times and, depending on the angle of the camera at the time of aiming, it can be a bit awkward nailing crucial headshots. All in all, though, it’s a system that works far better than the trial-and-error mechanics seen in classics like Resident Evil. If you miss your shot, it’s entirely your fault, and ammo certainly isn’t plentiful in this amusement park.
What’s nice is that while Crow Country certainly isn’t an easy experience (unless you go for the ‘Exploration’ difficulty setting), there are plenty of opportunities to boost your chances of survival during the six-to-seven-hour experience. Med Kits and ammo boxes can be found in bins, while crates or display cabinets often hide similarly useful items or weapon upgrades.
It feels like a bit of a gamble with the crates in particular, as you’ll need to expend a precious bullet to see what’s inside, but the devs strike a great balance of providing a helping hand while maintaining a suitable level of difficulty throughout. If you happen to get a bit lost, there’s a handy hint system that you can use up to 10 times during your playthrough, pointing you in a vague, but useful direction.
Something we despised, however, was the environmental traps that start cropping up as you progress through the game. These pop up out of nowhere and are often located in areas you’ve already explored, giving you a false sense of security. The problem, however, is that they’re not scary or clever, they’re just frustrating. We almost threw our Switch out of the window after spending a good chunk of time making some decent progress, only to die at the hands of a falling chandelier while limping to a nearby save room. Absolutely infuriating.
This is a blip in what is otherwise an exceptionally well-crafted survival horror. It’s tough to say whether you’ll find it outright scary or not, but it’s certainly creepy enough and the familiar-yet-modernised mechanics will likely appeal whether you enjoy the old-school classics or prefer something a bit more up-to-date.
The purposefully blocky visuals might take a bit of getting used to — particularly since they’re juxtaposed against creepy, ambient music (plus a wonderful, ethereal save room theme), groaning zombies, cackling crows, and sinister lighting effects — and we would have liked some of the room transitions to be a tad quicker to load, but if you’re after something that will scratch that ‘retro survival horror’ itch, Crow Country is leagues above most of the competition.
Conclusion
Crow Country is a great retro-flavoured survival horror that manages to pay homage to the ’90s classics while providing a bunch of modern conveniences that make the game feel fresh and, more importantly, fun. Exploring the creepy yet charming titular amusement park is a joy thanks to its wealth of intriguing secrets and nasty creatures. There are a few annoyances that keep it from being a masterpiece, like the slightly delayed screen transitions and the infuriating traps, but like Signalis before it, Crow Country is well worth investigating if you’re after a retro-style horror game that, miraculously, doesn’t feel dated right out of the gate.
