Crow Country (Game) Review.

 

An experience that's short, sweet and is fun to replay is kind of the classic experience you hope most from a game sometimes. I've had that a few times and while there's some games I've played that lean on a heavy narrative, which Crow Country is no different in doing, the game itself feels built for the fluidity of replay ability. And that's why I've been enjoying it so much.

 

An abandoned theme park in the year 1990 is where our protagonist, Mara Forest journeys to. A special agent of the police, she supposedly has business with its owner, Edward Crow, who has been missing for some time and his daughter, Natalie, has requested aid of the police to find her. But it's clear immediately, that something isn't quite right with the situation. Not just the park, not just the atmosphere, but yourself. Who you are, is one of the key curiosities of the story and that's where this game shines outside it's ability to be fun to play; the story is a survival horror set against the backdrop of the 90's and while it doesn't figure too much into the overall plot, the idea of time is key to this story. The world, the game itself shifts as you discover things, illustrating the feeling time is starting to run out for whatever is supposedly coming to a conclusion. It's a story I find myself drawn to as it plays to one of my key worries in horror; a dread of things to come. And the charm of not only Mara but the characters you meet, or the antithesis of charm they exude is a driving force for those little moments making the plot matter. The story beyond that is told in the environment, in the disused world coming to life and the key curiosity being the strange beings you will end up meeting as the story carries on.
 

The gameplay shines brightly in this; guns and weapons have distinct lines of sight, there's little cooldown on firing so you can if you're panicked rapid fire to take down enemies, the movement feels while weighty, not too stiff and the puzzle solving is mostly something that makes sense. The music and environments play well into the enjoyment of exploration and walking through the space. It sings well to the feeling of previous survival horrors, with the types of weaponry you use, what the rooms where you can save your game feel like and evoke the series it's influenced by, such as Resident Evil.

The game has some small issues. Damage taken in this game feels like it doesn't have enough knockback or cool down between hits which can make registering you're hurt or backing off difficult. Some puzzles are hard to parse or sometimes feel a little difficult to approach or intuit. Some enemy design, perhaps deliberately, while aesthetically cool mean it's hard to feel some are memorable as distinct enemies I'd think of similar to more iconic classic enemies from other horror series. But again; the game is distinctly going for something specific with its design, so it's not a true detriment.

 

Crow Country rewards optimisation with little things; a few things you can get that remind me of the fun of playing and unlocking things. The idea that it's fun to get better at a thing and the rewards make things easier and more fun. Though the story is dark, much like a real theme park, I found myself enjoying the ride I was taken on quite a bit. And hope to see more from this developer in the future.

 

Image sourced from Steam.