Is it blasphemous to name a survival horror recreation “cozy”? Perhaps so, however whereas considering again on my playthrough of Crow Nation, the phrase popped into my thoughts quite a lot of occasions.
From the soar, there isn’t any query about Crow Nation’s PlayStation 1 influences, which its creators at SFB Video games have been upfront about: it is rather deliberately the creepy-cute little one of Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Remaining Fantasy VII. The sport, which was launched on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox X/S on Could 9, nearly checks all of the bins for survival horror, nevertheless it takes a gentler method to the style, making it really feel extra like a take a look at of psychological endurance in opposition to some all-consuming bleakness than a relentless struggle on your life. (A Arduous Mode, nevertheless, is apparently on the way in which).
You play as Mara Forest, who should painstakingly make her manner by an deserted amusement park within the yr 1990 to seek out its elusive and evidently corrupt proprietor, Edward Crow. Sources, like ammo and well being kits, have to be scavenged. Skinless monstrosities could emerge from the shadows at any flip to seize at you and puzzles of various complexity promise to stall your progress. There may be an ensemble of characters who — together with the protagonist — every appear to have questionable motives.
It’s a well-recognized components paired with a well-recognized type of character design paired with a well-recognized unsettling ambiance, but Crow Nation manages to not really feel prefer it’s being propped up by nods to its predecessors. With extra of an emphasis on temper and thriller than violence (and a few humor sprinkled all through), it’s simply distinctive sufficient to face by itself as a definite work. Your entire expertise has this air of reflectiveness to it, and I feel the builders describe it completely in their very own synopsis of what Crow Nation provides: “a beautiful, uncanny blend of tension and tranquility.”
The nostalgia did certainly hit me like a truck as I took my cautious first steps across the eponymous Crow Nation theme park as Mara. Naturally, she walks at a snail’s tempo and involves a full cease every time firing a weapon. Her operating pace is ok, although, and you’ve got 360-degree management of the digital camera angle, so it doesn’t weigh you down solely with PS1-era limitations (a blessing).
I used to be ready to be annoyed at some stage in the sport by the stop-to-shoot bit, however I obtained over it as soon as I spotted the monsters are additionally sluggish as hell. Effectively, most of them. You’ll be able to run proper by them in nearly each state of affairs if you wish to. That made killing a selection quite than a necessity, and instantly dialed down the sense of urgency I’d gone into my first enemy encounter with. This isn’t in any respect a nasty factor. With the stakes lowered, I handled these fleshy monstrosities like goal follow and picked them off principally for the enjoyable of it. That, together with the gradual realization that there weren’t going to be jumpscares each 5 seconds, sucked me right into a a lot cozier expertise than I used to be anticipating.
With out nervousness fueling my each determination, I used to be in a position to take my time to choose by all of the nooks and crannies of the amusement park, ensuring to cease and browse each pocket book or piece of paper and look at each object on the bottom or hanging on the partitions. I may focus utterly on the puzzles earlier than me, a few of which have been actually difficult. I even needed to bust out a pen and paper at one level. It additionally wasn’t very troublesome to remain stocked up on requirements like ammunition, well being kits and poison antidotes, which might be discovered randomly everywhere in the park and at merchandising machines, the place they’d typically regenerate so I may return for extra later.
The soundtrack by Ockeroid (which simply obtained its personal separate digital launch) is eerily soothing, and helped to create an environment that totally engrossed me. Crow Nation’s save mechanism leans totally into the sport’s contemplative ambiance, too: you’ll find respite at completely different sources of fireside, which Mara will stare into earlier than reciting a wistful considered hope and dread within the face of uncertainty. I performed Crow Nation on a Steam Deck, snuggled up with my cats on a grey, stormy day, and I can’t consider a greater solution to take all of it in.
In typical survival horror kind, the surroundings will get more and more hostile as you advance within the recreation; creatures begin displaying up in heavier numbers, a quicker one joins the combination, it begins raining, it will get darker, somebody shoots at you from the shadows. However any actual heaviness in Crow County is balanced by simply the correct quantity of playfulness. The characters are sometimes so unserious, going backwards and forwards with irreverent dialogue. And you can’t ignore the goofy crow-themed objects which might be far and wide — you depend on a few of them for sources and perception.
Initially, Crow Nation hints that there’s extra to Mara than we’re being informed however makes no clarification as to who she is or why she’s actually on this deserted theme park. Nor does it clarify early on why that park is crammed with writhing abominations and conspicuously prevalent references to the quantity 2106. These mysteries served to hook me, and hold me progressing deeper as issues unfolded. The ending tied every thing collectively in a manner that felt actually satisfying.
It’s brief however not too brief, taking within the ballpark of 5 to 10 hours to finish relying how thorough (or sluggish to determine puzzles) you might be, and has quite a lot of replay worth. This recreation is filled with secrets and techniques that aren’t very important to the plot however could make your life a bit simpler — there’s even a map displaying you the place they’re, if you’ll find it — and these add one other layer of problem to the general scavenger hunt. The upcoming Arduous Mode may additionally make revisiting it much more attention-grabbing. The sport at present provides you the choice to play in Survival Horror mode (the model I performed), or Exploration Mode, wherein “you will not be attacked.”
I missed a pair secrets and techniques on my first playthrough, so my essential targets for the subsequent run are to seek out the remainder of these and hit one hundred pc of the achievements. I’m additionally curious to learn how completely different selections in my interactions with different characters may have an effect on how the story performs out. In the long run, I discovered myself moved by Crow Nation for causes that had nearly nothing to do with nostalgia.
