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 various occasions.
From the soar, there is no query about Crow Nation’s PlayStation 1 influences, which its creators at SFB Video games have been upfront about: it is extremely deliberately the creepy-cute baby of Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Remaining Fantasy VII. The sport, which was launched on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox X/S on Might 9, nearly checks all of the bins for survival horror, however it takes a gentler strategy 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 to your life. (A Laborious Mode, nonetheless, is outwardly on the best way).
You play as Mara Forest, who should painstakingly make her manner by an deserted amusement park within the 12 months 1990 to seek out its elusive and evidently corrupt proprietor, Edward Crow. Sources, like ammo and well being kits, should be scavenged. Skinless monstrosities might emerge from the shadows at any flip to seize at you and puzzles of various complexity promise to stall your progress. There’s an ensemble of characters who — together with the protagonist — every appear to have questionable motives.
It’s a well-known formulation paired with a well-known model of character design paired with a well-known 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 complete expertise has this air of reflectiveness to it, and I believe the builders describe it completely in their very own synopsis of what Crow Nation presents: “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 working pace is okay, although, and you’ve got 360-degree management of the digicam angle, so it doesn’t weigh you down solely with PS1-era limitations (a blessing).
I used to be ready to be pissed off in the course of the sport by the stop-to-shoot bit, however I acquired over it as soon as I spotted the monsters are additionally sluggish as hell. Nicely, most of them. You possibly can run proper by them in nearly each state of affairs if you wish to. That made killing a alternative relatively 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 largely 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 anxiousness fueling my each resolution, I used to be in a position to take my time to select by all of the nooks and crannies of the amusement park, ensuring to cease and skim each pocket book or piece of paper and study each object on the bottom or hanging on the partitions. I may focus fully on the puzzles earlier than me, a few of which had 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 may very well be discovered randomly all around the park and at merchandising machines, the place they’d generally regenerate so I may return for extra later.
The soundtrack by Ockeroid (which simply acquired its personal separate digital launch) is eerily soothing, and helped to create an environment that absolutely engrossed me. Crow Nation’s save mechanism leans absolutely into the sport’s contemplative ambiance, too: you could find respite at totally different sources of fireplace, 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 strategy to take all of it in.
In typical survival horror type, the surroundings will get more and more hostile as you advance within the recreation; creatures begin exhibiting 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 forwards and backwards with irreverent dialogue. And you can’t ignore the goofy crow-themed objects which might be all over — 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 advised 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 stuffed 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 part 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 stuffed with secrets and techniques that aren’t important to the plot however could make your life a little bit simpler — there’s even a map exhibiting you the place they’re, if you could find it — and these add one other layer of problem to the general scavenger hunt. The upcoming Laborious Mode may additionally make revisiting it much more fascinating. The sport at present offers you the choice to play in Survival Horror mode (the model I performed), or Exploration Mode, through which “you will not be attacked.”
I missed a pair secrets and techniques on my first playthrough, so my primary targets for the following run are to seek out the remainder of these and hit 100% of the achievements. I’m additionally curious to learn how totally different selections in my interactions with different characters may have an effect on how the story performs out. Ultimately, I discovered myself moved by Crow Nation for causes that had nearly nothing to do with nostalgia.