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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Comments 37
"We almost threw our Switch out of the window".
Do the entire Nintendo Life team sit there huddled around their one single Switch while doing a review?
No. Please stop this.
The game looks like it was made specifically for me. It's like someone morphed Resident Evil/Silent Hill with FF7. Hoping they can get a physical copy out there as I will get it immediately.
I like the PS1 imitated rendering, but of course it’s at the center of my young gaming years. Nice to know bad graphics are truly cool again
I have had my eye on this one for awhile, I just love the look of it. It could be a great game to play for spooky month.
Demo on PS5 was solid. A weird game, and like others have said, feels like a blend of 90’s horror and Final Fantasy 7. Hope a physical gets released soon!
@Gavintendo Everyone huddles around it for warmth to keep the bills down.
Huh. I hadn't even heard of this game, but it looks great/seasonally appropriate! Thanks for the review!
Does anyone know if this runs any different on ps5 vs switch? I prefer to have all my games on switch unless there is a performance advantage on ps5.
Save rooms, limited ammo, and a 10 time hint system are a concern for me. I mean, i did grow up during that area, but im fine without those features. Having said that, I've been eyeing this game for a while so I'll probably grab it.
My next planned Switch purchase, sounds like my type of survival horror, hope it's as good as Alisa which I really enjoyed.
Not my genre. Not my preferred mechanics (save rooms, limited ammo). Not my preferred style of retro presentation...
... so presumably none of that will actually stop me snaffling a collectors edition once a boutique publisher slaps a £50 price tag on it, I then let the pre-order deadline pass, and end up paying £75 on ebay a year later.
Are the loading times as bad as they were in the steam demo? Does anyone know?
Pleased as pink puckering punch this one is getting such lovely reviews. Will be downloading it this weekend.
Thanks for the review, this is definitely one of the horror games I want to eventually give a shot despite the genre not being my cup of tea!
@Gavintendo they're like the vampires from I Am Legend all crammed in the corner with one switch
Thanks for the review, I may check it out soon enough.
I think if a refresh of the graphics will improve the visual gameplay as well. Doesn't have to be 4K60fps but would make it more cleaner to look and play. Make it Physical as well.
Removed - off-topic
And wouldn't you know it, it's not exclusive to the Switch. You can play it on your console of choice.
Removed - unconstructive feedback
@Zealv2 Have you ever tried Parasite Eve?
Critics at the time described it almost exactly as the kind of game you mentioned, a combination of Resident Evil and Final Fantasy 7. And there's a lot to like about it, too - a memorable storyline, unique battle system, and a fantastic soundtrack.
Plus, you can play through it in a day or two! It's kind of a forgotten classic these days, and I absolutely can't recommend it enough
On my wishlist it goes to wait for a sell.
@GMMXX Buddy we ain’t reading all that
@GMMXX Sir this is a Wendy's.
@GMMXX
Ya wha?
@NeonPizza I do not remember… sorry, not helpful!
How does the easy mode change things? Unlimited hints? Ammo differences? Answers to puzzles? No puzzles? Abundance of health? I’ll probably play on easy depending on what it features so I’d be curious to know.
I would love to see more games in this PS1 visual style. Pre-rendered backgrounds are still so immersive and charming.
Yeap already got it on my wishlist. Can't wait for next week.
We love games like this, we are concerned about the random frustrated traps.
From what I recently learned in a podcast I listened to, the people who made this also made Snipperclips! (https://interactive.libsyn.com/from-nintendos-snipperclips-to-crow-country-with-adam-tom-vian)
Nice glad I held off on getting it
@GMMXX What if I go to Nintendoland or whatever at Universal Studios? That seems Disneylike... Also, Mario is more recognized around the world than Mickey. So maybe Disney should strive to be more like Nintendo.
I don't think anyone is under the delusion that Nintendo is a friend. And mark my words, unless Sony pivots fast and hard, they're in a really bad spot. Especially when the Switch successor launches and puts the diminishing returns of fidelity in really harsh relief. Concord, remakes, live service focus, drm disc drives, continuously raising hardware and software prices, barely any third party controllers, etc etc etc. Their hubris is going to bite them in the ass. I have a PS5 and play on my Portal all the time...but honestly, I play PS4 games on it almost exclusively. Which makes sense, considering that is what Sony showcases also.
I guess the mods are taking the weekend off...
Anyway back on topic, I have this on my PS5 but haven't started it yet.
With it being based on old PS games it just felt right.
But I'm glad to see the Switch port is good too.
Been really looking forward to this, will purchase this week for sure.
On regards of ammo, I think this review might be a bit little misleading saying it's not plentiful, you can go to your car to fill up on ammo whenever you like and from the other reviews I've seen ammo was never an issue and easy to source. Not that it makes much difference really, its clearly an amazing game regardless, but just a point to pick up on.
I know this is a retraux game, but that's still no excuse to be lax about performance.
Is it 60 or 30 or 10 FPS, locked or due to bad optimization? Does it stutter or not? Does it run at native 1080p, does ot fake 576i or does it force 576i because otherwise it would crawl?
These things sadly are a perpetual concern for multiplatform games, and knowing them helps me decide what platform to get a game on. Clarify, NintendoLife, please.
Glad this game is good! It's my cup of tea, so I will get it eventually for sure.
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