Fashionable survival horror video games trying to recapture the aesthetics and essence of traditional titles from the ‘90s typically make one deadly mistake. You see, when followers who had been round to play Resident Evil and Alone within the Darkish: A New Nightmare on the PS1 look again, they accomplish that with a degree of fondness that, frankly, makes the video games sound like the perfect issues since sliced bread.
The reality, nevertheless, is that the earliest survival horror titles, with their awkward controls and stuck digital camera angles, haven’t aged notably effectively; heck, there’s a cause so a lot of them are getting fashionable remakes. Veterans will perpetually adore them (this author included), however newcomers typically come away questioning what all of the fuss was about.
So when a sport launches that’s successfully an homage to the survival horror growth of the late ‘90s, there’s an excellent probability it would fall flat with out the advantage of private nostalgia. Crow Nation, fortunately, manages to keep away from this downside solely. Developed by SFB Video games of Snipperclips fame, this can be a style sport that effortlessly captures that particular ‘retro’ feeling whereas including a wealth of recent conveniences to make it really feel utterly contemporary.
Going down in a dilapidated amusement park, Crow Nation stars Mara Forest, a particular agent investigating the mysterious goings-on whereas looking for the park’s founder, Edward Crow. Upon her arrival, it’s not lengthy earlier than the true horrors of the park are revealed, with grotesque creatures often known as ‘Company’ shuffling all through an surroundings plagued by perplexing puzzles, locked doorways, and purposefully imprecise notes and messages.
Briefly, it’s the quintessential survival horror expertise, but it surely does away with the entire dated mechanics that you simply may need anticipated. Beginning with the apparent, full 360-degree motion is applied right here over tank controls, whereas the isometric digital camera could be rotated at will. That is notably necessary with Crow Nation, as the sport’s world has been designed to be scrutinised rigorously, so that you’ll end up always rotating the digital camera to see what merchandise may be hidden in an alcove, or which creature may be lurking within the shadows.
Naturally, you’ll be able to dispatch the creeps with an assortment of weapons (although like all survival horrors, merely legging it out of the way in which is equally viable). Firing your weapon requires you to face nonetheless and goal with the appropriate analogue stick, providing you with full management over the place you need to sink your bullet.
It may really feel a bit twitchy at occasions and, relying on the angle of the digital camera on the time of aiming, it may be a bit awkward nailing essential headshots. All in all, although, it’s a system that works much better than the trial-and-error mechanics seen in classics like Resident Evil. If you happen to miss your shot, it’s solely your fault, and ammo definitely isn’t plentiful on this amusement park.
What’s good is that whereas Crow Nation definitely isn’t a simple expertise (until you go for the ‘Exploration’ issue setting), there are many alternatives to spice up your possibilities of survival in the course of the six-to-seven-hour expertise. Med Kits and ammo containers could be present in bins, whereas crates or show cupboards typically cover equally helpful gadgets or weapon upgrades.
It seems like a little bit of a chance with the crates particularly, as you’ll have to expend a treasured bullet to see what’s inside, however the devs strike a terrific steadiness of offering a serving to hand whereas sustaining an appropriate degree of issue all through. If you happen to occur to get a bit misplaced, there’s a useful trace system that you should use as much as 10 occasions throughout your playthrough, pointing you in a imprecise, however helpful path.
One thing we despised, nevertheless, was the environmental traps that begin cropping up as you progress by way of the sport. These pop up out of nowhere and are sometimes positioned in areas you’ve already explored, providing you with a false sense of safety. The issue, nevertheless, is that they’re not scary or intelligent, they’re simply irritating. We virtually threw our Change out of the window after spending an excellent chunk of time making some respectable progress, solely to die by the hands of a falling chandelier whereas limping to a close-by save room. Completely infuriating.
It is a blip in what’s in any other case an exceptionally well-crafted survival horror. It’s robust to say whether or not you’ll discover it outright scary or not, but it surely’s definitely creepy sufficient and the familiar-yet-modernised mechanics will possible enchantment whether or not you benefit from the old-school classics or want one thing a bit extra up-to-date.
The purposefully blocky visuals would possibly take a little bit of getting used to — notably since they’re juxtaposed towards creepy, ambient music (plus an exquisite, ethereal save room theme), groaning zombies, cackling crows, and sinister lighting results — and we might have preferred among the room transitions to be a tad faster to load, however if you happen to’re after one thing that can scratch that ‘retro survival horror’ itch, Crow Nation is leagues above many of the competitors.
Conclusion
Crow Nation is a superb retro-flavoured survival horror that manages to pay homage to the ’90s classics whereas offering a bunch of recent conveniences that make the sport really feel contemporary and, extra importantly, enjoyable. Exploring the creepy but charming titular amusement park is a pleasure because of its wealth of intriguing secrets and techniques and nasty creatures. There are a couple of annoyances that preserve it from being a masterpiece, like the marginally delayed display screen transitions and the infuriating traps, however like Signalis earlier than it, Crow Nation is effectively price investigating if you happen to’re after a retro-style horror sport that, miraculously, would not really feel dated proper out of the gate.
