Crow Country: Walking on the line between an action thriller and survival horror, The Evil Within is an unapologetic ode to the good old fright-filled gaming.
Crow Country: A Darkly Meditative Callback to Survival Horror’s Past
To call a survival horror game cozy is not something one would think of often and yet that is the mood that has to be strived for.
But SFB Games uses this exact model in their most recent game, Crow Country, which offers a more humble yet eerie throwback to the classic horror game formula.
Having taken the step into the well-worn sneakers belonging to Mara Forest, players find themselves in the spine-chilling Crow Country amusement park of 1990.
Though heavily inspired by the best sales of the PlayStation 1 in the realm of horror such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, this game proves that while remixing them with a surprisingly tropical setting.
However, crazy monsters and other weird things associated with the genre are present, and the focus on puzzling; Crow Country leaves no room for maniacal actions, but offers a more philosophical game.
The deliberate and unhurried approach allows the player to get as engrossed as only the session details of the game design that are brought to life can allow in the ruined opulence of the park.
Adding to the already thrilling and immersive gameplay, the orchestral music played by Ockeroid fits perfectly to create a sad and eerie mood in the abandoned park.
The save system, which focuses on places where her character, Mara, contemplates the game, also contributes to this contemplative impulse.
Although it may be as stiff as a tank on steroids with character movement and combat design paying homage to the era of the PS one, it does not create irritation.
Opponents move with low speed; chests and ghosts contain a lot of item drops for the exploration of the mystery of Crow Country.
Pacing is deliberate, allowing players to deduce the mysteries of the park and the player character Mara on their own.
Environmental text and optional clues mean that players will have a good 5-10 hours of the game as they move through the story; going through several times may reveal even more layers to the plot.
That is exactly why the creators of Crow Country did not limit themselves to the mere creation of a game and its setting; they have prepared players with numerous difficulty modes.
While it has one of the most difficult gaming modes in the ‘Survival Horror’ mode, there is also the ‘Exploration Mode’ for the more casual gamers, thus making the game enjoyable for each category of gamers without leaving out the other fully.
It introduces some degree of humor unusual for horror to the movie to the ominous setting of the park with crow-inspired items used as both setting and solutions to specific challenges.
As for future updates, the developers haven’t concealed their plans, and they have been toying with the idea of such options as, for example, “Hard Mode” which should be appealing to players who are ready to face more challenging conditions on the battlefield.
Overall, Crow Country remains a blissful testament to the niche yet everlasting genre of survival horror gaming. For both the aficionado and the amateur, it provides atmosphere, non-linearity, and wistfulness in a way that reminds the genre, and the player, of what horror used to be before it became a tag for third-person shooters.
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