We seem to be in the middle of survival horror revival period, with both high profile and niche indie titles revisiting this niche subgenre of action adventure games. There have been some great titles released over the past 7 years and quite a few solid ones. But there’ve also been some stinkers and a few titles that cared more about the aesthetics of the genre, not its design. From the early previews and the demo, I expected Crow Country to land among the latter. Thankfully, the game turned out to be considerably better than that.
Being a true survival horror game, you can expect one interconnected world you can explore, finding key items, passwords and new weapons and upgrades that help you progress through the story. Resources are limited and avoiding combat is a valid option for the majority of the situations. The game world is relatively small, but the game commits to the metroidvania-like design and has only one true point of no return close to the end, so until that point you can revisit any room you’ve been to previously. Which combines wonderfully with how the game world is updated as the story progresses, with new enemies and traps added in unexpected places. Traps in general are a great addition to the usual genre gameplay and I really liked how they spiced things up.
The most unique aspect of the title, I suppose, is the top down view with a Final Fantasy VII or Little Big Adventure reminiscent art style. And while I’m happy about being proven wrong that this approach isn’t the focus of the game anyway, it does feel like a detriment overall. Action in the game doesn’t feel good. Neither does it feel bad, but the way camera and controls work isn’t very helpful. You could argue about the difficulty of creating a top down/isometric survival horror and claim that it’s impossible to make it work well. But Heaven Dust and its sequel exist and show how it can be done better. Still, the iffy combat isn’t a deal breaker for this game.
There was one surprise I did not expect at all – the story. Even in very high budget survival horror/survival action titles the plot and the characters tend to be quite weak and the only consistent good example people liked to point at was Silent Hill (it has not been a good example for decades by now). But both characters and the plot in Crow Country have nothing to do with the usual trappings of adult psychological horror and despite that the storytelling is extremely well done. It’s an odd story and a bit farcical at times, but wonderfully written and delivered as long as you give it a bit of time. It easily grows on you and will give you several unexpected twists by the end.
I did not expect Crow Country to be fun. Interesting, stylish, curious – sure. But it was actually fun. New game plus unlockables make revisiting the game faster and more entertaining. There’s a special mode with no combat for those who want to experience only the story and puzzles. So there’s really no reason not to try give it at least a couple of hours and see if you like it. I did. And while it’s not a glowing recommendation, a lot of other “good enough” indie survival horror titles I’ve played over the past several years would’ve been lost or ignored if they were to release during the peak of the genre in the late 90s to early 00s. But not Crow Country – I feel that it would’ve found its audience and remained a fondly remembered game to this day.