There were many iconic moments throughout 1990: Nelson Mandela was freed from captivity, The Simpsons made their debut on the Fox network, and Manchester United won the FA Cup. But for special agent Mara Forest, her biggest memory of the year might be one to forget.
Crow Country is set in 1990, the year I was just starting secondary school, and seeing Mara drive up to the abandoned theme park (called Crow Country) in an old school Ford Fiesta brought back a ton of memories for me from that time. Fortunately, the nostalgia trip doesn’t end there, with the developers squeezing in as much as possible into the game.
SFB Games, the studio behind Crow Country, was founded in 2002 by brothers Tom and Adam Vian. Based in London, they have had a successful time within video games, starting out making flash games and quickly progressing to mobile and consoles. The biggest game that you may know them from is the Nintendo Switch launch game Snipperclips, a co-op game where you have to work together to solve puzzles with the Joy Con. They are also behind The Mermaids Mask, a game we featured from the recent LudoNarraCon, which is coming soon.
Mara has been sent to Crow Country to find the missing owner of the theme park, Edward Crow, but on arrival, Mara is greeted with much more than she bargained for. With litter and popcorn buckets scattering the floor, it shows that this place hasn’t been abandoned for long, and it cuts an eerie feeling when you first enter the park. The park itself is wonderfully designed, with Tom & Adam mixing in some original ideas with the usual haunted mansions, fairy and sea worlds. The whole park is littered with detail; they went above and beyond in the miniscule, and it was worth it as it was an absolute joy to explore from beginning to end. The whole presentation of the game was a delight, with them using a diorama-style look for everything and the characters modelling a doll-esque look. There is a filter onscreen throughout, which really felt like you were watching the action on an old CRT, which was a great touch, and it made for some truly gorgeous moments through the horror of what is to come.
As you see, not everything is as it seems, and as Mara discovers more, the darker the story goes. Newspaper clippings, journals, and even VHS tapes that you find will slowly unveil what has actually been happening here, and for once, its a plot line that is refreshingly original. To gain access to the inaccessible areas due to locked doors or blockages, Mara must find certain keys and tools, which can be obtained by completing puzzles. These can range from playing the right notes on a piano to enjoying a boat ride in the sea world. Some of these puzzles are really obtuse; I had to look up the answer to a couple of them, as I would never of thought of the solution on my own. Its a big nod to Resident Evil and other survival horror games of the 1990’s, and it was a nostalgia trip worth taking. This does mean that the game comes with other features of a 90s game, including manual saves. I was caught off guard at the start, as I was so used to automatic saves that when I did die from fluffing up my shooting, I had to start right from the beginning again, as I just hadn’t thought to save my progress.
Another feature brought from the past was the controls, as in the early to mid-nineties, we didn’t have shoulder buttons on our control pads, and this is replicated here. Shooting and reloading are mapped to the buttons, and boy, oh boy, I was not liking that. Thankfully, you can change the controls from classic to modern, and I felt much better with shooting and aiming on the shoulder buttons. Tank controls are also here, but you can also change this to modern controls, which did also happen; I just cannot return to that style of control scheme. Sorry, nostalgia; you lost this time. Another nostalgia hit was all the backtracking I had to do. But don’t be put off from that too much, as the park is small in scale and the developers put a lot of effort into connecting all the sections as you go along, so it never felt like a chore, and it didn’t take long as a result to return to a previous area.
Of course, one of the biggest features of a good survival horror is the combat. The targeting system is the one thing I struggled with the most in the game. I found it difficult to aim correctly, and sometimes I let off some missed shots due to the system. Camera angles, how the enemy was moving, and the slow speed at which Mara raised her gun played the biggest part in my woes, and it was made harder if you hadn’t found a laser sight for that particular gun. Speaking of the arsenal, there are a total of four weapons to use throughout, starting with your trusty pistol. You’ll eventually find a shotgun, a flamethrower, and a magnum, though some devious puzzle-solving is needed to gain access to them. Ammo management is recommended, as I did have a few moments of having to run past enemies from me running out of bullets, though the vending machines handily ejecting ammo and health kits were very helpful at times. One nice touch is that if you have run out of pistol ammo, you can go to Mara’s car and help yourself to another pack from her stash in the car boot, though this will not work if you already have some, much to my dismay. Rubbish bins can also be a lifesaver, pulling out health and ammo, but this was the biggest miss, as I mostly ended up with soda cans and rotting apple cores.
I wouldn’t say the enemies you face are overly difficult; with many downed in a few shots, I even found the bosses to not be to difficult, with the challenge firmly laying in puzzle solving and item management. But I did appreciate the creature designs. Each being disgustingly grotesque, some with spangly spider legs and some that seem to be a gooey mess on the floor until you get closer to them. Other dangers to look out for are animal traps that have been left carelessly laying about. These won’t take too much health away from you, but they still end up being a nuisance. What I will say is that the game was never scary; this is where the comparisons with Resident Evil and other games of this ilk end, as it never got to that level of anxiety, but what Crow Country excels at is the eerie and unsettling atmosphere that it produces through the level and enemy designs, and the overall presentation of the game.
One of the other factors in creating this feeling is the soundtrack. Composed by Los Angeles-based Ockeroid, they have created pieces of music that are filled with mystery and tension, with many tracks just there in the background, building up that tension without you realising it. The jolly music that plays at the entrance to the park is a prime example, as on the outside, its this happy slice of music, but in the background, there’s something quite unsettling about it that puts you in that zone right away. I think the Bandcamp page explains it best where it says, “The soundtrack weaves a beautiful, uncanny blend of tension and tranquillity.” and it certainly does that!
Although the game does not include accessibility options within the settings, it still tries to cater to this area in a more intriguing manner. When you start a new file, you are given three options: survival horror mode, which gives you the full experience of the game; exploration mode, which turns all the enemies off, allowing you the space to explore and solve the many puzzles; or the murder of crows option, which is basically hard mode with more aggressive enemies and limited resources. In the options, you will also find an option for extra lives if a bit of extra help is needed. This gives the player a bit more choice in how they want to play the game, and I am tempted to go back through in exploration mode just to see how that works without any combat involved.
With the game taking between four and seven hours, depending on how thorough you are, the team has added some post-game options to extend its playtime. After the credits role, youll be presented with a rundown of your performance, including how many med kits, hints, and lives you used, as well as how many secrets you found. With this information, it grades you (I received a B+) and provides an incentive to replay and see if you can return with an improved score. You also unlock new weapons (depending on your grade) and a crystal crow mode, where there are a number of crystal crows hiding throughout the game for you to find and shoot
Crow Country is an exceptional game, not just for us PS1/90s survival horror fans but for a new audience too. The amount of work that has gone into this is unbelievable, from its densely packed, memorable environments to the well-plotted and interesting storyline, the consideration used to place the items and puzzles, and also the great post-game options I just mentioned. It’s so self-aware too, not taking itself too seriously, with some well-placed sentences throughout. Some might say there’s nothing original here, with most mechanics taken from other games, which is true, but there is just enough originality elsewhere to make this a non-worry. Yes, the save feature is a little to buried in nostalgia, and some of the puzzles are a little to obtuse, but these are a little drop in the ocean, and if you let these issues put you off playing Crow Country, then you’ll be denying yourself a truly special experience.
Release Date: May 9th, 2024
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S & Steam
Price: £16.75
Many thanks to the publisher for the review copy
Version Tested: Steam (Via Steam Deck)
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