Crow Country Review

Survival-horror games have come a long way since the days of the original Resident Evil on PS1, with the new blockbuster releases pushing graphics to their limit and offering more modern takes on the formula. Many appreciate modern horror games, but some are nostalgic for the genre’s glory days in the 90s, with various indie devs stepping up to fill that void with projects that play as homages to classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Sometimes these retro-style games miss the mark, but some succeed in recreating the feel of classic survival horror while offering their spin on things. Crow Country from SFB Games is a perfect example.

Crow Country plays like a 90s survival-horror game in that ammunition is in limited supply, every enemy is a serious threat, and much of the game revolves around exploration and puzzle-solving. In Crow Country, players take on the role of Mara Forest, who has set out to the abandoned Crow Country theme park in search of its owner, Edward Crow. Upon arrival, Mara finds the theme park has been overrun with monsters and deadly traps.

The Crow Country theme park is the game’s equivalent of Resident Evil 1‘s mansion. Players will come to memorize the park’s layout as they search for key items to progress the story and solve the game’s many puzzles. Crow Country‘s puzzles are well-balanced, so players will likely never become frustrated, yet they still offer enough of a challenge that it’s satisfying to solve them. Players that get stuck can spend a limited number of credits on helpful hints to get past anything that’s giving them trouble, plus the map highlights rooms that still have secrets to discover or puzzles to complete.

Crow Country‘s map is helpful in some ways, but it can also be confusing. Instead of utilizing a fixed-camera angle like many early survival horror games, Crow Country lets players freely rotate the camera. The problem is, the map doesn’t rotate with it. This causes unnecessary hassle as some of the game’s more intricate areas may require players to calibrate their position with the map layout to figure out where exactly they need to go next. The other issue is that the map only gives players a vague indication of what room they’re in and doesn’t show where in that room they are, making navigation needlessly annoying. Players will eventually memorize the park’s layout, so it does become a nonissue, but not without some growing pains.

Crow Country is Old-School Survival Horror With Some Modern Touches

The ability to rotate the camera in Crow Country is a bigger game-changer than one might expect. Old-school survival horror games with fixed-camera angles were limited in terms of item and puzzle layouts, but no such restriction exists for Crow Country. Since players can move the camera however they want, the developers were able to get more creative when designing the game world.

Combat gets an upgrade compared to Crow Country‘s inspirations as well. Whereas many 90s survival-horror games have restricted aiming, Crow Country lets players freely aim their weapons. This can add extra stress to situations when enemies are closing in on Mara, as taking the time to line up a headshot means saving precious ammo while at risk of attack. Free-aiming weapons also let the developer add things in the environment for players to shoot, like chandeliers and crates, creating some extra interactions not found in older games. Like the camera, free-aiming weapons may not seem all that significant to most, but it makes a big difference.

Fans of 90s survival horror will find a lot to love about Crow Country. Beyond the more modern gameplay tweaks, it plays exactly like a classic survival horror game, complete with file reading and encouraging players to avoid combat whenever possible. The latter becomes trickier as the game goes on. Crow Country‘s monsters evolve, more threatening foes start spawning, and the poisonous gas traps become excessive. The steady increase of hazards can make backtracking annoying in the latter half of the game, especially in scenarios when players aren’t quite sure where to go next and end up wasting valuable resources, but at least it forces players to think carefully about their next move and adds some extra challenge to the proceedings.

With Crow Country so firmly rooted in the traditions of PS1 horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, it can feel cliché and predictable. The story suffers the most from this, though there are still some surprises and the ending is at least memorable. And while the plot won’t stick with players after the credits roll, the blocky Final Fantasy 7-style characters are fun and the dialogue is often amusing. Crow Country has a surprising sense of humor that pairs well with the game’s otherwise grim horror atmosphere.

Crow Country Is Short, But There Are Reasons to Keep Playing After the Credits Roll

A common trait of horror games in general is that they are relatively short compared to most other games, and that holds true for Crow Country. The first time through, Crow Country will take most players about five hours to beat, but the game can be completed significantly faster for those who memorize item locations. After completing the game, there are still secrets to find and reasons to replay that we won’t spoil with specifics, but like its inspirations, Crow Country ranks players based on their performance and doles out unlockable content accordingly.

Fans of classic survival horror games don’t need to think twice about picking up Crow Country. The game is a love letter to old-school horror titles from the 90s, and is one of the better attempts at recreating the feel of PS1 horror on modern platforms. It’s a short, but sweet adventure with solid replay value and fun puzzles that perfectly captures the feeling of playing an old horror game on a PS1. The optional Exploration mode, which does away with combat to let players focus entirely on puzzle-solving, means that even horror fans who don’t like 90s-era survival horror combat and ammo management can safely pick up Crow Country and have a great time.

Crow Country launches May 9 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant was provided with a PC code for this review.