Crow Country Reviews
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.
Overall, Crow Country is a well-catered survival horror title featuring an old-school look and feel without feeling dated. Crow Country being an abandoned amusement park, carries a lot of the ambiance featured, even though it feels one note at times, it's one heck of a note. The game’s narrative structure and plot feel a little loose regarding how players will encounter it, but they still work and feel unique, or at the very least, anything but shallow. Crow Country is a must for fans of survival horror and those who crave 90s nostalgia. The latest entry into the grunge horror genre offers a compelling aesthetic, enticing characters, and engaging puzzles. Despite the horrors that will stick with me for a lifetime, I can't recommend SFB Games’ nightmare enough.
Crow Country is a quaint compilation of survival horror's many time-tested tropes, from its tank controls to its labyrinthian network of corridors. For all it loads into a relatively small package, it pays homage to its roots within an irresistible framework from the antiquated era once befitting the original PlayStation.
A no-fat riff on the early days of survival horror that knows just what to streamline and what to keep pleasingly obtuse.
It’s truly impressive what SFB Games has accomplished with such a small team. If you like 90s horror games — Resident Evil especially — then you owe it to yourself to try out Crow Country.
Crow Country puts more emphasis on puzzles than the survival part of survival horror, but it's a well-observed love letter to the genre with great attention to detail all over the place. It's somehow equal parts charming and creepy.
Given the sheer amount of hints and instructional text plastered all over its environments, Crow Country is tuned to be approachable and readily digestible. You’ll never find yourself desperate for resources or racking your brain over a fiendish puzzle. Even the old-school tank controls are optional, mapped to the D-pad just in case any players feel compelled to experiment before going back to the analog stick. These decisions are hardly out of step with the pleasantly nostalgic presentation, but they also ensure that the game succeeds far more as a puzzle object than as a horror freak-out. For better and for worse, Crow Country goes down smoothly.
This lushly detailed game with a chunkily retro polygonal protagonist is a gorgeous homage to landmark titles of the past
Crow Country doesn’t exactly rewrite the playbook for survival horror. It leans pretty heavily on those that came before it. However, what it builds on top of the foundation is extraordinarily impressive. This is easily one of the best horror games I’ve played, and it doesn’t even seem like it’s trying that hard. It maybe lacks some of the more psychological themes that have made others stick firmly in my memory, but the playfulness and confidence of Crow Country more than make up for that. It’s definitely worth a visit.
Crow Country might not be a new genre-defining title, as its aspirations in both scares and scale are reasonably modest. It is, however, an excellent journey into a deftly rendered setting, and it's hard to find significant fault with its intimate understanding of what makes this sort of thing tick. Crow Country is an assured love letter to the original crop of classic survival horror titles, but what really matters is that it's a delightful new entry in its own right.
Though appearing a touch derivative at first glance, Crow Country breaks from tradition in a number of smart ways, delivering a well-rounded, memorable experience that cements it as one of the better survival horror throwbacks of recent memory.
As reductive as it sounds, when it comes to delivering a classic survival horror experience, Crow Country is a good “one of those.” Familiar elements and tropes are well executed, and the succinct runtime of five to six hours is perfect for its smaller scope. I had fun reliving the genre’s golden years through Crow Country’s eyes; playing it feels like relaxing under a warm, blood-stained blanket.
Filled with great puzzles and an engaging world, Crow Country is a well made recreation of how you remember classic 90s horror games. It's familiar enough to feel authentic but different enough to keep things mysterious.
Crow Country is one of the best experiences of the year so far, and we think it will be talked about in the same tones as last year's Signalis for its sheer creativity and efforts to reignite passion for the survival-horror genre.
The goal of Crow Country is to enjoy the story it has to tell, shoot some zombies, and come out of the experience like you just came out fresh of your time machine. If this fits the bill for you, then by all means go back to the 90s and relive those exciting moments where the only worries you had were how much more time you had to play before bedtime. Perhaps that joyful feeling video games used to give you could come back once more.
Crow Country is a modern survival horror title that draws from the best aspects of Silent Hill and Resident Evil to create an immersive, fun experience that will draw in both devoted fans of the genre and those who have never tried it before. From its story to its graphics, it brings back the elements of survival horror that we love the most, while putting its own unique spin on the classics.
Crow County is a wonderful love letter to the survival horror releases of the 90s that captures the essence of the era perfectly. The best part of all? It’s not afraid to embrace some modern ideas to make the experience more intuitive and accessible for all players. Between the wonderful old-school visuals, the intriguing storytelling, the exciting combat scenarios, and the clever puzzling, Crow Country will really hook fans of the survival horror genre in from start to end. And if you enjoyed its inspirations back in the day? It’ll feel even more special to play.
A great love letter to the origins of 32-bit survival horror. Well-thought-out puzzles and nostalgia with some humor and horror make this a short experience, but very satisfying, especially for veterans of the genre.
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