CARRION Reviews
CARRION is gloriously gory and playing as a tentacled monster is fun from start to end, even if the main gameplay loop could grow a little repetitive in places. Slipping your way through the laboratory and pulling off all sorts of gruesome kills was always an absolute blast though, whilst unlocking new abilities always felt rewarding – especially when they had to be utilised in some of the environmental puzzles or when stealthily sneaking past some of your deadlier prey. It is a shame there isn’t an in-game map to make traversal easier and simply unlocking new biomass points could get a little repetitive at times, but it’s hard to complain too much when you get to wreak havoc as a destructively monstrous blob of gore and tentacles. Best. Protagonist. Ever.
CARRION mixes familiar and alien elements to produce a memorably brutal inversion of the horror genre.
With Carrion, I wondered how Phobia Game Studio would be able to keep me interested without that dynamic. They managed it through the careful balance of giving you enough agency to feel powerful, while still requiring you to plan and act with precision to use that power effectively. The result is a razor-sharp campaign that fully put me in the amorphous shoes of its terrifying beast.
Carrion is both a beautiful and grotesque nightmare that flips you into the role of the monster.
Carrion nails the power fantasy of being a horror movie monster, but makes exploration a chore that pads the adventure.
Carrion is simply a great time. The metroidvania gameplay loop is addictive, while its sound design and highly detailed pixel-art look makes it a joy to hear and look at. An average story and lack of an in-game map sap some of the enjoyment, but Carrion's ability to have you play as an unstoppable monster is gory grandeur.
The horror genre is packed with everything you could wish for.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
The result, for me, was anxiety. A low background hum of “did I miss something”, combined with the high notes of being unable to find the next new area. It was enough to shade my entire experience with Carrion, turning a pleasant enough Metroidvania with a one-of-a-kind protagonist into something I felt like I was struggling to escape from.
If you’re sick of playing victims in horror games, watching thrillers through the lens of a hapless protagonist, and instead just want to vent your frustrations on them, this role reversal of a game will sate your bloodthirst.
GOOD - Carrion is a fun reverse-horror game that could have been much better than it is with a few simple fixes, but what we got is still pretty good. Stalking humans and slithering around feels as great as it sounds.
I never imagined how fun it would be to play the role of a scary monster that needs to fight to escape a secret facility full of humans. In addition to his very exclusive proposal, Carrion also does well in almost all other aspects. The visuals are great, the gameplay works well and the game mechanics are fun. Even leaving the player wanting more, this is a mandatory adventure for those who enjoy a good horror game.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Carrion is ultimately fascinating, engaging, and short and sweet. By putting you in the role of the alien threat it imbues you with a strange supervillain-like sense of playing in an insect farm.
This a super fun immersive game that is a must play for not only horror fans but anyone looking for a unique gaming experience!
Carrion is a special thing in many ways, but its actual meat and potatoes structure is as formulaic as the genre gets. Thankfully, its core gameplay of tearing room after room of people into wet chunks of corpse never, ever gets old, and sustains the experience throughout. It looks superb, sounds great and is plenty of fun to play, despite some minor issues which just hold Carrion back from the upper echelons of the Switch library.
In our current market oversaturated media, there is something invaluable in a game that doesn’t waste your time.
Carrion proves that it’s a capable beast of a game that is able to entertain for the couple of hours that its story lasts. It’s shocking and gruesome at times without any real meaning and that makes it all the more worth experiencing.
Carrion is an excellent power fantasy that casts you as the monstrous villain in your own horror film. The wonderfully gloopy animation and conception of Carrion's meaty monster makes it enjoyable to play, especially when tearing through the unfortunate humans that stand in your way. But dull exploration, a lack of memorable environments and disparate gameplay ideas that never really come together, mean that Carrion never truly reaches its full potential.
CARRION is a game that only someone associated with the madhouse publisher that is Devolver Digital could create.
Carrion is a superb actioner staring an alien mass.
Carrion is a fun reverse-horror adventure, though it doesn't push the concept to the heights of its potential.