CARRION Reviews
All in all, if you love the likes of Alien or the Thing (which would make for a hell of a licenced DLC), you’ll want to buy this day one. On the other hand, if spooks like that make you want to duck under the covers, then maybe stick to something softer.
CARRION is a game that only someone associated with the madhouse publisher that is Devolver Digital could create.
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.
Despite its flaws, Carrion is immensely enjoyable, though I would imagine its grotesque nature will turn some away.
Carrion excels at creating realistic tentacle locomotion in the shape of a bloodthirsty nightmare. It falls behind when it requests precision from a monster only capable of blunt violence. As mad science grants sentience to raw brutality, articulation must be sacrificed for overwhelming power. It leaves Carrion as a mesmerizing concept overcommitted to its code.
Devolver’s seal of approval is more than ever evidence of a classic as Carrion’s credentials as an incredible Metroidvania title as well as an inverse horror experience will never be in question.
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.
CARRION mixes familiar and alien elements to produce a memorably brutal inversion of the horror genre.
Carrion is a bloody, intricate experience with a consistency problem that breaks the momentum that's central to a game like Carrion.
Although Carrion is a relatively short game with little replayability, its quirky theme and ravenous flesh monster make for a fun feeding frenzy.
Easy to pick up and play, CARRION is original, absorbing and entertaining.It also has an excellent soundtrack – it’s cinematic horror vibe is the perfect accompaniment for the bloodbath that ensues.
Inspired by a 1950s sci-fi horror movie, Carrion turns you into a malign marauding blob, swallowing scientists whole
Carrion delivers on its unique 'reverse-horror game' concept, letting players wreak havoc as a massive, disgusting blob of tentacles and teeth.
Carrion turns the horror genre on its head by letting you be the monster this time in a Metroidvania style game, which serves as the perfect type game to pick up and play between many of the other larger scale releases that have released this year.
Turning the horror game genre on its head, Carrion is a gory delight for you rip and tear your way through.
If you're looking for a cathartic pick-up-and-play game with little to no fat that you can slip in between this summer's massive story-driven titles, that's Carrion all the way. It's a devilish snack.
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 is an interesting metroidvania that starts from a different and interesting idea (you're the monster), that horror films lovers and metroidvania games fans will enjoy. Even with its wonderful pixel art, great ideas and wonderful progression, the final chunk of the game and some minor elements prevent the game from ending with a bang.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Acting as a monster and hunting human beings are exciting. Carrion definitely worth trying if you are interested in the reverse-horror games.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Inspired by Carpenter and the 80s body horror, Carrion reverses the roles and puts us in the shoes of a formless and lethal creature, in a fluid, fast and extremely choreographic metroidvania. Some AI problems and a not always inspired artistic direction do not compromise the result of one of the surprises of this 2020.
Review in Italian | Read full review