Crow Country is a nostalgic love letter to the PS1 era of horror
It’s hard to pinpoint and articulate exactly what made the early '90s survival horror classics so special. The horror elements were scary but campy and cheesy too, with dialogue and writing that left a lot to be desired yet was perfect for the era.
Crow Country isn’t just proof SFB Games has a long-lasting love for the genre, with a plethora of nods, winks and nudges to some of the greats. It also seems to know the secret sauce that makes an instant classic, hitting all the right notes to create something truly unique and everything a survival-horror fan could ask for.
Exploring the long abandoned theme park of Crow Country, you’ll take Mara on a journey to find the missing park owner Edward Crow.
As you uncover a disturbing truth about just why the park was closed and is now inhabited by mutated beings – something akin to a David Cronenberg monster by way of the Teletubbies – you’ll also slowly begin to question Mara and her motives for being there.
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The writing here is great – not just in dialogue but the many documents, posters and files you’ll find along the way. Balancing the creepy foreshadowing you’d expect, with hints at puzzle solutions and some tongue-in-cheek awareness of how wild the genre logic can be, we enjoyed stopping to read every page we could.
The cast of characters you’ll meet along the way also make for some fun interactions, playing into some familiar tropes. Crow Country masterfully manages to make you feel uneasy, a little queasy and then laugh out loud almost immediately after.
While you can run through the main path to the game's end in a fairly breezy time – we’re excited to see if the speedrunning community ends up taking it on – there’s a lot of secrets to Crow Country, so it pays to have an inquisitive mind and good memory (or a notebook to hand) as you’ll find hints everywhere including for unlocking secret weapons, upgrades and other cool additions.
While Crow Country is undoubtedly its own experience with clever puzzles, fun combat and a hard-to-ignore story, it wears its influences on its sleeve with little touches that can’t help but make you think of those that came before.
Creepy phone calls from unknown voices are present, which made us think of Silent Hill 3 (happy birthday, dear Hooareyou!). The seemingly arbitrary puzzles – that might leave you scratching your head and taking a deep breath as you push in further to find a witch's mask, floppy disk, silver key or some other MacGuffin – might seem jarring in most other games and genres, but not in Crow Country.
The visuals play like a desktop diorama of a fairground, letting you peek across the structures and spin around the walkways as you explore further into the mist. There's just enough clarity to know what you’re looking at, but also the right amount of CRT fuzz to both warm your heart and fill it with subtle dread as it obscures some of the finer details. It’s no doubt a stand-out look and something you’re not likely to forget anytime soon.
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Enemies of all shapes and sizes lurk in the streets and corridors ready to attack, each with excellent sound design to subtly alert you to their presence. Sound is often under-appreciated in games, and for this genre in particular, it’s hard to over-estimate just how important it can be to the whole vibe of the experience.
Crow Country has absolutely nailed the blend of creepy sound effects, unsettling background music and that all-important calming tune you’ll only hear in safe rooms – that breath of fresh air you need to hear after running away from creepy baby puppets and giant spider-limbed humanoids.
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.
Platform reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Crow Country is out on May 9 on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
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