With low-poly chibi characters ripped proper out of Midgar and a heartbeat monitor for a well being bar, Crow Nation is like strolling by way of a magical doorway into the fuzzy CRT-filtered ‘90s. It is unapologetically genuine, and it’s made clear from the second you step foot into its haunted theme park filled with gooey crimson monsters lunging after you regardless of swallowing ten rounds to the top.
Whereas it faithfully embraces the PS1 period, a lot of the awkward clunkiness of traditional survival horror has been tidied away. Just like the old-school video games it proudly takes inspiration from (Resident Evil, Silent Hill), Crow Nation has tank controls, however you’ll be able to nonetheless transfer the digital camera to absorb your environment extra clearly. What’s extra, motion isn’t almost as stiff because you’re not locked onto an invisible grid. Crow Nation delves into the previous with out counting on nostalgia alone to cowl the awkward cracks.
It additionally means that you can swap weapons on the fly with out utilizing the stock, marks each single doorway with arrows, and has a modernised map that explicitly tells you which ones keys are wanted the place.
Aiming is the place the slicker fashionable coat of paint actually stands out. Because it makes use of tank controls, Crow Nation forces you to face nonetheless and purpose your gun earlier than firing, so you’ll be able to’t spray and pray whereas working round screaming. However the snap from motion to aiming is so fluid that you just don’t sacrifice momentum, taking the extra refined taking pictures of Resident Evil 4 and transplanting it right into a top-down ‘90s-styled survival horror effortlessly.
Crow Nation’s Story Is Easy And To The Level
Essentially the most essential a part of any good survival horror is its opening hook. The perfect ones are easy and to the purpose—Leon Kennedy is trying to find the president’s daughter, James Sunderland is in search of his spouse, Isaac Clarke is investigating a misery sign from an deserted spaceship. Essentially the most memorable narratives are ones we uncover firsthand, sleuthing within the ruins as monsters lurk round each nook; Crow Nation understands that.
We waste no time coming into the theme park looking for its proprietor, Edward Crow. With out delving into spoilers, the plot that unravels is equal elements camp as it’s intriguing. We meet Crow’s previous colleagues, uncover the park’s true goal, and work out the origins of the creatures crawling out of the woodwork.
This compelling narrative is advised by way of sparing interactions, making your complete expertise really feel oppressively lonely. A lot of the story involves life within the atmosphere.
Proper in the beginning, we enter the park by taking pictures a padlock off a sequence fence gate plastered with worker solely, personal property, and no trespassing indicators, fully juxtaposing the same old imagery of a grand theme park entrance. We don’t get that till we’re additional in, however even then, the colors are muted and trash is scattered in every single place. The place has been unexpectedly deserted, however that’s inviting in itself; the urge to seek out out what occurred is each bit as attractive as a typewriter on the finish of a blood-soaked hall.
Crow Nation’s Resident Evil 2 Inspirations
All of that is advised in a tight-knit, small map. The emphasis is positioned on backtracking and turning into actually aware of each a part of the park, which is the place Crow Nation is most devoted to the classics.
Its structure is unbelievably intuitive, reminding me of my first time within the Raccoon Metropolis police station in Resident Evil 2. Very early on, we discover a foyer space that splits into three new doorways, making it the centrepiece of your complete park. Every path results in distinctly distinctive zones, one aquatic-themed, the opposite resembling a suburban road on Halloween, and the final a cutesy fantasy city with big mushrooms and fairies.
It’s exhausting to get misplaced when the map is made up of such memorable zones, and backtracking is way much less tedious on condition that all of them interconnect through shortcuts. You possibly can even delve underground and use elevators to achieve every quadrant, cut up up properly into north, east, south, and west. Crow Nation usually makes the previous mechanics extra approachable, but it surely hasn’t wanted to replace survival horror’s traditional map-making. The style has at all times boasted small maps which are made to really feel bigger by filling them to the brim with element and looping them again in on themselves.
Crow Nation doesn’t simply emulate its inspirations, it understands the basics of a survival horror traditional. Its map isn’t a 1:1 of RCPD, but it surely recognises that the very best within the style stand tall as a result of backtracking is satisfying and woven into the extent design with goal. Uncovering doorways that result in previous areas the place you should utilize newfound gadgets to open up beforehand blocked passages for hidden treasure is what makes exploration so rewarding, and that DNA is as wealthy in Crow Nation as it’s within the heights of survival horror.
Say Goodbye To Useful resource Administration
Crow Nation solely falters in a single main space: stock. A core pillar of the style is useful resource administration. It’s a must to rigorously decide what you’ll take with you since you solely have so many pockets. A handgun makes use of much less area however is much less efficient, whereas a flamethrower is big however can shred by way of enemies. It’s a must to decide and select what to carry with you between save factors, and taking the bulkier gadgets usually means having little room to hoard the products you discover in your means.
I by no means ran out of area in Crow Nation. Over the course of my first run, I discovered 12 of the 15 secrets and techniques and nonetheless had slots to spare. By the tip, I used to be carrying a pistol, a magnum, a flamethrower, and a shotgun, to call a couple of. This meant I had greater than sufficient weaponry and ammo to tear aside the ultimate boss with little resistance. Against this, after I began, I had so few bullets for my pistol {that a} hall of simply two enemies overwhelmed me. Conserving the stock sparse would’ve ensured that the sensation of vulnerability permeated all through your complete expertise, however the extra I hoarded, the extra it pale.
Regardless, Crow Nation will get all the things else about survival horror proper, and it does so with type. The visuals are devoted to the period however stand out on their very own, utilizing cutesy characters and iconography to distinction the bleaker story and extra unsettling physique horror. The brief runtime of simply 4 hours additionally signifies that it by no means overstays its welcome—it’s tightly paced, making the frenzy to uncover the thriller behind Edward Crow akin to curling up in mattress with an exhilarating page-turner.
It does all of this with the trimmings of the classics, but makes the style approachable to newcomers. It’s a must-play for followers of survival horror, whether or not you’re delay by the ‘90s video games or itching for that old-school expertise all these years later.
Crow Nation
Reviewed on PC.
- The world design makes backtracking satisfying and intuitive
- Previous-school gameplay with fashionable quality-of-life adjustments lastly makes the ?90s survival horror approachable
- Enthralling story packed filled with intrigue
- Useful resource administration is way too forgiving, undercutting the problem in a while
