Games Happy

Welcome again to Branching Path, the place we float somewhat outdoors our mission assertion, and at this time we’re looking at a newly launched horror title: Crow Nation — a title that launched at simply the suitable time, for my part, as our trade continues to contract.

Caw Caw Caw

It’s no secret that the gaming trade is in turmoil in the mean time, no less than in relation to huge titles and massive publishers. Many people are nonetheless making an attempt to take care of the truth that Xbox determined to shut down a number of studios, together with horror recreation builders Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin. Sure, Prey does certainly fall inside that horror archetype, even when it leans extra action-shooter than something. A Nightmare rounding the nook and chasing you qualifies as a horrific expertise, I believe.

However Tango Gameworks? The Evil Inside is genuinely certainly one of my favourite horror recreation sequence, warts and all. Enjoying via each video games back-to-back is a superb train in inspecting recreation design evolution — and whereas outdoors the scope of this text, it’s completely price diving into in larger element. These studios are lifeless now, nevertheless, and the chance of seeing a Prey 2 or a The Evil Inside 3 will not be nice.

This C-Suite tendency to cut back danger to nothing, axing nice studios and all of their builders for the sake of constructing some line on an Excel spreadsheet go up, is devastating to the gaming ecosystem — which is why we want extra video games like Crow Nation. Granted, what we actually want are unions and for sure executives to get replaced, however y’know. It is easy to get nihilistic on the state of the trade, however when video games like Crow Nation come round, it jogs my memory which you could’t crush artwork as simply as companies would love you to assume.

Let’s join the dots.

Staring Into The Flames

Crow Nation is a 3D survival horror recreation (or puzzle-adventure, relying in your problem settings — extra on this later) with PS1-style graphics and inspiration traceable to video games like Resident Evil, Ultimate Fantasy 7, and Parasite Eve. You’ll discover two of these video games listed are RPGs, one within the conventional sense and one…that we kinda should stretch a bit for.

You management Mara, a younger lady who arrives at an deserted theme park named Crow Nation. Mara’s causes for being there usually are not instantly obvious other than needing to talk with the proprietor of the park, a Mr. Edward Crow. You’ve gotten a handgun, a slight perspective, and a goofy FF7-style character mannequin.

There are not any stats to degree up, however there are meters to handle in well being and ammo. You’ll be able to add to your stockpile of helpful gadgets, unlock new weapons, or new upgrades by paying consideration and fixing puzzles. There are characters to fulfill, quite a lot of enemies to defeat (or run previous), and a reasonably neatly contained story that’s satisfyingly informed within the span of about 5 to 6 hours for a first-time playthrough.

The sport map is damaged up into 4 main areas, with 4 smaller facet areas and an underground area as effectively, and the participant spends greater than a good period of time backtracking — not simply to resolve puzzles, but additionally to seek out secret gadgets. Every time you meet a sure development level, new enemies spawn in areas you’ve already visited, however they don’t substitute present enemies, they merely add to the rely. This makes taking the monsters out (as sources permit) fairly vital.

Whereas it could be simpler to easily have a look at it and go “Yup, that’s a Resident Evil-style indie recreation,” there’s much more to understand beneath the floor. SFBGames has taken fairly extraordinary pains to make sure that you’re enjoying one thing that learns and expands upon the survival horror video games that got here earlier than.

A Curious Combination of Hope and Dread

A lot of the areas you’ll be backtracking via are broad sufficient to permit for unimpeded dodging and working away. The expectation is that in the event you select to save lots of your ammo for later, you’ll find yourself having to expend that ammo sooner or later — however this isn’t really true. For instance, there are 4 mini-bosses within the recreation, and so far as I can inform, all 4 can technically be run away from.

This requires a little bit of tough work for a few of them, after all. The ultimate miniboss, for instance, locks you in a room with a display screen that tells you to step on panels in a particular order to unlock the door. In fact, if you achieve this, the door opens extraordinarily slowly, requiring you to dodge your pursuer till you’ll be able to squeeze previous. In reality, the one enemy that seemingly requires violence can be the ultimate boss, though I didn’t verify for alternate win circumstances.

This assumes that you simply’re enjoying the Survival Horror recreation mode, after all. Crow Nation lets you begin the sport in both Survival Horror mode, which spawns enemies, and Exploration mode, which removes the hazard and turns the sport into extra of a thriller puzzle recreation. At first, this was somewhat complicated, but it surely does make sense — many individuals who need to play horror video games don’t essentially need to be “scared”, they need to expertise the story.

That isn’t to say that the Survival Horror mode is frightening, nevertheless. There are undoubtedly a couple of occasions that I obtained spooked, however more often than not the enemies you’re dealing with could be seen earlier than they aggro onto you. Even after they do begin chasing you, you’ll be able to typically simply run till they’re off-screen they usually’ll lose curiosity.

Possibly All the things Will Be Okay

Crow Nation rewards the participant for paying consideration, even when backtracking via areas you’ve already cleared. Not one of the gadgets you’ll be able to decide up are highlighted (although among the objects are tinted barely otherwise, reminiscent of notebooks and file folders). Which means small objects like grenades and antidote vials could be tough to identify within the background. There have been a couple of occasions that I backtracked via an space that spawned extra enemies and found a brand new merchandise. I’m nonetheless unsure if I simply missed it the primary time round or if the sport spawned it after a checkpoint.

The explanation I’m unsure is that the sport does spawn in new pickups, however these are sometimes traps that explode if you work together with them. The one approach to inform the distinction is to find the entrance of the merchandise, and if it has a purple sprite, it’s a bomb. Intelligent, but additionally somewhat annoying if you’re surrounded by enemies, low on ammo, and spot a lure field of handgun rounds from behind.

The enemies are different sufficient to trigger somewhat little bit of chaos if you get surrounded, however you finally find out how greatest to take care of every kind. For instance, the large hulking monstrosities are straightforward to run previous (or run round), however the tiny child creatures are very quick and really persistent, so it’s possible you’ll need to prioritize these. The design of the enemies is top-notch as effectively, every Visitor (as they’re labeled in-game) is strikingly horrifying to take a look at.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the music and ambiance. The tone is ready from the get-go, with a MIDI-style crow name that will get an increasing number of distorted and garbled as the sport progresses. Every zone has its distinctive ambiance or monitor that distorts or modifications as enemies populate, however in the event you clear them out, the music returns to regular. It’s wonderful, there’s no different approach to put it — I used to be on edge each time I loaded right into a zone I beforehand cleared solely to listen to distorted music.

And Possibly It Gained’t

Crow Nation does endure from a couple of issues. The aiming is extraordinarily finicky, and I really feel may have benefited from a extra Resident Evil or Parasite Eve-style lock-on system. You not solely can goal left and proper, but additionally up and down. This makes sniping small pustules or breaking merchandise bottles attainable, however if you’re within the thick of it and should goal up at a creature that towers over you (but additionally has a very skinny physique), effectively, you find yourself lacking quite a lot of pictures. That is extra of a “get gud” situation than something, nevertheless.

The “hidden in plain sight” factor for treasures and weapons is an efficient characteristic, however typically issues are hidden somewhat too effectively. There’s a secret within the Haunted Hill major hallway someplace that I can’t discover. I spent an hour scouring over the whole map the place the thing may be and will solely discover one interactable, which was a puzzle answer to one thing else solely. There could also be a touch in a file folder some place else, however I hadn’t discovered it, so the treasure stays undiscovered.

Lastly, and that is purely opinion, however I believe the enemies may stand to be somewhat extra aggressive in Survival Horror mode. Having the ability to flee from all the pieces may be an intentional design alternative by the builders, but it surely feels somewhat too protected. Except for one particular enemy kind, the remainder are just too sluggish to do something except I get cornered.

All of that is to say that Crow Nation is a superb expertise effectively price your time, even in the event you’re not a fan of horror video games. The Exploration Mode turns the entire thing into an unsettling puzzle recreation, and the ambiance is spooky sufficient to warrant turning out the lights and huddling underneath a blanket, however not horrifying or overly reliant on jumpscares (there are three that I may bear in mind, 4 in the event you rely a non-enemy.)

We want extra video games like this. We want smaller studios and groups to proceed to precise their creativity, to work on their craft with out worrying if the rug goes to get pulled from underneath them by somebody who has solely an excessive amount of cash. Builders deserve to have the ability to create their video games in relative peace, whether or not they be indie, AA or AAA (sorry Ubisoft, AAAA will not be a factor.) The accountability of that sits with those that maintain energy, they usually have abdicated that accountability too many occasions to rely. For now, gamers can take solace that video games like Crow Nation will proceed to get made by impartial artists, and hopefully encourage future builders to work on their very own tasks.

Crow Nation is now accessible on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Sequence X|S.