Crow Country Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fast Facts

Let’s Get Hunting

Crow Country is a retro-inspired survival horror title. In it, I played as Mara Forest and investigated the Crow Country theme park. Did I uncover any good experiences? Find out in this Rapid Review.

As I booted up the game for the first time, a brief cutscene depicted the main character arriving at the scene. It was a solid introduction, but it certainly did not overstay its welcome. As the game progressed, however, I learned more and more about Crow Country itself and the characters that worked there. The world-building was interesting while being easy to process and remember. I thought it worked very well. However, even more impressive was how the developers integrated world-building into the puzzles. There were a bunch of hints and clues around which were written as notes from former employees at Crow Country. Not only did these notes have character, but they maintained my immersion and never felt out of place. 

I also genuinely enjoyed seeing how the developers made Crow Country tell a story within the background of the main event. The different locations I explored had charm and felt as though they could genuinely be a part of an amusement park. Exploring Crow Country is a lot of fun since interesting objects like water rides and haunted forests were used to differentiate each area. The colour schemes are different, there are constantly new interactable objects, and key items often relate to the amusement park theme. Altogether, exploring and learning about the theme park is excellent. 

Crow Hunting

I especially enjoyed exploring since the world was filled with interesting puzzles. Some events boiled down to simpler fetch quests, where I had to get objects from around the map, whereas others involved logic or simple problem-solving. Despite the simple nature of these challenges, they were absorbing. To get to each, I read notes from former employees. This is such a simple concept, yet it was a great way to seamlessly integrate instructions. I always had a variety of puzzles to solve and plenty of guidance in doing so.

This was further compounded by the hint system. Within the Crow Country Park is a fortune-telling machine. I had a limited number of credits which I could use to get hints. This was a fantastic system, as I could get help from within the game. It also allowed me to progress through components which I understood without needing to see overly excessive guidance. The system worked well to keep me stimulated throughout. 

In addition to puzzles, Crow Country features combat. I used a few different ranged weapons with scarce ammunition to take on monstrosities. I thought the combat worked well, especially after being accustomed to it, but it was a bit challenging to understand initially. The game has a brief tutorial, but even after it, I struggled with the gunplay. Even as I got more familiar with the controls, I found it fairly hard to aim quickly, largely due to the viewpoint of the camera. However, as I got used to the title, I was able to position myself before combat and then ultimately take out enemies. The combat works, especially for a survival horror game, but I did find it challenging to get into and hard to master. 

Oh, the Horrors!

Despite finding some mild frustrations with the way my character aims and shoots, this did not largely impact me. Many of Crow Country’s enemies are simple, often just walking towards the character and attacking. This makes counterplay fairly straightforward. Despite their simple nature, I enjoyed the enemies and had a good time dismantling and dodging through them. 

In addition to the more simple enemies, Crow Country also features a few boss battles. These are not too far removed from the basic fights that I faced, but they were welcome changes of pace. I found these particularly interesting since I often did not know when they were coming, and I sometimes struggled to maintain enough ammunition for the fights. These combat sequences were not too tough but kept me on my toes throughout the game.

One thing I liked a lot about Crow Country is that not only are none of the enemies visually scary, but the game does not use loud noises or flashing lights to elicit fear. Instead, the game leaves the horror up to the world building, and of course, the foes I combat against. This made the game significantly more enjoyable for me, and I think it fits the amusement park theming excellently.

I also appreciated the visual design of Crow Country. The art style resembles the original PlayStation graphics while being well-lit and interesting, despite the horror theme. I thought the character models were great too. Each of them stood out as unique, making it easy to remember who everyone was. The same thing can be said about in-game landmarks. It was always easy to find my way. Even the map was excellent. 

Sounds Good to Me!

Further, the sound design was solid too. Many of the areas around the map had unique themes which helped differentiate them from one another. The music was often eerie, but it never made areas overly unapproachable. I enjoyed listening to the music as I explored. The sound effects from my weaponry and surrounding areas also bolstered my experience. Together, these elements helped solidify Crow Country’s offerings. 

Overall, Crow Country is a title I can easily recommend. The interesting puzzles and captivating world-building kept me hooked throughout my playthrough. Each of these elements blended nicely too, and created a package that felt realistic, rewarding, and engaging. Though I found the combat to be tricky in the beginning, I have no issues recommending this game to people who are familiar with survival horror titles or even those who have not spent much time with the genre. 

Rapid Reviews Rating

4.5 out of 5

4.5

You can find and read our reviews on OpenCritic.