Crow Country

Crow Country is a 2024 survival horror game developed and published by SFB Games for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S. Set in a visual style and design similar to PlayStation 1 horror titles including Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the player is an investigator exploring an abandoned theme park. Upon release, Crow Country received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise directed to the game's design evocation of earlier horror games, writing and narrative, and mixed views on the implementation of combat and puzzles.

Gameplay
Crow Country is a survival horror, similar to Resident Evil and Silent Hill, in which players explore Crow Country to find objects, solve puzzles, and defeat monsters. Gameplay features two modes: 'Survival', which features combat and enemies, and 'Exploration', which dispenses with enemies. Combat requires the player to aim and shoot at monsters encountered throughout areas using various weapons, including a handguns, a shotgun, and flamethrower, some of which are unlocked by the completion of optional puzzles. To shoot at enemies, players can run and shoot, or lock into position to focus their aim. Players have limited health depleted by hits from enemies and environmental hazards, which can be replenished using bandages, medkits and antidotes. Items and ammunition are collected by players through interacting with vending machines and containers. Players explore the game's environment and slowly expand their access to new areas by locating keys or solving puzzles, such as by combining items found in different locations.

Plot
The year is 1990 and Mara Forest, a special agent, is investigating Crow Country, an abandoned rural amusement park near Atlanta, Georgia. Shut down two years prior, its founder, Edward Crow, mysteriously disappeared, and Mara is searching for him. Upon arriving at the park she meets an injured Arthur Mole, a paranormal photographer who warns her of dangerous creatures. She helps him back to her car and continues her investigation, meeting Edward's daughter Natalie Crow, his foreman Tolman, a lawyer named Julie Baron, police detective Harrison James, and Edward's business partner Marvin Trumble, who are all there investigating as well.

While searching Crow Country she discovers that it hides a dig site that manufactured pure gold seemingly "grown" from root-like structures, but the dig site also contains a poisonous pool that turns people into zombie-like creatures. With pressure from the government questioning where the gold was coming from, Marvin and Crow bought a dried-up gold mine in Brazil to cover their tracks. However, after bad publicity when a 15-year-old girl, Elaine Marshall, was seriously injured in the park, it was forced to shut down. It is revealed that the creatures infesting the park are actually former park visitors who were exposed to the pool and kept prisoner there to prevent their infection from spreading out into the world, eventually turning into monsters referred to as Guests.

As Mara travels deeper into the park, Harrison is found shot dead by Marvin, who is then accidentally knocked off a catwalk to his death during a confrontation. Mara tells the remaining survivors to escape to her car while she goes down to the core of the dig site, eventually meeting Edward Crow, now grotesquely mutated from exposure to the monsters and the pool. He reveals several key pieces of information: any person who comes into contact with a Guest, ie all investigators, become infected themselves. The dig site and its pool are, in reality, a futuristic gateway device, and some of the original, most mutated Guests came out of it; the first Guest, however, was the only one capable of talking. The more the roots were harvested for gold, the more mutated the arriving Guests became: this is because the "roots" are, in fact, the device's focusing antennae. During the conversation, it is revealed that Mara is not a special agent and forged her police documents which she had stolen from Harrison; she is Elaine, infected from contact with a captive Guest. She escaped from the hospital she has been staying at in search of Crow, but not for revenge as he had suspected: instead, to tell him she is dying and that the hospital staff has no cure.

Crow gives Mara a cure he developed by doing multiple tests on the creatures, but he only has five vials. He tells Mara to use them to save herself and the others, as he plans to jump into the pool to see the other side. He also gives her a note transcribed from the first Guest's words: the original mutated Guests were humans from a 22nd-century Earth, traveling back in time because theirs had become completely uninhabitable. Crow then jumps into the pool, returning as a grotesque, insane monster, forcing Mara to kill him. Mara escapes with the remaining survivors in her car. Four miles from Crow Country, they relax by a fire and take the cure. Mara monologues about her hope for the future, but also her fears of the unknown.

Reception
Crow Country received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Reviewers generally praised the game's visual presentation and design as evocative of PS1 horror games. Zoey Handley of Destructoid commended the "detailed" pre-rendered environments and "clever lighting" to replicate the "awkward 3D of the era". However, Leon Hurley of GamesRadar critiqued the player character's "blocky toy shape" and "cartoonish" enemies. Alice Bell of Rock Paper Shotgun highlighted the game's "fantastic" and "sinister" setting. Wes Fenlon of PC Gamer highlighted the game's effective jump scares and variety of "demented monster designs".

Critics praised the game's narrative and writing. Sarah Maria Griffin of The Guardian described the game's narrative as complete and richer than anticipated, highlighting the "levity and playfulness" of the game's tone and "bold" ending. Similarly, Wes Fenlon of PC Gamer praised the "wry" writing for its "cheeky nods to game and horror tropes". Leon Hurley of GamesRadar noted the "rewarding" and "refreshingly unfamiliar" story and commended its "feeling of surprise and uncertainty". Zoey Handley of Destructoid praised the game's narrative twists and satisfying conclusion, although finding it lacked more distinctive psychological themes.

Reviewers expressed mixed views on the implementation of puzzles and gameplay mechanics. Leon Hurley of GamesRadar considered the game's puzzles to be effective as they were self-contained and balanced in difficulty, although found themselves stuck with some puzzles. Alice Bell of Rock Paper Shotgun praised the design of the puzzles in relying on player observation and intuition, but expressed that the game's combat and survival horror aspects lacked a sense of threat and were easy to manage. Describing the game as "too easy", Wes Fenlon of PC Gamer felt the game's combat was simple and did not view the puzzles as memorable. Willa Rowe of Kotaku considered that the enemies, resource management combat felt "lackluster" and "unimportant", and critiqued the "inconsistent" design of simple and in-depth puzzles.