Taking part in retro-inspired video games is like returning to a beloved theme park as an grownup. Instinctively figuring out the place to go first, remembering what it was wish to be there as a toddler—it performs to a really particular form of nostalgia. Retro-inspired video games typically embrace acquainted mechanics, recognizable artwork types, and tropes of a beloved style or particular title, providing an nearly equivalent expertise to the nostalgia of a Disneyland go to. That’s the thought behind Crow Nation, the PS1-inspired survival horror title from SFB Video games that’s aptly set inside a theme park.
Crow Nation wears its influences on its sleeve, lovingly embracing options and parts you’d look forward to finding in an entry on this style, from tank controls to item-based puzzles. Sadly, its reverence for the video games that impressed it (Resident Evil 1 &2, Silent Hill) can maintain it again, as Crow Nation by no means fairly captures the identical magic because the giants of the style. However even with among the proverbial rides at this theme park feeling like they may use some work, the sport continues to be a comforting addition to the retro-horror development.
Imitation is the best type of flattery
Crow Nation’s begin doesn’t waste time with pleasantries. As an alternative, it instantly drops you into the footwear of younger detective Mara Forest, as she arrives on the now-abandoned titular theme park. Very like the unique Resident Evil, the plot is straightforward: Mara is there to seek for the park’s mysterious proprietor, Edward Crow. This primary framework means you’re naturally inclined to discover this theme park, and also you’ll shortly encounter zombie-like enemies intent on killing you.
To perform this singular objective of monitoring down Edward Crow, you’ll must do loads of puzzle-solving. Like Resident Evil setpieces the Spencer Mansion or the Raccoon Metropolis Police Division, Crow Nation has a sequence of advanced puzzles that block off swaths of the titular theme park’s 4 completely different areas. This forces you to backtrack via the park incrementally as you search for key gadgets that help you full puzzles that may unlock new areas.
All that backtracking is made extra partaking by the titular park itself. Crow Nation is an enchanting locale. Not solely does it play on the inherent eerieness of deserted theme parks, however the varied themes of every space have a singular, unsettling allure to them. The Haunted Hilltop is the most effective vibe-match for the sport due to its spooky set dressing, however areas just like the underwater-themed Ocean Kingdom and even the much less ostentatiously themed hub areas have a definite sense of dread to them.
Whereas Resident Evil looms extremely giant in Crow Nation’s mechanics, narrative, and general vibes, its visible language references a totally completely different PlayStation 1 basic—Remaining Fantasy VII. Like the unique FF7, Crow Nation renders its characters in an nearly chibi-like method, with the setting equally small and doll-house-like. At first, I used to be involved that the visible fashion of the sport would conflict an excessive amount of with the mechanics and tone, however that was by no means a difficulty. Simply as the unique FF7’s foolish aesthetic doesn’t maintain again its all-time nice story, Crow Nation manages to craft a strong survival horror setting regardless of its seemingly cutesy artwork fashion.
Misplaced in translation
Sadly, Crow Nation’s use of conventional survival horror mechanics (gunplay, puzzles, and useful resource administration) is much less profitable. In relation to gunplay, Mara has a rising arsenal of weapons at her disposal however should cease in her tracks to intention and hearth. Like basic video games within the style, it’s a system meant to really feel dangerous, since enemies can get nearer to you if you are caught in place. However Crow Nation’s enemies are usually unimportant and could be averted extremely simply. Regardless of the sport dropping increasingly of them onto the map as you progress, fight by no means appears like an essential pillar of Crow Nation, a way which is solidified by the shortage of any actual boss encounters.
As for puzzles, Crow Nation is inconsistent. A very good variety of puzzles are easy single-item issues that require the participant to only deliver the MacGuffin to the appropriate place on the map. These really feel largely like busywork—every time I encountered them, I discovered myself determined for one thing extra advanced than simply lugging one merchandise to its designated location. There are, nevertheless, some extra intensive item-based and logic challenges that made me pull out a pocket book and pen within the later hours of the sport—these had been essentially the most satisfying puzzles within the sport however felt too few and much between.
Lastly, Crow Nation’s useful resource administration options squander what is likely to be an important pillar in survival horror video games. Useful resource administration is an important a part of the dread, a mechanical restrict on the participant’s energy that ratchets up the depth and worry on the proper moments. Much less room to carry ammunition and therapeutic gadgets means you must be extra cautious when coping with enemies. Crow Nation lacks any of that significant friction, as I by no means as soon as discovered myself missing sources or unable to carry as a lot as I needed. You face little or no actual risk due to this, and when mixed with the lackluster fight it quantities to an typically frictionless—and extra boring—gameplay expertise.
The best way Crow Nation deploys these mechanics leaves it feeling like a shadow of its inspirations. Whereas it has all of the signifiers of basic survival horror, it’s all missing depth. The visible fashion, essentially the most distinctive side of the sport in the way it merges and performs with its inspirations, is the star of the present right here. Sadly that may’t make up for the sport’s mechanics, which current the survival horror style’s core pillars with out executing them correctly. That being the sport gives a peculiar expertise for followers of the style, who’re the more than likely folks to choose up Crow Nation. It received’t dwell as much as its inspirations however it’s going to nonetheless set off that nostalgic response simply sufficient to make it an pleasing trip via a simplified—even theme park-ified—model of survival horror.
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