SFB Games, the developers behind Snipperclips and Tangle Tower, are dipping their toes into PS1-inspired survival horror with Crow Country. Right now, it’s slated for PS5 and Steam, and while I can’t find a release window, there’s a demo available starting today.
You play as Mara Forest, an investigator brave enough to search an abandoned amusement park in a short, white dress. She’s searching for the eccentric and elusive Edward Crow, a wealthy man who financed the eponymous amusement park, Crow Country. The amusement park has been left to rot for over a year, and I’m pretty sure you find out why in the demo, but I can’t remember, and I forgot to save the footage I took. Spooky!
That’s right! I got an early hands-on with the demo. It’s a rather beefy chunk of the game’s opening. It plays a lot like a Resident Evil survival horror title but from a tilted, top-down angle and with more sprinkling of humor. But while it adopts a more celestial point of view, Crow Country features manual aiming, allowing you to always aim for the head. If it has a head.
My most important takeaway, however, is that, having finished the demo, I want to play more. The demo’s pacing and sense of exploration are fantastic. Beyond the blocky, pixelated visuals, it’s the music that really sells the PS1-era aesthetic, being moody, atmospheric, and sparse. In a few ways, the entire production reminds me of Body Harvest’s interior segments. Except that game was on the N64, and there was no indoor combat.
I have a couple of minor concerns based on the demo. The first is whether or not it’s going to try and differentiate itself both narratively and mechanically from other survival horror games beyond just the addition of light humor. There are hints that it has a narrative trick up its sleeve, so we’ll have to wait and see.
The second is if the whole “survival” aspect is going to adequately materialize. Enemies seem to stay dead once you take them out, which allows you to make rooms and corridors safe for traversal. I don’t mind that, but there are no melee weapons in the demo, and to compensate for that, you can return to Mara’s car at any time to restock on pistol ammo. If someone is determined not to spend their more exotic ammunition, they can just keep pulling from the car’s infinite armory.
The planned release date for Crow Country is in the vague window of 2024. It’s coming to PC and PlayStation, and the demo will be available today. If you’re a fan of PS1-era survival horror, you should definitely check it out.
