Crow Country Is a Feast for Classic Resident Evil Puzzle Fiends
Fear takes a back seat in favor of a superb spread of old-school puzzles in SFB Games' retro-styled survival horror game.
Posted 6 months ago
As a survival horror game, Crow Country isn’t particularly scary. For those with experience, managing the “survival” part isn’t much of a challenge either. The PS1-inspired indie game’s juddering, disfigured enemies can be unsettling, certainly, but they’re often also comical and easy to circumnavigate. But despite not ticking either of the boxes, Crow Country nails one of the survival horror genre’s most iconic cores: puzzles. Specifically, the item location and shifting of classic Resident Evil.
Now, please give me another one.
©SFB Games / Restart
With the exception of stellar remakes, Capcom’s seminal horror series has detached itself almost as far from complex item puzzles as from the T-Virus that started its story. They remain, ostensibly, a factor, but you’ll rarely be tasked with tracking more than a couple of pieces at a time. Encounter a door with a mysterious slot? Chances are the next boss is guarding the crest you need.
Crow Country isn’t just a revival of this core progression system; it’s an indulgence. Five minutes of wandering through its deranged amusement park setting is enough to inundate with messages. Memos left by weary staff members, letters of disagreement between management sectors, and grumpy notices posted by engineers – each offers a snippet of intel for a core item’s location or use. Most won’t be necessary for several hours. They’re pieces of a puzzle you’ve yet to even receive.
More swans in survival horror, please.
©SFB Games / Restart
To some, that may sound like arduous mental management. For classic survival horror freaks? It’s inescapably addictive; like opening a chocolate box to discover clues to five more boxes hidden throughout your house, three of which are padlocked. When you finally get to that sugary reward, the sense of progress will make it all the sweeter.
What’s more impressive is that Crow Country doesn’t rely on a limited inventory to ramp up the pressure. Resident Evil demands you carefully consider which items are worthy of your precious inventory spaces. Am I likely to need the shield key in the next chunk of the map, or am I better off carrying this emblem? Call it wrong and you’re in for some panicked (and sometimes frustrating) backtracking to the nearest save room. In minimizing danger, item efficiency is more valuable than the bullets in your pistol.
Don't try telling these guys to smile more.
©SFB Games/Restart
Crow Country, meanwhile, lets you carry every key progression item you’ve found. Protagonist Mara clearly has deeper pockets than Jill Valentine – which is impressive given the latter is wearing cargo pants and the former a white cocktail dress. What you’ll need to bring with you instead is the knowledge of how and where to put these items to use.
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Notes with clues and instructions litter the world, but in an entertaining inversion of the Resident Evil standard, you can’t check them from the pause menu. All your collected files are available only through a booklet in save rooms.
These stops, therefore, also become moments of study – a chance to swot up on the relevant information, check your map, and plan the safest path to your next destination. It’s a small difference, but one that forces you to give that gray matter a kick and set it whirring into action lest you find yourself lost.
When was this amusement park built again?
©SFB Games / Restart
It’s hard not to be distracted, though, as secrets abound. Optional puzzles are dotted throughout the park, ready to test those with a keen eye and a hunger for earning the game’s highest completion ratings. Some puzzles even lean into the game’s setting in comical fashion. Explore the nautical-themed Ocean Kingdom area, and you’ll find a mermaid arcade quiz tests your factual knowledge – or rather, facts as they stood in the late 1980s. (A small hint – back then, Pluto was still sitting proudly in the pantheon of planets.)
For horror purists, Crow Country could do with having a ghoulish hand delve into the design and crank up the fear factor. But scary games remain plentiful, while puzzles of this era are now scarcer than survival horror resources. If you’re a Resi nostalgist, or just after an easier introduction to the genre’s roots, you’ll find plenty of enigmatic amusement in one ticket to Crow Country’s creepy park.
Crow Country
Release Date: May 9, 2024
Digital Only
