The Silent Hill 2 remake may have dominated much of the October survival horror discourse, but Crow Country remains an indie gem you should check out if you haven't had the chance. Plenty of folks have already, to the tune of 10??0,000 copies sold. 

This not-so-macabre milestone comes just a week after Crow County made its debut on Nintendo Switch, and roughly six months after it first ?launched on Steam. There are still more monetary med kits in store?? for the folks at SFB Games, too. In fact, the game hit 100k prior to this week's launch on PlayStation 4.

According to the press release, over two-thirds of the copies sold so far were on Steam. The rest were divided between the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series ??X|S, a?nd Switch versions. 

The numbers clearly blew SFB Games' Tom Vian's mind, too. "100k copies in under 6 months is far beyond our highest hopes for Crow Country," he said. Before thanking everyone ??who has played so far, he added, "It’s been? incredible to see so many people enjoy the game and recommend it to each other, especially now in the runup to Halloween."

It's true; now is undeniably the very best time to play Crow Country. If you have fond memories of PS1-era survival horror, it'll scratch that itch in both fresh and familiar ways. For those who?? have already plumbed its horrifying yet oddly comforting depths, there's also a bunch of merch on the way from Fangamer. The ?first round of items is set to launch on October 29, with more �including physical releases for PS5 and Switch �following some time in 2025. 

The post Indie survival horr??or gem Crow Country hit 100,000 copies sold before PS4 launch appeared first on Destructoid.

Do you love early PlayStation-style survival horror but don’t want to stare at a computer monitor and don’t own a Steam Deck? Well, hopefully, you own a Switch (or PS4), because it’s landing there on October 16, 2024.

If you’re like me, your October is already going to be packed to the gills with horror games, but also, if you’re like me, you’ve probably already played Crow Country on PC. If you’re not like me, lucky you! You’re way more fortunate than you think. I’m talking to you specifically because you should definitely play Crow Country if you haven’t.

Crow Country has Special Agent Mara Forest heading into the ??decrepit remains of the eponymous amusement park in search of its missing owner. Unfortunately: monsters. You have to explore the park, finding keys and solving puzzles. It’s ?classic survival horror at its finest and most concise.

I have no end of good things to say about it, as you can tell by this review I wrote. I gave it a 9? Nice. I rarely give anything a 9. I’m jaded and curmudgeonly, or, as I prefer to put it: nuanced. But Crow Country has a mind-blowingly creative horror plot and an interesting art style that looks like PS1-era low-poly characters and items over a PS1-era pre-rendered background, but the backgrounds aren’t actually pre-rendered. You can rotate the camera all you want??, and still ?get that delicious early-CG look.

To go back to my original review, I admit that Crow Country doesn’t do anything to re-write the classic survival horror playbook, but it’s executed with a skill that makes it seem effortless. That’s not to say it isn’t without a fe??w bruises and imperfections, but they’re lost among the many facets it does exceedingly well. So, if you weren’t able to play it on PC or PlayStation platforms, you should definitely give it a try on Switch (assuming that the port is capable).

Crow Country is currently out on PC, Xb?ox Series X|S, and PS5. It is out for Switch and PS4 on October 16, 2024.

The post One of the year’s best survival horror games Crow Country releases on Switch this month appeared first on Destructoid.

The Data Disk is a mandatory late-game item that also acts as a key to accessing the game's several computer terminals. Getting it is a bit round??about and requires solving a puzzle located in the Ocean Kingdom Arcade.

The first step in our journey is going to be restoring power to the Arcade itself. The Arcade can be found in the Northwestern section of the Ocean Kingdom area, which is itself West of the main plaza. To restore power to the Arcade, you'll need access to the the circuit breaker, which requires the Silver Key to open.

To be more specific: circuit breaker is in the top left of the image above, and the coin machin??e with the puzzle hint and Data Disk are at the?? right.

Once you've got the power on, you can read a note near the machines that tells you which scores each machine will need to display to earn your prize. The order comes out to Merma??id, Dolphin, Boat, then Shark, with each score doubling the ??last. The games themselves are very simple, and you'll need to earn the following scores to finish the puzzle:

• Mermaid: 1
• Dolphin: 2
• Boat: 4
• Shark: 8

Once you've achieved these scores, the Data Disk will dispense from the coin machine that had the puzzle clue. This disc can be used to access any of the game's data terminals, including those in the Railway save room (to ??access the flamethrower) and the Dungeon (to find the glass bottle). There's another terminal underground,? but I'll keep it vague in case of spoilers.

The post How to get the Data Disk in Crow Country appeared first on Destructoid.

??Crow Country's various wings (heh) and storerooms are often locked behind keyholes of varying value: bronze, silver, and gold. The mid-game silver key has a few requirements that are sure to spoil things if you aren't far enough along, so read on with caution.

To get the silver key in Crow Country, you're going to need three core items that can be found in the midsec??tion of the game:

• The Crank, accessed from the vault beyond the Crypt (code 1872)
• The Ruby, found in Haunted Manor demon painting (this requires the crank to access via the clocks)
• The Chain, accessed from the Swan Boats puzzle, which requires the ruby to be inserted into the swan head to gain control of the ride controls

With these components in hand, head to the Dig Site, which can be accessed by using the bronze key on the mailbox outside the entrance. Inside, grab the gasoline tank from the corn?er of the room and use it to fill the tank behind the torch. Use the crank to fill the hole with water, then use the crane by attaching the chain to its gears. This will lift a resin-coated mask to the surface, which can be freed by using the torch.

Mask in hand, head to the Witch Wood and open the entrance by slotting it into the right indentation. Inside,?? you'll find a labyrinth which can be completed by whacking totems to lower barriers. This isn't too difficult, and there's no limit on how many times you can hit each. Be sure to watch your head for falling traps, though.

Once you're in the middle, grab the key from the pond and get ready for a fight. The barriers will all lower, but enemies will begin to enter the maze. Exit the labyrinth by slaying foes and enjoy trying to remember where it was you needed to use this silver key in Crow Country.

The post How to get the silver key in Crow Country appeared first on Destructoid.

SFB Games has released a look at what’s coming up for Crow Country, now that it’s out in the wild. It doesn’t provide any specific dates beyond “Soon-ish,�“soon,�a??nd “very so??on,�but it does give us something to look forward to.

The one thing that stands out in particular for me is hard mode. Spoiler alert, bu??t there are a number of rewards you get for completing the game that are only useful for repeat playthroughs. However, if you want to play again, you have to do so at the exact same difficulty. There is no higher difficulty, so you can only re-experience things again, but with some additional overpowered gear.

But aside from that are the usual bug fixes. The soundtrack by Ockeroid will be released digitally, which is always rad. They’re also adding the Cr??owQuest reward to be a permanent setting in the menu, which I’d elaborate on, but that might ruin the surprise. Additional languages are planned to be added. Finally, Trading Cards will be added, which I stopped caring about a few months after the feature was added to Steam, but it’s not unwelcome.

I loved Crow Country when I played it for review, and it is high up on the list of the best games I’ve played this year. It already feels like an extremely complete package, and I’m not sure what could be added or taken away from it without getting diminishing returns. However, this roadmap signifies only small tweaks and supplements, which I feel is the best way to support it. That hard mode will be especi?ally important to anyone who plays games repeatedly without the restriction of publication deadlines.

Crow Country is currently av??ailable on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

The post Crow Country post-release roadma?p shows route ??to hard mode appeared first on Destructoid.

Crow Country features only a handful of weapons, but about half of them can be easily missed. The flamethrower, a late-game unlockable that relies on gasoline for fuel, is n?o exception. Let's quickly go over what you'll need to unlock it, 100% spoiler-free.

First, you'll need to be sure you've obtained the Data Disk. This is a mandatory?? late-game item, so if you haven't found?? it yet, you don't need to worry about missing out on the flamethrower. Just come back to this guide once you've got your hands on it.

Next, head to the Train Room:

Once inside, access the terminal at the back left of the room by using your Data Disk. You'll be met with a screen that asks you to assign a letter to each of ??a train's cars. The train on display in the room is your rubric, while the two plaques and buttons will give you clues as to which letter to assign to each car.

The first plaque says the cars it activates are done in the Arabella and Bernadette styles, while the second says its cars display the Arabella and Delilah styles. These are the l?etters you'll need to punch in the terminal, and the "styles" they refer to are the shapes found on the top of the cars (not thei??r color, as I initially assumed).

The solution to the puzzle is as follows:

And if you want to ??see exactly how these are determined, here's a quick breakdown of each "style" that appears on the two running trains (C is entered by process of elimination). The trip-up here is?? that "A" can appear as either a single rectangle or as two rectangles next to each other:

Just punch these in, and one of the cars in the display?? train will open? containing your prize! By this point in the game, you're likely flush with fuel, so get out there and scorch some flesh.

The post How to get the flamethrower in Crow Country appeared first on Destructoid.

What's a survival horror game without a magnum that you'll never fire a single time because there might be an even bigger, badder boss in the next room? Crow Country ha?s its very own boss-killer, and you can get it about midway through the game.

There's only one prerequisite item: the silver key. If you don't have this yet, then there are actually several prerequisite items, but at the risk of spoiling the experience, you can revisit this guide once ?you've got your hands on it to get you?r shiny new gun as soon as possible.

First, head over to the Gift Shop, locate??d just off the main square:

Inside, you'll find several items for sale, each of which you can inspect to check the price. Near the cash register at the back of the shop is a note from Mr. Crow himself, which lists several items he's planning on picking out for his daughter Natalie. By adding the price of these items and entering the result, $19.75, into the register, we'll claim our prize:

1. Haunted Hilltop stuffed toy - $5.50
2. Classic Crow Country rubber doll - $10.00
3. Fairytale Town action figure - $4.25

The items aren't labeled exactly as they appear in the shop, and there are many to choose from, so some deductive reasoning goes a long way in finding ?the right ones. Once you have your hands on the magnum, all that's left is to find some ammo for it. And that's a puzzle even I've struggled with.

The post How to get the magnum in Crow Country appeared first on Destructoid.

On top of having four optional bosses, Crow Country has 15 optional “secret�puzzles scattered throughout the eponymous theme park. While you can finish the game without completing these, each o?ne yields extremely useful items. This is how to solve every last one of them.

How to get the secret map

Before we get into it, there i??s a map that points you to where all the puzzles are. It’s in a cabinet in Crow’s Lounge. You find the code to it in Nep??tune’s Palace.

The Neptune’s Palace restaurant puzzle isn’t too taxing. You need to push the buttons on the drink machine in the order the fruits appear on the statue on the other side of the room. The only trick here is that you follow them from the bottom up. Grape, lime, pineapple, strawberry. Fill your cup in that order, and the sign will flip revealing a note. It will tell you to input 8891 into the cabinet in Crow’s Lounge. Do so, and you’ll be given ??a map that reveals the location of all the secret puz??zles.

How to solve the Bathroom secret puzzle

The secret in the bathroom of Crow Country isn’t much of a puzzle. In short, there are bones stuck in one of the toilets, and you need to figure out how to get past them. To do so, you simply need acid. You get the acid bottle from the Dungeon later in the game as part of the normal course of the game. Howev?er, there isn’t enough of it to melt the bones. Or much of anything really.

You fill up the acid bottle much later in the game ??after you gain access to the “Roots�in the underground area. In the Friday chamber, there’s a small spigot that will fill your bottle. You then take it upstairs to the bathroom and use it on the bones to melt them.

Your reward is a box of Magnum Ammo.

How to solve the dig site secret puzzle

The dig site isn’t much of a puzzle. There’s a blue bucket behind the crane. Search it for your reward.

Your reward is a shotgun laser sight.

How to solve the Haunted Mansion secret puzzle

In the Haunted Mansion, you play four notes in different combinations on the piano to open paintings bordering the room. The one we’re looking at, in particular, is on the East side of the room. To open it, you play C-A-G-E on the piano. There is no notification that it worked, so you simply need to play the notes, t??urn around, and see the painting has slid away. Talk to the mushroom and as long as you have the flamethrower, you can claim your prize.

Your reward is an upgrade for your Flamethrower.

How to solve the Witch Wood Hedge Maze secret puzzle

There isn’t really much to the Witch Wood’s secret puzzle. It’s a box of Magnum Ammo that is sitting behind a pillar. However, once you solve the Hed?ge Maze and get to?? the middle, all the pillars fall. It’s then a simple matter of grabbing the prize on the way out.

Your reward is a box of Magnum Ammo.

How to solve The Crypt secret puzzle

The Crypt’s puzzle is an extension of the one in the dungeon. There, you needed to input the Data Disk, then set the numbers to the legs, arms, heads, and eyes of your subject to open the door. In the Crypt, you find Ophelia Pike (or a wax figure of her). So, you need to set that computer to human. By default, we have two arms, two legs, one head, and two eyes. Set that code in the computer, then return to the Crypt. A drawer beneath Ophelia wi??ll have opened.

Your reward is improved Med Kits.

How to solve the Mush Room secret puzzle

Normally, I’d advise against eating strange mushrooms, but that’s what you need to do in the Mush Room. The puzzle is a bit misleading. The banners on the wall lay out the mushrooms that are safe to eat and which are poisonous. You can look up the names on Wikipedia to figure out what is what. That doesn’t matter, though. To solve the Mush Room puzzle, you have to eat all six mushrooms.

Three of those mushrooms are poisonous, though two of them just damage your health. Just make? sure you’re usin?g antidote and med kits to keep your health topped up and take the damage. Once complete, you’ll get your prize.

Your reward is an upgrade for your pistol.

How to solve the Northeast Staff Hallway secret puzzle

This puzzle is rather straight??forward. There’s an entrance to the staff hallway through the Iron Maiden in The Dungeon. That would be the device in the back with all the spikes. It may seem like a bad idea �and it usually is �but in this case, it’s just an elevator to the Staff Hallways.

It leads to an area that is gated off. The switch is on the other side from the iron maiden, so you ne?ed to take the other entrance to the staff hallway to open it, but don’t. If you go up while the gate is closed,?? you can access the secret in a cavity on the wall (on your right if you enter from the iron maiden).

Your reward is a box of Magnum Ammo.

How to solve the Gift Stop cash register secret puzzle

The cash register puzzle in the Gift Stop requires that you add up specific price tags in the room and punch them into the register. Almost every item in the environment has a price tag, so you need to ensure you only grab the correct three. They are the Haunted Hilltop stuffed toy (a stuffed crow with a pumpkin on its head priced at $5.50), Classic Crow Country rubber doll (rubber crow doll with no additional descriptor priced at $10), and a Fairytale Town action figure (plastic crow with fairy wings priced at $4.25). Put all that together and you get $19.75. Punch 1975 into the cash register and it will slide open.

The reward is a Magnum.

How to solve the Gift Stop secret puzzle

The Gift Stop simply requires the silver key to enter??. Once inside, there i??????????????????????????sn’t really much puzzle to its secret puzzle. If you go behind the counter (past any guests that are inside), you will find a fridge with a glass door. Inside of it is a mushroom. Talk to it and it will give you your reward.

The reward is an upgrade for your shotgun.

How to solve the Train Room secret puzzle

I kind of hate the Train Room’s sec??ret puzzle. First, before you can do this puzzle, you need to have gotten the floppy? disk. You need it to work the PC and actually complete the puzzle.

The goal in the train room is to input a code based on the order of train cars on the stationary model train in the room. This means you have to figure out what color (yellow, blue, orange green) corresponds to what name (Delilah, Arabella, Bernadette, and the other). You do this by observing the two trains with the n??ames of their car marked, looking at the ones that overlap to deduce what is what.

Listen, it’s frustrating for me to even explain this. The code from the top to the bottom is BDAC. Enter that into the computer and one of the train?? cars will open.

The reward is the Flamethrower.

How to solve the Parking Lot secret puzzle

This isn’t much of a puzzle. Once you have the?? gold key, simply return to the parking lot and open the trunk of Edward Crow’s car (the only other car in the parking lot aside from ?Mara’s). It will open, and you can simply claim your prize.

The reward is a pair of sneakers.

How to solve the Northwest Staff Hallway secret puzzle

There’s an entrance to the Northwest Staff Hallway through the Fair Pond room. However, if you go through there first, it just l??eads to a back room with very little going on. However, if you search the north wall, the??re’s a panel that you can open. Behind it is a strange cyborg crow statue. Search it, and you can take one of the eyes, which turns out to be a shotgun laser sight.

Your reward is a magnum laser sight.

How to solve the storage room secret puzzle

Getting into the storage room in Ocean Kingdom where two secrets are marked (and a third’s hint is found within) can be a bit frustrating. While there’s a hint on what needs to be done found within the theatre, it relies on a mechanic that is rarely used in the game or even in the survival horror genre. You simply need to shoot the door with the flamethrower. J??u?st a bit, until it catches fire. It will burn down and open.

Once inside,? there is a mushroom on a shelf in the back of the room. ??Talk to it.

Your reward is an upgrade for your magnum.

How to solve the storage room octopus puzzle

This one drove me crazy. In the storage room, there’s a brass scale. Mara will remark that the needle on the scale won’t stay still and that there is a metal octopus sitting in it. The hint to this is in the Nemo’s Adventure submarine where you ?got the shotgun. If you shoot the Octopus floating with the other sea animals, the display on the right of the shooting range will come to life with a picture of an octopus. Interact with it and it will give you a fact.

This fact is that the Great Pacific Octopus weighs exactly 1825 Ounces. The seems pretty specific for the weight of an entire species, but if you take this number back to the scale and punch it in (1-8-2-5) the scale will unlock.

Your reward is more magnum ammo.

How to solve the Haunted Hilltop Puzzle

The actual clue for how to find the puzzle in Haunted Hilltop is actually found in the storage room in the Ocean Kingdom area of Crow Country. However, you don’t need to go there to solve the puzzle. If you go into the storage room, there is a bell-shaped bird on a shelf, a lot like the one stationed outside of The Mansion. If you recall, you had to ring the doorbell the same number of times that the bird squawked. The bird on the shelf will squawk eight times. If you ring the doorbell exactly eight times and stop, the window will swing open.

Your reward is a box of Magnum Ammo.

The post ?How to solve all 15 secret puzzles in Crow Country appeared first on Destructoid.

Getting weary of the pistol in Crow Country? It can fee??l like you’re married to it considering how long it remains your only friend. You even find a lot of shotgun ammo scattered? around the early areas, but where is your pump-action pal?

You come close to finding a shotgun in the Haunted Hilltop area. In The Crypt, you’re threatened by one held by an animatronic hand, but when you attempt to take it, it breaks apart and Mara mentions that it’s plastic. Tha?t’s not the shotgun, don’t worry. You didn’t do something wrong and broke it.

You find the real shotgun after you reach the Ocean Kingdom section of the park (West of the crow’s house). When you get to that area, there’s a little submarine on the south side that you enter. The room you find yourself in is a save ro??om.

How to solve the Ocean Kingdom sea creature puzzle

In Crow Country's submarine room, there’s a little cabinet with the shotgun locked inside. In order to open it, you need to play a game on the south side of? the submarine. In this game, you shoot animatronic sea creatures which will add and subtract from your score. There are little toy guns the?re, but since they don’t work, you’ll be using your pistol.

The goal is to get your score to 21. There is a sign there that tells you the value of all the sea creatures. For posterity, ??it says this:

• Octopus: Plus 2
• Shark: Plus 6
• Jellyfish: Minus 5
• Dolphin: Minus 3
• Pufferfish: Multiply by 2
• Turtle: Reset to zero

There isn’t a maximum number of moves you make, so if you don’t want to do the math (I wouldn’t blame you), you can just keep adjusting up and dow?n until you hit 21. However, another way to avoid math is finding a letter elsewhere in the game that gives the advice to use the combination:

• Shark, Shark, Shark, Shark, Dolphin.

However, that’s not the only way to get to 21, that’s just a s?imple way. You could also do this to save a bullet:

• Shark, Shark, Pufferfish, Dolphin

Once your score reaches exactly 21, the cabinet will unlock and the shotgun will be yours. Its ammunition is buckshot, so i??t has a spray to it. However, if you us??e it at close range, it will do massive damage to enemies. After the shotgun, you will eventually find the magnum and the flamethrower to round out your arsenal.

The post How to get the Shotgun in Crow Country appeared first on Destructoid.

There are now more PS1-inspired horror games out now than there were actual horror games on the PS1. That isn’t a milestone that was crossed by Crow Country, it’s just an observation.

It’s ha??rd to say what, exactly, made the PS1 the perfect visual home for horror. It’s possible that it’s because it was modern enough to enable various ways of depicting the horror, but old enough that your imagination was left to fill in some of the blanks left by the low-poly, low-resolution graphics. It ??could also be because it was probably the last console that a lot of people played through fuzzy RF, and something about video noise makes the experience feel more tangibly real.

Nonetheless, returning to the blocky pixelation of the early 3D era brought about a renaissance in the horror genre, and if Crow Country is any indication, it’s still a long way fr??om running out ?of gas.

Crow Country (PC [Reviewed], PS5, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: SFB Games
Publisher: SFB Games
Released: May 9, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

Crow Country is heavily inspired by the survival horror sub-genre, taking cues from games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. This not only is apparent from the visual style, but the puzzle design as well. The eponymous amusement park that you explore was buil??t by people with strange notions towards door locks and where keys s??hould be stored.

You play as Special Agent Mara Forest, who is investigating the disappearance of Edward Crow, the name?sake creator of the amusement park Crow Country. The park closed down two years prio??r to the start of the game, following the injury of a guest and other strange happenings.

Crow Country is played from a ¾ angle. While the graphics try and replicate the low-resolution blockiness of the PS1 hardware, it does so in an interesting way. The environments are actually quite detailed in a way that wouldn’t be possible on the console, and that’s because, while they’re 3D in actuality, they’re supposed to look like the pre-rendered 2D backgrounds used in games like Resident Evil and Parasite Eve.

This is done surprisingly well, since you’re still able to freely rotate t??he camera, but through the use of clever lighting, it still manages to replicate the ??awkward 3D of the era. Characters and interactive objects still stand out because they don’t have the same sheen as everything else in the environment, so the whole effect comes off quite cleverly.

While the camera is at a fixed angle, you’re still free to aim for the heads and shoulders, knees, and toes of you??r enemies. Headshots do more damage (if they have anything identifiable as a head), but attacking from a close range is the most important factor.

While being a survival horror game, you can’t carry muc??h ammunition for your weapons, but vending machines throughout the environment will provide a bit more to keep you going. Enemies in? the environment will stay dead, but as you progress, areas change, and new enemies will take their place. This means that the whole “survival�part of survival horror is pretty understated. It isn’t difficult to stay alive, but that’s maybe not the point.

When I played the demo back in October, I was kind of worried that Crow Country wouldn’t do enough to differentiate itself from the games that inspired it. However, I think what manages to separat?e it is the?? aloof confidence it presents itself with.

The dialogue is laced with humor, but it’s rarely in a self-deprecating way.? When it does poke fun at its own video-gaminess, it does it with a sort of wink without laboring on a joke. It’s not a parody of survival horror, it’s just amiable and light-hearted.

While I didn’t find Crow Country to be all that scary (I’m rarely horrified by horror in general ?these days, so I’m not the best judge of fear factor), I was extremely impressed by the plot and storytelling. I probably shouldn’t be surprised with Ada??m Vian behind the pen.

The story is largely told through documents in the environment and characters that you meet. There aren’t really any cutscenes, but there are moments of dialogue. Mostly, you’re given pieces of the greater mystery, and it’s extremely competent at giving you just enough that you’re able to star??t figuring things out before it’s more overtly told.

There are threads to the mystery, and you follow them, bit by bit, until they all converge in the end. Information that ties into Crow Country’s overall conclusion is handed to you directly from the start. If you’re really sharp, you ??ca??n guess some of the twists, but even then, I did not see the ending revelation coming.

If anything, I’m jealous of how masterfully the story is told. But, again, it's to be expected from SFB Games.

When all is said and done, Crow Country clocks in at around 6-8 hours. There are some optional bosses and secret puzzles that you can do that will stretch things out a bit. Then, once t??he game is complete, some extras get unlocked for your next playthrough.

Crow Country doesn’t exactly rewrite the playbook for survival horror. It leans pretty heavily on those that came before it. However, what it builds on top of the foundation is extraordinarily impressive. This is easily one of the best horror games I’ve played, and it doesn’t even seem like it’s trying that hard. It maybe lacks some of the more psychological themes that have made others stick firmly in my memory, but the playfulness and confidence of Crow Country more than make up for tha??t. It’s definitely worth ?a visit.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Crow Country appeared first on Destructoid.

SFB Games has announced that their retro-inspired survival horror game, Crow Country, will be released on PC and PS5 on May 9th.

Crow Country has you playing as Mara Forest, an investigator who explores an abandoned amusement park to discover its dark secrets. While it uses an angled, ¾ angle camera system, it has a more detailed aiming system, allowing ??it to feel like a mix of modern and classic design. The amusement park also has you roaming, solving puzzles, and gathering items in a metroidvania/gated exploration sort of way.

I played the demo when it dropped back in October, and have been anticipating this release ever since. I simply love its style and storytelling chops. A new trailer dr??opped alongside this announcement, which shows off some areas and events that weren’t featured in the demo, so now I’m even more interested. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long.

Crow Country is being released on PC and PS5 on May 9, 2024. A demo is av????ailable to play now.

The post Survival horror from Snipperc?lip devs Crow Country releases in May appeared first on Destructoid.

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 slat??ed?? 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 ove??r 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 th?e N64, and there was no indoor combat.

I have a couple of minor concerns based on the d?emo. 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 sec??ond is if the whole “survival�aspect is going to adequ??ately 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 PlaySta?tion, and the demo will be available today. If you’re a fan of PS1-era surviva??l horror, you should definitely check it out.

The post Snipperclips dev announces survival horror game, Crow Coun?try appeared first on Destructoid.