Have you ever heard a game pitch that instantly made your ears feel excited? A combination of words or ideas that made you think, “Okay, I have to experience this ASAP”?this happened to me crow countrythe latest title comes from SFB gamesthe developer you may know best as the team behind the puzzle game Scissor clip. Snipperclips looks pretty cute, but Crow Country is still cute in a way, but it’s a survival horror game set in an abandoned crow-themed theme park that’s inspired by final fantasy 7 and resident Evil. Yes, that’s what I call a good sales pitch. Best of all, you can even try it out for yourself via the Steam Next Fest demo. But first, let me sell it to you a little more.
Crow Country puts you in the role of Agent Mara Forest, a mysterious character whose design quickly joins the history of all female horror game protagonists. Launching the demo takes you to the beginning of the game and tells you very little information – just Marla’s name, really. Everything else is up to you to figure out, man, I love a mystery, especially one set in a fictional theme park that has been closed due to the mysterious disappearance of its owner.
Crow Country | Steam Next Fest Trailer | Demo Update
Aesthetically, you can immediately see where the inspiration for Final Fantasy 7 comes from. While Mara may be more defined than Polygon Cloud, she has a similar toy-like design that I personally think a lot of OG FF7 character models have. Unlike Final Fantasy 7 and PS1-era Resident Evil, all the backgrounds are rendered in real time because you can manipulate the camera, but it all retains the pre-rendered feel that those classic games excelled at.
It really captures that style, clearly capitalizing on the ongoing resurgence of PS1-era aesthetics, and still manages to retain the wealth of detail that the original backgrounds often had. There’s so much to see here, and each individual area feels like a diorama, fitting in perfectly with the theme park setting.
Aesthetics aside, though, the game largely borrows from Resident Evil with a few tweaks. For one, the shooting is similar to Resident Evil, except you can aim pretty much anywhere on the screen. In a way, this means you have more versatility, but it also adds more challenges because you have to be more precise at times. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Resi-inspired game without puzzles, and the demo has a lot to solve – don’t expect too difficult of a challenge right off the bat, but then again, the demo does seem to be The game begins. An added bonus of this demo is that there are 15 hidden Crystal Crows to find and shoot, although I haven’t managed to find them all yet.
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One of my favorite things about the demo, and I hope it makes it into the final game, is the two modes you can play the game in – Survival, where enemies mean danger could be around any corner, or Exploration, where there’s nothing will attack you and you are free to explore. The vibe is so strong and unsettling just by being in an abandoned theme park about crows (who would open something like that?), so I love that people who just want to explore a weird world can do so without the pressure Do this under the circumstances. Photograph something. Plus, it again adds to that diorama/toy feel and you can really play with it however you want.
There are a lot of great Steam Next Fest demos for you to check out (and we’ve got some recommendations for you too), but of the games I’ve played so far, Crow Country is hands down my favorite – I’d be hard-pressed to find one A game that perfectly combines the concepts of two completely different games, Final Fantasy 7 and Resident Evil. Now I just need to find those crows…
Crown Country doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s planned to be released on PC and PlayStation. Steam Next Fest ends on February 12th.
