Review of Crow Country: The Return of 32-Bit Survival Horror

These wonderful 90sparticularly in the generation of 32 bita time when a large number of proposals were born Survival horror this marked a before and after in the industry. Even though thirty years have passed since then, SFB Games came to show us with Raven Country how wonderful it can be, even in the middle of 2024, a title of the aforementioned genre that seems to come out of this golden age.

Without further ado, let’s begin the analysis starting with:

A story that will keep you attentive, but…

We are Mara Forest, an agent sent to investigate an amusement park that closed years ago called Crow Country (hence the game’s title). In his odyssey, the agent will find himself involved in a search for the founder of the park, Edward Crow, necessary to solve the investigation but whose whereabouts are unknown. Although, unfortunately for him, upon entering the aforementioned park, he discovers what it really became after its closure: a hell full of monsters who are only looking for poor victims to infect.

From here, The story becomes more and more interesting. This is not really a very important point in this type of proposal, but it is undoubtedly a more than welcome incentive. However, the “but…” in the subtitle of the header is not included for nothing, and there is a negative point (almost the only one) in the way of recounting the events. Any plot information will be revealed through the text. Whether it’s reading notes or talking to the characters, everything will be read since, even if we speak, there are no dubbed voices for the characters. This, yes, All texts are localized in perfect Spanish which even uses jargon typical of our language.

Mechanics with the flavor of 90s Survival Horror

Raven Country It is based on the use of known mechanics

by any lover of the genre to which it belongs, who has played works like resident Evil o silent Hill, among others. You already know what it is, Shoot everything that can bother us, always keeping in mind to save ammunition, since these are not abundant at all. Saving the game is manual and inventory spaces are limited, but not in the style of the Capcom saga. There is no limit to the number of items we can carry at one time, but there is a limit to the quantity of a single item. For example, we cannot carry more than 5 grenades or 32 pistol bullets with us.

Then, both to advance in the main objective and to collect various improvements or resources (and even weapons), you will have to solve various puzzles. A few fairly well thought out puzzles, offering us an intermediate difficulty which will allow us to carry them out without extreme complications, and at the same time will give us a great feeling of satisfaction. Some are the most ingenious and original that I have found in this genre, like reaching a certain score (which you have to guess) in a series of arcade games, or shooting certain places to make way for an event. I’m leaving this section here so as not to incur any spoilers.

The weapon aiming system gives us the freedom to shoot wherever we want. When aiming, a crosshair extends that we can control with the joystick and direct where we specifically want to shoot. It’s something very interesting that allows us, thanks to current technologies, to deliver shots in a way that we couldn’t see in titles that are 30 years old. However, this aiming system will sometimes cause us to miss a few shots due to the inaccuracy of the system, which can be solved later by finding the respective laser sights for each weapon.

In the Land of Crows, traps are another enemy

Raven Country It features biological horrors of all kinds. We will see infected humanoid monsters, normal size or smaller, long and even enormous, which seem straight out of our worst nightmares. As well as patterns, optional and obligatory, They are not too complicated to defeat but they will make things a little more complicated for us. Here I want to take the opportunity to add, without diving into it to avoid spoilers, that The final battle of the adventure disappointed me. However, moving on to other dangers, there is an additional one that always attacks by surprise: traps.

Here, the pitfalls are not a simple anecdotal element.

As soon as they appear, they will continue to block our path, forcing us to be attentive at all times on the floor, ceiling and walls, always vigilant to avoid giant lamps falling on us, gas infections, or even explosions by picking up objects that at first glance looked like first aid kits or ammunition . Of course, we can also use other tricks to our advantage. The camera is so close to the protagonist that it will not be possible for us to see enemies or traps from afar. It is essential to always be vigilant, and it should be noted that Enemies and traps respawn endlessly when moving from one area to another.

Do you usually get lost? Crow Country helps you with that

If you’re a player who tends to lose your bearings or sometimes stand still without knowing what to do, you’re in luck. Raven Country takes this into account, and does not just solve it by implementing And a simple map, as usual, that shows us where the important puzzles are. Additionally, notes have been added that explain the commands as well as some tips and a system by which a divination machine “predicts” the future and reveals to us what we should do next. But be careful, because we can only use it 10 times in total during the entire game.

These machines are spread across the game map, divided into small rooms, halls and corridors. To move from one area to another, there will be a loading screen for a few seconds which is already familiar to us from the classics of the genre. It wouldn’t have hurt to have some animation when changing cabins, much like the legendary door openings of the first resident Evil. But we’re obviously not talking about anything very important.

An absolutely brilliant general technical section

The playable section is not the only thing that characterizes Raven Country as a work strongly inspired by 32 bits. Its graphics and sound also reveal an incredible and very well implemented similarity with those of the games released in those years. Screen filter in the style of CRT televisions, polygonal models, sound effects from another era and exquisite music come together to offer us a technical section that fits you like a glove what the people at SFB Games wanted to create.

And if we talk about optimization, everything will continue to be good words. In my game, I would say that I have absolutely not encountered no bugs to highlight, not even minor. This with a rock-stable fps rate at any time, they play Raven Country be an absolute delight.

Has Crow Country succeeded in rediscovering the classic essence of Survival Horror?

Finally, we will answer very quickly the question that you can read at the head of this paragraph: yes, Raven Country has very successfully recaptured the classic essence of the survival horror genre. An intriguing and well-planned story, which can become heavy due to the fact that it requires us to read so much. Spectacularly well thought out puzzles, a technical part that takes us back to the 32-bit console generation, secrets everywhere, rewards for reaching certain ranks at the end of the games… All this too for a fairly reasonable price. starting price.

With everything said in this analysis, it’s obvious that you don’t need to see the rating I deemed appropriate to give it. You already imagine that we are faced with a very clear situation, and since Xbox Area, we can only hope that one day we will have an even better, or at least equal quality, sequel to this marvel brought to us by the independent studio SFB Games.