Nothing hits you in the nostalgia bone more than survival horror games on the first PlayStation. Still, as gamers, we’ve evolved from the low-poly 3D graphics, synth soundtracks, and voiceless dialogues. Now, you can experience that feeling with SFB Games’ PS1 survival horror-inspired Crow Country.
Crow Country takes players to the abandoned Crow Country amusement park as Mara Forest and investigates the mysterious reasons behind the park’s abrupt closure as well as the disappearance of its owner Edward Crow.
Now, onto the game itself! The controls are minimal and easy to learn and modify for your playthrough. A nice touch the devs put in Crow Country is the ability to rotate the camera, allowing you to see objects from different directions! The soundtrack is reminiscent of the old-school horror games I played on PS1 growing up. The lack of dialogue is OK in this game as the written dialogue is to the point and short.
The game’s graphics are a pleasant callback to the 90s horror games that may look laughable now to some players but this kind of artwork would have given dudes like me nightmares! And I must admit, some of the enemies in this game are pretty creepy-looking.
Gameplay-wise, it’s a survival horror. You explore, gather resources, solve puzzles, and try to live to see the end. What sets this game apart from the ones in the past and present, you have the option to change the game from survival horror mode to exploration mode, in exploration mode there are no monsters to fight BUT the world is still pretty creepy.
Overall, I enjoyed this love letter to 90s horror gaming. The perfect example of less is more. With its atmosphere, tastefully low graphics, intriguing story, rewarding exploration and combat, and not making the game too complicated with puzzles, Crow Country scores pretty well with an 8.5/10 as the game could use some more scares.
Crow Country is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
