Crow Country

Crow Country is a very special game. It's incredibly obvious that it's made with a clear passion for old school survival horror games, but it's also original in many ways. The PS1-style aesthetic, that manages to be both ugly and beautiful at the same time, is the first thing that catches your attention. And when you boot it up, you're met with a very simple menu screen. The eerie and mysterious tune that plays in the background seems almost like a promise of what's to come. On that note, every single track is magnificent, and really captures the derelict amusement park vibe. I especially like the safe room track. It's hard to not like this game if you even remotely enjoy horror themes, and it would be a very accessible game for someone who's entirely new to horror as well. The game is definitely creepy but the scare factor is quite low in comparison to many other horror games. There's also no inventory management, apart from having a cap on the number of consumable items you can carry, and the game is in general very easy even on the normal difficulty. What Crow Country really does incredibly well, in my opinion, are its puzzles. The game has A LOT of them, and I'd say that they're very well tuned difficulty wise. Some puzzles are harder than others but pretty much every puzzle feels satisfying and rewarding to solve. There is one puzzle that is not designed that well and feels like it needed more work, but other than that, they are all pretty solid. The map is a real joy to explore, thanks to how incredibly dense it is with things to interact with. You can probably run across the whole map in under a minute, but each room is littered with interesting items, notes and puzzles. I loved exploring every nook and cranny, while uncovering more of the story and meeting interesting characters along the way. On that topic, I should also add that the story of Crow Country is amazing. There was a moment where I was absolutely blown away by it, and I also noticed more things on a second playthrough that didn't make sense during my first one. It would be interesting if there were multiple or secret endings, especially when the game is so short (roughly 5-6 hours), but regardless, it's a fantastic game that respects your time and that's pretty rare these days.