An astoundingly good entry into the Survival Horror genre.
It is intelligent, humorous, horrifying, and cheeky all at the same time.
The enemy designs are simple but effective, the story and mystery are intriguing, the main character is likable and relatable, it is just a fantastic game.

Don't dismiss it as just a throwback to survival horror classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. This game is tight. It delivers a lot in a small package, and I haven't had this much fun with a horror game in a long time. The ending is just the cherry on top. See for yourself.

Crow Country has it all. Weird monsters, a dark story, untrustworthy strangers, a creepy environment, pleasingly clunky combat controls, door puzzles, exploration, resource management, and a bizarre environment that is overwhelming at first but eventually allows you to master it.

For the first half, I didn't understand why so many genre enthusiasts raved so positively about this game. I began nursing a (somewhat perverse) intention to leave a Not Recommended Steam review, because I felt a negative voice was needed to temper its "Overwhelmingly Positive" record. Sure, it's good, and it nails the survival horror idiom, and it does everything well, and it's creepy, and the retro graphics and setting evoke nostalgia for the very first games of this type. But where's the innovation? Where's the "aha" moment? When can I expect the huge meta twist that blows me away, like, it's a game inside a game? Or it scans my Steam account to turn my greatest gaming fears against me? Or I have to plug my controller into a different port? There's gotta be something like this, but where is it? Where's the mindf*ck?

As I slowly sank into the second half of the game, I realized what the mindf*ck is: there is no mindf*ck. This is simply an excellently designed survival horror game that does everything right, and like all the best survival horror, once you've been soaking in it long enough, it becomes a part of you.

There's really not much else to say - you won't regret playing this and that's all you really need to know. I do have a couple more comments and then I'll let you get to it.

If I felt any disappointment in my experience, it's only because I chose the Survival Horror (medium) difficulty instead of Murder of Crows (hard). Once I got the hang of things, I never really worried about dying, and certainly not about running out of ammunition. Genre veterans, play on hard!

[Bonus: there is also Exploration Mode (easy), which eliminates combat altogether! If your hands aren't as quick as they used to be, you don't have to deal with getting overwhelmed by monsters and can just enjoy the creepy atmosphere, puzzles, and story. Or if you have a friend who never played survival horror, this could be a great introduction.]

When I first became interested in the game, I shrugged and decided to wait to buy it until I finished some other things I'm playing, or maybe until the price dropped. DO NOT BE LIKE ME. If you have a job, this is easily worth full price $20 USD and 7-8 hours of your time. (Luckily for me, a friend gifted me a copy. It would have been SO dumb of me to miss out on this over $20.)

Right now, tonight, support these devs, buy full price, turn out the lights, and dig into a perfectly realized example of what survival horror can be.

👍