On the surface, Crow Country is an appeal to nostalgia in the same way as Dusk or the recent crop of modernized boomer shooters. With a quasi-fixed camera, fuzzy, polygonal visuals, and mechanics lifted from old-school Resident Evil and Silent Hill, it appears, at a glance, like a calculated appeal to your gaming memories – it’s even set in the ‘90s. But there’s a smart wrinkle in the setup, a little narrative twist that I won’t spoil, that lends Crow Country a more cynical, subversive edge when it comes to the idea of skipping back in time. Rightly beloved on Steam, SFB’s plucky survival horror game is now cheaper than ever alongside five other recent genre hits.
You are Mara Forest, a young investigator dispatched to find Edward Crow, the owner and operator of the titular Crow County amusement park. Until recently, Crow Country was a favored local attraction for families and children, but a bizarre, mysterious accident forced the park to close, and since then, things have only gotten weirder and more dangerous. Played from a combined isometric and fixed perspective, Crow Country accentuates the tenets of survival horror games. Ammunition is limited, health is scarce, enemies can be deadly, and you need to backtrack through the environment to solve increasingly abstract puzzles.
Spiritually, it’s like a Resident Evil, Silent Hill, or Parasite Eve game that never was, a kind of abandoned sequel that also pays keen homage to all its main inspirations. But there’s more to Crow Country than just references and reminiscence. Particularly in the final act, when the scare count also goes through the roof, the indie game becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Released back in May, Crow Country has attracted more than 2,800 Steam user reviews, 98% of which are positive. If you want to buy it on its own, it’s now available for its lowest price yet at $17.99 / £15.07. However, you might be more interested in the new Summer Fright Night Bundle, which contains Crow Country and five other horror favorites.
Life Eater, by El Paso, Elsewhere studio Strange Scaffold, is a seriously dark comedy whereby you must observe and kidnap your neighbors in order to feed them to an elder god. By day, you’re a regular guy with a regular job. By night, you’re a modern-day druid, trying to appease your Eldritch flatmate with a steady supply of flesh.
There’s also Among The Sleep, a pioneer of the independent horror games we recognize today. You’re a small child and something is in your house trying to destroy you. Run, hide, and do what you can to survive.
Rounding out the bundle, Venture to the Vile is a side-scrolling Metroidvania game with a handcrafted, folklore aesthetic, Harvest Hunt is a first-person fear fest where you have to protect your small village from mysterious, nightly terrors, and Hauntii is an underappreciated short-form puzzle game with hints of Don’t Starve. If you want the entire bundle and all six games, it’s available for around $75 / £58.83 right here.
Otherwise, you might want to get the best survival games, or maybe the best old games, if you’re a fan of classic survival horror.
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