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dkirschner's Crow Country (PS5)
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| [October 15, 2025 04:25:14 PM]
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Bought a new TV (old one died two weeks after moving), ditched the aging surround sound system (waiting on a sound bar for replacement), and upgraded my HDMI cable so that the PS5 can output 4k at 120hz. So naturally, I subscribed to PS Plus to bask in my upgraded setup and promptly selected a PS1-style game that could probably run on a toaster.
Crow Country is better than it has any right to be, a totally adept and captivating survival horror game. You play as Mara, a woman investigating a derelict amusement park near Atlanta, Georgia. I was so surprised to see it set there that I thought the devs might have been from there, but no, they are British. I am still curious if they are familiar with the old (unfortunately named) Dixieland (now renamed "Fun Spot") in Fayetteville. Anyway, the park has been closed for a couple years and there are rumors of monsters. Mara discovers that, yes, there are monsters, and that there is quite the mystery to uncover.
None of this sets up Crow Country to be particularly great or anything, but every aspect of the game clicks just right. It's like a small-scale Resident Evil or Silent Hill. The story is interesting and leads you deeper and deeper into the park. The characters are intriguing, each with their own motives related to the story. The Crow Country amusement park itself is detailed, well laid out with several distinct areas, and creepy. The enemies are gross and dangerous. The puzzles are relatively simple yet clever (I got 8/15 secrets). The combat is very old-school-survival-horror, frustrating as that can be. Aiming can be a pain in the butt, but the thing I liked least about the combat was that enemies can corner you. I died probably 5 times, usually from getting cornered (though one time from ignoring a warning about pulling a book from a shelf that was titled something like "Sudden Death" and getting a spike to the face) and each time, you go back to your last save, which could have been a while ago, thanks to some old-school design.
I'm most impressed by just how tight everything felt. There are "staff memos" all over the park that give you clues as to how to acquire items or solve puzzles, and I was never truly stuck. If I thought I was, I'd go back to the collected staff memos and flip through them for a reference to something I hadn't done yet, then focus on that. A couple times, not knowing where to go after getting a new key, I stumbled on a room that needed that key. Locked doors are marked on the map, and unsolved puzzles are circled, but there is never any indication of what items are to be used where (i.e., all locked doors are red on the map; there is no differentiation between those that need a silver key or a gold key or whatever, even after you have discovered the doors). Luckily, the map isn't very big, and there is, if not a "fast travel" system, a "faster travel" system that you gain access to later on. So being stuck means there are only so many places you can look.
Definitely recommend for a short survival horror experience. It doesn't reinvent the genre or anything, but it's just so solid.
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dkirschner's Crow Country (PS5)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Monday 13 October, 2025
GameLog closed on: Wednesday 15 October, 2025 |
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This is the only GameLog for Crow Country. |
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