SFB Video games, the builders behind Snipperclips and Tangle Tower, are dipping their toes into PS1-inspired survival horror with Crow Nation. Proper now, it’s slated for PS5 and Steam, and whereas I can’t discover a launch window, there’s a demo accessible beginning in the present day.

You play as Mara Forest, an investigator courageous sufficient to go looking an deserted amusement park in a brief, white costume. She’s trying to find the eccentric and elusive Edward Crow, a rich man who financed the eponymous amusement park, Crow Nation. The amusement park has been left to rot for over a 12 months, and I’m fairly positive you discover out why within the demo, however I can’t keep in mind, and I forgot to avoid wasting the footage I took. Spooky!

That’s proper! I bought an early hands-on with the demo. It’s a moderately beefy chunk of the sport’s opening. It performs loads like a Resident Evil survival horror title however from a tilted, top-down angle and with extra sprinkling of humor. However whereas it adopts a extra celestial viewpoint, Crow Nation options handbook aiming, permitting you to at all times purpose for the top. If it has a head.

My most necessary takeaway, nevertheless, is that, having completed the demo, I need to play extra. The demo’s pacing and sense of exploration are implausible. Past the blocky, pixelated visuals, it’s the music that basically sells the PS1-era aesthetic, being moody, atmospheric, and sparse. In just a few methods, the complete manufacturing jogs my memory of Physique Harvest’s inside segments. Besides that sport was on the N64, and there was no indoor fight.

I’ve a few minor issues primarily based on the demo. The primary is whether or not or not it’s going to attempt to differentiate itself each narratively and mechanically from different survival horror video games past simply the addition of sunshine humor. There are hints that it has a story trick up its sleeve, so we’ll have to attend and see.

The second is that if the entire “survival” side goes to adequately materialize. Enemies appear to remain useless as soon as you are taking them out, which lets you make rooms and corridors secure for traversal. I don’t thoughts that, however there are not any melee weapons within the demo, and to compensate for that, you’ll be able to return to Mara’s automotive at any time to restock on pistol ammo. If somebody is set to not spend their extra unique ammunition, they will simply preserve pulling from the automotive’s infinite armory.

The deliberate launch date for Crow Nation is within the obscure window of 2024. It’s coming to PC and PlayStation, and the demo will likely be accessible in the present day. Should you’re a fan of PS1-era survival horror, it’s best to positively test it out.