Episode 176 - Dissolve Those Bones - Crow Country

We’re old enough. Welcome back to NOCLIP, and beware, for it is
Halloween! To kick off October, we’re talking about Crow Country, a
throwback survival horror game that does a lot to stand out in its
field. The game is set in an amusement park and has a unique
polygonal graphic style that gives an oddly whimsical aesthetic. It
makes good use of this with its environments: haunted houses,
underwater exhibits and fantasy fairy forests. Each new area feels
a little quirky, but always with that chunky, blocky texture that
sells the disheveled feel of the park itself. All of this is in
service of a short but tightly executed survival horror game with
disempowered combat, save rooms without checkpoints, item
collection and puzzles to solve. It has the hallmarks of the genre,
but each mechanic is implemented in a well thought out way. We’re
going to be talking about how the one location setting helps teach
the player the layout while hiding surprises, how the simplicity of
some mechanics shine light on progression and storytelling, and we
make the tough call to shoot everything in sight. Thank you for
joining us again this week! We’re excited as always to start
talking about horror titles, and Crow Country is the perfect first
game to play in a month like this. It feels like a nostalgic
throwback, but obviously brings with it the lessons learned over
decades of innovation in the genre. How did you feel about this
relatively short entry into the genre? Let us know over on the
Discord server or in the comments! Next time, we’re going to be
talking about Omori, which is a more different kind of horror game,
so we hope you’ll join us for that.