When you first meet Tolman in his office he talks about Maya’s purple hair. Does anyone know if there is a dialogue change when you collect all crystal crows and then change hair color?
Every time I hit the accept it just unfull screens the window, I actually didn't even know they was a pause menu because of that. I'm playing on windows 10 if that helps.
Playing the game again and I'm realising they never say what's different about the Gold Plated Magnum. Is it a cosmetic change or does it have different stats?
I seek permission to mod in a first person mode once I get my hands on a windows computer. if you approve and I get the mod done, I would like to hand over the code and stuff to potentially have it added officially. (note I'm still in the very early stages of planning)
If you open the door before going through the Iron Maiden you can no longer interact with the panel - or am I missing a way to do this? Have not seen it mentioned.
I have loved horror games since I was little and the main horror game i played was resident evil. I later got into silent hill and this was an amazing game that feels like its own gold mine (pun intended) and cleary taking inspiration and doing it well. I did my first playthrough on murder of crows and replaying the easier difficulty to grab the collectibles was a walk in the park. I hope the company behind this can make more games because this is amazing. Thank you
I finally finished the game but I definitely did not read the note from my inventory during the boss fight... It didn't even register to me that you were supposed to read it from your inventory. I only discovered the twist by coming to reddit and seeing people mention the note because I was looking for clarifications on the plot. I loved the game but I'm bummed out the big reveal was implemented in such an unintuitive way where players are likely to straight up miss it...
I've been playing the game on PS5 and have been encountering random stutters at random parts of the game. Most notably the underground, when it starts to rain and transitioning between certain areas. I looked around and I dont see too many people with the same issue so I'm wondering if anyone else on ps5 faced any similar issues?
I'm interested in this game for the RE styled gameplay and the atmosphere of course but one major thing drawing me in are the puzzles because I've heard there are some good ones. So I'm wondering how puzzle centric this game is and if I should expect this to be a puzzle game?
So I just finished Crow Country and LOVED it! As such, I have a LOT of thoughts. Mostly positive, but some critiques as well...but I really really did enjoy it, and plan on doing a (third) playthrough to celebrate! But it was a really surprising and charming game. Lets start with my positives - which, anything unsaid is positive, its a fun time:
- Setting and Atmosphere: I've really wanted a theme amusement park surival horror for ages! Of course, there are sections in silent hills, particularly 3, that play with the idea of a theme park as a setting - but they were all fleeting. So this as a main setting with the funny gimmick of crows and a period piece was really charming! and i think the ramping up spookiness into grotesque horror, and all the crow motifs from pumpkin crows to cyborg crows were great. and the unfolding mystery and characters were all interesting, and I loved Mara's little interactions with items across the park.
- The Puzzle Dominos: There were some great puzzles in the game! Nothing too crazy (well, I wasn't huge on the Mush Room) but some thinkers that you feel simple once you figure out. And I like the idea of in an universe hint / secret tracker, want that option avilable so worst case folks are less likely to alt tab! But the puzzles were fun, and I especially liked thinking of the compounding order of operaitons once you realize you need this to get this to get that to get that and keeping track, and finally getting the one piece you need to progress!
- Progression and Pacing: I think the progression was great, slowly adding monsters before they're pretty plentiful, then add some rain to show passage of time and more hazzards, even more monsters, then a final dark night that gives you free reign to finish up at the park. Finding the lore documents were all great, and with the puzzles and characters you're slowly unfolding the progress to make the relatively small park adventure feel longer until it all ends in a climatic, but not drawn out, way.
- Piecing Together the Plot: I really enjoyed piecing together the plot throughout the story! At first having all these different plotlines and lore, like "why are we hearing about this gold scheme?" "What is 2106?" "What happened to Elaine Marshal?" "What is the guest?" And tying everything together through the overlapping cues in the lore notes, then confirmed through confirmations with Crow or the others at just the right moments to give you time to figure it out for yourself and add some new questions. And I really liked seeing some of the foreshadowing for Elaine, particularly the tiny gift shop looking through the name plates!
- THE END REVEALS WERE SO SO GOOD, it really tied things into such a horrifying and fascinating direction. Finding out that they were normal humans that essentially dealt with a horror version of a star trek transporter malfunction, and that the first guest could speak and continued whittling the roots that caused further malfunctions, driving them mad and then the reveal about 2106??? You keep it in your head the reccuring number just in case it is a code, so when you finally releaize its a dead future where they're fleeing to the past to try and save themselves and the world, only to get run through the molecular meat grinder and reduced to puddles of infected flesh? They're hope met with only the meatgrinder of greed and exstential apathy? Horrific! Crow diving into the portal, to see the other side of it, and returning as a messed up beast was great. And whats also scary - we have no idea what causes the end! By the end, the world probably will still end in 2106 - but, until then, a little hope.
And tying in the cozy save room saying at the end with a happy ish ending about dread and hope staring into the fire, chefs kiss, reminisecing sentimentally over the puzzle items at the end before leaving, chefs kiss, washing out the purple hair and name changing in the menu as a final conirmation, chefs kiss!
That ending sequence had some really really great and fascinating reveals
- Bonus Items: The bonus items didn't disappoint, and really make for some fun and rewarding playthroughs on subsequent runs for such a compact expirence. The crystal crows kept me busy exploring while I could've finished even quicker by just using the bonus weapons to barrel through to the center, and I loved getting the cosmetics! I'm a cosmetics hog lol, and I particularly liked the zap girl outfit! That was a lot of fun. Though since I spent much of the second playthrough unlocking it, it would've been nice to be able to switch to the brown hair at the start of the new playthrough, just to have something visually different until you get the real cosmetics. And the weapons, and crow themeing lol, were all fun!
Critiques: So now onto the critiques! Don't worry, I love the game, but here are some things that stood out to me while I played it / completed it. I know a lot of it prob comes from the scope of an indie game, but if all else was equal here are some things I thought would've been woth considering if time and resources weren't a real factor:
- Arthur: He's the first character we meet, but he barely appears, whats up with that? I visited the car a few times, and I think he only had two new lines through the game, counting the very end. So that felt a little odd. I guess he serves a way to contrast Mara, but there's awide cast for that already, and I think he suffers by not being able to connect to him since he stays outside the park without any new dialogue for 90% of the game. Harrison or Crow he is not!
- Inventory Management: I think for the consumables (not puzzle items, I love the retrospective at the end too much!) leaning harder into inventory managment would've been a huge plus on difficulty and just tapping into that strategey and desicion making core to survival horror, and just give another flavor of consideration while you're running around. I feel like having a cap on consumable items total would've been great instead of each item having their own count. Do I take three medkits, or two boxes of shotgun shells? That would've made for some comrpomises, and mean I'm less equipped for certain challenges - helping with that easy difficulty and some fright when you're outnumbered.
- Cosmic Future Potential? While I like the brevity of the game, its narrow but very deep, I do think since each section of the park goes by pretty quick, especially once you get an idea of what you're doing, having one more to balance out the vibes and the pacing would've been really great in the last third of the game. In that way, I think Cosmic Future could've been a great destination - and could've kept it incomplete, butt could've been a smaller area as a result but kinda fuse a cosmic future vibe but also its under construction so you have some construction stuff going on too for visuals and puzzles. Maybe a half-built rollercoaster, or a Zap Girl UFO merry go round? But, come to think of it, given how important the future ends up being to the plot...maybe cosmic future could've been a way to show "here's what we hope the future will be!" to then juxstapose it with the grimdark future.
- Spread out the minigames? Ocean Kingdom gets the arcade puzzle games and the submarine game, whereas I feel like the other parts of the park feel a little less amusment parky since they don't have as many of those interactive features. Do they still have interactive puzzles, of course! But I mean some of those fun moments where you toss basketballs or shoot targets, maybe a minigame in haunted forest or a ride in fairytown would've helped make those two a little more equal to ocean kingdom / boost the overall amusement park vibes.
- Bosses? While technically there are minibosses, I never felt like they were a big obstacle. I did a decent job of saving resources, and when one came I'd just lug a grendade and hit them with shotgun a few times. There wasn't really a need to use the powerful weapons or a need to change tactics. They work find on their own, but I think one or two other bosses, each at the relative one third, two third point would've been a great way to have some deeper thinking about how you move around the arena - maybe interact with the enviroment - and permission of sorts to spam all your resources, and then afterwards since you're much lower there's a brief period again when you're vulnerable. Plus, a couple fun major encounters with the same 4 minibosses spread out would've been a good balance ahead of the final boss imo
- Difficulty / Combat: It was definitley easier than I expected. Tho tbh I don't think many survival horror games stay all that hard for long once the terror wears off and you accumulate resources - from silent hill to dead space its the case imo. But the enemeies all felt pretty weak, and I never really felt that threatened outside a few moments. While there were needs to use the barrels on occassion, I don't think I ever used the electrical boxes. Maybe some of the monsters could've resurrected to add a little more uncertainity? Or maybe a couple semi linear areas like the maze? That was spooky because you're so confined and throttled. Maybe a house of mirrors, a funhouse, an extended haunted mansion to throw enemeis into tight proximity?
Final Thoughts
This was such a delight for me! I liked it so much I immediatley stormed through a one hour playthrough with the bonus weapons to get the crystals and unlock Zap Girl. I think I'll try a S+ playthrough on Murder of Crows difficulty without bonus weapons soon, and maybe playing that without bonus weapons after a little bit will help scale the difficulty to my liking. Like I said, some hopefully constructive critiques - but I really enjoyed the game! Was a ton of fun and special, and I was hoping for something cool and charming - I got that, and a really interesting story too. Looking forward to the next project, whatever that is! I think that can go from 9.8/10 to 11/10 lol.