It’s no exaggeration to say that the original PlayStation is where the survival horror genre was born. Many gamers in the late ’90s spent many nights huddled in front of CRT TVs, sweaty palms clutching the DualShock while their hearts pounded, fearing what might be lurking in the next room. That feeling of nostalgia is what small indie developer SFB Games wanted to recreate with their original PlayStation-inspired horror adventure, Crow Country.
“Crow Country is a classic survival horror game, heavily inspired by games from the PlayStation One era,” said Adam Vian, creative director, developer and lead designer. Our or my favorite gaming period.
Closed seasonally
The year was 1990, and the Crow Country amusement park just outside of Atlanta suddenly closed two years ago. The previous owner, Edward Crow, has been missing all this time. Agent Mara Forest visits the abandoned park to solve this mystery.
I asked Adam about the inspiration behind the game’s setting. “I am a big fan of urban exploration; I watch a lot of that stuff online,” he said. “They went to all kinds of wonderful places, places that were a bit beautiful, places that were sad but deserted but left behind stories. It’s fascinating. Crow Country is about the longing to see behind the scenes at an amusement park. Get out of the car and look behind the animatronics. Go through the employee-only doors and take a look at their machines, control panels, and all the things you’re not normally allowed to see in this amazing network of tunnels. And it’s pretty creepy and dark because they’re not designed to be seen by the public. But they are amazing.”
All old things will be new again
So what about the original PlayStation survival horror era that inspired Adam to create a game in that style?
“I think it’s mainly because of how complex the graphics are,” he said. “It’s complex enough to represent human characters but not yet photo-realistic. Once you’re so far past that generation, you’re so close to photorealism that your imagination doesn’t need to do any more work. Some places are not very clear, you can use more stylization. And it’s more appealing for that reason. For horror movies, it’s all about leaving that ‘I’m not sure what I’m seeing’ gap. And it was scarier than me looking at a high-resolution image.”
Modern amenities
SFB Games had to consider whether or not to avoid modern gaming conveniences to tone down that retro feel.
“I would say the big problem we avoided was autosave checkpoints,” Adam said. “Almost everything you play now will autosave and give you checkpoints. One of my favorite traditions in horror games is the save room. You can rest, reflect, and calm down for a while while saving your game. The save room will lose power if you are not threatened with losing progress. So you have to respect that old school system.”
“We have both traditional and modern controllers at the same time, so you can use the D-pad for the tank and the analog stick for the modern. While playing, I occasionally tapped the D-pad to rotate Mara a bit or make her move back a bit — two things you can’t necessarily do with modern controls. So if you choose to play tanks, you’re just making things a little harder on yourself, and that’s okay. Maybe that’s the challenge you want.”
In terms of challenges, I asked what kind of puzzles players can expect to solve since one of the hallmarks of classic survival horror is the (sometimes very off-putting) puzzles. “I tried to tell a story with a world and details, so the bulk of the story would fit where the story details were concerned. I also wanted variety so each puzzle would be different. You have a puzzle in a video game where you play video games, but the actual logic of why you need to play them is not very realistic. I also wanted some of the puzzles to have a horror element, so some of the puzzles in Crow Country might make you uncomfortable and say, ‘This is horrible’ or ‘I don’t want to touch that. I don’t want to go near it.’”
Surprises all around
What else are the developers excited for players to experience in the game? For Adam, it’s sound.
“The soundtrack was composed by Ockeroid, who makes the best music [original PlayStation]-esque soundtrack. It’s beautiful, sometimes gruesome, sometimes touching and dark. There are also various upgrades, secret ammo, optional guns, and things you’d expect to see in a game like this. There’s a secret way to increase your running speed. There’s a secret way to make your medical kit heal you more. But they are quite hidden so you have to look carefully.”
“Even if you’re not a big fan of the horror genre, you should check it out,” says Tom. “You can approach it in exploration mode, turning it into a spooky and tense puzzle adventure game. There are no risks, just a thick, spooky atmosphere around you. I think you will find something interesting here.”
Players can look forward to experiencing the horror when Crow Country launches on PS5 & PS4 on May 9.
