CARRION

Played on switch, and eund it - Its short but intensive, very cool!

Carrion's fluid traversal & excellent level design is only matched by its stellar presentation and superb atmosphere. The game is technically sound, and the core gameplay loop (traversal as a blob, avoiding danger, & consuming poor humans) has been distilled very well. Some of the mechanics (size changing, enemy posession, enemy AI manipulation, metroidvania progression, defensive abilities) are not as refined. The lack of a map in particular hurts the game the most. As such, the game's relatively short length (4-6 hours depending on playstyle, skill, and degree of completion) works in the game's favor. The story is pretty basic & abstract, it's mostly there for ambiance. Its baseline pricepoint of $20 is very fair for the excellent experience you're getting. If it's on sale, it is absurdly worth getting. I had a great time with the game. What I really hope for is a sequel that takes the other aspects that weren't already masted in the demo, and hones them to create an expanded & longer experience. I would love to see Carrion 2 have a post-apocalyptic Seattle for you to roam around in (Seattle Underground, Space Needle, Met Market, etc.), with a greater emphasis on using the other gameplay features (e.g. stealth, specific attack skills, defensive/utility skills, enemy manipulation, etc.)

It's a solid game, well put together, and looks great. My disappointment comes from the reaction of the humans. I was really hoping there would be levels of terror you could inflict by staying out of sight, but causing disturbances. Instead they're either unaware, investigating, or fully terrified. Mark of the Ninja turns out to be better at delivering the monster in the dark experience.

It plays well, and delivers on what it promises. It is not the deepest of games, but it is fun.

I had a great time playing Carrion, and would recommend the game, but there are a few quibbles I had. The major one being the lack of an in game map. In Carrion you need to find your way across the game world, sometimes doubling back, but the map is labyrinthine, and hard to navigate. The game is fairly short, so it's not like you're going over the same bits for hours, so you don't memorize it in that way, and a lot of the scenery is samy-samy, so no real landmarks to use. I found myself constantly alt-tabbing out of the game to look at a map to try and get my bearings, and it really would have been a major QoL improvement to have that map in the pause menu or something. The other minor thing is that the controls don't feel the best. They're good enough, but lack a satisfying feel to them, and are sometimes hard to control. But overall a good game, and if you have any interest it's a decent and short play, with no real frustrations, other than the lack of a map.