Carrion Review – An Amazing Horror Masterpiece

A horror in reverse

In Carrion, the concept of “horror in reverse” is implemented. We have to run through the levels and eat the unfortunate little people for a shapeless red mass that grows depending on the volume of eaten flesh. Its appearance reminded me of mutations from the Akira anime, where the fleshy carcass of one of the main characters grew to incredible sizes and destroyed everything in the way. A monster with tentacles crawls through ventilation shafts, breaks into laboratories, lures scientists and military men, tears them to pieces, and can even take their remains to “re-fill” itself later. Stocky creature.

The beginning of the game

There is no good introduction at the start of the game. We simply break out of the closed flask under the cries of those around us, who have realized the enormity and hopelessness of what is happening. The goal is one: to scatter your spores with biomass, devour all the inhabitants of the research complex, and breakthrough to the exit. We ate, threw off the biomass into the niches provided on the walls (local checkpoints), and move on. It’s nice to feel at the top of the biological chain, but this does not mean that there will be no problems during the game. The biomass organism is not invulnerable, albeit extremely tenacious.

Gameplay in Carrion

Practice shows that it is less profitable to quietly cut down the guards and slowly clear the corridors than to enter the courage and dashingly endure the level in a swift attack. We burst into the room, eat the victims, move to the upper tier, clean it with a lightning-fast attack, move to the next compartment, finish off the fleeing ones and leave through the ventilation shaft to the adjacent location. If on the way there are massive obstacles, we gain more biomass and go back. There is no navigation map at all, so it’s best to complete Carrion in one sitting. After taking a break for two hours, I was surprised to find that I do not remember in which direction I was moving before.

Unlike other platformers, there is no jump at all. The scarlet biomass clings to the walls and ceiling like Peter Parker, which only adds dynamics to the gameplay. As you progress, new abilities are revealed. For example, you can take control of a person and then use his pistol. It turns out an analog of the Thing movie, where the characters did not know which of them was infected. Or, you can become invisible for a couple of seconds while avoiding laser visors. The monster ranges in size from normal to gigantic. The more biomass you’ve consumed, the bigger your “creature” will be.

Was the horror successful?

No, the reason is the strange script sequence of enemies AI. They panic only in the area where we have penetrated, and the rest of the base does not notice our presence at all. Mobile communication does not work, there are no video cameras, and radios at the high-tech lab. Battles against scientists are of interest in the first two hours of gameplay (out of a total of four), but in the end, you will be bored by them. Even personalities with sadistic inclinations will hardly enjoy this since the local inhabitants of the lab are way too stupid.

The other thing is the military, trained to act tactically, attacking from different sides, and having powerful firearms. Sometimes military set up ambushes, moreover, sudden and unpredictable ones. There is no good balance between boredom and excessive complexity: in one room there are weak-willed pieces of meat scattering to the sides from the slightest poke, and in another, we have a freaking army of professional mutant killers. Unpredictability can be a plus in games like Carrion, but here it more often leads to chaos which can also happen if you play slots online.

About technical aspects

Graphically, Carrion resembles the era of push-button mobile phones with Java applications, so I recommend playing this game on the Nintendo Switch in a portable format (however on PC Carrion playable with mouse ideally as well). The 80s stylization is expressed both in a dark soundtrack using analog synthesizers and industrial sounds (almost like in The Terminator movie) and in pixel art.

The environment, enemies, interactive objects, and all kinds of robots look standard and even faded, but the controlled monster is animated perfectly. Its animation depends on mass, size, and rotation. There are many variations and predictions of movement by the in-game algorithm.

The ambiance is crafted with attention to detail, but most of it consists of laboratories, industrial landscapes, and a few open spaces. The ending hints at a sequel, which is rumored to be already in development. It would be nice to have more content, a variety of possibilities, and large-scale battles among the city ruins. In the meantime, we have entertainment for one sitting with a single original idea. Such projects do not appear often, so do not pass by.

Conclusion

A game of one idea that fizzles out closer to the final. The experience is interesting, but this is just a sketchy test of the pen. If a sequel comes out, we will see a lot of interesting things. The personal rating is 7/10.

Review based on the Nintendo Switch and PC versions of the game.

• Genre: platformer-horror.
• Developer: Phobia Game Studio.
• Publisher: Devolver Digital.
• Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch.
• Minimum system requirements: Win 7 64, AMD or Intel processor with 2 cores, 1 GB of RAM, video card with OpenGL 3.0, 500 MB of hard disk space.
• Age rating: 17+.