Sum-Up
In-depth analysis further down.
| 🟩 Pros |
🟥 Cons |
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- A unique twist on a tried-and-true premise; fresh and innovative.
- Excellent level design that enables multiple approaches to most encounters, and has enough mechanical variety.
- High-quality art direction: it fully, visscerally conveys the terror, brutality, powerlessness during an alien outbreak.
- Enjoyable progression system that constantly opens up new opportunities and ways to deal with obstacles.
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- The total absence of a map, united with a labyrinthine stage design, makes backtracking for secondary content an obscure and frustrating process.
- The lore and story overall feel underwhelming, not elaborated enough upon. Many questions remain unanswered without any clue. May be a stylistic choice, but I call it wasted potential.
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| 🟨 Bugs & Issues |
🔧 Specs |
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- Very limited graphical options, without even a dedicated resolution selector.
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- 3900X
- 2080Ti
- 32GB RAM
- SSD
- 1440p
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| Content & Replay Value: |
It took me 5 hours to complete CARRION, taking extra time to explore all areas accurately. The content is linear and there’s no reason to replay once finished, or any additional mode. |
| Is it worth buying? |
Yes, on sale. The normal price of 20€ is quite steep for only 4-5 hours of content without replay value, despite the very good overall quality. If you find a decent discount (20% or better) by all means, get it. |
Verdict: Very Good
Rating Chart Here |
Well-polished and with a unique perspective on an otherwise overused trope, CARRION is a high-quality experience with only a few moderate flaws drawing it back. |
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https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2853059852
In-Depth
Premise, Setting & Writing
In the depths of an advanced research facility, glass shatters and vents are forcibly opened as a mysterious alien entity - as in, you - makes its escape from captivity. Driven by the primal instincts of survival and reproduction, but also capable of highly complex reasoning, this amorphous mass of writhing tentacles, razor-sharp mouths and flesh globs will be yours to command through the facility’s intricate bowels, shielded by all kinds of security systems.
CARRION is set almost totally in an underground complex. Despite this fact there’s a surprising variety of landscapes and locales, that range from underground lakes to advanced labs, production lines and even verdant forests. Remarkable attention was put into crafting each area, with the entity’s passage leaving marked signs like blood, destruction and mangled corpses. The feeling of wreaking havoc, instilling fear in the scientists and security personnel is vivid and palpable thanks to this style choice.
On the lore side CARRION reaches only sufficient levels. This title uses indirect narration almost exclusively, with flashbacks, environmental hints and some cutscenes forming the totality of the info provided to you. The NPCs won’t talk to each other (could you understand them if they did, though?), there are no lore files, videos or anything optional to shed more light on the fragmented, obscure lore surrounding the entity and its origins. It feels like a missed opportunity to make some interesting background alongside the present events.
Exploration & Puzzles
The enormous, intricate base is divided in sections that will progressively open as you spread your progeny in specific points i’ll call Nests. These places act as save points, heal your wounds, and progressively weaken the armored doors that lead to other sectors. The explorative process is linear, with the entity being able to tear down doors, gratings and other obstacles. For several of them though later upgrades will be needed; you’ll be heavily restricted about where you’re allowed to go early on.
Some small secondary areas diverge from the main path, and they contain one of nine containment capsules that grant minor passive bonuses. While this incentivizes exploration and is also tied to a few achievements, it also constitutes a very annoying process: there’s no map, and the layout of the base gets more complex at every newly-discovered sector. It will be a true nightmare to navigate zone after zone in the search of that minuscule opening or transition that leads to a coveted optional area.
The proposed puzzles won’t be overly-complex, and will mainly revolve around activating switches in the correct order, or using the correct form at the correct times. Because yes, the creature has three different forms with unique powers, and you’ll be able to absorb the flesh of the dead to boost yourself, or deposit biomass in specific locations to “downgrade” in order to access powers you may need in that particular moment. Using these as core mechanics, the puzzles feel interesting and are well-engineered overall.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2853060114
Combat System & Upgrades
Between guards armed with guns and flamethrowers, personal shields, heavy-duty armored robots, turrets and traps, the facility was engineered to prevent something like your escape from happening. At first you’ll be able to grab human enemies and toss them around, or eat them to gain biomass when possible (the guards’ armors prevent you from doing so, and you can’t consume machines). As you break more and more containment pods, you’ll gain more offensive and defensive abilities like spikes that instantly kill organic enemies they touch, harpoons, invisibility and more. Some of these skills are very powerful, and require energy gathered from electrical sockets in order to be used.
The way you choose to approach combat is up to you: you may pick off enemies one by one and retreat to a dark corner when spotted, or risk it all and go all out, throwing desks and corpses to incapacitate multiple foes at once to then finish them. Generally the stealthy ‘divide and conquer’ approach is the safest and kinda what the game is designed around: stronger enemies like robots and guards won’t be so easy to take on, especially in higher numbers, until much later on. In case you get killed, you’ll restart from the last Nest you stayed at, with the world reverting to that point in time as consequence.
That being said, the variety of enemies kinda winds down in the latter phases, with no stronger foes to match your increased powers, especially when you reach your final form and all upgrades are unlocked. If you expect an epic final boss fight, well there isn’t one either, don’t get your hopes up. I kinda expected an epic last stand of the remaining security for5ces to prevent your escape at the entrance, but this just didn’t happen, sadly enough. In any case the combat has a meaty, violent feeling to it that really conveys the animalistic brutality of this organism the ‘right’ way, so props for that.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2853060358
