I like horror games. That thrill of feeling scared and having to survive in a hellish ordeal makes me feel alive, which is why I tend to gravitate to horror movies or games, even when they freak me out.
The only horror games I can’t to play are the Outlast games, those just freaked me out a little too much. Although Carrion is a horror game, it is a game in which the tables have turned.
Instead of being the prey, you are the hunter in this ‘The Thing’-inspired indie game published by Devolver Digital. I was intrigued, mostly because I like gore.
So, this is what I think of Carrion, which appeared on to Game Pass a while back.
You are the Monster
The premise is simple enough. You are an escaped mound of… well… you are this massy biological ‘thing’ that has escaped your little tube in a lab. Now, you have to find a way out while eating everyone that comes in your path.
The game really lets you feel like you are this creature and the animations for movement is so well done. You just crawl and shift to different areas and the controls feel fluid.
I really did feel like a monster, lurking in the lab and grabbing people with my tentacles and devouring them in a bloody mess of guts, gore, and green stuff that I can only imagine is slime.
I’ll admit it; it all feels like a power trip. Especially, when you start leveling up and getting bigger and stronger.
Enemy Types
Some people have guns and others have shields and guns. Of course, there are flamethrowers (hate these guys), and then there are other types that I won’t spoil.
Although you play as a creature of immense savagery, you are not immune to getting hurt, especially by fire! It is so intense when a flamethrower guy attacks you.
The monster screeches while you scurry away. You lose bits of yourself with each hit of damage you take until you finally dive into a body of water. I like how enemies like this have to be approached with a sense of tactfulness.
Grabbing them and dragging them away while their friends look on is all so satisfying.
A Bit of a Con
This is a fun game. But my only gripe is that there are long moments where the action stops and you’re left just wandering around the same empty hallways looking for
Only after a while, it feels like, just by luck, you see something and end up in a tunnel full of people to eat.
I get that in large part the level design is made this way to promote exploration. But after what was a half an hour of just wandering around without so much of a hint on where to go, these moments curbed the fun a bit.
It could just be because I’m blind as a bat but that feeling of being lost did hinder the game a bit. Other than that, this is a nice little experiment and I hope to see more like it.
