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GOOD:

+ A different twist on the sci fi horror genre. Normally speaking we are the soldier task with infiltrating and containing some type outbreak in a secret facility but Carrion flips this around and puts us in control of the outbreak cause. You are the creature and you need to escape and that can only be done by collecting DNA samples extracted from your body to regain your powers, and so you do just that. Simple things to make a tried a true formula more interesting.

+ Great looking pixel art that is further enhanced by modern bell n whistles. Lighting looks awesome and brings an extra layer of life to every location. Some of the best 2D fire and water effects I have seen in a pixel based game. Nicely varied areas means that no matter where you are, each place has its own identity making not having any kind of map a non issue. Pleasure to look at.

+ Lots of care was put into making sure that player feels like the Lovecraftian abomination that you are. You have full terrain movement across the map leaving a trail of blood in your wake and accompanied by the lovely sounds of a bowl worms. Tentacle is controlled with the right stick and action is taken with the right trigger button. Rip off doors, wiggle through tight vents, infest the facility with hives, drag and slam you enemies around before consuming them for you own growth. Never gets old. Also, dynamic music/sounds. When you are doing all of your sneaky monster stuff sound will reflect that.

+ You will be collecting about a dozen mandatory powerups which is expected. Carrion handles its power up system a little differently though. Creature has 3 different mass forms. Each mass form has different mobility and health but also 4 of those powers. You are able to shed mass in special pools so that you can reach lower mass forms but can re eat that mass, humans or rest at a hive to restore it. A great deal of the adventure in changing between forms to use abilities to breach all the zones for escape. You also need to worry about combat enemies as current mass form will decide how difficult those encounters will be. In general, these guys hurt and will shed a life bar really fast(especially fire guys or turrets) so you don't want to be in mass form 1 if possible (very mobile but low health and powers are not geared toward combat) but you may not have the means to reach a higher mass form so it becomes how can I win this room with this form? Then there are fights where you have the proper form and you just go ham.

MEH:

* If I had to choose between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion in regards to how linear Carrion is, I would choose Metroid: Other M. Just to give some perspective; Carrion has no map and I did not get lost one time(mostly because of how varied zones are). Carrion has a sonar system that is suppose to act as a guide. Never used it because it was never needed. Zones start locked and slowly become unlock as you progress through them resulting in the player always knowing where to go. If the genre is broken down into exploration, combat, and puzzles then Carrion definitely favors the puzzles. There are definitely things to be killed(enemies stay dead. No respawning) and secrets to found(very few of them) but focus is on using abilities to solve puzzles.

* There are 9 optional powerups that can be found in each of the zones. Not difficult to find, but you may not have the right ability to grab them during initial contact ... so come back later. Typical. Problem is that Carrion is a short game even by genre standards so by the time you collect all the powerups, situations where they would have been useful have already been dealt with. So unless you remember where and what is needed to get the power up when "what" becomes available; Not a whole lot time to use them.

BAD:

- As already mentioned; Carrion is a really short game. 100% in about less than 10 hours I think. There is a free xmas themed DLC zone that can be beat in about 30 - 45 minutes. No other modes or extras to speak of. That $19.99 does not feel right but lucky for me I got it for half that. 

Overall fun but short experience. I would definitely say get it on sale though. Sequel needs to increase main adventure or add extras if they want to justify that price tag(or higher)

Last edited by Xxain - on 08 July 2022