I've had my eye on this game for quite a while now and I couldn't pass it up any longer during the Scream Sale. Carrion is fun, beautiful and well-made, if a bit pricey at full price.

Visually, pixelated games are a dime a dozen these days, but what separates the generic from the outstanding is the artstyle, and Carrion is a great example of a pixelated game that doesn't use the low-res aesthetic to cover up shortcomings - rather, it thrives in it. There are barely any graphics settings but I imagine this game should run on pretty much anything reasonably low-mid range and recent. The sound design is also stellar, your biomass sounds like a biomass and all the organic squishes and sound quips that go with it. There's no voice acting other than people giving their best, convincing screams of pure dread. It's minimal, but more than gets the job done. So in terms of presentation, the game achieves its goal and then some.

Gameplay-wise this is a very light "metroidvania" in that you have a labyrithian overworld with a half a dozen or so also labyrinthian maps which you can progressively explore more of as your biomass gain new abilities. The gameplay loop, while tried and true, nicely shows WHY it's tried and true - it just works, it's fun and it doesn't get old. The issue of the map is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, a map or at least some kind of temporary indication of where to go would be a godsend, but on the other, it would make the already short game trivially easy. There's very little "combat" in this game, I'd call it more "encounters" which you have multiple approaches to and get a tad more challenging as you progress.

There's some vague sense of a story but it is criminally underexplored. Personally I'm not a huge fan of these "virus outbreak" or "alien species outbreak" stories because it's always more or less the same tropes and motifs, but here, I could've used just a hair more context or something that would tell me what the heck is supposed to be going on.

I can't really find anything glaringly wrong with this game other than its short length. That, and I felt like a LOT more could've been done with the puzzle design, given how many abilities your biomass has by the end. It felt like every ability had maybe one or two interesting puzzles and there were a few puzzles that combined multiple abilities but that was about it. There is a lot of potential here, I just wish the devs would've done more with it.
It took me around 6 hours to 100% the game, exploring every nook and cranny, finding every hidden area and even completing the Christmas DLC. Apparently, there are some community maps for this game, so that might prolong its game time and give it some replay value, but as is, I would say 20€ for 5-6 hours of content is a bit steep. I got it for 7€ on sale and that felt like a great deal.

All in all, if you've ever wanted to wreak total havoc on a bunch of puny pixelated scientists and soldiers; if you've seen John Carpenter's The Thing and wondered what it would be like to be The Thing, definitely wait for a sale and give Carrion a spin.

I've had my eye on this game for quite a while now and I couldn't pass it up any longer during the Scream Sale. Carrion is fun, beautiful and well-made, if a bit pricey at full price. Visually, pixelated games are a dime a dozen these days, but what separates the generic from the outstanding is the artstyle, and Carrion is a great example of a pixelated game that doesn't use the low-res aesthetic to cover up shortcomings - rather, it thrives in it. There are barely any graphics settings but I imagine this game should run on pretty much anything reasonably low-mid range and recent. The sound design is also stellar, your biomass sounds like a biomass and all the organic squishes and sound quips that go with it. There's no voice acting other than people giving their best, convincing screams of pure dread. It's minimal, but more than gets the job done. So in terms of presentation, the game achieves its goal and then some. Gameplay-wise this is a very light "metroidvania" in that you have a labyrithian overworld with a half a dozen or so also labyrinthian maps which you can progressively explore more of as your biomass gain new abilities. The gameplay loop, while tried and true, nicely shows WHY it's tried and true - it just works, it's fun and it doesn't get old. The issue of the map is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, a map or at least some kind of temporary indication of where to go would be a godsend, but on the other, it would make the already short game trivially easy. There's very little "combat" in this game, I'd call it more "encounters" which you have multiple approaches to and get a tad more challenging as you progress. There's some vague sense of a story but it is criminally underexplored. Personally I'm not a huge fan of these "virus outbreak" or "alien species outbreak" stories because it's always more or less the same tropes and motifs, but here, I could've used just a hair more context or something that would tell me what the heck is supposed to be going on. I can't really find anything glaringly wrong with this game other than its short length. That, and I felt like a LOT more could've been done with the puzzle design, given how many abilities your biomass has by the end. It felt like every ability had maybe one or two interesting puzzles and there were a few puzzles that combined multiple abilities but that was about it. There is a lot of potential here, I just wish the devs would've done more with it. It took me around 6 hours to 100% the game, exploring every nook and cranny, finding every hidden area and even completing the Christmas DLC. Apparently, there are some community maps for this game, so that might prolong its game time and give it some replay value, but as is, I would say 20€ for 5-6 hours of content is a bit steep. I got it for 7€ on sale and that felt like a great deal. All in all, if you've ever wanted to wreak total havoc on a bunch of puny pixelated scientists and soldiers; if you've seen John Carpenter's The Thing and wondered what it would be like to be The Thing, definitely wait for a sale and give Carrion a spin.