Carrion, from the developers of the equally gory Butcher, is here to fulfill the power fantasy of being the creature from The Thing as you hungrily tear your way through a research facility leaving a mess in your wake.
Carrion
Developer: Phobia Game Studio
Price: $19.99
Platform: PC, Switch, and Xbox One
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review
In a reverse horror style similar to Maneater from a few months ago, Carrion puts you in the viscous form of some unknown creature who’s trapped deep in a research lab. Your goal: to break out and consume as many people in the process. There’s little plot here besides a few quick flashback sequences, but if you’re not here for the mindless ultra-violence then you should probably turn back.
When the game first starts you’re introduced to your almost cute little ball of flesh but don’t worry, your little monster boy will soon grow to absurd sizes. As you work your way through the facility you’ll unlock three forms that are determined by how much human material you’ve eaten, and each form has its own set of perks for combat and puzzle-solving as well. The first form for example features an almost Spider-Man like web splatter that can be used to trigger out-of-reach levers while the second form has a ram attack that can break through wooden walls blocking your path.
While on the subject of Spider-Man, if you’ve played the most recent game then it’s a perfect comparison to make to describe how tight the movement in Carrion feels. It feels simple and quick, making darting into crevices or around corners an almost effortless motion. Even when your creature reaches full size, there’s a dangerous swiftness to it as it lumbers through the environment, at times almost too big to fit through some pathways as it makes these disgustingly wet pitter-patters with its tendrils.
Combat, like the stealth, is quick and an almost controlled chaos. You’ll creep through vents and wait for the perfect moment to burst out to maximize as much carnage as you can before darting back into hiding. The game is great at making you feel powerful as you grab enemies and viscerally swing them at their allies, splattering both against the wall, but the creature is the definition of a glass cannon. Besides regular scientists that function as fodder for your health, you’ll encounter soldiers who are equipped with all manner of guns and sometimes a devastating flamethrower or mech. As quickly as you can take them out, they can do the same to you so it makes these encounters feel like a balanced tightrope act as you can’t exactly just barge into any room haphazardly. I will add in however, some of the later battles (specifically the ones with the drone swarm enemies) are downright unfun. The game practically forces you to enter these areas in a weaker form that isn’t as capable of taking down this enemy type and it leads to a frustrating scramble of a fight instead of the calculated madness of previous encounters.
Your creature’s durability is tied directly to whichever form it’s currently in, so the first form has one bar of health, the second has two, and so on to the third. While the game allows you to shrink to a smaller form by depositing biomass in these specific pools of water you can come across, I did find myself wishing I could do it at will. There’d be many combat encounters that I’d have preferred to use the stealthier perks of the first form but had to use the more combat-heavy third form since there were no locations to deposit biomass in.
A mildly frustrating element with the game however is its lack of a map system in place. Each area of the game features a hidden upgrade you can acquire upon returning with the appropriate new ability, such as bombs that will instantly kill you until you acquire the hardened shell upgrade. The issue here however is that the world is almost labyrinthian in nature, as there’s no clear way of telling which path you need to take to get where. In an almost cruel goading measure, the end of the game even features a room with a series of panels showing you which areas you completed or not; almost teasing you to pause before finishing the game and going back to find all those upgrades. There are even some moments where you have to return to previous areas to progress, but if you had stopped playing for any sort of time since being in that previous zone you likely forgot where exactly you might need to go. For the most part, the game is entirely linear, it’s just that these brief moments of nonlinearity that lead to some minor frustrations.
The Final Word
Carrion is the perfect marriage of John Carpenter and Cronenberg horror, with an almost unsettling glee as you careen through the game devouring all in your path.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
