Review: Carrion (Steam)

by Jim Smale · July 23, 2020

CARRION is a reverse horror game in which you assume the role of an amorphous creature of unknown origins, stalking and consuming those that imprisoned you.

Pros:

Decent pixel art graphics.
151mb Download size.
Steam achievements.
Steam trading cards.
Full controller support.
Graphics-fullscreen, v-sync, and exclusive fullscreen mode.
Separate control schemes for the human and the monster. You can rebind either on both keyboard and the controller.
Chillingly beautiful soundtrack.
Tutorial pop-ups on the screen when needed.
You create your own save points by spreading your biomass in designated spots of the map. This will heal you back to full health.
Monster-you move lightning fast and can grab items/doors and people! With people, you can swing them around, break them in half or even just straight up eat them.
Smooth controls. Very easy to fly around the levels.
Stylish as sh*t.
Cartoon style gore.
Find toxic containment barrels to unlock new abilities.
Puzzle platformer gameplay.
So quick to action.
The game opens up and lets you live out the fantasy of being the big bad monster in a lab experiment gone wrong.
In areas you see the state of the place from seals breached, containment unit, and biomass samples lost. They serve as a way to show progress.
Biomass-as you acquire new abilities, they overwrite a previous one, you can use pools of ooze to drop biomass so you can use the other ability.
Monster’s health is displayed as you take damage but you as a monster get smaller as they shoot parts off you.
Play as a human every now and then and it’s more puzzle orientated.
Fast loading times.

Cons:

The tutorial is at the start and then that’s it.
The initial learning curve with the grabbing of items and doors especially.
No map or guidance.
The story is more left to your interpretation.
Playing as a human is boring and requires you to be pixel perfect with finding interactions.
Difficulty spikes.
Doesn’t explain the whole abilities/biomass.
No replayability.

9/10

Graphics - 9/10
8/10

Sound - 8/10
7/10

Accessibility - 7/10
8/10

Length - 8/10
7/10

Fun Factor - 7/10

7.8/10

Summary

Carrion allows you to play the other side of action games. You get to play as a creature that was created? In a lab and break out. You then get to go around the vents and smash the place up and kill humans! What I can’t describe properly is just how well it plays and fluid you move around. As a monster with many mouths and many tentacles, you slide all around the place, you break open containment canisters to get new abilities and grow, this then opens up the game that shows you have not only combat with ever-increasing enemies but you also have puzzle elements. At set points, you get to play as a human and explore the carnage you left behind from the monster, I say it all like this as the story is not actually there and you kind of interpret it how you like. The human parts are more puzzle than anything but it struggles here as it slows the pace, has small hard to see interactions and clunky controls. The music is absolutely fantastic and adds a lot to the atmosphere. I turned the game on and just went balls to the wall with it, I won’t ever come back but I enjoyed the hell out of it and it’s like nothing I’ve played before. It has a few stopgaps but overall it’s a really fun little experience.