In 1982, John Carpenter released a survival horror movie called The Thing. The movie is about a research team that is being hunted by a shape shifting alien capable of mimicking its host. In 2002, a survival horror video game of The Thing was released. While it delve deeper into the story of The Thing, the video game never let the player play as the monster. That is where Carrion steps in.
Carrion is a video game that was developed by Phobia Game Studio and published by Devolver Digital. You play as an amorphous, tentacle monster from an unknown origin. Its mission: Escape the research facility.
In order to escape, you must grow to an enormous size and gain new powers to fight off everything the facility can throw at you (soldiers with guns and flamethrowers, robots, and drones). Powers such as echolocation (the ability to find save points), Hydrophilia DNA (the ability to swim underwater), and Parasitism DNA (the ability to perfectly mimic a human) will help you escape the research facility.
However, it is not just these special abilities you have to rely on. There is a lot of strategy involved to take down your enemies. There is a lot of stealth, exploration, and a little bit of puzzle solving required to clear certain areas. So strategy and approach is key to escaping.
I did find myself a little overwhelmed at times due to an over abundance of enemies in certain areas that are more open. When I enter one of these areas I would get hammered by soldiers with both guns and flamethrowers, drones, and robots. These areas also gave me no place to hide. Even if I can hide the drones will be on top of me shortly afterword. I was always forced to be on the move. So these areas could be considered boss arenas or boss battles since they are always before I could proceed to the next level.
The controls are pretty solid and you learn as you go. Almost every attacks or abilities are mapped out for you and shows you on all four corners of the screen which button does what. There are some controls that does require you to discover yourself since the screen does not show you everything. The only small issue I had with the controls is moving around small corridors. At times I did find myself fighting with the monster I'm controlling to go in a specific direction and instead slithers into a different hallway.
Considering that I played Carrion on the Nintendo Switch, you might be expecting some lag. I can tell you that I did not notice any lag, slow downs, or frame rate drops while playing the gaming. Since it is a 2-D game, it should run smoothly either way.
Overall, I found myself liking this game. Carrion really harkens back to John Carpenter's The Thing in terms of atmosphere, the monster you play as, and the game's main objective. The controls are solid, I had no problems with lag or frame rate drops, and provided a lot of challenge. However, it is not a game I would recommend to anyone as there is some gore in the game. I'm not much of a completionist that goes after the 100%. I mostly play my games until I see the credits role or after beating the post game. If you're a completionist Carrion is a game you would probably have no problem completing.
Thanks for checking out my review of Carrion on the Nintendo Switch. Let me know your thoughts on the game in the comments section. Make sure to follow me on my Facebook, Twitter, Minds, Parler, and MeWe pages to stay up to date for more news, reviews, discussions.
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