We haven't played a lot of games that made us feel like a monster. A real predator. The measured and ultimately law-abiding stealth of the Batman: Arkham series had its power-fantasy moments, but nothing that made us sit back and think for a minute about what we've done. Enter Carrion.
Taking control of an amorphous, many-tentacled eldritch thing, you slither and writhe and stalk and pounce through an enormous industrial facility, finding out what happens when vulnerable fleshy humans come face-to-face with an entity that's 150% teeth and claws by volume. (Spoiler: It's not pretty)
Yes, in Carrion, you are the final boss, so to speak. Moving with the left stick, you'll use the right stick and trigger to grab things – mostly people – with your tentacles, slamming them against walls, hurling them through corridors or simply bringing them into your ravenous maw to hungrily tear in half. Then go back and eat their legs too, because there's good meat on those pins. It's shockingly violent and downright bloody exhilarating.
The movement in Carrion is absolutely exceptional. It's so slick and responsive, yet perfectly inhuman as you slink along walls and ceilings towards your terrified prey. Grabbing objects and hurling them through the air is as graceful and intuitive as the act of mashing a living person against a wall with a metal grate could possibly be, and, despite your totally alien appearance, motion and animation, you always feel completely in control. It's something very special in this respect and honestly one of the most responsive, enjoyable player characters we've ever experienced.
It's a shame, then, that the Metroidvania area design is often a little perfunctory by comparison. Bad? Absolutely not. But it's a little bit of a comedown after eviscerating rooms full of screaming humans just to be effectively pulling switches to open doors. That's what we'd expect from every other game, but not something that's otherwise as dynamic as Carrion. Squirming around the base using echolocation to find save points just feels a little inorganic in a game where every other action feels so darn natural. But putting aside these minor structural complaints, there's plenty of murderous fun to be had, and clearing out rooms of humans – armed or otherwise – never stops being fun.
Adhering to the expectations of its genre, Carrion has you develop new skills as you explore the game; without wanting to spoil anything, the first two you gain are the ability to launch webbing (which draws comparisons to Marvel's Venom) and a powerful lunging slash move that reduces any humans dumb enough to remain in proximity into a fine mush.
These new abilities are classic Metroidvania in that as well as opening up your offensive options, they're also used to access paths to new areas; the webbing can activate switches your tendrils can't reach, and the lunge can break through certain walls. Additionally, as your human enemies gain some measure of courage and begin fighting back, these techniques will help you retain your edge. And by edge, we mean the sharp edge of your claws as you rip some hapless minion in two. (He truly thought his electric shield would protect him. They all did.)
There's a neat twist to these powers; they're based on the entity's mass, and growing too large can remove your access to certain abilities, requiring you to seek out the nearest body of water in which you can shed some of your gross spaghetti-and-meatballs flesh and resume your gore-tacular adventure, freshly equipped with the skills you need to move on. It's something new, but ultimately it feels a little like busywork having to change up your "loadout" later in the game. On top of this small issue, there's also a distinct lack of any kind of in-game map – and it's a big world with lots of junction points and hidden side areas. We can easily imagine getting hopelessly lost just from putting the game down for a few days and then coming back to it.
Aesthetically, Carrion is more or less faultless. It's smooth and gorgeous, with the creature itself destined to be one of gaming's more memorable protagonists (or should that be antagonists?). There's a parallel storyline running through the game in which you take control of a human for brief segments, and it's testament to the design ability of Carrion's developers that these segments are a fascinating diversion rather than an unwelcome wrenching away of your accumulated power. The music is excellent, too – suitably foreboding and filmic, we we genuinely taken aback by its quality. It sounds expensive, like a horror blockbuster. Oh, and the screams of terror are particularly nice, too.
Conclusion
Carrion is a special thing in many ways, but its actual meat and potatoes structure is as formulaic as the genre gets. Thankfully, its core gameplay of tearing room after room of people into wet chunks of corpse never, ever gets old, and sustains the experience throughout. It looks superb, sounds great and is plenty of fun to play, despite some minor issues which just hold Carrion back from the upper echelons of the Switch library.
Comments 67
The lack of map killed the game for me. You shouldn't remove a map in a game with so much backtracking.
The game was fun initially though, the powers are fantastic at making you feel epic. It's just when they want you to backtrack and you're just meandering through places you've been through already that things kinda grind to a halt.
I expanded more on this here.
It's still a good game though, I'd give it a 7/10. Also, I got it through the Xbox gamepass so I don't feel like I lost anything other than time.
So many metroidvanias! So little time! I'm getting this though, it looks like the monster from The Thing has made its own video game. And I'm fine with the fact that no other metroidvania is reaching Hollow Knight levels any time soon.
So... basically Metroid but without the map and lots of gore? Yeah, no for me.
I might check it out on Xbox Game Pass!
It's one that I'm interested in checking out at some point, but just not for full price. As soon as it's on sale I'll likely grab it.
Thinking of this game as a Metroidvania is kind of a mistake. It's nothing like games such as Hollow Knight or Axiom Verge, etc. It's VERY LINEAR. That's one of the reasons it doesn't have a map. I've seen complaints about a lack of map but it really doesn't need one. You'd have be pretty bad at directions to get lost on a path.
I would say this game is more a unique stealth. It's very fun to try and sneak up on enemies and use your different abilities to clear them out.
It's also a puzzle game where you'll need to know what abilities and when to drop mass to proceed.
It's a Puzzle Stealth game. It's very cool! The controls are a little tricky but once you get attuned to them, it makes sense to be a bit unstable. Especially given your nature as a huge gross blob lol.
I just finished it on Xbox via gamepass - it was awesome! If you don’t care about 100%ing it, you definitely don’t need a map, and the game is short enough (maybe 4-5 hours) that you shouldn’t have to put it down for an extended period of time - easily beaten over a weekend. Highly recommended!
I know what the final boss is now.
Getting it just for the meat and spaghetti aspect. No map is fine, I grew up with rl map making on grid paper before the mod-con's of todays machines.
KEEP
CALM
and
CARRION
@Kirby_Girl I’m glad you said that as the lack of a map would actually put me off buying it. I get lost enough as it is in Metroidvania games that have a map. Might check it out now
I enjoyed the demo last year, although I could see it getting tedious over time. The drones, in particular, were annoying little buggers, and the controls are kind of awkward anyway.
@Kalmaro The lack of a map is what killed Souls games for me. I NEED maps in non-linear games.
I finished it in a couple of days, it was pretty good. You don’t really need a map, it’s massively linear and in fact is barely a Metroidvania, it’s more like a puzzle game. I did get a wee bit turned off by the violence at times but it was an alright game.
@GrailUK That joke... How can I delete other people's comments
The violence does seem a bit off-putting, is there anything to suggest these are all evil humans who have been experimenting on the poor creature or something to justify their evisceration?
I might be able to handle the lack of a map, I was mostly able to find my way around Metroid II and that was in monochrome!
You could just feel that 8 coming
@nessisonett Jesus! is it that graphic?
I'm seeing some comments saying that you don't need a map. I can understand that if you've got a fantastic memory of where you've been and which warp point bring you to which area.
If you don't, then things get confusing since you do have to backtrack. To say the game is linear is a bit misleading. It's not just going straight. You have to:
1. Go straight for a while
2. Get a new power, which opens up an area
3. Backtrack and go to an area you couldn't get to previously but now you can.
Step 3 Is where it can get frustrating. If you don't remember where there was, say, a section you couldn't access previously but now you can then you're in trouble. What's worse is when you do remember the spot but can't remember how to get there.
@YANDMAN The most you see is a little blood and people getting cut in half, but it's all pixels so it's not too bad.
@FragRed
It's really good just too short for the price if you can ever pick it up for under a tenner it's well worth a go!
The premise is awesome, but a metroidvania without even a map? I'm not a fan of the genre to begin with because of the amount of aimless wandering you do. No map is a definite deal breaker, no matter how cool the idea is.
@Rpg-lover Looks like a Vaginer
@nessisonett Turned off by the violence? Didn't you live in Glasgow?
I'm very interested in this one as the premise sounded like a fun kind of guilty pleasure. Video of the game in motion really piqued my interest, to the point that I'm considering preordering a physical copy from Limited Run Games.
But wow, that violence is the stuff of nightmares! As a parent of young kids, I try to curate what's on my Switch a little more carefully than how I'd manage my games library 10 or 15 years ago...
Oh, this looks interesting.
It reminds me of the end of, er, um, well, I don't want to spoil it, so let's just say a certain, really good, very artful puzzle-platformer with an extremely twisted final stretch. Except here it's the whole game.
Glad this was up on PC Game Pass on Day 1
Was curious because of the cool trailer they did. But actual game is just not for me. Uninstalled after a few games
PC Game Pass is earning its subscription fees just with what I end up saving by trying out first 😀
@everynowandben Beaten in a weekend, and on Game Pass? That's a commitment I can make.
Carry on screaming. Oh matron nooo.
@ShaiHulud Alright, alright, you got me there 😂😂
I feel the best levels in this game were the later ones. Maybe it's just not what i expected from the trailers, but i took this game to be more action-heavy. I would have loved to see new abilities being used to be able to fight increasingly harder enemies, instead of most of them primarily being used for the puzzle solving aspects of the levels. That's why the later levels are better to me. You have to be careful. Wreak havok but know how to do it while not getting killed.
This is about as Metroidvania as Owlboy was, and in my opinion, both, which are actually pretty linear, lack a map for this reason of linearity.
Sold! Now just waiting for the sale in a few months xxx
Playing it on PC rn. Controlls are epic with kb/m and it's lot's of fun. I only now have a bot of trouble with the lack of a map but i'm like at the maybe third 6-seals gate.
Best part is what is hardly mentioned in reviews: options! until now, i have 3 stages of mass and every stage has 3 different sets of abilities. Allows you to play more diverse. Also the control ability is amazing if you do it right.
I'd like to try this. I wish the review touched on the basic question of how you could die.
I love this game although I felt it was way too short; I hope it gets a sequel...
@Kalmaro I came here to literally say the exact same thing. It wrecked it for me to the point I wound up returning it on Steam, but I won’t hesitate to re-buy it if Devolver were to patch in a map (and maybe make the intercut “human moments” far less dull and tedious). To me, map in a Metroidvania is absolutely essential make it fun, otherwise just running around in circles checking every nook and cranny becomes tedious and boring very quickly.
it's actually a new entry in my list of personal favourite games. Like most of them, it is somewhat flawed in some regards, very unique, and clearly made with love for what it is.
@HobbitGamer depending on your body mass you have hit points (or your hit points depend on your body mass). You eat humans to regain some, you lose some if you get hit by bullets, flamethrowers, drone attacks, energy shields,... You also need to manage your mass because for some puzzles you need to be able to go invisible for example, but that is only possible with a low body mass, making some battles around some puzzles extra challenging.
@Brady1138 A map would help so ooooo much.
You can roar to tell where save points are at and places you can warp through but it's limited and it doesn't replace an actual map.
I mean... there are EXIT signs all over the place. Y'all aren't even trying are you? And if you need to backtrack... just follow the opposite direction.
@Leon_Kennedy Yeah you shouldn't let the lack of a map put you off this great game. It IS possible to get a bit lost for a bit, but as long as you know "frontier" is the "overworld" that connects every other section of the game, and it does a rather great job of guiding you where you need to go in quite an organic fashion while feeling open, you can rest quite assured the lack of a map won't take away much of your enjoyment, if the game appeals to you for other reasons than being described as a metroidvania. Its indeed pretty much linear, with some optional power ups to backtrack to. And when the entire map is opened up, there's a "control room" basically on your path where you can see what areas still have power ups in them. That's when it may get confusing on how to get there without losing track on where you must go to continue the campaign for liberating The Thing from its hostile human captors (but someone made a set of downloadable maps of the game, they're quite handy to refer to when you want to 100% the game)
I don't buy many games these days besides the big releases, but man, this one sounds like I need to play it...
I'm really interested but unfortunately my sense of direction is abysmal. I usually get lost even when there is a map present.
I really hope they patch in a map, that would make it a definite buy for me.
@Kirby_Girl Hey, there is someone on Fortnite Insider that has the name Kirby Girl too. Is that you or just a weird coincidence?
@WickedUnicarnBoi I've never played Fortnite. No
Looking forward to purchasing this game, sounds like a fun and semi short treat.
Now, that being said: the lack of a map being a deal-killer AND a con?? Really?! C’mon Nintendo gamers.......back in the day, we had to draw our own maps to play. It was part of the fun of the Metroidvanias. I think ppl here are thinking of a casual game to play, so then I can see why drawing your own map could be cumbersome. But Metroidvanias aren’t meant to be that easy anyway. You’ll feel more accomplished if you did it yourself.
Okay, let me get off of my old 8-bit rocking chair now......!
@Kirby_Girl Oh ok. You never know with the internet.
Nice game but VERY short with no replay value.
@Agramonte Your reasoning is flawed again. But I'm feeling generous. I won't tell anyone who doesn't already understand why why; you may have your anti-Nintendo obsession, and if your narrative misleads anyone.
@Apportal "Metroid" didn't have a map either.
I really enjoyed this game, thinking about maybe this weekend doing a 100% run.
@Keldorek um.. yes it did? Did you even play the first couple of games?
@Apportal Well, I was making a playfully pedantic comment, but since you are being presumptuous and also wrong, I’ll just point out that what I said was completely accurate. The game literally called “Metroid” does not have a map in-game. Guess YOU haven’t played that one. Take it easy!
When I ordered my physical from Special Reserve Games, I also got a code to download it. So once I have completed Origami King, I think this might be my next game, just love the role reversal
@JimmySpades The is new heights when not liking a game on PC is "anti Nintendo"... GPU is Nvidia, so I guess also "anti-nvidia" 🤔
Yeah, you must be feeling generous. Your narrative is more illogical than usual.
@Agramonte Was scrolling through the comments and had to read your OP after reading his reply - and yeah, it made no sense at all! Some people are just born offended I guess.
@Spideron What made you think that Agramonte offended me? Yes, his constantly displaying financial ignorance in the name of spinning an anti-Switch narrative has grown quite wearisome, but I was hardly offended. As to making sense, I use precise syntax when it is important to what I wish to say; I can assure you that it is quite parsable, to those who wish to understand. If he does not it is because he chooses not to.
@Kirby_Girl thank God someone who likes kirby hasn't been tainted by fortnite.
@WickedUnicarnBoi I see you've gone to the dark side...
I really don't understand the "no map" complaint. I get lose in Metroidvanias all the time and had no issues with Carrion. The game is segmented so you don't need a map.
@Ghostchip Oh Gosh Oh Frick. Someone found out my secret. Time to destroy everything I love and move to Pakistan.
@WickedUnicarnBoi lol bro just joking around
I just finished this and yeah, I think this review is spot on. This game is really clever in a lot of ways. The game is basically The Thing on steroids.
The review is right, no map and the shedding of your mass bring it down a touch, but it’s really minor gripes. It’s a short game, and I was able to get around well enough, but I can see someone getting lost if they set the game down for a month or so. Best to just commit a few hours and beat it in a few sittings. Secondly, the shedding of mass is just busy work, I would have preferred to just have access to everything and just switch my “powers” when I wanted to.
Really great work though, so kudos to the developer, I had a blast.
The game hand-holds you with sign-posting and roadblocks. You cannot get lost if you don’t turn around and go backwards. Keep moving ahead and you will never need a map. To say otherwise is to complain because you went left while playing Super Mario Bros.
@TheBigK
You don’t need a map and you don’t need to backtrack. You technically return to areas, but your boxed off to where you’re supposed to be at that level. It’ve very linear.
@YANDMAN
No, it is not that graphic. It looks like a snes game. 🤪
Looks like another update is available. Anyone what that's about?
@everynowandben is this a good game then? Even without the map? It does run well on Switch right?
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