Like 2023 before it, 2024 was a great year for survival horror. The games were fewer and farther between — last year gave us Resident Evil 4, Alan Wake 2, Dead Space, Amnesia: The Bunker, and System Shock — but this year’s offerings were just as strong. And, even more than last year, this one represented games looking to the past to carve a path to the future.
This year, I only played two new survival horror games, Silent Hill 2 and Crow Country. Both were outstanding. And both were looking to the past and attempting to build something new.
I say “only two new survival horror games” because I also played Alien: Isolation and if my GOTY list could include games from any year, it would easily take 2024’s top spot.
Crow Country Takes Us Back To The PS1
Crow Country’s link to the past is more obvious at first glance. It looks like it came out in 1999. It has that fixed camera perspective. The blocky graphics are reminiscent of the PS1-era, when genre titans like Resident Evil — its clearest inspiration — emerged. You can’t move and shoot at the same time. There are scanlines. You get the picture.
But SFB Games updates the design at the same time to make Crow Country more palatable to modern players. Though you can use tank controls with the D-pad, most players will opt for the more modern control scheme that allows for seamless movement in whichever direction you tilt the thumbstick.
Shooting isn’t automatic, as in classic RE. Instead, you need to aim with a wobbly laser sight, which ups the anxiety when a skeletal monster is steadily bearing down on you. The ammo system is (probably too) kind, so when you’re low, you can always go back and search trash cans you’ve already scavenged for some extra rounds.
But, at its heart, Crow Country mastered the same fundamentals that have always made survival horror games (at least those in the RE mold) work: it lets you loose in a cool space and makes exploring it really fun. Resident Evil has always been a Metroidvania — just with really absurd-looking keys and new guns instead of powers — and Crow Country keeps that going in its derelict amusement park.
Silent Hill 2 Brings The PS2 To The Present
That focus on the joy of exploring a space — even a really scary one — also animates Silent Hill 2. As James attempts to find Mary, he navigates abandoned hospitals, apartment buildings, bars, city streets, alleyways, parks, movie theaters, and more, and each of those spaces is frighteningly well-designed.
Where Crow Country is a new game aping old games, Silent Hill 2 is an old game that Bloober Team is bringing into the present. Though it takes the original PS2 game as a foundation, the remake updates the look and feel for the PS5 era.
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James looks and controls a lot like Leon S. Kennedy in the REmakes. You slide through narrow gaps in walls. Every interactable object is highlighted with a little white dot. Combat feels incredibly modern and like a better version of the hit-and-dodge formula Striking Distance used in The Callisto Protocol — another modern survival horror game built on an old foundation.
Neither approach is better. I’ve had a fantastic time with both games this year. But, Silent Hill 2 is following this generation’s trend of standardizing game design and, especially, game controls. Running around in Silent Hill 2 feels like running around in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth feels like running around in God of War Ragnarok. So, I’m more eager to see games like Crow Country, games that show that there’s value in a game looking and feeling different, that emphasizes genre when the old markers are becoming less and less obvious.
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I’ve Never Played A Game That Handles Ammo Quite Like Crow Country
Trash cans are a renewable resource in Crow Country.