a solid game that is never quite able to get out from underneath a much better concept. it's consistently enjoyable and never really drags or anything but so much of my time with this was spent thinking about how close but also far it felt from reaching its full potential.

little things like the lack of an in game map, difficult navigation in small areas with the bigger monster, and so forth aren't huge issues in isolation but did a bit of damage when put together.

even still, causing absolute chaos with the monster as you tear through a room destroying everything and everyone in your path is a treat.

i'd love to see this expanded on in a second effort. the base is a good start.

There really just isn't enough here for how long it lasts. The premise is great for about an hour, then it begins to wane. I was hoping for a feeling of properly corrupting the place. The idea of spreading your poison throughout. But it's more about just floating around munching stuff and flipping switches.

I got that thing where after a while I didnae see myself as a monster attacking humans fleeing for their lives. My eyes glazed over and I was just a generic blob absorbing wee squares that were moving around. I kept waiting for a moment of getting bigger and bigger, bursting out to the surface at 100 times your initial size and beginning to move across the globe as a credits stinger hits. But naw. Go down the corridor, flip the switch, eat the dudes, repeat.

It's never a good sign when you find yourself googling "How to beat x" and the top result is an article titled just that, and is about two paragraphs long, one of which is the writer going "This is poorly signposted". That's what ye get for not putting a map in yer game of hallways.

john carpenter's "the thing" right down to an equally underwhelming ending

but seriously - when did it become the norm to start paying $20 for things like this? carrion is about as complex as a flash game you'd find front-paged on newgrounds circa 2012 and plenty less fun at that

it's pretty rough around the edges and not particularly cleverly designed. there's a couple mildly satisfying puzzles, and level progression is simple and linear enough (barring optional backtracking which is a pain) but combat is boring and the flashback bits are incredibly pointless. i have no idea why they exist beyond some dire attempt at padding

want to be a villainous, fleshy monster with a penchant for killing? then download bluemaxima's flashpoint and play miami shark or something. don't bother with this unless it's on sale

This game is so good at mechanically evoking monster horror. It absolutely nails the feeling of crawling through the air ducts, taking out humans one by one, and inspiring terror in the rest.

As a video game, it's lackluster. It bucks Metroidvania conventions in a number of ways that don't work out in its favor, ending up highly linear and not taking nearly enough advantage of what could be very interesting combat puzzles. But it does some really cool stuff and I'm glad I played it through to the end.

Carrion was a awesome change of form for the standard "You're the hero" game. This time you are the monster (or are you?), a creature trapped in a science lab trying to escape and grow through consuming energy and killing the people that have locked you up.

The art style is great for a pixel style and the animations are fluid and spark reaction multiple times with the detailed destruction you cause. There are lots of mechanics and abilities to unlock and learn how to stealth through the map, or go on the offensive when needed.

It is an experience that I would recommend to anyone as it was a unique experience to me and I found a lot of people enjoyed it as much as I did.

Volta e meia eu me deparo com um jogo que eu não gostei exatamente, mas que eu gostei de ter jogado. Parece a mesma coisa a princípio, mas tem uma diferença muito sutil aí. É muito fácil achar jogos que você gosta ou não gosta simplesmente, mas poucos jogos conseguem fazer você acreditar que valeu a pena terem sido desenvolvidos, ainda que não seja do seu gosto.
Carrion não é um jogo muito divertido, mas é divertido pensar e imaginar como que foi idealizado, que tipo de conversas precisaram ser feitas até desenvolvedores(as) naturalizarem a ideia de que estavam sim gastando horas, dias, semanas, meses da vida construindo um jogo sobre uma massa de carne e ossos assassina.
Em um mundo em que o mais fácil é usar e reutilizar as mesmas ideias, é muito bom ver algo que tenha um ar de coisa fresca. Jogaria novamente? Provavelmente não, mas me traz esperança de que ainda temos muito o que criar e explorar de diferente, com coragem, aceitando os riscos e desafios que existem ao trazer uma ideia nova para o mundo.
Errar fazendo um jogo como Carrion é errar da maneira certa. Queria errar mais assim nos planos que traço para a minha vida.

Carrion's massive strength is the mechanical fantasy of the monster. Movement and interaction in Carrion is awkward and slippery, but it's done to encourage the player to full force towards anything they're trying to do. There is no subtly in movement. You are either lying patiently, motionless, in wait for prey, or you are slamming and thrashing and ripping people limb from limb as you haphazardly slam into walls and drag your innocent victims to their deaths. Carrion disregards common understandings of 'good movement' to elevate its intended experience as high as possible. In this regard, encouraging players to act like a movie monster, Carrion excels.

It's just the rest of the game that's mid. Carrion's levels aren't 'bad', but there's not a lot of variety to them, neither in mechanical ask or visual presentation. There are some areas that try to ask more of the player in terms of movement skill, but because moving through Carrion is intentionally awkward, these areas sometimes ask more of the player's movement skill than the game realistically provides them.

Revisiting older levels is also not an enjoyable experience, given the mazy, one-directional nature of both levels and the Frontier. You're not really supposed to play any part of Carrion backwards, but you need to do so to get at containment units in already finished levels. And because some containment units require upgrades found later in the game, there's no way to get them all as you go. Not having a more straight-forward way to access previous levels is a big blindspot in Carrion's gameplay.

Probably a 3/5 but I was so impressed with how I never got lost once in a Metroidvania with no map that I'll give it that extra star for the level design. I don't think that aspect will work well with non-experienced gamers which I think is funny because this is a "my first Metroidvania" that has no map. Can't not admire the developers for toughening up those SOFT, inexperienced gamers playing this. I think you can make both arguments that the creature you're playing as would know/keep track of where it's going or not (thus the need or no need for a map). Still this map isn't one you're gonna get TOO lost in as opposed to NES Metroid which if you are able to beat that without looking up a map Nintendo should fully fund your college education.

Game does not meet it's full potential sadly (what happens when you make a "my first Metroidvania" with such an excellent concept), but with what's here I still found it highly enjoyable. Love the biology of the creature and controlling it is just so smooth. A bit tough to navigate when you're at it's full, giant, all-star form but I'm not sure how that's a common complaint on here? Yes, the creature is unstable when it's at that size. It's a mess and it's cool! Excellent atmosphere that got me through the whole thing despite thinking a little too much throughout how this would've been an all-timer if it was given a meatier treatment like Super Metroid. Maybe for the future/a sequel. For now, especially with it's short play time of around 4 hours, I think this is a good start for anyone not familiar with Metroidvanias.

I’ve had this for awhile and after playing Axiom Verge 2 I was feeling Metroidvania-y, so I finally booted it up. What I found was that the world has lied to me about this game because it is not a metroidvania!!

The game is extremely linear, no collectibles outside of the required upgrades to advance, and a pretty small map. Or at least it felt like it, because another thing that was missing that just about every metroidvania has is an in game map. Although, since it’s so linear you don’t really need one!

Sorry, I just love Metroidvanias and in my mind this is clearly not that. What you do get however is a very unique concept, decent puzzles, and some fun, man eating action! Is action puzzle a genre? Because that is what this feels like. While not a very long game, and not a challenging one, you will still have tons of fun watching yourself go from a tiny little ball of meat? Worms? Into this monstrous, grotesque, sin of humanity. I mean, you actually hear these people scream in terror when they see or hear you. It’s great.

While having all that fun you might be distracted every once in awhile by pacing issues, mundane controls and abilities, and the not so fun human sections.

I had fun with this game for the few hours it lasted, but I can’t say that I would recommend it to everyone.

This idea behind the game is incredible and the way the game looks is magnificent. If the game had more substance to it it could truly be a masterpiece, but it does not. Some safe areas warp you to other locations while some don’t making the map more confusing than it should. The main goal of the game is to find the all of the save spots in an area before going onto the next area; which is already studious, but also they almost all have the same formula. Get like 2 then get a power up then get the next 2, rinse and repeat. The enemies do scale and you really do feel like a movie monster while fighting enemies, which in general is something the game is really good at. The rapid movement of the entity you control combined with the expanding arsenal you are given does really give you the feeling of being a creepy, powerful and vile creature. The only problem is that I do not want to continue that experience with how dry the gameplay loop is that its not even trying to hide how repetitive it is. Maybe I’ll finish it one day but I don’t have any interest playing it again at the moment.

Giving the player the opportunity to control a terrifying and foreboding fleshy monstrosity, picking off your targets with the animalistic brutality of a pack of hungry lions - much akin to the thing from 'The Thing' or the alien from 'Alien' - Carrion has a fairly unique premise that made me eager to play the game from the day I'd heard of it. Sadly, fails to fully capitalise on the idea's potential.

I feel your mileage for this game will hinge almost entirely on how gratifying you find mindless violence and gore. Personally, I stopped playing with my food barely an hour into the game, when I realised that the enemies are little more than screaming health kits. There is no lore, no dialogue, no justification behind what is happening in this game, outside a handful of "memory" sequences, which were similarly plot anaemic. Novelty can wear thin, and there wasn't a shred of it left come the time the credits to Carrion finally rolled. Encounters and gauntlets quickly become a mere routine that no amount of upgrades could obfuscate. There's only so many times you can hit the same pinata before every last piece of candy has fallen out.

With each level being a samey-looking environment with little to no unique identifying landmarks, and no map to speak of, I found myself completely lost for progress for much of my playthrough. The spritework is stunningly detailed, but none of it clicked with me to a point where I was in awe with what I was looking at. It mostly blurred together as a grossly busy pastiche of repeating assets, vents and corridors. I don't think I ever found myself sure of my place on the map, convincing myself that any step forward I manage to make is by complete coincidence.

The puzzles in this game are impressive, but I can't help but find the size requirements to most of them to be a complete hindrance to the pacing. Pacing back and forward, to and from a blood pool to shrink yourself down so you can use a different set of abilities, then doing the same to size back up. I'm amazed I had the patience.

I can't exactly place why, but Carrion reminds me so much of the PS1 Oddworld games to the point where I wish I was playing those instead. Slig Barracks music played in my head throughout the armory section.

Incredibly fun and doesn't overstay its welcome, but it does feel like something's missing. It's at an awkward in-between stage where it would work really well if it just went more arcadey and used a stage-based approach with multiple ways to approach situations using some of the im-sim-lite mechanics, but the way it presents itself as a metroidvania implies that there will be more mechanical diversity than there actually is.
There are a few spots where the abilities really shine and you'll find yourself taking advantage of the parasitism in fun ways, but it feels like the general loop prefers speed and brute strength over calculated action.
For what it is, it works incredibly well though, and it's just short enough that I highly recommend picking it up even just to play around in the space for a bit, it never gets old whipping through a room at 60mph and leaving every wall stained red in 5 seconds flat.

Carrion

#3

PC - Steam

Beaten January 27th, 2022

Carrion is a metroid-lite puzzler about a freakish monster attempting to escape an enclosed facility... but YOU'RE the monster this time! It's a very very cool premise that is unfortunately let down by some meager gameplay. There is combat but it is incredibly simplistic and wonky, there are puzzles but they're either straightforward or exasperating. So yeah, interesting game overall, held up mostly by its premise and 'feel'. While it is fun to rip through silly humans and be the bad guy, the actual GAME here of gaining new powers and moving between very samey hallways, military bases and water pipes gets old pretty fast. It took me 4 hours to finish Carrion and I was ready for it to end at about half the time.

Pros:

Awesome premise. Being a shapeshifting monster is super badass and watching yourself 'grow' and gain new powers as the game goes on is satisfying as HELL.
Sound design for the monsters and people. Ripping apart metal grates, roaring in bestial fury, the human crew screaming in terrror... it all sounds great.
Artstyle is pretty great for the monster at least. Bits of flesh glooping off, pounding through doors, nomnomoming scientists... good stuff. People and backgrounds are more "average", or at least don't stand out as strongly as the monster.
Cons:

Where to start....
The Puzzles are dumb 95% of the time. The solution is either right in your face and you progress (this generally has a nice momentum to it at least) or you realize what you have to do but now have to backtrack to either gain or lose some 'mass' to get different powers.
No map. Often not a problem as the game funnels you from one area to the next but it often returns you to old "hub" areas and you have no fucking idea where it means you to go. So then you just wander around looking for something unbroken/inactive that you now have powers to interact with and go from there.
Combat is bad. You basically auto-kill regular enemies but others have weird shields that have no counters and enemy AI is telepathic meaning setting traps is difficult at best, irksome at worst.
Meh

The Story. Again, great premise. The story as it is told however seems like its trying to tell something interesting (there's some 'flash sideways' to human characters you control) with this creature's escape and what humanity is up to but.... it goes nowhere and has no weight to it whatsoever.
Level design. There are a few cool levels (one that looks like you're in space!) but the others are just generic military bases. Not a lot of variety in where you're tearing through.
Metroidvania elements. You occasionally get new powers that let you traverse the map or fight differently but they are rarely used actively. They don't add much.
Hmmm

Different forms of your body have different powers. Neat differentiation but then it leads to several points where you're just hunting for dead bodies (need more mass) or looking for a spawn pool (need to drop some mass) so you can use the right power to progress. Sometimes this leads to interesting puzzle situations, sometimes not.
Final Grade: C

Great environments and visuals in general in spite of the game being based in a run down facility. The game presents little challenge outside of one enemy type due to most enemies collapsing like paper and your monster being able to zip around at lightning speed. Spent the majority of my time being lost due to the lack of map, though this was worsened by the fact that I felt compelled to find all the optional rooms, which simply beefed up my monster further past the stage of overpowered. No real lore to speak of, and completing the optional bits didn't seem to add to the story. Thankfully isn't too long. Loses half a star for making a "Keep Calm And" reference, as much as I enjoy shit puns. What a carrion! (see)

A nice short game with a good execution. It makes good use of its 2D nature.
The premise is simple, you're a biohazard making a jailbreak from a lab, there are throwback sequences to your discovery but I found it trying to make a needless service to the player. All you need to be is a monster.

Map design is good with backtracking and puzzles, you stumble upon necessary upgrades but have to look around for the optional ones but it's somewhat of a walk to go back for them. A nice element I felt is that travelling between areas through waypoint disorients you sometimes and that felt appropriate and serving to the idea that you're simply a lump of aggressive flesh trying to break out.

The controls are a bit loose making combat a frantic mess of twitching and slithering especially once you grow in size, they could be improved upon, but they're not bad by any means. Gameplay progression can use an extra layer but the game's almost over by the time you notice.