Carrion makes one of the most captivating first impressions a game can make with its "The Thing"-esque monster slithering around and chomping down on various dudes with beautifully disgusting animated gore. At first glance, this game looked like something I absolutely had to play. I imagined slinking around through vents, oozing down slowly into a group of oblivious scientists and biting all their heads off before they could react. And to the game's credit, you can very well do just that. But unfortunately, that's about all you do. The encounters get more complicated in some ways, sure, like when the guys get special electric shields and flamethrowers and stuff, but they really just serve to throw frustrating wrinkles into the gameplay rather than an interesting challenge.
As the creature, you do unlock some more mobility options and a handful of powers but it never felt like a full on cohesive metroid type, as you only really have to use each power in areas specifically designed for it.
But, the game doesn't really overstay its welcome and if you're like me, you can just play it free on Gamepass. It's not aggressively bad, and I didn't hate my afternoon spent playing it. And it does have sick ass animations.