DeVuego ES_COR

Nongünz needs you to sit patiently with it for at least a few hours to truly appreciate it. I felt myself being compelled every time I died to enter the dungeon again. When I didn’t understand something, I strove to figure it out, and for every discovery you’re rewarded with a new tool in your arsenal against the legions of the dismembered. And I’m sure there are plenty of other secrets that are waiting to be unearthed. I found it a little ironic that while Nongünz professes to be thematically nihilistic, the gameplay itself is rich and complex. This game won’t set the world on fire, it’s a fun way to blast away two or three or four or five evenings. Because in this pointless existence, what else matters…but gaming?

At 8-10 hours in length, The Crow’s Eye hits the sweet spot between being too short, and becoming repetitive. The grand reveal at the end of the game, the reason for why your character is being put through these trials, is satisfying, if a bit disappointing considering the build up. The entire game is centered around movement, but in the final scene, you’re rendered immobile while being treated to an extended expository dump. On the bright side, it’s learning about Holtwick’s other experiments that really make the story interesting. Things get very creepy as you approach the finale, and I was once again re-evaluating what kind of game this was. Strangely, this inconsistency improved the game. You were never able to tell whether the next room contained a cool puzzle, or a horrific revelation. This was the lasting impression The Crow’s Eye left me with. Although there are a scattering of minor annoyances, it was the enjoyment of unraveling both the story and the puzzles that you’ll remember.