Carrion is the Horror Movie Monster Game I've Always Wanted

By Brendan Graeber

It says a lot about Carrion that the first human you’re able to ambush and rip to pieces can be found sitting on a toilet. You play as an escaped creature—an amorphous amalgamation of tendrils and teeth—stalking down dimly lit corridors and slinking through vents in your quest for freedom and vengeance on the scientists that imprisoned you. At first you’ll be fairly puny looking, but as you expand and devour, you’ll gain health and mass until you start looking like a spaghetti monster from hell. Developer Phobia Game Studios has created a sort of reverse-horror game—the best kind—as it lets you re-enact scenes from your favorite creature features. Do you slowly crawl though a duct and pop out to yank scientists to their doom one by one? Or would you prefer to madly rampage through a lab with incredible speed—grabbing everything you can wrap your tentacles around and flinging them at any who dare stand against you? You’ll be able to choose for yourself when it’s out on PC sometime next year.

Personally, I always preferred the slow buildup of dread. In one room early on in my demo, a few guards patrolled an area wary for signs of my approach. Since the creature in Carrion can propel itself along by grabbing onto almost any surface, I stuck to the ceiling and slowly moved above them until I found a corner with a heavy grate, and yanked the metal slab in the direction of a guard—killing him instantly. His friend turned to fire in the direction of my attack—but I was already descending from a new spot above him, and devoured the guy before he could fire his pistol a second time. That only left one last guard in a lower room, frantically pointing his firearm in every direction. Carefully snaking a tendril down, I yanked out the single light bulb in the room, savoring the panic my prey was no doubt experiencing. He kept his pistol trained on the only entrance into the room, which would have been a good strategy if he didn’t neglect the small duct that led to a grate right below his feet. I decided to leave his legs undigested in the now gore-slicked room, because that’s what a good horror movie monster does.

Carrion is a neat blend of different genres and mechanics: Between bits of rampaging action you’ll find the creature isn’t invulnerable, and stealth can be a valuable asset. Certain enemies eventually get wise and don better armor you can’t devour, or pack flamethrowers that set the area ablaze and limit your movement options, but it wasn’t always obvious how best to deal with inedible threats. There’s also a fair amount of puzzle-solving as you’ll need to power up certain areas, unlock doors, and latch onto levers. You’ll even encounter some light metroidvania elements as you break open canisters to give the creature new upgrades—like shooting webbing to stun enemies or hit distant switches.

I’m not sure how long the path to freedom in Carrion will take, but I do know that tearing apart scientists and using their body parts to beat up their friends is extremely fun, and something I might never get tired of. If Carrion can keep up the interesting progression path of getting new upgrades to deal with more impressive threats, I know I’ll be in a for a good time.

Brendan Graeber is IGN’s Guides Editor, and thinks the monster from John Carpenter’s The Thing was just terribly misunderstood. Follow him on twitter @Ragga_Fragga.