Kill The Crows is an action arcade game with fast-paced and challenging combat. You are tasked with surviving wave after wave of Crows who are out to kill you. You play as Isabella, a gunslinger our for revenge in a small deserted town. It’s a relatively straightforward game without a ton of different mechanics or a deep narrative, but it balances that out by being a polished, tight experience that doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Gameplay

Kill The Crows consists of a series of 100-enemy waves followed by a boss each time. That is the entirety of the gameplay loop, aside from unlocking new gear to equip. Theoretically there’s a story mode, but it follows the exact same formula and contains a single additional cutscene, so it’s hard to consider it separate from the main arcade mode.

Almost the entirety of your enjoyment of this game will hinge on the shooting mechanics. Every weapon is a revolver where you load one bullet at a time. Everything is a one-shot kill, both your guns and the enemies’. Arguably, this could be seen as repetitive if every combat encounter plays out largely the same, but the subtle differences between your loadouts make all the difference.

Before each run, you select a weapon, a special ability, and two pieces of gear. Without spoiling all the different unlocks, the gear provides basic passive bonuses like an extra dodge, or quicker reloads. The guns and special abilities have a decent variety, which can focus on long range precision, close range spray-fire, and everything in between. All of them are quite satisfying to use thanks to the raw power they all possess. Special abilities will reload your weapon, allowing you to create fun moments where you are backed against a wall with no ammo, before you gun down everyone around you in a single second to keep the run alive.

The game is balanced in a way where everything is supremely powerful. You can mow down hundreds of enemies without breaking a sweat, but by that same token, one enemy can line up the perfect shot on you and end your run in an instant. Some players will find this frustrating, particularly if you aren’t very good at this sort of game. You’ll die quite often and struggle to make progress. That being said, I don’t consider myself notably skilled or experienced with this genre and I found the difficulty to be manageable. The average person that enjoys this type of game should be able to handle it just fine.

Presentation

The visuals and audio in Kill The Crows are excellent examples of doing a lot with a little. The graphics don’t feature flashy, photo-realistic 3D models, they are straightforward pixel art. It works perfectly to keep things visually readable so bullets don’t get lost in the spectacle of it all. Subtle things, like giving every enemy a different color palette or silhouette, helps you keep track of things while playing, often without realizing it.

Furthermore, the kill effects add a lot of weight to the combat without actually doing anything gameplay-wise. Enemies rag-doll across the screen after getting killed, blood explodes out of them like a scene from Kill Bill, explosions even have an effect reminiscent of a mushroom cloud. It’s all very theatrical and fun, without distracting from the main attraction, the crisp combat mechanics.

As for the soundtrack, it’s treated like background music. Don’t expect any dramatic music swells outside of your typical video game soundtrack. That’s not to say it’s bad, it simply isn’t the type of game to center the music as a major selling point. What actually takes center stage in the audio department are the sound effects, particularly shooting and reloading. The sound of gunfire is the real soundtrack to Kill The Crows. Every shot signifies an enemy killed, while every panicked click of an empty gun drives home the point that you might be screwed if you didn’t save your special ability to get out of the jam you find yourself in. You hear every round being reloaded, every special ability charged up, and every shot fired. In total, it pairs beautifully with the visuals to give a minimalist aesthetic that is far greater than the sum of its parts.

Story

I feel the need to mention the story simply because it’s at least a part of the game, but in all honesty, it’s probably the least interesting aspect of it. You are a woman seeking revenge against what seems to be the undead forces of evil, but the backstory is kept somewhat vague, presumably because there’s no time in this game to get into major story beats. Each boss has a short dialogue scene that hints at a greater narrative, but it’s mostly set dressing. It definitely didn’t detract from the game, but I also didn’t feel like it added much besides a bit of flavor.

Verdict

Kill The Crows is a small, short, cheap game that is truly fantastic. Obviously it’s not going to compete against Baldur’s Gate 3, but for a $5 game, there’s not much more you can ask for. Combat is extremely polished and there’s nothing I can think of to even complain about it. The presentation, both auditorily and visually is similarly great. I deeply enjoyed my time with this game and believe most players that enjoy this genre will feel the same way. I strongly recommend it if you are even slightly interested after watching the trailer.

9/10

• 5minlab Corp, KRAFTON, Inc.
• Steam
• $5