I’ve been playing a couple of different games, but haven’t written about them… mostly because I don’t think anyone is trying to read a blog post about Battleship. Don’t judge me! But I’ve got a game to share with you now called Carrion that’s a quick and easy play. You’ll take over a tentacle blob in this side-scrolling horror game. Here’s my thoughts on this gory title:

Poor little blob trying to escape its prison! You don’t know much about what you are or where you are located, but you know what you must do: kill everyone, destroy everything. As you make your way through various areas, you’ll be absorbing all sorts of chemicals to get bigger and stronger. You’ll eventually get so big that it’s difficult to tell what part of the monster is the front. This is honestly the biggest challenge in the game. You’ll get so big that you can’t even fit into a little cubby without getting turned around. At one point, I literally got stuck trying to get up an elevator because half of my monster fell out of it repeatedly.

Even though this is a monster game, it felt more like a bloody puzzler. You’ll see in my screen captures the different colored hexagons at the top. This is your health bar. Each segment of color is a different size for your monster and each size has its own unique powers. You’ll need to figure out what combination of powers to use when to progress through different rooms. I did not realize this until much later in the game and it’s a bit of a bummer that you do not have unlimited power to cycle through at any given moment. You’ll have to strategize and may need to backtrack in order to progress.

You will often need to break off pieces of your monster in the pink water to become smaller and use specific powers. If you do not have energy to perform the action you need, break an electrical box and you’ll be instantly charged again. I kept doing it thinking it was fun to knock out their power without realizing it actually served a purpose.

While this is an annoyance, it is generally not a show-stopper. There were times, however, that I was slithering around trying to find pieces of my body in different pools or humans to eat in order to get bigger again. I’d recommend leaving pieces of people lying around and not eating them for no reason. Saving doesn’t necessarily regrow your monster to full size and access to specific areas is contingent on being the biggest version of the blob. I realize this whole last paragraph sounds weird without context, but it would’ve saved me a lot of hassle if I wasn’t just eating everything for fun. Not all humans are consumable (which is a good thing) because you will need to mind control them at times to progress. They’re also super useful if you want to get through an area taking minimal damage.

On that note, save often! While the game isn’t super difficult, there are some pretty intense rooms you’ll wander into, especially later on. Once security is activated, facing off against a bunch of robots, flamethrowers, and guns can cause you to become quickly overwhelmed. Depending on how far back you were when you last saved, you may have to redo a lot of work which can be annoying. If I had a save spot near a fight, I’d leave the fight to recharge some health and cement some progress. If I died, at least I would have fewer enemies to deal with when I got back.

To 100% complete this game, you’ll have to go and revisit zones once you’ve acquired more upgrades. Some areas are inaccessible until you unlock specific powers to remove barriers. You’ll have to use some trial and error to get through some rooms, especially as you get closer to the end of the game. My favorite moment of the game was a total accident that I had no idea was even possible. While I was preparing to have to carry a bomb in myself (you have to be the biggest version of the monster to have the shield capable of doing this), I discovered that I could inadvertently make the humans do it for me.

There actually is a story here that reveals itself with flashbacks and it won’t take much time for you to put the pieces together. While I enjoyed playing it, I don’t think the game has much replay value unless you’re just trying to be a completionist (I don’t think it is difficult to achieve this). I do appreciate that enemies do not respawn so when I went back to acquire the things I missed, I didn’t have to redo a bunch of fights. I could just go straight to my destination and move on.

Overall, I think it’s a cool premise. It’s easy enough to finish in a day and it’s free on Game Pass right now, so why not? Have you played this game already? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!