The Crow: City of Angels

The Crow: City of Angels (video game)

"Hey clown face!"

Genre(s):	Beat-em-up
Platform(s):	Microsoft Windows Sega Saturn Sony PlayStation
Release Date:	February 28, 1997 (PS1, NA)
Developer(s):	Gray Matter Inc.
Publisher(s):	Acclaim
Country:	Canada

"There were no games based on The Crow. Nada, diddly-fuckin'-squat. Then came the shitty sequel, The Crow: Shitty of Angels! HO HO! Now it's time to make a game!"
— The Angry Video Game Nerd

The Crow: City of Angels is a 1997 video game that was released on the PC, Sega Saturn and the PlayStation. It was published by Acclaim and developed by Gray Matter Inc. It is loosely based on the movie of the same name.

Why It Sucks

Poor grasp of the source material: in the movie, Ashe Corven is immune to guns. In the video game adaptation, however, he is vulnerable to guns and dies quickly to them.
The camera is very jittery and shaky. For those who suffer from motion sickness, this could easily get them sick!
The models and pre-rendered backgrounds are grainy and lack texture. For a late 1990s game, it already looked dated on release.
The camera angles often blindside you, leading to inescapable ambushes. You will sometimes be jumped by enemies during screen transitions.
The combat is complicated for a beat-'em-up. You do have punches and kicks, but you will often see them go through your enemies.
The controls are not very good. To make an already unenjoyable experience worse, they decided to use tank controls, only because Resident Evil (1996) made it popular. These controls are not meant for a beat-'em-up game, as it makes combat harder than it already is.
Furthermore, enemies are usually heavily armed, meaning you will have to be careful with them later on. They will often kill you very easily if they have rocket launchers and you are currently unarmed.
The weapons enemies use are randomly generated when they spawn. This could pit the player against powerful rocket launcher-toting enemies, leading to cheap deaths.
The collision detection is suspect at best. You will often have your punches and kicks go right through enemies.
The music is just generic rock music that is mostly guitar riffs over and over.
When you get weapons, not only do they have limited ammo, but they are difficult to aim, due to the already bad controls mentioned above. This often leads to the player taking unnecessary damage if they attempt to use these weapons.

Reception

"What were they thinking?"The Shit Scale

Games that are debatably bad	High level of shit contamination	The very high category	The severe zone	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	Major code red
			👆

This product belongs to the "Severe Zone" category of the AVGN's Shit Scale.

The Crow: City of Angels received overwhelmingly negative reviews from video game magazines and critics.

Videos

Trivia

This game would be the last video game developed by Gray Matter Inc., which closed its studios a couple of months after it was released due to financial problems.

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The Crow: City of Angels

Contents

Why It Sucks

Reception

Videos

Trivia

Comments

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The Crow: City of Angels

Why It Sucks

Reception

Videos

Trivia

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