Cursed Mountain (Wii) Review
The survival horror genre was one that was dying pretty quickly with the advent of the HD era. While there were some occasional hits such as Siren: Blood Curse on the Playstation 3, and Silent Hill: Homecoming on multiple formats, there was never really a huge influx of horror games available to horror fans. Many put it down to the lack of public interest in the genre, and the associated costs with developing a high definition title simply not being profitable for game development firms. Thankfully, the Wii, in all it’s non-HD goodness, has provided many developers with an outlet to create some genuinely “risky” games, without fear of losing excessive amounts of money. Cursed Mountain is one of these games, and while it may have benefited from some better graphical prowess, the game itself is probably one of the most atmospheric, intriguing, and immersion games I’ve ever played.
Cursed Mountain takes place in the 1980s on a Himalayan mountain known as Chomolonzo, which the indigenous settlers called “The Sacred One.” Eric Simmons, an English mountain climber, has visited the mountain after his younger brother, Frank Simmons, had gone missing on a very ambitious expedition to climb Chomolonzo, much to the disdain of the locals. The expedition in question was funded by a treasure hunter, Edward Bennett, who lost his own leg attempting the same expedition himself. There is a problem, however, and that is the fact that the locals see the mountain as their “goddess,” and foreigners who climb the mountain without performing sacred rituals first are thought of as “raping” the goddess. Rather predictably, being the culturally insensitive westerners that they are, both Frank and Bennett skip these rituals and attempted to climb the mountain. Bennett came back, but Frank didn’t; strange things start to happen as Eric searches for his brother. Typical horror movie/game stuff, really.
Cursed Mountain’s setting is one that the developers put some careful thought into. The game was deliberately set in the 1980s in an effort to give a sense of isolation to the characters through the lack of technology available in that period. Similarly, the cultural influences on the game are derived from Tibetan and Buddhist folklore, a topic rarely touched upon in games, that gives the game a very unknown feeling, while still being interesting and well researched. Environments are made to appear very densely populated, while still giving a feeling that everyone vanished almost suddenly at the sign of things going wrong. Flags and curtains blow in the wind, wood fire stoves are still burning slowly, human contact is few and far between, and in the rare occasion that you do encounter another human being, they either don’t look human or are in their late 70s. This gives the game a very isolated feel, and really builds on the game’s almost perfectly executed atmosphere of never really feeling safe or relieved, and, without spoiling too much, the game does a brilliant job of making you feel the way the protagonist is feeling towards the end of the game, too. One final comment on the setting – despite being set on a mountain, there is a lot of variety in the game. You’ll explore small mountain villages, temples, the mountain itself, and some other unexpected areas too.
Probably one of the most disappointing features of Cursed Mountain for me was that game’s graphical presentation. While on one hand the buildings and environments were brilliantly detailed and really conveyed the isolation the developers want you to feel, they can look incredibly rough at times. In fact, Eric himself looks rather sharp edged at times, and some anti aliasing wouldn’t have gone astray. Either way, though, Eric and the animations of enemies in the game are very well acted and really help players get immersed in the game. Weather effects, such as wind blowing fabrics, and snowstorms, are nice touches that really hammer home the fact that you’re somewhere high in altitude, furthering the immersion experience. Some of the interiors, while nicely decorated to fit in with the Tibetan theme, lack real detail, which can break the experience quite a bit. Finally, the cutscenes in this game are largely stylised comic-book style, and use big black borders to give the players a claustrophobic feel. While looking nice, they could’ve been a bit better.
Of course, atmosphere, graphics, and presentation are only one small piece of the pie, and the crux of what makes or breaks a game is, naturally, the gameplay. And, in this regard, Cursed Mountain is a bit of a mixed bag. The game is played with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, with the Nunchuk being used to move and ready Eric’s weapon (a magical pick axe, more on that later) and the Wii Remote for motion based input that is used to both solve puzzles and vanquish ghosts, demons, and negative energy.
Upon holding C, players go into what the Buddhists in the game refer to as “Third Eye” mode, in which Eric can see things that people normally couldn’t, with the camera zooming over Eric’s shoulder, similar to Resident Evil 4. It is in this mode that Eric can attack with his enchanted pick-axe by pressing the B button to shoot spiritual energy, or simply perform a melee strike by pressing B outside of “Third Eye” mode. Both methods do the job properly, with it simply coming down to personal preference about how you want to handle your spiritual enemies. Personally, I prefer using the distant energy attacks in the Third Eye mode, simply because it keeps my enemies at bay.
Upon hammering or zapping a ghost enough, Eric can perform a compassion ritual on the ghost to ease its soul and recover a little bit of health. The combat in the game essentially is a bit of a mix between No More Heroes and Resident Evil 4, in that enemies get attacked by standard moves and can be finished off with a motion-based combination in order to get a bonus. Stronger ghosts throughout the game take more than one motion to finish off, and for the most part, the compassion ritual is the best way to earn health back and vanquish a ghost.
And I say the best way, because there are two other main ways that Eric recovers health, and quite frankly, it’s a perplexing design choice made by the developers. In order to recover health outside of performing compassion rituals on ghosts, Eric must stand still. That’s it. As players can imagine, there is little practicality to this action during intense battles or boss fights. Similarly, Eric can also find “Incense Sticks”, and lighting these at specific shrines also gives Eric a boost in health, but once again, he must stand still in order to utilise these.
The gameplay itself is fairly run-of-the-mill Survival Horror stuff. Players will find themselves investigating semi-open worlds to find keys, open locked doors, and collect artifacts that let them progress to the next area, as well as scale the mountain using Eric’s climbing tools (with requirements for Oxygen taking a very big part as Eric gets to high altitudes). Occasionally, players will be attacked by ghosts and must combat them, but, to be honest, the gameplay itself gets pretty repetitive over time and it becomes more of a minor inconvenience to battle the ghosts than making it an enjoyable experience. Similarly, boss battles provide a bit more of a “puzzle” approach to the game’s combat, but ultimately you’ll be doing the same thing, just multiple times, to vanquish the bosses. On occasion, the motion controls used in the compassion rituals did not register properly, leading to some frustration during more “heated” battles.
Putting gameplay mechanics aside, there is something that players won’t gel with in Cursed Mountain, but it’s an issue that not all players will find fault in. Cursed Mountain is an extremely atmospheric and brooding game that really doesn’t have a fast pace at all. While on one hand, horror fanatics will love this pacing as it does build atmosphere and give the player a sense of isolation, it can be perceived as incredibly slow for those not used to the genre.
It’s a bit of a hard place to comment from as I am understandably biased towards having horror games that aren’t all about action, but to put it simply, if you love your atmosphere in games and don’t mind a lack of action here and there, you will probably like Cursed Mountain’s pacing. There are over fifty files to find that build more on the back story of Eric’s brother, Frank, and the natives to the mountain, as well as Buddhist and Tibetan rituals as well.
Many horror games (and movies) use sound to their advantage to build suspense and indicate when something bad is going to happen. Surprisingly, Cursed Mountain hardly ever has tunes blaring from your TV. Instead, ambient noises play constantly, giving the game a very eerie feel. The sound of wind blowing, chimes slowly playing, Eric’s foot steps, and the occasional loud “spike” of audio are all you’ll hear while playing most of Cursed Mountain. While it isn’t an amazingly deep soundtrack offering, the pieces that do play during intense boss battles are well performed and help add to the tension the game is serving up. As for voice acting, on the other hand, most of it is performed very well, but may pose a problem for some players as some of the characters have heavy accents. Combine this with the environmental effects sometimes making some words hard to hear, and you’ve got a game that should probably be played with subtitles turned on. Thankfully, Cursed Mountain does give this option. All in all, though, the voice acting is superb, the (lack of) a soundtrack adds to the game’s atmosphere, and the occasional spikes in audio perfectly compliment the game’s happenings.
Unfortunately, Cursed Mountain doesn’t really gives players any reasons to attempt to re-climb Chomolonzo outside of pure completionism. There are a few files scattered around the mountain that give health increases, as well as small effigies of Buddhist deities, but these feel like arbitrary collectibles rather than anything really worthwhile. Despite that, players will find a lengthy single player campaign with the game clocking in at approximately 10-12 hours depending on your skill and whether you explore the game’s world quite a bit, but be warned that the ending may be viewed as rather anti-climactic.
Ultimately, Cursed Mountain is a game that I thoroughly enjoyed and made me think as to what people are talking about when they say there’s nothing to play on the Wii. Its got a good story, somewhat decent gameplay, and is quite possible one of the most atmospheric horror games I’ve ever played outside of the horror big wigs, like Silent Hill. While it is a great game, those who don’t appreciate slower games for the sake of building atmosphere may not enjoy Cursed Mountain. There’s two recommendations here – if you’re a huge fan of horror games, I’d say give it a go, if you’re not but still intrigued by the game, give it a rent. There’s a lot of interesting and new concepts to be learnt here, especially with the game’s Tibetan/Buddhist subject matter, so at least it’ll be an enlightening experience. I eagerly await the next horror title on the Wii after playing Cursed Mountain.
Cursed Mountain is a great survival horror title that takes advantage of all facets of the Wiis hardware. While its a bit weak graphically and has its faults, the other components of the game contribute to create a title that is well worth a look from skeptics, as well as from general horror fans. For those who enjoy this kind of game, I definitely recommend it. For those looking for something new, I definitely recommend it. For those who perhaps prefer more action packed games, I still recommend it, but be warned it might not be what youre used to.
Turns out graphics aren’t everything!
Graphics 6.5
Large expansive unique environments combined with some breathtaking vistas makes Cursed Mountain a rather breathtaking affair. Its just a shame that the games “realistic” artistic direction makes it falter, and that the cutscenes are only static comic-book style images. While the overall artistic direction is a bit crap, character designs are very nice, especially those of the natives.
Gameplay 7.0
An interesting combination of Resident Evil 4 and No More Heroes gameplay, Cursed Mountain combines a competent battle system with some very atmospheric gameplay. Some users may be shied away from the game for its rather slow pacing, while others may see it as atmosphere building. A few hiccups with the motion controls here and there can prove frustrating, though.
Sound 7.5
While there is little actual music in Cursed Mountain, ambient noises and environmental effects contribute to the games atmosphere in a very positive way. What little music is present contributes to the games dark and brooding atmosphere really well, while raising tension appropriately in boss battles.
Tilt 5.5
While Cursed Mountain is a great single player experience, there is hardly any reason for players to return to Chomolonzo unless theyre completionists and want to collect the arbitrary collectibles they left behind.
Value 8.0
I had a lot of fun with Cursed Mountain, especially exploring a barren environment that Ive never explored in a video game before. As previously said, while the game is slow at times, it does an excellent job at building atmosphere and does most things right in crafting a great survival horror experience.
