Publisher: Deep Silver
Developer: Sproing Interactive Media
Genre: Survival Horror
Release date: Available now

Cursed Mountain is a survival horror game, one that is steeped in mystery and a unique idea, if not just for the mountain and the ghost. It’s most promising aspects are its atmosphere and its capacity to keep you hooked. But the game never lifts its foot off the pivotal stepping stone into the realm of engrossing gameplay.

Climbing the inhospitable Himalayas is no easy task, and it becomes even more daunting when you have apparitions walking among the living and wanting you dead. You are a lone mountaineer, Eric Simmons, trekking his way up, regardless of the danger, to find his missing brother, Frank. Eric’s destination is home to a few scattered Buddhist villages, the inhabitants of which devote their worship to the god of the mountain, and for good reason. When the Buddhists suddenly disappear from their homes, Eric has to figure out how it happened and what role his brother played, while coming to grasp the idea that ghosts really do exist.

You are not helpless against them, however. You start the game with an enchanted pickaxe. It’s a bit underwhelming at first, as you have to get your hands dirty the old fashioned way to send them back to the netherworld. But after you’ve opened your third eye, which lets you see into the spiritual plane, you can take the fight to them. As you progress you find upgrades for your axe that allow you to blast energy from it, keeping much needed distance between you and your enemies. Most of the game is spent going from village to village, exploring to find keys that open magically sealed doors to progress in the story. Along the way, you pick up letters from the natives, pages from your brother’s journal, and prophecies that clue you in on what has been going on.

After you first start off, it’s not long before tense anticipation sets in as the atmosphere applies its magic. The game offers a few jolts here and there, and does its job of keeping you feeling like something could pop out at any minute. Especially cool is looking through your third eye. Black flakes of ethereal matter flutter up into the sky, darkening and graying the whole vista. It’s as if the world is peeled away to reveal the realm of the dead. Overall, your surroundings are convincing enough, drawing you into its horrors as you encounter bloodstained houses, creepy alleyways and treacherous mountain passes.

All of this doesn’t mean the game is actually fun. The gameplay is very redundant, and after an hour becomes predictable. The ghosts all appear in the same manner, all attack the same way (albeit some faster than others), and the puzzles are no-brainers. They entail going from house to house, usually facing a ghost after you enter, getting a key of sorts, and then leaving. This is more of a pattern than a puzzle. I also found it hard to care about my character or his brother, and the script only goes through the motions of explaining and filling in the gaps of the story. The stiff controls are cumbersome, and dying takes you too far back to the last checkpoint, which can lead to frustration.

Cursed Mountain‘s atmosphere has the stuff to cause the jitters; it’s a shame that its other departments couldn’t follow this example. It is plagued by bad design that is hard to overlook, and aesthetics alone can’t save it. Once you put it down, it’s very hard to find a reason to want to pick it back up again.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation: