GC 2008: Cursed Mountain First Look

In Deep Silver's upcoming survival horror game for Wii, you'll play as a mountaineer on a quest to find his missing brother, who's become lost in a mysterious ancient city high in the Himalayan mountains. We had a chance to see the latest trailer for the game and speak with the developers about the game to get a feel for what this very different-sounding Wii game will have on tap.

Set in the late 1980s, you'll play as a climber who must brave the literal uphill challenge of not just reaching the mysterious city where the action takes place, but also solving the mystery that has caused the trouble in the first place. Setting the game roughly 20 years ago was a deliberate choice by the developers--as they put it, mountain climbing was much more dangerous back then when compared to today, with more modern equipment.

Because all the company was showing was concept art, a few screens, and a brief trailer, we don't know much about the mechanics of the game, but we do know that the developer are working on trying to keep the challenges coming. In addition to those challenges, you'll be battling ghosts that inhabit the cursed city where most of the game's action takes place. In fact, the ghosts are former inhabitants of the city that have been trapped in the Buddhist purgatory, unable to move to the next stage of Nirvana because of the curse placed on the city.

To free the ghosts, you'll apparently perform rituals that are ripped from the ghosts you encounter. These rituals will consist of a series of very simple motions with the Wii Remote, and there looks to be several of these kinds of rituals that you'll collect during the course of this game. Cursed Mountain will also feature voice guidance through the Wii Remote as well; a buddy will be talking to you, giving you pointers over a walkie-talkie system, which will come through the Wii Remote's speaker.

In addition to the supernatural encounters, you'll have to deal with the rigors of altitude sickness, which, according to the developers, will have the main character wondering if what he's seeing during his adventures is real or imagined. Certainly the lofty setting and spooky atmosphere make Cursed Mountain a game worth keeping an eye on, and we'll be following its progress leading up to its release in 2009.