When I first set my eyes on this game ‘Cursed Mountain’ for the Wii, I was totally blown away for its intense graphics and survival horror gameplay that utilises the controller to mimic rituals, mantras, gestures and so on. Well to my dismay, it was an exclusively product only. Well, quite literally out of the blue, it was announced to will be released for the PC as well as a digital download from Gamersgate! Without hesitation, I grabbed the game in fear of disappearing later on. Yet on the back of my mind, I was wondering how would the PC fair considering it was designed in mind using the controller. Once finished off the game, whilst it has that ‘Wii’ feel, I really enjoyed the game as there’s plenty of evidence of love and care poured into this game, making the gamer really feel like climbing the unclimbable mountain.
Set in the late 80s, the plot surrounds this game centres on the main character Eric, looking for his brother Frank last seen climbing up the ‘unclimbable’ Chomo Lonzo. Chomo Lonzo is a towering mountain located in the Himalayas; well actually Chomo Lonzo tends to be overlooked by nearby mountain Makalu (for which happens to be the fifth highest peak in the world standing at 8462m) however who’s to argue when Chomo Lonzo’s peaks at 7804m on the southern end! Yet the game also toys around the idea of Tibetan Buddhism and how a certain ritual needs to take place before being allowed to climb that mountain. Yet reaching the summit is only half the story as there’s another reason for which I won’t delve on as it’s kind of like a minor spoiler otherwise.
The gameplay can be deemed as a horror game yet it’s more of that ‘jump scare’ than anything else; yet it wasn’t that much of that either. The main character moves very slow – that is he always walks and even if he decides to run, it feels like a brisk walk at best. However I really do like that as otherwise it won’t feel like he’s at 18000 feet plus (approx. 5500m plus) above sea level if he is running all over the place. It will take away the immersion this game climbing this treacherous mountain.
Because it’s a port from the Wii, some of the game’s mechanics has been brought across as well. What this means that using the keyboard / mouse combo makes the game a little too easy at the best of times. What I’m mainly referring to is performing rituals as you need to use your mouse to ‘complete the dots’ that appear on the screen. This ‘ritual’ will be a lot more entertaining wielding the Wii’s Nunchucks around with hand movements flapping everywhere than slightly moving your mouse to perform the exact same thing – it just doesn’t sit well. However on the flipside, it’s a cool feature to have as these ‘rituals’ makes the game more interesting than simply ‘mowing’ everyone down. My suggestion here to make the PC version more challenging is to ensure that you cannot cross the same path when joining the dots (as the game currently allows this thus making it very easy to fulfil).
Other neat features are the healing system, the ‘third eye’ and collecting journals / scripts. The healing system involves lighting a joss stick at a healing shrine that are scattered about. Also healing can happen by performing the compassion ritual (that ‘join the dots’ thingy) however it’s only a small gain. And lastly, if you are almost dead, there’s that ‘self-heal’ option - i.e. stand around and do nothing and let magic do its thing. Yet it only heals up to one quarter of your total health as it’s designed for ‘near death’ experiences. So the healing system overall has some really cool innovations build in.
The third eye is an ability you gain very early on in the game. Basically you can see in the ‘spiritual world’. In game terms, in combat, this must be activated (default RMB) to see the ghosts and once they are almost ‘dead’ (indicated by a red circle) you can complete the ‘compassion ritual (join the dots)’ which, once successful, you gain a small amount of health back. The ‘compassion’ ritual can also be performed at items that are cursed (indicated by a low humming, shimmering like substance). Once lifted you get some sort of bonus and a small amount of health back too.
The journals, or as the game calls it, books, are scattered throughout the game. I guess you can call it ‘collectables’ however most are very easy to find as the game is mainly linear in fashion. They all enhance the lore so it’s worth your time hunting them down. Yet the game’s save system is a joke. Based on the checkpoint system where the game periodically saves for you, meaning that exiting the game will load the last checkpoint that always override the same save slot. Yes you can see five slots in total however it’s reserved for five different games. Thankfully the checkpoints are spread out decent enough not to cause too my frustrations.
Visually the game looks like it was release back in 2005 however it’s all forgiven as it’s a decent port from the Wii. There are some very nice vistas to see and the game sometimes goes into ‘cinematic’ view, letting the player see the surroundings in full panoramic spectacle. Extremely well done and well-timed as, and thankfully so, you’ll never enter combat during this cinematic event so enjoy it. Sadly some textures do need extra polygons however the main character has really detailed animations. The sound quality is not bad either. Plenty of environmental sounds like gushing winds, flapping noises from prayer flags and so on are all great – adds absorption to the game. The musical scores are all decent with plenty of ‘whispers’ added however I’m not fond of that low ‘mumbling’ prayer – it sounds like it’s trying too hard to be ‘evil’ sounding.
Completion time for me to finish off this game hovers around the twelve hours mark yet I was aiming to collect all the books and enjoy the views when I can, for which I did. I also love the concept of trekking up a dangerous mountain as this feature hasn’t been done with many other games before it. I tagged this as a ‘single environment’ theme as it only targets just one area, in this case, mount Chomo Lonzo. In my eyes it can be difficult to do, especially when you need to ensure the player does not lose interest as the scene is not exactly ‘varied’. Developers, Sproing Interactive Media, has done an extraordinary job of that as it kept me playing until the end. The only other game has done equally well within this type of gameplay / theme is Cold Fear back in 2005 oddly enough. Cursed Mountain is definitely a game worth playing especially if you love ‘single environment’ games with a decent story to boot.