Cursed Mountain (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

The survival horror genre of games hasn't seen a particularly large influx on the Nintendo Wii, well outside of the light gun genre where developers seem to think they'll work better than in their true third person state, which is a crying shame as those that have turned up have been of a high standard. Since its announcement, there has been a good amount of hype levelled at Cursed Mountain, coming from a joint collaboration between Sproing and Deep Silver. And now with the gaming having landed on store shelves, we can determine whether this has been an easy ascension to the summit or whether it's been left hanging, crampons and all.

Gameplay

Cursed Mountain is a survival horror game with a twist. Foregoing the usual town or city settings, the game, as the title would suggest, takes place on the ever looming Chomolonzo, located within the Himalayan Mountains in the 1980s. You take control of experienced mountaineer Eric Simmons who has arrived in search of his brother, Frank, who was last seen and heard from while heading for the summit of Chomolonzo in search of an ancient Buddhist relic which is said to lie at the top of the mountain. And so begins your ascent from base camp in the search of your brother. However, much like the many other titles in this genre, things quickly appear to be much more complicated than the surface shows. As you begin your climb, things quickly become tense as the towns and locales you'll be visiting have long since been abandoned with only the remains of life littering the place and notes to provide clues as to what has been going on, as well as giving an insight into the lives of those who were here prior to the events you play through and into the Buddhist themes that the game is heavily involved within. The reason for the inhabitants of the towns leaving quickly becomes tied to the spiritual meaning and significance of the mountain and with the appearance of ghosts, who are stuck in limbo, things start to feel very different from your expected search and rescue mission.

The game takes you through a series of 13 chapters with each one continuing the prevailing tense atmosphere while giving you a chance to explore the Himalayan surroundings within the confines of the linear set up. It is a very linear progression from start to finish, with little in the way of deviation other than collecting notes and journal entries to flesh out the back story as well as to provide some meaning to the Buddhist terminology that will be used throughout. As has been stated, the game is deeply involved with many of the either unheard of or unseen parts of Buddhist traditions, with the developers having gone to great lengths to research the religion so as to get the facts correct. As a result of this religious grounding, Cursed Mountain deftly sets itself apart from the competition as being something unique, not only in its story and surroundings but also in some of its gameplay.

For the most part, you'll be traversing large open levels, with interior environments strewn throughout that you'll be able to access, although some of these will only be accessible after completing certain tasks. The game splits itself up then into exploration and the completion of these tasks, which will either take the form of finding an artefact to help your progression or fighting the numerous ghosts so as to unlock or break seals so you can progress. The fighting of the ghosts brings around an arena styled battle, whereby you'll be confined to a small area of the level until you defeat the ghosts. This confining nature ties in with the overall atmosphere of the game and does make for some tense moments, although this can also be a result of the not so great control scheme. It also brings with it another element to the game whereby, with a press of the C button, you enter into a Third Eye vision that lets you use your ice axe to fire off bursts of energy so you can carry out the 'compassion' ritual and defeat the ghosts. It's an interesting concept that takes a little getting used to but one that becomes increasingly easier as the game progresses due to some of the weapons you'll have access to which make it a simple snag and tag situation and this ultimately detracts from the experience somewhat. The gameplay as whole, though, is varied to a degree and brought together with the perfectly realised atmosphere it makes for one interesting ride. The only major issue is that the overall progression is very slow and will ultimately, make people turn away. The game itself will clock in somewhere around the 8 to 10 hour mark, depending on whether you seek out all of the notes and journals, but once it's done, there's nothing to come back for a second time.

Controls

The game utilises a combination of the Wii-mote and Nunchuk and for the most part it works well, although there are significant flaws. Character movement feels jittery and sluggish, with the game not giving you the option to do a 180 turn ala Resident Evil 4, and keeping track of the ghosts in the heat of battle can be a difficult task, because when you enter Third Eye mode, you cannot move around. You can only look around. The IR controls for aiming your magically imbued ice axe are decent enough if only slightly 'floaty'. The biggest problems come about as a result of the gestures you'll have to make when undertaking the 'compassion' rituals for getting rid of ghosts, and these will require you to flick your controller in line with the on screen prompts yet they don't always record and you'll find yourself repeatedly doing the same gesture over and over until the game finally realised what it is you are doing.

Graphics

Big things have been made about the graphics from the developers and with the game finally here, some of the claims stand while others don't. The overall art style is fitting for what the game is trying to do, relying on Buddhist artefacts and images to provide a backing while giving you moody atmospheres that will genuinely chill you to the bone and for this, the game is a great success. However, while the art style is there, the graphics suffer from a lack of detail with textures being of particularly low resolution and low quality at several points and it is very noticeable. Character models all suffer a similar fate. While they look good, particularly the ghosts who hit the nail on the head in terms of being spooky, their animations are very stiff and look as though a few frames are missing with some of the clipping issues that occur from walking up steps and climbing ladders.

Sound

One of the best aspects of the game is the audio work. Again, much like the graphics, it ties in perfectly in with the foreboding atmosphere the game exudes and the constantly howling of the wind is really chilling. The minimal but effective use of music also helps to push the atmosphere, being creeping and tense, and the voice work is done extremely well, with the audio logs of Eric being particular highlights. It creates a perfect atmosphere and does make you feel as though you are living the experience with Eric.

Final comments

Cursed Mountain is unlikely to set the survival horror genre alight in the same way that other titles such as Dead Space have, but the developers can be extremely pleased with themselves. They've crafted a wholly unique and interesting experience for the Wii, one that garners such a tense atmosphere that really needs to be played to fully appreciate the amount of work that has gone into it. It is of a slow pace with little replayability but once you get pulled into the foreboding atmosphere, it's hard to pull away and it's certainly one of the best mature games the Wii has ever seen.

Pro: The atmosphere, thanks to the graphics and sound, is superb, gameplay is tense but fulfilling
Con: Little in the way of replayability, very slow paced
Final score: 7.6

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