Cursed Mountain

Review from Anna - Thursday, 22 October 2009 @ 1:26am

Cursed Mountain isn't the greatest title for a game. It gave me the feeling that here was a game that the developer couldn't even be bothered to name properly. Going into the game, it didn't take me long to figure out that there was a mountain which was cursed. The creepy soundtrack and menu art gives it away a bit. So as a lesson, lazy title gives people bad impressions. I'm not sure what else it could be – maybe use the word 'quest' in it but stating the general setting of the game is less than inspiring.

Cursed Mountain was scary. But in saying that, please remember that this is me we're talking about - someone who still has nightmares about Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest. I'd like to say that they were able to get me so keyed up that I would have to mute the sound, only play in daylight hours and never alone because of brilliant atmospheric designs. And while I did mute the sound, play in daylight hours and bribe my siblings to stick around while I got through it, it wasn't because of anything brilliant. I'm judging this as someone who wouldn't say boo to a goose because she's scared it might say boo back. Just because I got scared, doesn't mean it's scary for everyone. Actually, I doubt it's that scary for anyone. The scariest thing is often the unknown and the unexpected but straight off the bat you are introduced to exactly what you're facing – unsettled spirits – and how to fend them off. The sudden cut scenes are contrived and, well, predictable. I jumped at the first one they threw at me, but all of the others were unsurprising and lacking in conviction (yes, I do believe that these ghosts hardly harboured any ill will towards anyone and just wanted to be left alone).

Hide and go seek isn't as fun when your opponent can apparate.

On this mountain, called Chomolonzo or the “sacred one” there is some sort of goddess who is offended by whatever lil bro has done by in the mountain. To reverse this, you have come to the rescue to learn all sorts of special rituals and complete rather... sexual ceremonies. The game uses Buddhist and Tibetan myths and rituals as a heavy influence for the story and what you are able to do. Cursed Mountain does try to stick to the history and customs of these two great traditions but it's a video game and therefore takes a number of liberties that distances the game away from the lore it's based on.

The premise relies on your being the dutiful older brother – Erik Simmons, a lovely young man with the scruffy blonde look and a strong Scottish accent going for him – going out to save his dumb piece of bum sibling (Frank) from a death he probably deserves. Considering he is supposed to be your main motivation to complete the game... my complete lack of sympathy for his predicament shows just how much it fails at trying to entice players to keep going. Actually, going back in this review, you'll see I show more sympathy towards the poor spirits on the mountain than I do for the humans which should say more about the game than it does about me (at least I hope so).

For some reason they've decided that movement and vision don't need to be separated that much. You don't get to look around a lot with the Wiimote, instead, you use the nunchuk lightly enough to slowly move the character around. Otherwise, you can press down on the d-pad and then look around using the nunchuk but in this mode you can't move. So if something jumps you, you're spending unnecessary time just being able to get a look at it. This system also likes to arbitrarily swap between letting you turn around and making you walk backwards. Maybe I'm just really uncoordinated but I'd go to turn around and just end up backing into my enemy, getting stabbed in the back while I can't even defend myself properly.

Not a morning person obviously...

The other thing is that this game is slow. Slow moving, slowly paced, slow in the head. Everything is spelled out for you and while Eric's accent is pleasant at first, the repetitive nature of the information gets in the way of enjoying the characteristics of the survival horror genre – that you don't know what's out there and it gets your heart pumping. There is little thrill in this game. When you move, you're encouraged to go slowly so that you don't disturb the light-sleeping spirits. The fastest you can travel is at a jog and while I applaud the realism in the game where it makes you slow down when you're walking uphill – realism isn't the best thing in a game. Patience is a virtue in this and doesn't give much reward if you're more into playing it for the thrill of survival. It's not hard to find out that as long as you keep moving, the spirits don't present much danger. Though again, in comes the issues with clunky and slow movement.

The weapon they give you is a special pickaxe that has been magicked with spiritual powers that let you defend yourself from incorporeals. This is either in a hack n' slash mode or you can shoot from a distance. Shooting from a distance is probably one of the best things Cursed Mountain had going for it, too bad you won't have much opportunity to actually use it. Well, you could. But then the fights would be twice as long as you'd be constantly running away to get far enough for the damn thing to work. And that if the system lets you turn around quickly to fire or it makes you run backwards wasting precious time and allowing the ghosts another chance to take you down.

To help with this, you have a special 'third eye' that allows you to see into the spirit world. In combat, it isn't all the helpful to be honest as it won't let you move at all. Mainly you use it to find spiritual seals and using your awesome pickaxe of peculiar spells you cast magicness and make the seal go away and presumably things get a bit better. Of course, the simple motions are rather frustrating to get working on the Wii due to the indecisive nature of the motion sensors (was that a line or a circle you just did there?).

Eerily reminscent of Mulan but without the cheery musical numbers.

The soundtrack is one of the greatest things going for this but of course, I am incapable of playing a scary game with the music if it's getting to me. They also use the little speaker in your Wiimote to great effect, meaning that there is a greater level of ambience as you move through the levels. The cutscenes are also rather atmospheric and work well with the soundtrack... but coming out of the cutscenes is almost always a disappointment. Graphics shouldn't hold back a game – I really feel that how 'good' it looks shouldn't have any impact on how well you can enjoy something but in this, the dodgy textures really harm the experience.

If anything, while this game is well suited to the console, I'm not sure the console is suited to the game. The frustrating controls and the graphics being gratefully hidden by constant wind and snow storms lets Cursed Mountain down. However, it really gives variety to the Wii library and this is always going to be a really good thing for Nintendo as they attempt to throw off the accusations of being just a kiddy console time and time again.

Pros

Rather atmospheric game, good use of ancient lore to present a unique storyline for survival horror and good use of the mini speaker on the Wiimote.

Cons

Difficult to feel any sympathy for the characters, slow paced, doesn't get the heart rate up or produce any strong thrills suited to the genre in which it presents itself.

Summary

A rose by any other name doesn't smell as sweet in this case - a generic name gives the game a generic feel and while you can see where this game can be great, it barely rises above okay and frequently falls to frustratingly incompetent. Those who have more patience than me will find better value. The sad thing is that most of its bad points stem from the platform it's on more than anything else.