Cursed Mountain Review

Marking quite a departure from their previous casual game offerings for the Wii, Cursed Mountain is Deep Silver's first fully fledged horror game, with no mini games or shallow simulations in sight. From the moment you turn on the Wii, the dark menu screen and grotesque imagery provide a stark contrast from the Wii's cheery in-game menus.

The over the shoulder perspective and chosen game genre means that Cursed Mountain will inevitably have comparisons drawn with Resident Evil. For those who are looking for a Wii-exclusive answer to Resident Evil 5, you'll have to keep waiting: there is very little gore and certainly no zombies in sight for you to splatter. The enemies that appear in Cursed Mountain are ghosts who appear from shadows and thin air - quite literally as you rise in altitude throughout this game and scale the Tibetan mountain.

You play as Eric Simmons, a famous and experienced mountaineer who is out to rescue his recently missing brother Frank. Frank is also a famous mountain climber - but he's famous for being rash and overly ambitious with his mountain climbing. It seems that Frank has met his match this time with this Cursed Mountain as he's been missing for a few days by the time Eric arrives on the scene to do his rescue operation.

During Eric's investigation, he gradually finds clues and pieces together the story of why his brother was so keen to travel up the mountain, and meets assorted characters who his brother has met during his travels. The story is delivered via a series of notes, diaries and other small written entries that help you grasp a thorough understanding of the Buddhist culture and superstition surrounding the mountain.

Generally the presentation is very polished in this title. Although the cut-scenes are effectively a slideshow of static images, the transitions between these images and accompanying sounds are very well recorded (the voice acting in Eric's climbing log is also very convincing and helps build the atmosphere). Due to the realistic graphical style and the Wii's hardware limitations, Cursed Mountain will never look as good as an Xbox 360 or PS3 title, but it does succeed in producing a variety of convincing environments from crumbling chasms to snowy cliffs and carefully crafted monasteries.

Deep Silver does a very commendable job of building up the atmosphere for a ghost encounter. The colours begin to wash out and blur slightly, the howling wind intensifies, and the growling sound of a hostile ghost attacking you comes from the Wiimote as well as the TV. When this is coupled with the fact that you can hear Eric's hollow breathing during certain attacks, it makes for quite an immersive experience.

However, no amount of tricks with colours and sounds will make up for a flawed gameplay experience. Cursed Mountain's environments may look like they can be explored freely, but there are plenty of dead ends and it's quite clear that they are all very linear designs. Sometimes it's a little unclear which way is the 'correct' way to go, and you'll find yourself backtracking a little bit. The environments are also devoid of any intelligent puzzles, which usually regress to the likes of "search for a key to open the door with," or, "search and kill every enemy in an area to unlock the door".

At times the combat system can be very frustrating. Actually, it proves frustrating when it involves the waggle controls of the Wii. Up to that point, it's quite satisfying if a little repetitive: push a button to whack ghosts with your blessed magical pickaxe, and use the Wii remote to shoot magical projectiles out of said pickaxe. The problems occur when you need to banish the ghosts later on in the game using specific motion gestures; gestures which the Wii sometimes fails at recognise, making the difference between successfully banishing a monster and them lunging at you for a hefty blow. Similar motion control frustrations also occur during climbing sections in the game. Fortunately the Wii picks up on the correct gestures quite a lot of the time, but it's definitely not 100% accurate and there doesn't seem to be much you can do about this.

Although Cursed Mountain has a pretty likeable story, the basic game design and occasional frustrating nature of the combat sadly make for a flawed title. It definitely has some great moments where it builds up atmosphere, and for those willing to brave the harsh gameplay elements you'll find a sound horror game. Beware: Cursed Mountain climbing requires persistence, endurance, and commitment.