| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| Wii | 4.50 |
| Overall | 4.50 |
|
When I started Cursed Mountain I thought "sweet! An atmospheric horror themed game that is slow paced" It opens in a large city and nothing really happens for a good 20 minutes, its just creepy and quiet. You gather files much like the RE games and these flesh out the story about a mountain climbing expedition gone wrong. You see a ghost but it quickly passes around the corner, you turn the corner and there is nothing there. There is only one path so it's more of an illusion of a big city. The graphics are actually good especially coming from an unknown dev (why cant most Wii game look this good). The controls are RE4, maybe a button or two are switched around but you get the basic idea. I did notice the character runs very slowly, in fact everything he does is slow, more on that later. Finally the game introduces the combat to you which pits our hero against ghosts. How do you kill phantoms that have no physical body? With a special staff that allows you to "see" (it makes the world all dark and cloudy) into the ghost world which then allows you to shoot at them cause your staff shoots lasers (you may also do a melee attack if they get close). Aiming is just like RE4 but again its slow, you will need to move your viewpoint with the stick while aiming, like RE4 except in this game you need to do it way too often because enemies love to circle you. Enemies that circle you in a game where you have very limited and slow movement is bad. When you hit the ghosts enough time a red circle thing will appear and this means you can perform some sort of ritual to dissolve them and it also increases your health. To do this you will need to perform certain actions with the wiimote. Here is the first real indication that something is wrong with the game, many times the gestures don't work, specifically the nunchuck. There is one motion that is like upward or forward, I finished the game and I still don't know what motion the game wanted me to do, it worked like 70% of the time. Of course that is the motion you will end up doing most as the game goes on. It will frustrate the hell out of you, especially when you think you got the final blow only to have the motion not register, then the enemy kills you. Those are the basics and now we are off to climb the mountain, can't wait to see whats in store... well NOTHING! I already described the entire game to you! You walk slowly down a linear path and fight crappy ghosts, that's it! I almost got tricked into enjoying the game like GG. Yes its very atmospheric, some of the locations are downright beautiful to behold. It's also an easy ride, sure some enemy encounters can get ugly but for the most part its a simple experience that never gets hard or super frustrating. There are better games that I disliked more but that is because those games actually try to have gameplay but fail. Thats when I realized I am not going to give a free pass to this game cause they didn't try, hell no. Would a puzzle kill you, anything, like move a block. How about a branching path or two and I don't mean a hallway that leads to a file, I mean the option to go a different route. Every once and a while you get a key, of course its the only key and it only opens one door. Would it kill you to have an area that makes you look around for the right path like old RE games used to. One of my favorite moments of "variety" comes when you need to follow a ghost... down a linear path. Where else am I going to go, why do I need a damn ghost to show me the obvious path! Oh and then there is the mountain climb, you would think it gets more interesting as the elements get worst and worst, wrong, it gets more boring. At least in the city locations you have stuff to look at, on top of a mountain its just snow and rocks. You run and you run and you run. Oh you do climb as well, climb sssslllllooooowwwwly up giant rock walls. Are there any obstacles, nope! Wait I am wrong, every once and a while there is rock in your path which forces you to move SIDEWAYS OMG! I was bored of holding up for a minute, thank god I get to press right for a few seconds. Oh and on the mountain you need to watch your oxygen. The way the game tells you to conserve oxygen is to walk, FUCK YOU I move slow enough already there is no way in hell I am walking down this gigantic boring path. So I ran, luckily there are oxygen tanks everywhere. I had so many that the O2 meter never went down, another idea completely wasted. There are a few moments of brilliance, well brilliance for this game but believe me after the mind numbing repetition of it all something different blows you away. There is a moment where you need to use your "eye" (aim) to see hidden spikes all over the ground. You must navigate this spike maze, going in and out of aiming to see where its safe to step. For about two minutes I was overjoyed that instead of walking down a linear path I was now needing to move down a wiggly path, yes! Seriously I don't why there weren't more uses of the wiimote, more puzzles, more adventure elements. There are slots in the menu for items but you can't use them, all items you get are used for the story or used automatically. Its not like an adventure game, its not like an old school RE game, there is nothing there. You run and fight. The only aspect of the gameplay that was decent were the boss fights. They are pattern boss fights and decent ones at that. The designs of some of them are really cool as well. I don't understand why the ghosts didn't get more variety to them, they all get defeated the exact same way. Only the boss fights change up the combat. I see this and I know these devs have played some video games in the past, they understand that a game should have interesting moments that break up the usual gameplay. So why didn't they think of anything else. When I completed the game I was glad it was over. Amazingly its like 7 hours long which is like 4 hours too much. Of course you unlock nothing, there are no incentives to ever play again not that you would want to. It's not really bad it's simply boring, mind numbingly boring. In fact give me bad, at least I can laugh at bad. Many times a bad game is a challenge cause of crappy controls or something so when you overcome that crappiness there is some sense of accomplishment, there is none of that here. Cursed Mountain simply exists, a complete experience of meh. |
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Posted by Dvader Sat, 07 Aug 2010 00:59:35
Recently Spotted:
gamingeek (3m)
I think I can manage 7 hours. The up and forward action seems like it would be hard to pull off though -- I wonder if there is a way to customize the controls (like a button only mode)?
Sounds like they got a lot right, just needed some big-publisher QA and polishing.
This review is ASS.
I didn't even read it.
Must eat now.
Just as I was about to comment on this review, I have to take a dump.
I have read it though. Okay I'm back.
The up move with the chuk, literally EVERYONE who plays the game has a problem with this and you know what's really stupid? The manual shows you how to do the move exactly and we're all too lazy to read the manual. You don't move the nunchuk UP. You push it forward, it shows this in the manual. You've basically been liks Aspro, playing Fable with a funky controller.
I even mentioned it in the thread, both our thread and the neogaf thread. Not only that, you should have asked me for help as I figured out the controls by the end of the game. You do the moves soft and loose, whereas your instinct is to be forceful and fast. Once you know this it works very well.
I got used to combat, you do a RE4 move like jamming yourself against a wall or corner so you can't be flanked. It works well.
I think from the tone of your review you kinda missed what every review said: "if you can appreciate a slow paced adventure game than..." well, seems you can't.
I really can't get your complaints about the atmosphere. You are climbing a mountain, that is the experience they are trying to give you. What did you expect to see as you got higher? A casino in the sky? A swimming pool filled with naked ladies? The game nails the experience of climbing a mountain, meaning that it can be bleak, tough, slow and monotonous.
You are supposed to feel as if you are the only man alive up there and supposed to feel the desolation and empty environment. The game is suppossed to feel like a slog, like a marathon you have to finish. And finding your lost brother is your incentive to do so. I felt more of a connection with the story as I have a brother and a fractured relationship. You also forgot to mention the bit where the dude speaks to you through the wii remote speaker, which was cool. As he guided you about. Or the terrible, horrible controls for walking on beams across rooftops where you have to balance the remote. I don't know how you can appreciate bad games over games with no obvious flaws though.
Did you read every journal entry and scroll? I found that it really fleshed out the world.
It's not a bad game. There are ten 8/10 reviews for it on metacritic
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/wii/cursedmountain?q=cursed mountain
Your score for the game would almost be the very lowest score on that page if it weren't for the 30% Gamesplayer Sweden gave it. Meaning that you're on the bottom of the curve and probably out of sync with the majority of reviews - statistically speaking at least.
Even the average metacritic USER score is near 8.0
Here's an extract from one of the user reviews:
"Cursed Mountain's biggest fault is the lack of direction regarding the motion controls. The controls themselves work perfectly, but the game never really explains how you're meant to perform them, and it's the 'trial and error' that this forces upon you that is off-putting for a lot of people."
That's true.
Ultimately Cursed Mountain, whilst not AAA or anything gave me a experience I can't get anywhere else. It's unique, it puts you in a unique setting that no other game has done, trekking up a mountain like that is a game I never thought I would play. Just as I never imagined I would be playing a scuba diving game. So for that it gets plus points from me. Does it lack variety? Yes.
Can it sometimes be bleak and monotonous to play? Yes, but I think that's by design and adds to the lonely atmosphere of solo climbing up a mountainside. To me the game doesn't have any real flaws apart from the -thankfully brief- beam walking segments. It could use some oomph to push it to be a better game, though I can't quite pinpoint what that would be exactly.
The opening city looks brilliant cosmetically. This is what can be acheived when you play to a systems strengths, as you said by restricting the camera angles you get what is essentially an illusion but it works nonetheless.
The game is like an experience for me, the game IS the setting.
Damnit, Vader is on vacation, scanning old people's groins on a cruise ship no doubt.
Come on, you do nothing in this game. You walk and walk and walk and then fight the same enemies. There are no adventure elements as there are no puzzles, no items that need to used in a certain spot. For every moment that has some type of gameplay like the guy on the speaker or the invisible spiked floors there is about 5x more walking and doing nothing. When you are climbing the mountain maybe something should happen, maybe a small avalanche you must survive or the rock you are holding onto crumbles, or avoid falling debris while you are on walls. Anything to make the trek up the mountain interesting.
"I cannot believe you are defending NO GAMEPLAY."
I'd love to see you review Endless Ocean. There is gameplay in Cursed Mountain just not much variation. Did you read each journal entry? I found all the little bits of text brought the story and atmosphere out very well. Stuff does happen too, like when they drop you into that cove to fight the winged boss, or when you fight that weird boss with many arms. Or when you have to waggle to the chimes to make something appear, or find symbols to open paths, or dodge around heavy winds, or navigate those invisible thorns or make your way out of the ice caves via radio instructions etc. It's not a BAD game, it just never really excels enough to be better than an 8.0
" When you are climbing the mountain maybe something should happen, maybe a small avalanche you must survive or the rock you are holding onto crumbles, or avoid falling debris while you are on walls. Anything to make the trek up the mountain interesting. "
I don't get this. The game does have those elements - minus the avalanche. How were you climbling the mountain? There is standard boring move slowly up mountain, but if you put in some effort to climb faster the rock does crumble and things do fall around you.
So what if there are files, a billion games have files and yes I read it all. You described mostly bosses which as I said was about the only good things in the game. he random chime thing, wtf was that?! The game doesn't even tell you anything, you suddenly transition into a random screen with a wii mote spinning, I still have no clue what I did but I somehow got out of it. It made no sense. Find symbols blocking your path, if they were well hidden then fine, but having them on the only few doors or rocks in the area is not interesting. Fighting the wind, at least that broke up the boring walking, sadly it consisted of walking.
I climbed up the mountain as fast as I could and nothing happened to me.
The game sucks BALLS.