In fact, we felt the entire adventure could have benefitted from shaving off an hour or two as a good chunk in the middle consists of Olle stumbling into mythological beast after mythological beast so much so that we forgot about his sister as we crept through a zombie-ridden village, wondering why we were even here. Olle dies in a single hit but these bouts also have frequent checkpoints, so they don’t grow too frustrating to complete despite dragging on. The handful of bosses, which make use of the magical stone Olle carries, never tried our patience difficulty-wise, but often felt a little overlong with second and third forms reusing the same mechanics – hiding behind trees, running from falling projectiles, that kind of thing – but faster or harder to dodge. Thankfully, failure in any form results in a quick reload at a convenient checkpoint. This would've been the perfect game to make use of the Switch's gyro controls, yet they aren't an option. Furthermore, when Olle has to aim to throw his magic stone, the controls feel stiff and imprecise. The set camera, which changes from screen to screen, makes judging the distance of jumps often cumbersome, and some chase mechanics later in the game left us frustrated as we failed again and again to master Olle’s wonky movement while trying to outrun one horror or another. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)Įarly on, Bramble: The Mountain King reminded us of puzzle platformers like the superb Inside. He has help from a strange, glowing orb that he can chuck at monsters to debilitate them or illuminate dank caverns to help judge where his next leap will take him. Puzzles consist of stacking books atop one another to reach a window, mixing potions to dispel a fiery barrier by matching shapes on ingredient bottles, and luring zombies into pits so Olle can sneak on by. You control Olle as he explores this world packed full of more mythological creatures to count, solving simple puzzles and navigating platforming sequences. He also plays hide and seek with gnomes and befriends stone giants and frog kings. It might also be worth checking out the best story games too.It’s not all grim, however. The best single-player games are bound to transport you to some more immersive tales. It brings Nordic folklore to life in an enchanting way that will stick with you and drive you to go back in after you feel like you’ve found all its secrets - just in case something has been missed, and it’ll have you searching for more information on its characters to develop a deeper understanding, which is exactly what you want from a folk horror game. You feel genuinely scared of the stories it rattles off because you know that they were passed down from generation to generation, whereas the faux tales created specifically for a game don’t have that same, compelling feeling.Įven though Bramble: The Mountain King is not a particularly long game, with the story taking you about 8 hours to complete, it still offers the opportunity to explore a world you might not otherwise. Although it feels compelling during its point-and-click content, there’s something about spotlighting the truth behind the game’s inspirations that helps to put it above the rest. Usually, the real-life counterpart is simply used as a guideline for the stuff in the game, giving developers artistic license, freedom, and opportunity to create their own interpretations of these characters, stories, or places, be it through design or lore.Ī perfect example of this would be The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow, a folk horror set in rural England that contains a variety of real English folklore and stories curated by the developers. Subtle nods like this toward the original or ‘accurate’ side of folklore help make Bramble: The Mountain King such a gripping experience.Īlthough a lot of folk horror games use genuine folklore as a basis to build upon, I find it rare that accurate references and stories are shared to coincide with the content of the game. Sometimes you’ll find these books prior to exploring a certain area which helps you prepare for the next battle, whereas sometimes they come after the fight and you learn why the boss became so aggressive. For every boss in the game- a towering, grotesque enemy that will lurk in each new environment you explore - a small storybook can be found in another area that explains their backstory and encourages you to learn slightly more about them.
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