

Nevertheless, there are some good concepts behind the way motion controls function in Cursed Mountain. On the other hand, balancing across a thin beam by tilting the remote forward and keeping it parallel to the ground to avoid a fall isn't much fun. Scenes like these are excellent and extend sensibly from the story and environments.

In another, you must collect oxygen tanks as you progress lest you perish from altitude sickness. In one of them, you use the remote as a walkie-talkie, and a friendly voice guides you out of a frozen maze. Yet some sequences add welcome variety, and many of them are highly successful. Sections where you scale mountain walls are initially cool, but some of them last far too long other segments where you must check doors to see which ones you can enter get tedious. There are times when too little is happening.

When you aren't besieged by the denizens of the supernatural, you'll look for ways to get into temples and pick up notes that expand the backstory. You walk or jog at a measured pace, so you won't be sprinting away from any ghosts you encounter. You scour buildings and wintry trails searching for items and triggering events that move you along a linear path. While the chilly setting and the cultural inspiration are unique, Cursed Mountain plays a lot like the horror adventures that have come before. Use your third eye to slip between worlds. Certain short sequences, like those in which you twirl the remote during meditation, and one in which you sneak up on prayerful ghosts to steal their mantras, make good use of these concepts and steep you in the ambience. As you make your way up Chomolonzo, you see prayer flags flying in the icy wind and colorful dome tents, which are sights you would see on an actual climb. The notes you find scattered about from villagers and monks realistically reference actual rituals and traditions, from depictions of the intermediate realm known as the Bardo, to the use of incense to ward off evil spirits. Cursed Mountain is brimming with authentic touches that show reverence to the mountain's people and customs-and that authenticity makes the journey feel even spookier, because the terrors are centered on real religious teachings. The answers come, and while the plot is straightforward enough, it's the detail surrounding it that makes the story easy to get lost in. What is Frank's fate? What is this relic known as a Terma? And why are you being assailed by spirits caught between this world and the next? Hand-illustrated cutscenes further describe the saga as it unfolds, and along with some dramatic voice acting, they do a great job of fleshing out the mystery. You'll discover diary pages and climbers' logs that detail Frank's determined attitude, as well as his disrespect of the local culture and your own climbing successes. You must investigate Sherpa villages and Buddhist temples searching for clues and learning of the events that complicated Frank's troubled ascent. Unfortunately, the mountain's resident goddess isn't pleased with the constant intrusion, so your slow climb in search of Frank is hardly straightforward. Frank is a hothead known for taking risks, so when injured climber Edward Bennett needed someone to retrieve an important artifact at the mountain's crest, Frank was the obvious choice for such a risky endeavor. You play as Eric Simmons, a famed mountain climber searching for his brother Frank, who has gone missing while scaling Chomolonzo, one of Tibet's Himalayan mountains. Now Playing: Cursed Mountain Video Review Yet in spite of these and other foibles, Cursed Mountain will draw you into its frozen spell, from which the only respite is incense, meditation, and a trusty pickaxe.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's And even if you do appreciate measured exploration and storytelling, you'll not likely appreciate the unresponsive motion controls. Even when compared to other horror games, Cursed Mountain moves at a slow tempo, so if you need to be consistently engaged with hot action or thoughtful puzzles, this is not the game for you. This slow-paced survival horror game is not just the tale of a vertigo-inducing climb up the side of a Tibetan mountain, but a fascinating and surprisingly authentic examination of Buddhist rituals and the Sherpas who populate the region. This is the world of Cursed Mountain, where the frigid air will chill you to the bone, and your inner eye draws secret runes into clear view. And as you draw rattling breaths with burning lungs, you desperately defend yourself from hostile spirits hovering between this world and the next. The chill fills your lungs as you desperately search the mountain for the leftover canisters of oxygen you need to survive.
