The Mountain King, a roller coaster of emotions

2023-05-10 12:21:50

Bramble: The Mountain King tells us about the harsh search for our sister, through a hostile forest inhabited by fantastic creatures.

Bramble: The Mountain King It has come into our hands and we have been able to analyze it in depth. This is the second title of the study Drimfrost Studios. His first game was a VR adventure for PC titled A Writer and his Daughter. Now, they land on their feet with their second game that will not leave you indifferent.

All that was and is.

And it is that a few months ago we were able to test a preview of this game that left us wanting more. What that preview of Bramble: The Mountain King offered was quite good and ambitious, a magical world full of dangers that certainly left us speechless. Now with the game in our hands we can talk about whether it has complied expectations or not, let’s start with its setting and history.

Mythology and gloomy fables

Bramble: The Mountain King tells the story of two brothers, Ollie y Lillemore. Both will venture into a gloomy forest, sheltered from the shadows of the night, attracted by the unknown. Both brothers begin their journey through a forest with two very different faces. The day makes the forest fill with affable and charming creatures, for the most part, and the night awakens the most torrid and evil that lives in his being. The repertoire of inhabitants of this fantastic place drinks above all from the scandinavian folklorewe will have trolls, gnomes, banshees, haunted kings and much more.

Not everything is dark.

As our two protagonists advance through the forest, what was once little it becomes big. And it is that our two friends are dwindling as they enter the forest. At the end of a small hill, our size will not be larger than that of a small river pebble. Everything now is gigantic and we are tiny, but this does not intimidate the brothers who continue their adventure. While both brothers explore the forest they find a stone of light. It’s about the last glow of clarity that they will have during the gloomy night that hangs over them. And it is that, Lillemore, the older sister, is captured by a troll. Olle, the youngest of the brothers, is left alone in the face of danger. Without his sister in a hostile forest, and with the responsibility on his men to find and rescue Lillemore, the mission seems impossible.

against everything and everyone

Ollie he will embark on the quest for Llimemore armed only with the lightstone. He will face and meet all kinds of beings, from a toad king to a stone giant who will have his level of prominence. We will cross rivers and meadows, climb trees, flee from the danger of trolls, and run for our lives like never before. Bramble: The Mountain King It is on paper a pretty and superficial story. But as we progress we will see the harsh reality, it is a game full of emotional ups and downs. We will have to prepare our stomachs to see death and destruction. Dying children and babies, blood and gore everywhere. And plot twists that would distress more than one. If your heart doesn’t drop, your stomach will.

gory and cruel

And it is that, although the mechanics remind me a lot of games like Limbo, Little Nightmares or Somerville, Bramble: The Mountain King is much more cruel and gore than all of them. It has no filter and that is appreciated because in the end we are facing an epic story that will transport us on a roller coaster of emotions. The story is wrapped in this particular and gloomy atmosphere that is complemented by a sound section that is the perfect icing on the cake. With melodies with clear Nordic or Scandinavian overtones and some sonorous that will make the sweat fall down your neck. You will feel the footsteps of the creatures chasing you, the echo and the creaks of the forest, all this is an apology for a job well done.

playing with many things

Bramble: The Mountain King It is as we have said a mixture between several styles that we already know. It is a third-person adventure that mixes mechanics from Little Nightmares, Limbo, Somerville. We will have escape and run areas, others of stealth and even areas where it seems that we are facing a point and click graphic adventure that will force us to solve certain puzzles to continue advancing. This diversity of mechanics together with several final bosses of zones with different attack strategies makes the game very fun and entertaining. However, the difficulty is not very high. The auto save kicks in even between boss stages, making the difficulty curve non-existent and very flat. In addition, the puzzles in some monuments they err on the side of simplicity.

Roller coaster also technically

Graphically Bramble: The Mountain King It has some spectacular settings. Most are very well designed and thought out. With a multitude of details and a elaboration own triple a titles. However, others do not stand out so much and are guilty of little detail and work. We have noticed a lot of difference, especially in terms of lighting in dark areas. The lighting work in open spaces is fantastic, but in closed areas such as caves or grottos it lacks detail and work.

But on a technical level what stands out the most for bad is the animation of our character Ollie. Totally out of tune with the rest of the work done. To begin with, it is not well camouflaged and in many parts it seems like a puppet out of context. It does not integrate into the settings at a graphic level, looking like an amateur animation placed on a highly worked stage. As for animation of movements, something similar arises, the performance of our character and how he moves is very plano, orthopedic and unnatural. However, all this does not spoil the experience.

CONCLUSION

Bramble: The Mountain King is a game that will make us live in a carousel of emotions and on a roller coaster of sensations both due to its history and its technical section. We will have, like the forest in which we play, light and dark that will contrast too much. High quality scenarios and poor animations of our character. Very worked areas and others less. But all this does not tarnish an adventure that, packaged in a atmosphere ambivalent between the terrifying and the friendly, will dazzle us from minute one. With a sound section of the highest quality, it will make us live a magnificent adventure worth telling and sharing that will leave a great taste in our mouths. Without a doubt, the debut of Drimfrost Studios is remarkably high and we look forward to a sequel to this talented study.

Bramble: The Mountain King

29,99€

Pros

• Sublime sound section, with an incredible soundtrack
• Very good story, raw and overwhelming at times
• Setting that drinks from a thousand sources but with a lot of personality

Cons

• very basic gameplay
• Too easy puzzles
• The character animations are very poor compared to the rest of the graphic section