| 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:
robio (6m)
"Fighting the wind, at least that broke up the boring walking."
I feel like I'm fighting the wind here reading your post.
YOU SUCK BALLS, MEAT HEAD!
Ahahahahahahahaha.
*clears throat*
*of balls*
It could have been worse, we could have been playing:
The Shadow of Chikara
Confederate veterans of the last battle of the Civil War set out to find a hidden treasure: diamonds hidden in a cave. However, the soldiers find they are being followed by a mysterious hunter (or hunters) who may have a connection to a mythic eagle spirit.
Look at these excellent reviews:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078240/usercomments
It got awesome reviews:
Watch Predator Watch this
Familiar isn't it, Jungle coming to life, invisible enemies, a lone girl who has experienced the terrible thing that comes from the trees. The brave Indian tracker, its all there. Predator by any other name, and worth watching. Forget the other reviews, this was blockbuster (popular soundtrack The Band, horror, fear , scares, b grade cast?)
Great cast they are familiar.
Just watch it, its good.
The director should have made more films, he had a talent and I think it was wasted, I loved it Earl, you did well