There are two ways to approach survival horror. One entails the introduction of a myriad of characters, all with their own mysterious goals and motivations. The story would contain twists, turns and revelations meant to shock you. The other, perhaps more subtle way, is to have a simple premise that, as the story unfolds, makes good on its promise of suitable atmosphere and insight into the human condition. Both avenues have paved the way for successful survival horror games, but as a platform, the Wii is sorely lacking in this department. Up until now, that is. Cursed Mountain takes its cues from the more subtle approach, and in doing so crafts a richly atmospheric and entirely enjoyable experience that people like me have been craving on Nintendo’s darling.
The premise is simple: you are Eric Simmons, a mountain climber looking for his missing brother. His last known whereabouts were somewhere on Chomolonzo, a mountain in Tibet that is regarded as holy. Eric’s brother was contracted by a third party to retrieve some sort of artifact from the summit of the mountain, and in the process all hell breaks loose. Ghosts start appearing in the villages and monasteries along the mountain’s base, and everything that comprises the Buddhist religion is basically turned on its head. In fact, the Buddhism angle is one of my favorite things about this game. Whether or not it rings true in reality, Cursed Mountain presents a duality within the religion that I’ve never experienced before. Half of it is what you would expect – chanting monks, incense and peace. The other half, however, is more akin to witch doctors and primitive superstition. The only difference, at least in the game, is that the superstition happens to be true. When Eric’s brother ignores tradition and climbs the mountain without paying his proper respects, the mountain responds by interrupting reincarnation and cursing the surrounding area with death and eternal ethereal limbo. What other game about the dual nature of Buddhism have you ever played? Me, either.
Cursed Mountain starts you out in familiar territory; the standard abandoned village serves as the backdrop to seemingly standard enemy encounters. But you’ll quickly notice the enemies are designed differently than what you’re used to. They look like they used to be villagers, only they’re now partly see-through, and they walk with a bizarre gait. If they get too close, they grab hold of you and drain your life. Your only defense is by way of an upgradeable staff that’s used as a projectile weapon. Over the course of the game you’ll receive various kinds of staffs, all with their own strengths. For example, one emits a very powerful burst of energy, but its recharge time is considerable. Another has a burst shot that allows you to hit a wider target area. All of the staffs are useful in their own way, and none of them feel tacked-on or implemented in a sloppy way. The combat itself is handled in the same vein as Resident Evil 4 on the Wii, where you hold a certain button to aim and point the Wiimote exactly where you want to shoot. The combat is at its best when it’s limited to one or two enemies; later on, the game will start spawning enemies all around you, and that leads to some frustrating evasive maneuvers and, eventually, unnecessary deaths. You can’t move while shooting, and the lack of a quick-turn button makes some of the more hectic encounters more difficult than they should be. Once you damage an enemy enough, you’ll be prompted to move the Wiimote and nunchuk in a specific fashion. It works fine for the most part, but I definitely died a few times due to the game not correctly recognizing the motions I was making. Still, I was satisfied with how the combat felt overall, and the minor annoyances with the motion sensing were far outweighed by the smart design of the enemy encounters.
Besides the simple yet effective narrative, the other thing I loved about the game was its varying environments and pacing. As I said, it starts you out in a rather familiar setting. But as the game progresses, it takes you further and further up the mountain. Small, derelict villages slowly give way to Buddhist monasteries, each with their own tales of horror and failure. There are numerous diary entries and journals to be found during your journey, written by both Eric’s brother and random people who used to live on the mountain. They serve the purpose of fleshing the story out a bit, and they were quite effective at making the environments feel lived in. As you continue to climb higher, the monasteries disappear and in their place is snow and isolation. Blizzard conditions make it hard to both see and walk around, and oxygen tanks are required for breathing. Along the paths you’ll continue to find journal entries left by Eric’s brother, and the entries give the situation a more dire and hopeless feeling since it seems everyone else who’s braved the mountain has perished. I really admired how the game wasn’t content to stick you in a single environment only to have you doing the same things over and over again. The three distinct areas made the whole experience feel a little more desperate and far-reaching than I initially expected.
The story itself really can’t be downplayed, and as I said, the less-is-more approach turned out to be the smartest way to immerse the player in a nightmarish scenario. Sure, along the way you’ll learn more about the particulars of what happened on the mountain, but there are some things that are intentionally left a little fuzzy, and the game is better for it. I also appreciated the way the story was told, namely through motion comic-like panels with voice-overs from Eric that had an eerie, matter-of-fact vibe to them. Given the horsepower of the system itself, this was probably the best way for the story to be told. But other than the presentation, it was refreshing to not see the narrative cave in on itself during its conclusion. Haziness aside, there’s no deus ex machina or out-of-left-field happenstance to tidy up the characters or their destinies. It’s not the rosiest of endings, but the writer(s) also didn’t go out of their way to make everyone happy. I happen to think genuine horror can’t be explained away or rectified in the last 10 minutes for the sole purpose of sugar coating the previous 95% of the experience. Cursed Mountain definitely doesn’t do that, and I can only praise it for keeping its integrity intact.
If you’re looking for a survival horror game to totally blow your mind, you’ll probably leave disappointed. The slow burn of both the narrative and gameplay means that the horror is more subtle. Basically, this game isn’t Dead Space or Condemned. If I were cornered and had to make a comparison, the closest I would be able to come up with is Silent Hill mixed with a tad bit of Fatal Frame. To be more specific, it’s Silent Hill in atmosphere and Fatal Frame in combat. Both of those franchises are rooted more in psychological horror, and Cursed Mountain follows in the same footsteps. If you own a Wii and fancy some good ol’ survival horror, you owe it to yourself to check this game out. With Silent Hill: Shattered Memories not yet released and Fatal Frame 4 stuck in Japan, Cursed Mountain is one of the only truly creepy experiences to be had on the platform.
Vice Verdict: Buy
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26-year-old human male. Tends to gravitate towards action.
I hate Twilight. 
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See, nobody gives a shit about this game, and that’s a travesty. A TRAVESTY!!!!
I care George and I will rent it when I get a chance!
That makes me happy inside.
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