Cursed Mountain Revisited (Captain's Blog)

[captainlove]

Day 281

10 Ice

This entire section takes place inside an ice crevasse. It is reminiscent of the similar, but much more elaborate, ice cave towards the end of Uncharted 2 but I also find myself thinking about that one episode of Pingu where they have to escape from a cave.

While Uncharted 2’s ice is a poster child for shiny, but readable, videogame levels:

The ice here has some more subtle stuff going on and is probably more accurate to real caves being shapeless voids left by water and wind flow in all the magical shades of blue.

The shimmering ice effect here is impressive given the hardware. I don’t think it’s accurately keeping track of any kind of light source and how it’s being reflected off the snow surface. Rather it’s probably a random scattering of highlights aligned to the geometry that proceeds as you walk, in the same manner as lights reflecting off of solid ice crystals packed in. In any case, the random twinkle is extremely effective at materialising the tunnels.

Again, I must applaud the camera team for the little touches. The section makes use of the fixed cameras that we’re used to but the camera will drift and sway a little even when a fixed angle is presented. I think it’s to mimic Eric’s presumed concussion from the fall at the start of the level. Eventually it stabilises and reveals the ice effect more dramatically given how naturally still the environment is.

We hear what sounds like a megaphone/radio/train speaker announcement tuning in but there is no sign of any man-made structure. Our routine QTE allocation for this level has us outrunning a cave in.

We happen upon a walkie-talkie and get contact from Paul. It is unclear if the corpse we find it on is or is not Paul. It’s left ambiguous and makes for a strong sequence.

Paul encourages us and helps us to navigate. He sounds chipper but also talks about things he couldn’t possibly have knowledge of like our exact location and the route out relative to it. Paul and Eric have no back and forth, yet it feels strangely supportive to have him talking us up. ‘Don’t sit when you’re feeling cold, keep moving despite the pain’. He even acknowledges the ghosts as ‘cold ones’ and encourages us to think about the warm tea and brandy that awaits us at the camp.

Unlike most games where a partner chatting to us can come across as irritating or coddling, Paul’s warmth is contrasted by the lack of any fond feeling up until this point. Everyone else has either tried to kill us or distantly explained the nature of the challenge we face. It’s interesting to have such a caring voice urging us on this late in the game. It feels like climbing with a support team, but it also emphasises the unreality of his disembodied voice. It’s almost Kojima-esque in the same way the codec can be dual-wielded to comfort or disorient the player. Paul occasionally gives inaccurate directions which makes him seem out of it but is otherwise trustworthy.

The FAQ mentions that Paul’s voice can be heard through the Wiimote speaker, but this didn’t happen to me so I’m not sure if I toggled a setting in the console itself so that everything just comes through the TV instead. It’s a good time to make use of such a poor quality speaker.

The ambient music is much more abstract here. It feels like they’re blending natural ambience of the level with the musical choices a lot more since they aren’t referencing the culture or using more universal musical cues from horror. No Buddhist chanting, reduced Tibetan instrumentation, moody slow melody. It’s like you just hear the hollow ringing of the ice structures.

Eric takes another woops

The improved Kila is absolutely tearing through ghosts now, combat is really just a stopping point and less of a real challenge any more. It makes for a very breezy level which is already quite short and before we know it, we’re out of the cave thanks to Paul navigating us through the maze. Paul is a decent cove.

This is one of the most beautiful levels so far. A great example of the minimalistic beauty of the game, bordering on total abstraction here. The images speak for themselves:

Current altitude: 20,300 feet

Incense remaining: 15

[captainlove]

Day 287

11-1 Base Camp

After 10 levels we’ve made around 2500 feet of vertical progress from the game’s start. We are now finally at the base camp of the original expedition. The camp feels very low-tech. I’m no expert but I assume the climbing technology of the 1980s is probably about as old as the corrugated Nissen huts and the layers of plastic tent corridors between them suggest.

There’s a strong feeling of comfort and returning home as Paul still talks us through. The camp environment is another scenic change, and the last third of the game is showing off this variety well compared to the first two thirds spending a lot of time in very similar interiors and village paths.

Eric finds a way in and we familiarise ourselves with the key amenities. Unfortunately, the camp’s locks run on a generator which of course is not running any more. The camp is filled with locked/barricaded doors and the corpses of different climbers, all murdered.

That’s a big ol’ videogame key.

There is only one more health upgrade I can get before the end of the game and I’ve missed three. The game is roughly balanced around the idea that you would probably miss a bunch and the Kila is still ripping ghosts apart here. I didn’t realise it but the statues I collected in other levels are actually damage upgrades.

@captainlove

There’s even a strange optional fight when purifying this statue which gives a smaller statue as a reward. It never really came to be used so I’m not sure if it was a key to a barrier I just got ahead of time that would have otherwise blocked my progress. I can’t even find it in my inventory which means it could just as well be something that was forgotten somewhere in development.

The game should probably ratchet up the horror a bit by taking away your weapons for a section since combat has become more of a queue for ghost-shredding than something that provides horror tension. Though given how horrible some sections have been, I shouldn’t complain.

There is a lot of reading to do in this level since it’s where most of the expedition logs are kept which makes sense but also causes it to feel very stop-start. Frank really goes for the asshole gold here as he reminds us about at least 3 of his least likable character traits in one entry:

Paul says that we need high altitude gear to survive progressing into the ‘death zone’. The gear is stored in a part of the camp we can’t fully access. Progressing through the meat storage, med bay, and barracks filled with the murdered, we progress deeper into the camp encountering ghosts in every room. With the generator on, Paul tells us to meet him in the comms room. He’s alive or…?

Paul cryptically tells us halfway through the camp that

‘if you go into the room on your right it will explain a lot about what has happened’.

Interestingly this building that you are instructed to go into is completely optional, it just plays a cutscene that basically confirms all the details about what happened with Mingma.

She was important for the tantric ritual as she was an avatar of the mountain, equivalent to the goddess. As she’s about to complete the final ritual it all falls apart. Bennett, mega-voyeur, sees all this happen.

She loses this status after falling in love with Paul meaning that the big ritual was cut short right at the end when she admits it won’t be possible with her, another is required.

Frank goes full rapist and just forces her into the ritual anyway. Mingma runs and Bennett pursues to murder her.

Eric has nothing to say about his brother’s behaviour once again.

Much of this inciting incident is tragic but the plot basically transpires because of Frank and Bennett’s impatience. They could have just waited to find a replacement for Mingma and I am not sure what the ticking clock was that forced them to screw the entire mountain over other than the rituals take a long time (circumnavigating the mountain’s base, finding a new avatar). Perhaps just cabin fever overcame everyone.

Eric loops back around through the sleeping quarters but has been climbing for weeks without respite. Presumably bedding in abandoned buildings or on the edge of cliff faces while dealing with his other basic biological functions. Ghosts receding into the snow outside. A padded bed at last. Let me sleep a while…

Current altitude: 20,300 feet

Incense remaining: 16

[scratchmonkey]

To provide some background color for mountaineering camp logistics, that camp is more built-up than you would get at the camps you get going up such a mountain IRL – the virtual camp here is at roughly the same elevation as Everest’s “Camp One”, and which consists entirely of tents, there’s no stonework at all. The main reason for this is that you’re in avalanche country and anything constructed would get wiped out during the stormy non-climbing seasons. I would guess just a clump of tents, none of which being tall enough to stand up in, would be a great experience from a videogame level perspective, so they provide a little more infrastructure – this is closer in permanence to Everest Base Camp, although that doesn’t have Nissen huts and the stone structures are build down into the earth rather than up.

(Also this thread is a treasure and a delight.)

[captainlove]

I was wondering given how much research seems to have been done elsewhere but I think you’re right that they’ve opted for what makes sense for a videogame level over a practical high altitude camp. I’m not sure if I’ve got a picture somewhere but you can feel the tents outside being used like wall assets to create corridors when you go outside rather than arranging them practically. I’ve paused halfway through the chapter so there’ll be more on this soon as there’s other actual buildings to explore.

@scratchmonkey

(Also this thread is a treasure and a delight.)

[captainlove]

Day 288

As Eric sleeps, the mountain’s curse brings about strange dreams…

[captainlove]

Day 294

11-2 Paul

After holding it in for more than a vertical mile, Eric does an enormous shit that freezes on impact with the waste containment bag on the camp floor before we prepare to make the final journey up to the summit. Eric presumably downs some Imodium to block the way.

As soon as we progress outside again, we are surrounded and herded into a nearby Nissen hut.

Six beefy ghosts surround us in an enclosed space. A Khorlo funhouse. I don’t even have to aim all that much. There was so much banishment I am fully healed by the end of the encounter despite being hit about 12 times. Every ghost is requiring a 4-5 step QTE to banish at this point and I am getting better at interpreting what the motion sensors want from me. We push on into a complex of tents.

Never mind, the high altitude gear isn’t in the camp after all, it’s in a crashed helicopter. It turns out there was a helicopter rescue scheduled which only now makes me wonder why Eric didn’t simply go on a scheduled flight.

We head on to the comms centre which seems to be a proper installation reminiscent of an arctic base but not something you’d find near the top of a mountain of this height. Just as I am wondering how we will physically meet Paul, or find out whether he is alive or dead, he chimes in over the radio to react to Bennett approaching him. We only hear his side of the conversation but Bennett turning up is obviously bad. Somehow Paul doesn’t seem to think so though despite the mountains of evidence that suggest the situation is extremely dubious and Bennett is likely responsible.

The devs have a little fun, a little toilet humour, to lighten things up. The outhouse pictured above contains a solitary ghost jumpscare. I doubt an outhouse would be constructed at this altitude. Waste would simply freeze and have to be laboriously broken up and carried away anyway, better to do it in a temperature-controlled tent, but maybe things were different in the 80s. Eric refuses to enter since he already prepared. On to the weather station, now empty of people but full of documents.

Frank! Frank, shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up Frank!

One of the base camp team has a theory that ghosts respond to sound. The weather station has a lock-alarm to notify the base when the exit hatch is unlocked. This draws ghosts here but then they are also driven away by sound (the bell) way back in the monastery level. Perhaps they respond to the negative anxiety/positive calm of the living. No time to wonder, we need to find that helicopter.

I like that it’s ambiguous whether the helicopter crashed coming to rescue or if it actually made rescue and crashed upon taking off again. A lot of what happened to the camp itself isn’t explicitly explained, Paul is busy keeping morale and the notes only go up to a point at which everyone suddenly died.

We get the gear and the gang is reunited.

Bennett tries to deceive Paul, but we show him Mingma’s amulet causing him to turn on Bennett. Alas, Bennett kills Paul and turns into King Shin Majin Bennettman.

This immediately raises many questions but it’s time for a boss fight.

In the first phase Bennettman appears, walks slowly toward you, swipes once, and then superhero launches away, repeat.

In the second phase he summons ghosts!

In the third phase he can cast thundaga, implied to be a one-hit kill but I ain’t finding out.

His abilities while in his demon form finally explain the fact that he is able to move around the mountain and control the situation despite being disabled. A very small detail that is easily missed is that in his demon form his crippled leg is missing altogether but doesn’t hamper his movement. The fight is fairly easy compared to other stuff we’ve faced but is a bit of a rushed climax for Bennett.

Defeating him grants us the Khorlo+. Bennettman is dead and was either a demon all along or managed to get this power through some other prior venture, it’s ambiguous and I like it. It obviously wasn’t enough for him to be able to actually access the terma, so there must be some complex demonic hierarchy thing preventing him from achieving his goals by himself.

We don’t even get an epilogue cutscene, the level just ends. I quit out and try to reload to make sure that the save file is intact but end up almost accidentally deleting the entire save thanks to be shaky Wiimote cursor. Dodged a bullet. Don’t fuck around, not at this altitude.

To the death zone…

Current altitude: 23,600 feet

Incense remaining: 16

[captainlove]

Day 301

12 Mountain

Eric has a new shiver animation/down suit being ruffled by the wind. It feels cold. This is the most beautiful level so far, I have taken more photos here than anywhere else (but will upload a fraction). We’re approaching that white void that I remember so fondly. The weather does not want us here.

A new wrinkle is introduced at this altitude. The air is thin and Eric must collect O2 tanks like bubbles in a Donkey Kong Country level. I was worried that the O2 timeout would interfere with taking pics but in practice it takes a long time to die. I tested it and even when the meter is empty you have well over a minute to find a tank. Running takes more O2 but it is negligible since running gets you to O2 faster. We also have a new O2 interface.

The goal of the level is to get to high camp where there will surely be a clue about where Frank is right now.

Aside from Bennett’s scheming, the climb was doomed by weather but it does give us a ticking clock which explains Bennett’s violent abandonment of the original plan.

An interesting story recap happens via the Yogini Jomo’s telepathic(?) chastisements throughout the level. She recaps why we are in the current situation. It works well given that there is no one left to really have any dialogue with and also undercuts any possible heroism on Eric’s part. This level hits home how much the mountain is just fucked by selfish men. Eric isn’t really making things much better as he attempts to save a rapist.

The chastisements contain some of the best writing. They happen at key climb points and together make a 16-line summary of the plot that renders a proper judgment. One Eric silently climbs through:

• Foreign devils not know mountain.
• Bennett climbed for terma. Goddess ATE his leg.
• Strangers laugh at goddess. Now goddess laughs at them.
• Jomo not help Bennett. Not help stupid boy.
• Why Mingma do that? Good student. Smart girl. Anger Jomo.
• You who play. You not believe. Stupid you.
• Chod is way. Chod cut through. Chod is fearless.
• Flesh hides truth. Bones tell truth. Give flesh to Gods so bones can speak.
• Monks study. Monks pray. Pah! How that help mothers? How that help babies?
• Brother climb mountain. Brother rape goddess. Same thing.
• Palden Lahmo angry. All suffer. Blood must pay.
• Ghosts leave Bardo. Hungry… Hungry. Many children die.
• White men come. White men will go. Chomolonzo stay.
• Treasure on mountain. Will come down when is time.
• Kill hope. Kill fear. Is Chod way. Expect nothing. Lose self. Find all.
• You seek brother. Stupid man. Brother find self.

The sound team are going for the Oscar. The wind foley is overpowering, is nicely layered throughout the progression of the level, and never feels like it’s looping. It meshes with the immediate topography well (open space loud, narrow space whistling). It calls to mind the lyrics of Dylan’s Isis: ‘The wind it was howling and the snow was outrageous’. Though no fear of the dead being contagious. Only angry ghosts.

The wind blows very strongly in some sections, emphasised by placing a shrine right next to a crosswind to prolong the player’s anticipation of getting to the next safe room.

Now the camera team are going for the Oscar here.

I died on the ladder snapping the scene above. On the second time the game’s controls bugged out and I had to wiggle the Wiimote on my lap the second time through due to a bug that meant it wasn’t properly registering stick control while in the ‘on the ladder’ state but would register little motion spasms.

There are plenty of O2 bottles but no incense in sight. It’d be interesting if the game prevented us from lighting incense at this altitude due to the thin atmosphere.

This level’s main villain, the ghost mage, appears. We’ll have several rounds of ghost swarms throughout the level. In this one we have to banish six stone symbols before the ghosts stop. Another Frank diary entry but who cares?

There’s a really nice trembling ambient track that gels with the wind, shortly interrupted by the ghost combat music.

Being the first half of the final ascent it’s a much more vertical level than most. It becomes clearer later that we are at the start of an extremely large staircase. Sheer cliff climbs alternating with gradual upward slopes. This begins to have the cumulative affect that you feel like any of the sheer cliffs might be the last. I lost count but there are enough in the level that it starts to feel endless, in a good way. You really get a sense of how small you are compared to this tiny section of the mountain.

By this point it really doesn’t matter how much O2 is remaining as you can apparently stock up on it. Prayer flags remain, showing the last few pieces of evidence that humans have come this far.

We come to shelter in a bluff and it really feels like coming in from the cold. Visions of Frank pull us forward. There’s not much to be said, no other complications or subgoals just get to Frank.

Scenic hike sections have us looking back down on the level, the giant staircase, from above. Every ledge you summit, more white stretches out. I keep thinking to myself ‘They did a good job here’. Gradual camera orbits sold the scale and I really wish more of the game was like this.

Ghosts are regularly getting screwed over by the narrow mountain trails now. A simple case of camping the corners of the path as they waddle down toward you. If they had sense, they’d attack unseen through the rock of the mountain.

Eric’s dramatic shadow fills me with dread. It’s hard to tell what was and wasn’t intended but this framing of his shadow alongside Yogini’s warnings feels weighty. Wordless moment amidst thousands of cubic kilometres of wind. ‘Brother rape goddess’. So do we really.

A forking path nearly conceals the final health upgrade from me. Initially I’m unsure which way to go but I press on using the gamer instinct to detect the sidepath.

The ghost mage returns with his lackeys. This level requires weapon swapping more than any other as it throws every ghost type at you. Kila for flying, Katrika for the mooks, and Khorlo for the bottlenecks.

We find the cave where the Terma was fatefully stashed. Ground Zero for the whole curse in a fairly unassuming ice cave. Flash to the inciting incident with Paul and Frank celebrating the find before Frank loses it again. He’s going all the way regardless of Paul’s warnings. But the terma is no longer here. This is technically the first confirmation that it has been taken, presumably by Frank to the top of the mountain. One final note shows that the prime driver for Frank is to step out of Eric’s shadow.

Some games have better climbing mechanics but nothing beats this for how it feels. I am exhausted as I crest what feels like the 7th great stair, through the cloud layer, and still there is more mountain.

There’s a brief Souls-esque chunk, where you are teased forward by a shrine in the distance after a long climb up with no healing opportunity. A ghost appears right before the checkpoint save which would have sent me back about 15 minutes if I had failed the encounter. Would have had to do the second ghost mage section again.

The mountain doesn’t really blend with the game level (you can see the unnaturally straight climbable walls) but they do still sell the sense of place. Fewer and fewer corpses are found beyond a certain point. One lone climber, abandoned by his party, wrote ‘not so bad now’ The other ¾ of the party died further up - we fight their ghosts. In this level it is more clear that every corpse you find has a corresponding ghost enemy.

The site of high camp and our ample O2 overstocks suggest we are home free. ‘Ahem!’ tuts the ghost mage who appears for a final confrontation. And the high camp they did attack. It is a total horde mode.

The first attempt I am thwarted by tent collision meshes which make it hard to jog away/around. I get surrounded and smashed by stunlock bullshit. We have to get down to a flatter, more open topography since the camp is a minefield of clumsy tent geometry and sloping terrain. After several waves of the ghost mage’s beefiest courses we take them down while juggling the last remnants. Our reward is not an upgrade but a note.

Tantric breathing means the O2 canisters are now obsolete.

It’s just us and the last part of the ascent now. We don’t stop climbing now until nothing but air is above us.

Current Altitude: 26,000 feet

Incense remaining: 10

O2 remaining: 5 Canisters

[captainlove]

Day 315

13 Chomo Lonzo 珠穆隆索

You are all keychain plushies dangling from my backpack. Slow footsteps now. One wrong move and we’re gravity’s toy.

This is the final ascent, the last level that stuck in my memory for over a decade. It does not open in the way that I remember, beginning in total whiteout at the bottom of the cliff face.

The opening shot is roughly similar and, instead, we gradually build up to the climax as the snow and light bloom combine to create a whiteness unlike any other in the levels we’ve seen. As if we are trudging through a still-developing photograph.

Frank speaks to us, revealing he hates Eric. Implying his actions are because of Eric’s sin. Indirectly the events of the game are because of Eric berating a younger Frank.

Out of nowhere Thod Pa speaks! “Voidness cannot endure voidness”

A new run animation shows how tired Eric is. Impressive that they save this for the few thousand people still playing.

Frank’s spirit keeps disappearing throughout our prolonged conversation with him. There are no shrines anywhere in the level and it does a good job of leaving us with no one else to latch on to except our two remaining brothers.

---

This is it, the part I remember:

---

The sequences in the lead up to the peak feel the most Silent Hill the game ever gets in terms of storytelling. The focus is squarely on Eric’s implied failure to deal with Frank’s bad nature. In some lines, it’s implied that Eric actually made Frank what he is through harsh training and a lack of any sort of love or respect. At the very end we see that Frank, the despisable, despises us. We are his role model, making this impossible climb out of guilt alone. I think it works as a reveal but only because I’ve been thinking about this plot a lot more than anyone ever has in their life, bar the writers.

A total whiteout on a plateau near the peak provides an interesting navigational challenge reminiscent of FFVII but with no map. There is no trick I can discern, you just have to trust direction and move forward through the blizzard.

We find the Terma that caused the whole mess.

The pulsing white bloom spreads across the screen as we near the last cliffs.

Sorry Frank, but at the final cliff before the peak there is one last shrine. As unlikely as this seems, it does suggest that Sherpas, at some point, have summited the mountain first, thwarting Frank’s entire motivation. What must he have thought of the locals he hates when he saw this shrine right before the final achievement, diminishing his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog roleplay.

Just before this apex shrine is a final swarm of ghosts. The last five in the game. A relatively small arena makes the fights a little challenging but we are so upgraded by this point it doesn’t really faze us. Unsurprisingly, I think having no enemies in this entire level would have been more interesting. To have the final shrine be completely useless in terms of gameplay.

Nearing the summit, the music drops out altogether and we are left with whispers.

Finally at the very top of this mountain, we see what is clearly a boss arena. Frank is sitting in a meditative stance with his back to us. He is dressed in robes that cannot possibly protect him.

As we approach, one final obstacle reveals itself.

It is the mountain itself, made corporate by the Terma’s theft.

The actual boss battle is a huge mess. We just need to shoot the mountain as it flies around but it occasionally tries to rush us with melee attacks or blow extremely cold wind to freeze and kill us. The three rocks laid out equidistantly by the level designers are what we must use for cover. After about 10 shots from the trusty Kila, we have made it through phase 1.

Are you ready for one of the worst lines of dialogue ever put in a videogame? Because here it is!

This is the mountain saying this. Towering stone that originated from vast tectonic activity eons ago is laying down some orientalist shit for us.

I just about folded in half.

The mountain’s voice actor is also very bad. Significantly the role is performed by Mingma’s VA but the director has obviously instructed them to make the mountain sound like a superior middle-class British woman. It’s a shame the game fumbles this right at the finale. My memory of this fight is that the final boss never speaks but it’s probably best I didn’t remember this.

On the second phase I immediately die on the first try due to low health and muddling through the first phase’s freezing winds.

Cue the rudest checkpoint. The final shrine is the only healing spot in the entire level but the actual checkpoint takes us to the ghost swarm just before getting to the shrine. The final run of this game requires that you fight and defeat five ghosts, heal at the shrine, and progress through all three stages of the boss fight in one run. This is the final spike of the game that knocks my motivation to finish in this sitting. But I didn’t come all this way to crumple to bad 2000s game design. I didn’t take a thousand pictures and spend hours writing about a forgotten Wii game to call it a night just before the end of the final level.

Second phase. Thundaga is active. The goal is to get round the back of the boss and undo three seals. This is much easier than I realised since the boss is slow and there is plenty of room on this mountain peak to jog.

Once unsealed, the boss is vulnerable to laser fire. Pump the kila and she drops in 12. The boss is put into a weakened state and you have to go over to the Terma to open it once again.

Thus ends the game.

Eric goes to collect Frank

Really Eric, the altitude?

Sad as it is, Eric shows one last act of compassion to Frank.

Final altitude: 27,500+ feet
Incense Remaining: 9
Total photos taken: 997
Climber Rating: Tortoise
Brothers saved: 0

‘The White Emptiness Of The Snow-Covered Peaks Are The Perfect Visualisation Of Nirvana, Therefore The Retreat In These Eternally Peaceful Mountains Is A Most Blissful One.’

[daphaknee]

almost 1000 pictures!! omg thank you for showing us this badass game I’d never have the patience to play. I cannot believe the mountain is a jade empire boss tho hahha

[Father.Torque]

Who knew the Wii could hide such an interesting thing…

[RT-55J]

congrats on climbing the mountain

gonna be thinking about this in relation to this thread:

[Tuxedo]

Thanks again!!
Great ending. The final boss quote was very funny. I wonder whether this game has both the best and worst people working for it or if everything was more nuanced. I’d read a post mortem on this game anyday

[captainlove]

Honestly the skill distribution is fascinating. There’s so much that works for me to rate it so highly and then there’s stuff that’s either hack shit or was presumably rushed/underfunded development. I think the good stuff tends to be the fundamentals: camera system, sound and music, plot outline and themes, level design. The weaker stuff is where the tweaks could’ve been done with more time: boss design, checkpoint placement, motion controls implementation, options, dialogue, cutscene pacing and development.

If there were ever to be a remake, my wish list would be as follows:

• Story mode with far fewer ghost encounters
• Level Select
• ‘Reimagined’ cutscenes (but let me have the old ones as well)
• Motion controls optional (give me a lock on please)
• Auto QTE
• Switch between original graphics and updated/remade (just to see what they’d do with it though I’d prefer not looking at the Unreal 5 approach)

[captainlove]

One of my big takeaways from the dev diary is this is some of the same devs responsible for Ride to Hell: Retribution

[captainlove]

This works on so many levels!

[captainlove]

Quadruple post!

Just doing a checklist of what I remembered before starting this replay:

• You play as a grizzled Scottish explorer who is the only man left from some failed expedition and thinks it wise to scale a 25000 ft peak by himself with minimal supplies. CHECK!

• Tantric sex is a major plot point that I think the writer got really into. Tantric sex needed to happen to suppress mountain demons or something. CHECK!: I sorta recall this being more explicit originally but it’s not as major as I remember

• The game has significant colonial overtones. The game depicts Tibet in an atmospheric way but also squeezes much of it out what they can through a very colonial press. CHECK!

• There are some extraordinarily shit bossfights. SUPER CHECK!

• Lots of Wii waggle CHECK!: Although I remember a lot more QTEs while climbing. It turns out that if you waggle while climbing you move faster but this then triggers QTEs where you have to waggle to stay on the cliff face. Just moving at default speed is actually more atmospheric and doesn’t trigger any QTEs.

• Some levels have no enemies or encounters and I remember it being remarkably restrained in terms of pacing when most other similar games were turning to full-on over the shoulder shooting in the wake of RE4. It’s still a part of that trend but I liked the emptiness of certain levels. NEGACHECK!: There are no levels with no enemy encounters though the sense of emptiness is good. I think this is just wishful thinking, even when I first played it. I do think the pacing is pretty good overall but some levels are too long.

[Fereal]

I just make a registration here because i found this Review of Cursed Mountain i really like how good and detailed is the review nice one love it and i hope to see more like this

[captainlove]

Thanks so much for checking it out! I’d like to do another similar project in future but might be a little while. There’s loads of other great write-ups across the forum that are worth checking out.

Welcome!

[daphaknee]

nothing like making a thread good enough to force someone to register to say so

[scratchmonkey]

Yeah! This thread rocks and it’s a great window into a game that most of us would probably never have played (and probably will never play tbh, I could feel the sweat and tears that went into this playthrough and honestly, no thank you).

It’s fun to think about how it fits into other mountain-ascenting games with Getting Over It and Baby Steps being far more visible examples of games that I feel are far more focused on the micro-mechanics of ascension and then paralleling that with a more philosophical/absurdist approach, as opposed to this, which feels like it has a very po-faced and weird sludge-y “let’s try and make this into a videogame” approach to the mechanics. I’ve heard good things about Cairn and I’m a little nervous that it will have 20s-style mechanical issues in the same sort of way.

Anyway, thank you again!