The Mountain King, a roller coaster of emotions

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

Bramble: King of the Mountain It reached us and we were able to analyze it in depth. This is the second title of the study Drimfrost Studios. His first game was a PC VR adventure titled A writer and his daughter. Now they land on their paws with their second match 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 Insight of this game that left us wanting more. What is this preview of Bramble: King of the Mountain offered was quite good and ambitious, a magical world full of dangers that certainly left us speechless. Now that the game is in our hands, we can discuss its compliance expectations or not, let’s start with its setting and history.

Mythology and dark fables

Bramble: The Mountain King tells the story of two brothers, Ollie there Lillemore. Both will venture into a dark forest, sheltered from the darkness of the night, attracted by the unknown. The two brothers begin their journey through a forest with two very different faces. The day fills the forest with mostly gracious and charming creatures, and the night awakens the hottest and most evil in its being. The repertoire of the inhabitants of this fantastic place is above all filled with scandinavian folklorewe will have trolls, gnomes, banshees, haunted kings and much more.

All is not dark.

As our two protagonists advance through the forest, which was once little it gets big. And it is that our two friends dwindle as they enter the forest. At the end of a small hill, our size will be no larger than that of a small river pebble. Everything now is gigantic and we are tiny, but that does not intimidate the brothers who continue their adventure. As the two brothers explore the forest, they find a stone of light. This is the last light of clarity they will have during the dark night that hovers over them. And that’s it, 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 against 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 king toad to stone giant who will have their level of importance. We will cross rivers and meadows, climb trees, flee danger from trolls and run for our lives like never before. Bramble: King of the Mountain It is on paper a pretty and superficial story. But as we progress we’ll see the harsh reality, it’s a game full of emotional ups and downs. We will have to prepare our stomachs to see death and destruction. Children and babies dying, blood and blood everywhere. And twists that would distress more than one. If your heart doesn’t drop, your stomach will.

bloody and cruel

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

play with many things

Bramble: King of the Mountain It is as we said a mix between several styles that we already know. It’s a third-person adventure that mixes the mechanics of Little Nightmares, Limbo, Somerville. We will have areas of escape and racing, 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 keep moving forward. This diversity of mechanics as well as several final bosses of zones with different attack strategies make the game very fun and entertaining. However, the difficulty is not very high. Autosave even kicks in between boss stages, making the difficulty curve non-existent and very flat. Moreover, the puzzles in some monuments, they err on the side of simplicity.

Roller coaster also technically

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

But on a technical level, what stands out the most in bad shape is the animation of our character. Ollie. Totally out of step with the rest of the work done. For starters, he’s not camouflaged well, and in many parts he looks like a puppet out of context. It does not fit into the backgrounds at the graphic level, resembling an amateur animation posed on a very elaborate stage. When it comes to motion animation something similar happens, the performance of our character and the way he moves is very plan, orthopedic and against nature. 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 through its history and its technical section. We will have, like the forest in which we play, lights and darks 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 come to tarnish an adventure which, conditioned in a atmosphere ambivalent between creepy and the sympathetic, will dazzle us from the first minute. With a sound section of the highest quality, it will take us on a magnificent adventure to tell and share that will leave a good taste in our mouths. Undoubtedly, the beginnings of Drimfrost Studios is remarkably high and we look forward to a follow-up to this talented study.