Bramble: The Mountain King is a pretty good dark fantasy, horror game, now then let’s talk about this story. On a dark night a young boy named Olle wakes up from a nightmare do to the story his mother read to him, he goes looking for the comfort of his big sister, only to discover that she's missing. He soon steps outside the comfort of his home to look for her, but unbeknownst to the young boy this simple task will turn into a grand adventure of wonder, beauty and most of all horror that will test the young boy physically, mentally and emotionally as he journeys to the mountains in search of his sister.
Okay likes, the story is really good it's basically told like a bedtime story with a young protagonist going on a grand adventure to save the one he loves while encountering, befriending and/or fighting strange creatures, the classic staples of fairy tails and like any old classic fairy tale it's not all cutiey, no it can be pretty darn right scary and gruesome with corpses, monsters eating people that sort of thing, both aspects of the fairy tale aesthetic of the story were handled very well, I also like the themes of bravery, despair, growing up and hope in the darkness.
Another good thing about the story books are these little story you can find throughout the game that tells you about the different monsters you'll see throughout the game, it was very good.
The gameplay is good, it does have one or two problem, but that's for the dislikes, anyway as I was saying the gameplay is basically you go from point A to point B doing some platforming, solving light puzzles while avoiding monsters or fighting them, the best games I can compare this to would be the little nightmare series and the new game reanimal with this type of gameplay.
The graphic art style is really good, it captures a sense of beauty and horror with its colors, designs and overall feel that really makes you feel like you're in a storybook. The levels are really good each place is beautiful and it just makes you want to stop, stare and explore the diverse landscape from idyllic fields, to a creepy swamp and even a village.
The characters were good I liked Olle I loved watching his quest to find his sister, you can tell that he's trying his best and he's going through a lot of traumatizing things but still presses on. The monsters are very good they're based off of Nordic Fables and they have some pretty unique designs that captures the beauty or horror or sometimes both with their looks, I think my favorite monster has to be the Skogsrået, she's both terrifying and beautiful just like mother nature.
The music is good with each track fitting the game and it's atmosphere very well, I particularly like the violin music with Näcken and the music for the final boss. The voice acting was good, the woman who narrates the story does a good job and has a sort of mother telling children a bedtime story kind of feel, I hope she gets more work.
The atmosphere is very good it can go from whimsical to downright creepy and terrifying, there were moments where I jumped particularly in the village segment. Okay then is this game actually scary, yes sometimes it is even though it does use jump scares the jump scares are well placed and it has plenty of creepy and disturbing moments that really set the mood and it has stealth segments where you're hiding from the monster that really makes you nervous.
Now dislikes, okay the game can feel very cheap with its deaths particularly if you're not careful you could accidentally fall off a cliff and die, some of the bosses are also cheep, probably the worst being Skogsrået and the final boss.
But thankfully there are plenty of checkpoints that are spaced out especially with the bosses and their multiple phases, so it's not like you're going to have to do the whole boss fight or a whole segment all over again.
There's also an achievement for completing the game without dying or restarting any levels and I will be honest I did cheat to get this achievement only because of how cheap and bull crap the game's deaths can be, so don't feel ashamed if you have to do what I did.
Alrighty then now that’s done, Bramble: The Mountain King is a pretty good dark fantasy, horror game, it has a really good story, good gameplay and very good monsters. And it just has so much more, so do I recommend this game yes I do if you're looking for a game that scratches that little nightmare itch or if you're interested in Nordic folklore than this game is for you.
