Mountains of Madness

First good - its a decently faithful retelling of the tale and is conveyed through both journal entries and decent (if amaetur) voicework. The maps are mostly well throughout and I love the use of the rope and ladder mechanics to traverse otherwise impassable areas. The 'meat' of the game is figuring out how to use these tools to get around the map. Now mid - some of the environments can be kind of samey and could really do with use of more differentiating assets like sculptures and or motifs, there is a breadcrumb mechanic by leaving notes on the ground for yourself - but I feel like that could just as well not exist if the environments were a bit more varied. Now bad - the primary drawback with this one is its lack of sound design. Even a relatively empty walkabout can be highly elevated by good sound design. There a number of areas where there's next to no ambient sound at all and music is minimal so eventually you're left with just the tip-tap of your (rather loud) shoes across cobblestone for a lot of the game. This really hampers the game to the point of distraction to the point I eventually threw on some spooky soundscape track while playing just give it some noise. In general I feel like this game is very close to being good if can get the above issues addressed, but as of now it's going to a tough sell to all but the most dedicated Lovecraft nerds.

I recently read Lovecraft's story Mountains of Madness and wondered if there were any games based on the story, which is why I came across this one, which made me very happy. I didn't go in with much expectation. What I was mainly hoping for was an interesting, visual representation of Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness. However, I do have some criticisms of the game. First, about the game in general: the game follows the original story with only a few deviations, which is fine. Various gameplay mechanics are gradually introduced at the beginning, such as ropes to overcome heights and a freely placeable ladder that you can carry around with you. ((Spoilers from here)) My main criticisms of the game are two things: [olist] [*] the environments aren't interesting enough and many assets don't fit well with each other. There were also some weird design decisions. Here are a few examples: [list] [*] The cave at the beginning is unnecessarily large and you don't have much to see besides a few fossils scattered here and there. [*] The base camp consists of wooden huts although in the original story it was a camp of tents. This may not sound particularly relevant but in my opinion it destroys the immersion. [*] I found the ancient city the most disappointing, unfortunately, as it's just a bunch of uninteresting stone structures on an area in the mountains. It all melts into a dull, brown mass. In general, the game also ironically lacks a good representation of the Antarctic, deadly cold. [*] The interestingly described reliefs in the city in the original story are just some meaningless assets. [/list] [*] the way the story is told doesn't really engage me. I can't speak for players who haven't read the original story, of course, but there was almost no build-up of tension. [/olist] I also think the game is unnecessarily "gamey" without needing to be. The storytelling might have worked better if it was more like a simple walking sim with more voiceovers. I would like to point out that I can understand that this is not a AAA game and that you shouldn't expect extremely high quality assets and character voices. Overall, the game unfortunately doesn't offer a comparable atmosphere to the original story at the moment.

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☑ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ Not bad not good ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☑ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☑ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☐ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☑ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☑ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☑ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10 [h1]Post-game Summary:[/h1] (May contain SPOILERS) [h1]Graphics[/h1] Graphics were decent, nothing shockingly bad or good, although the game's map felt a little lifeless due to the lack of assets, probably could be fixed by adding some sort of effects to make you not see as far, thus hiding the imperfections [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Gameplay was interesting, it was not bad nor was it good, most of the gameplay ended up boiling down to wandering the mountains and caves trying to figure out what to do next because there were no indicators to make it clear. Once past the first mountain and at the camp the gameplay got better, but that was after I had already aimlessly wandered for 20 minutes attempting to find an item that would help me progress. [h1]Audio[/h1] Audio was clunky, and only saved by the ambient music which fit the story and atmosphere well. The voice acting is alright, medicore at best, would have fit the story more it was a New England or more British sounding accent. Footsteps sound effects in the game were the biggest detractor, they sound awful. As well as the footsteps the sounds of the creatures were either too loud or too quiet, and certain audio queues ended incredibly abrupt which sounded off, or played multiple times over if you crossed what I assume is their trigger. [h1]Audience[/h1] Game is good for really anyone who enjoys a good Lovecraft story, although for kids I would say its a bit confusing to grasp, and some of the games content may be considered disturbing. [h1]PC Requirements[/h1] Game did not run into any performance errors throughout the entire play-through. I was consistently reaching 144 fps throughout the entire game with a mid-tier laptop. [h1]Game Size[/h1] Game is ~3 GBs [h1]Difficulty[/h1] Hardest part of the game was trying to figure out how the gameplay worked, or trying to listen to those God awful footsteps. [h1]Grind[/h1] Zero grind, unless you count searching for tools inside long confusing caves grindy. [h1]Story[/h1] Its a Lovecraft story, its good. The game did not butcher the story in any significant way, it was fun to explore and find bits and pieces of the story and experience them myself. A solid retelling of "At The Mountains of Madness" [h1]Game Time[/h1] I took a long time exploring the game or just being away from my keyboard and still got it done in under five hours. If you want to fully complete the story, expect it to take no longer than 5 hours. [h1]Price[/h1] If you enjoy Lovecraft and his works, its worth the full price. If not, then its up to you, it is not a steal, but not a bargain either. [h1]Bugs[/h1] For a game of such little caliber, it was surprisingly bug-less. I got stuck in my loading screen one time, but I simply closed the game and it did not happen again. The compass tool, used by the protagonist, kind of clips outside its metal frame. The subtitles for the narration are also all packed in at once into a large paragraph which takes up the majority of your lower screen. One of the journals entries would not register so I could not read it no matter how much I interacted with it. Other than those simple gameplay bugs, I did not notice anything. [h1]Overall[/h1] I personally give it a 6/10. It was actually fun to play after making it to the ancient city. The game's best aspects were its storytelling through notes and still frames, the music and ambiance of the frozen world, and its surprisingly good looking final antagonist that did not disappoint at all. All the hype that had been building up throughout the game to see it was satisfied as soon as I laid eyes on it. I would recommend if you are a fan of Lovecraft and are looking for something to do for an evening.

Years away from a finished product. There seems to be some admiration of Lovecraft behind it, but it's not even a demo at this point.

This is a wonderful telling of the Classic H.P. Lovecraft Novella 'At the Mountains of Madness'. one of, if not, my favourite Lovecraft stories, told with wonderfully rendered environments and actual gameplay (finding and using tools to progress). all problems I had with the game on launch were fixed very quickly by the dev and the game seems to be good working order now. I highly recommend this game if you want a brief, fun, and a bit scary adaptation of one of the greatest classic cosmic horror novellas of all time.

This game has me torn, on one hand it's a decent retelling of Lovecraft's story, on the other as a game it falls woefully short in pretty much every aspect. While at first it looks just like another walking simulator, it's not. Instead the whole focus is on finding your way around the level, getting past obstacles in your way and figuring out, where to go next. The concept is actually quite intriguing, but this game lacks any depth and there is only one solution. For instance, when you get rope, all you can do with it is tie it to a pillar and climb down a pit, you can't throw it. Climbing pick is only used for breaking walls of ice, you cannot actually climb with it. You have compass and can leave notes behind as an indicator, where to go, but you really won't need them until the final area. And you have a journal, which fills in over time, but the journal screen is bugged, because once you get enough entries, they'll be off screen and it's not possible to scroll down, so you won't be able to reread some of them. As a result, you'll spend most of your time walking around in caves or hallways, that all look the same, bored. Especially at the very end, when you'll be forced to go through maze, where every corridor looks the same, so you can get lost really easily and have to leave notes, that say "don't go this way, it's dead end" everywhere. The only really good mechanic is the ladder, you can either use it as a normal ladder or lay it horizontally in order to get past broken bridges. There are also some objects of interest and notes here and there, but there's nowhere near enough of them. It's also very short (according to Steam I played 3 hours, but I left it open for a while, real gameplay time was about 2 hours), but I'm not sure if that's a detriment or benefit at this point. Then the game just straight lies to you about flashlight attracting unwanted attention, all that happened was that after that message popped up and I entered some random room, there was a bit of humming, but nothing came out of that. But if you're familiar with the story, you'll know such mechanic would be out of place anyway. The story as I've mentioned is quite faithful and pretty much all of the key scenes are recreated, so good job. The voice acting is amateurish, but serviceable. If you read the novel however, it's immersion breaking, because it fails to sell that our protagonist has witnessed unspeakable horrors, instead he sounds mildly bored for the most part. The visuals are not the game's strong point either, every area you visit feels empty and devoid of any life. Well, there is one area, that is actually impressive and that's the stone city from the outside. Inside however it's a different story, the murals, which are a big, big part of the story, are some random lines. The sound design is also lacking and it hurts the game even further (loudest noise are your footsteps), because it just underlines the distinct lack of atmosphere on display. The only really memorable part of the game is the finale with Shoggoth. I cannot recommend this game for anyone except the most hardcore fans of Lovecraft and even then it won't be a satisfying experience.

This game is, quite literally, a surprisingly faithful videogame transposition of the homonymous HP Lovecraft's story, that also happens to be my favorite! Thus, I simply LOVE this game, for obvious reasons! If you are a fan of Lovecraft, I STRONGLY recommend you try this, but be aware that it is a walking simulator with little gameplay. The inventory management system is quite fun, but there are no true puzzles to solve. The game heavily focuses on the excellently crafted atmosphere, and of course on the faithful recreation of the scenes described in the novel. Speaking of this, I particularly appreciated how some elements of the scenery and the story were rendered. It was an immense pleasure for me to explore this game, but I understand that my judgement is heavily biased by the fact that I am a huge fan of the novel. If I were not, I probably would have found this game a bit dull, so it's up to you to decide, depending on your personal tastes. Other than that, I can say that, technically speaking, the game is well done, despite some little hiccups that overall do not ruin the experience. So I can assure you that the quality is definitely there! Cheers guys!

As a lifelong Lovecraft fan, this is a difficult thumbs down. The game does feature a couple of interesting ideas, such as the freely placeable ladder, which allows for a decent amount of creativity and freedom in terms of how you explore the ancient ruins, and the visuals (the architecture of the city, specifically) can be pretty nice here and there. However, the versatility of the life-saving ladder and the occasional screenshot-worthy vista are still not quite enough to make up for the project’s various shortcomings: the dull and extremely samey level design that really harms the game’s atmosphere, the lack of engaging storytelling, and the similar lack of any memorable moments, with perhaps the exception of the ending scene that, admittedly, did manage to conclude the game on a sufficiently creepy note. All in all, while I did find a handful of things to like about Mountains of Madness, I still cannot in good conscience give it a recommendation; to be perfectly honest, I think you’re probably better off simply reading – or re-reading – Lovecraft’s original story, as your imagination will likely do a much better job of conjuring up its horrors than the game. For more honest indie game reviews, check out our Curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6481290-GTOGG/

[h2]POSITIVE POINTS:[/h2] - The game is based on H.P. Lovecraft's novel, "At the Mountains of Madness", and achieves a dark and mysterious atmosphere. - The story is discovered through exploration, which adds to the mystery and suspense of the setting in an outstanding way. - The mechanics of using the different tools to move around the map are very well thought out. For example, we must use ropes and ladders to cross areas that we would otherwise not be able to pass. [h2] NEGATIVE POINTS:[/h2] - At some points in the game the fog does not blend in properly with the environment. - The sound system is quite poor. - There are no indicators of any kind to tell us what to do: this favours immersion and exploration, but will not appeal to all players. [h2]CONCLUSIONS:[/h2] Mountains of Madness is a chilling journey through the desolate lands of Antarctica, offering a rich and immersive first-person exploration experience. For all intents and purposes, it's a walking simulator with a lot of narrative weight. If you're a fan of Lovecraft's work this won't be a negative point, because you'll enjoy how the developer has managed to capture the story with notes and still frames. [h2]EVALUATION:[/h2] 6.5/10. Mountains of Madness is a horror adventure aimed especially at Lovecraft fans: if you're a fan, and you buy the game, you won't regret it. If you're not a fan, or you don't know his work, it's a good time to give it a chance, because the way the story is handled alone makes it worth it. [quote][h3][i]If you'd like to see more reviews written by me, follow my Steam Curator and help support my work on [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44998766-Purrfect-Games/] Purrfect Games[/url]. Your support means the world to me! Thanks!

[h1][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43715729/]Моя кураторская страница "Достойные или нет херроры"[/url][/h1] [i]Mountains of Madness[/i] — это почти буквальный пересказ отличного рассказа Лавкрафта «[i]Хребты безумия[/i]». Разработчики постарались передать атмосферу неизвестности и одиночества в суровой и мрачной среде, но финальный продукт получился [b]крайне слабым[/b]. Поймите правильно: идея тут есть, но вот [u]реализация страдает[/u], и всё это — из-за общей бюджетности проекта. По сути, [i]Mountains of Madness[/i] — это инди-бродилка, которая пересказывает события «[i]Хребтов безумия[/i]». Сюжет тут раскрывается через короткие заставки с текстом и через различные записки, которые вы находите во время исследования. Судить сам сюжет бессмысленно, так как [u]первоисточник — это крайне увлекательное чтиво[/u], которое я могу смело порекомендовать всем. Вы играете за учёного, который отправляется в экспедицию в Антарктику, но во время путешествия натыкается на следы древней цивилизации. Странные монстры, люди, которые сошли с ума, непонятные и комплексные строения, признаки всемогущих существ — всё это тут есть и в целом рассказано отлично, ведь игра напрямую цитирует оригинальный рассказ. Так что, по сути, игру можно рассматривать как игровую адаптацию. Но вот в чём дело: [b]геймплейно и технически игра плоха[/b]. [u]Выглядит проект очень слабо[/u]: настроек нет, на экране присутствует «мыло», текстуры не радуют глаз. Я понимаю, что это небольшое инди, но все сооружения и пещеры сделаны из ассетов и не вызывают какой-то тревоги или желания узнать их секреты. Особенно ближе к концу вы попадёте в некий город, созданный из высоких башен. Идея понятна — заставить вас затеряться в этом необычном строении, но [u]выглядит оно так слабо, что буквально через пару минут становится ужасно скучно[/u] из-за всех этих тёмных однотипных коридоров. Геймплейно это обычная бродилка, правда, в некоторых моментах вам даётся немного «свободы» в перемещениях (особенно в конце). Вы можете использовать лестницу, чтобы забраться на разные выступы, или верёвку, чтобы сократить путь и спуститься. Всё это нужно делать в определённых местах, и сама игра даже не говорит, где и что применять, но если у вас намётан глаз и вы умеете ориентироваться, то лестница будет вашим лучшим другом по сокращению пути. Атмосфера тут на среднем уровне. Игра следует повествованию из рассказа, и в мрачных, кровавых и необъяснимых моментах игра не подкачала — есть на что поглазеть. Но всё равно в глаза бросается именно бюджетность проекта: например, [u]трупы — это словно манекены, на которые навалили красной краски[/u]. Я ставлю негативный отзыв не потому, что игра совсем плоха, а потому, что в ней [b]явно не раскрыт потенциал[/b]. «[i]Хребты безумия[/i]» — это отличный рассказ, в котором есть все ключевые элементы лавкрафтщины. И хоть проект пытается передать их буквально дословно, выглядит это крайне средне. Тем более, в игре порой могут попасться баги. У меня, например, были проблемы с освещением — где-то вдалеке постоянно что-то мерцало. [b]Если вы фанат Лавкрафта[/b] и вам хочется [b]«пройтись» по данной истории[/b], то по скидке, да не ожидая каких-то откровений, можно и взять эту игру, тем более проходится она за час-полтора. [b]Если же вы ищете лучшей проработки и чего-то большего — останетесь разочарованы[/b].