Bramble: The Mountain King (2023)

So, I bought this thinking it would be something of fairytales, going around in a forest, fighting bad guys but nothing much... creepy.

• I went to the game super blind, because I just saw some pictures and bought it in promo.

I started playing it and, holy damn, it's great, beautiful graphics, super cinematic and so, really so creepy. I have to be honest, I jumped a bit of times against the folklore bosses, and I was like "damn am I playing a horror game?"

The game itself is really cool, it's easy to play, easy to understand the patterns even tho it doesn't teach you about it, the stories of the folk characters were sad. I think there was such graphic scenes I was not expecting that made me more discomfort than the actual fights with the bosses.

Overall I really enjoyed it, it was a creepy surprise. I finished it in 5 hours, and got like 75% of playstation trophies, maybe ill play another go in some years.

This game delivered on the aesthetic that I was expecting. It's calming in areas and then really brings on the creepy factor as the game progresses. I really enjoyed how the lore of the fairy tales were told through you playing them, then being expanded on with story books later.

Overall this game was fun and interesting, but it was super short. I play the whole game in 5hrs.

The first time I saw a trailer for Bramble: The Mountain King my heart skipped a beat. A puzzle platformer set in John Bauer-like environments inspired by Swedish folklore? Sign me up! The only thing I was worried about was that it seemed somewhat unpolished.

Unfortunately, the game really lacks in terms of control and gameplay. Our protagonist Olle feels taken right out of a PS2-game. And the gameplay sometimes feels underdeveloped and confusing. “What am I supposed to do?” or “Where am I able to walk?” was questions I asked myself multiple times. And the UI is ugly and immersion breaking to be honest. So, why do I rate this game so high? Well, it’s because everything else is amazing.

Maybe I as a Swede am biased, but the setting is right up my alley. The horror, the Swedish references and the art direction are all fantastic. Bosses are generally interesting and just enough challenging. But the best part of the game is hands down the audio. It’s so good, I contacted the sound designer Dan Wakefield to thank him for his awesome work. The music is fitting in every moment and everything from the sound of wind to subtle voices and screams is perfect.

Every time a unique game like this comes along I genuinely get so happy I could cry. There are so many uninspiring gigantic open world games out there. We need games made with love, instead of money, in mind. I am so thankful to Dimfrost for creating this beautiful piece of art.

Would give less rating but the lore and art design was really good.

• Controls are a disaster
• Puzzles don't require thinking
• You jump from the end of one plot to the next one without realizing
• Barely anything of the world you are in right now is explained except by the books(and they just tell the tales in which you are in right now) but doesn't explain more like, how did I get here? Why is it necessary to go over here? etc.
• Everything feels pointless and confusing

Mix all of this + the slow movement of the character(i was spamming jump almost the whole game) and you get a beatiful torture game.

I really enjoyed this game. I’m quite partial to dark fantasy aesthetics, and Bramble does it particularly well. Rooted in Swedish cautionary tales for children, this puzzle platformer boasts a very engaging narrator and a compelling narrative hook that persists from start to finish, all engulfed in a dark, gloomy, at times macabre tone. The Scandinavian folk roots are extremely obvious here, much more so than they are in games like Unravel for example.

Bramble’s sound design is impeccable - from both a music and an effects perspective -, the telegraphing is pretty competent, the boss fights are original (if at times poorly executed), the UI is super elegant and clean, and I love the idea of having dark stories in a narration and hand-drawn book format to foreshadow what’s to come. At its core, Bramble is a heartwarming journey, a mystical tale of a bond between siblings that, at times, offers some real beauty where you get to experience pockets of peaceful bliss amidst the fear and terror that punctuate Olle’s journey.

But there are problems with this game. It clearly needed a bit more mechanical polish, since it suffers from a lack of optimisation that is visible even in the menu (options don’t get highlighted), at least on Xbox. Camera angles were also a bit of an issue at times. But the main offender is Bramble’s poor visual quality. There’s a lot of noise in the picture, which makes it look blurry and fuzzy, sometimes almost resembling a rough-looking PS3 game. If they could refine the visual formula, they’d truly have something viscerally special here, since the art direction is impressive.

Don’t let that discourage you, though. At the end of the day, these faux pas aren’t enough to overshadow the goodness that Bramble brings to the table. As a package, this is a very enjoyable experience, one that is sure to play to your dark fantasy sensibilities if you have them. 7.5/10

Played on xsx game pass.

Pros:

• Gorgeous environment. Most of the world is intended photo-realism; it is well done within the constraints of modern consoles. Forgiveable shortcomings include foliage detail and moving water.
• No section of the game felt too long or too short and the escalating difficulty in battles, platforming, and puzzles was calibrated just right. No single area or boss fight took more than 15 minutes to figure out and complete.

Cons:

• The main characters' designs don't fit with the game's visuals. They look like dolls, with huge glassy blue eyes, broad cheekbones, a facial structure reminiscint of a ventriloquist dummy with a nutcracker style jaw. Luckily, most of the game is spent in 3rd person seeing only the main character's backside, which far less distracting than his face.
• Wading through ponds of blood and guts is not scary, it's just gross. And still, the lack of realistic liquid and semi-liquid rendering means even the attempt at gross-horror doesn't land, and the body fluid sludge becomes a tool for tedium rather than tension.
• Extremely limited camera control is frustrating, panning only ~5% in any given direction. Exploration and combat would greatly benefit from more camera range.
• Aim is squishy. Intentional? Yes. Challenging? No. This added difficulty is pure annoyance and zero satisfaction. Mitigation attempts via joystick curve options yielded little to no improvement.

Takeaway: Fans of a little bit of horror and gore, of myths and lore, of fairy tales and whimsical environments, of linear progression stories, and fans of glassy-eyed ventriloquist dummies should surely check this one out.

A worthy entry in the platformer/puzzle horror genre, though this was much more 3D than Limbo, Inside and the Little Nightmares. I don't think it quite hits the highs of those four, but it's certainly close. The nordic fairy tale stuff is terrific, as is the sound design, atmosphere and jump scares. The one in the rowboat got me BIG. I liked the narration and the various storybooks that tell of the various curses and origins for the bosses. Controls a bit floaty, and I felt underequipped to handle some of the boss fights, but I loved the forest boss and the end boss in particular so it was still a worthwhile endeavor overall. This is a must play if you're at all a fan of the 4 aforementioned games, I got it on Game Pass so it was a no-brainer.

One last thing - I love the sound design in these games. The song played in the final encounter is very clever, and all the eerie sounding violins and strings really tensed me up during my playthrough. Either a high 3/5 or a low 4/5.

a bit of a spoiler but they are covered

The pros it's a gorgeous game I mean absolutely beautiful I love the narrative voice. I love how the bosses look! the background. the scenery. the music. Enjoyed how they had the battles set up with the bosses.

my cons: I get that they didn't want to spoil any surprises so it not an open world to explore. Your are stuck following a linear and so it makes for some clunky controls at times. When Olle in danger or there trouble ,these times are never experienced with your controller. It was also slow moving sometimes. I had many pissy moments when trying to "see" certain angles but couldn't because it not allowed. I did feel that game was a bit off balance at times in it game play. And yes DIMFROST this is a horror game even though they don't want anyone to lable it as such.

• There zombies trying to eat you. stabbing a forest goddess in her face over and over. and a butcher troll?? Gory everywhere. Hanging women from trees ohhh and a dead baby to bury

Ok DIMFROST it not horror at all.wink

The ending is where it just fell flat. I mean reallllly flat. I get that Scandinavian fairy tales are usually more loosely done than other folklore but eh. too much are they dead? or is the sister just alive. Is this real..is the kid dying from the plague? Is this really going in their lands?Shit am I REALLY alive or real?

But besides all that you should play this absolutely beautiful games. It will keep you entertained if nothing else. And who doesn't like interacting with folklore gods and demons.

3.75/5 ⭐

It was hard for me to give this 3 stars. I really really wanted to give it 4 stars, but the poor controls and bad puzzle design make this game 3 stars for me. I loved the atmosphere, the lore, the horror and the looks and animations. The music was also done beautifully (plus the remixed track of the classical piece ''Hall of the Mountain King'' was epic in the last boss fight).
The controls were very clunky however and got me killed many times even when I knew what to do in a certain segment. Pointing and shooting was very counter-intuitively designed. The puzzles were also boring and dragged out for so long at times, to the point where it's making you groan and think ''when am I done with this?''. However, I did enjoy the story and horror elements, plus the entire game looks beautiful. If you can accept frustrations of dying a lot and having to sit through somewhat boring puzzles, it's still worth to play it! I'd give it a 6.5/10.

I enjoyed this title overall but got a little bored with it at times. While i found some of the visuals to be very striking I couldn’t help but feel like the game had this emptiness to it. None of the bosses felt particularly imposing and the characters were just too stiff. Did enjoy the narration though.

Bramble is FULL of surprises. It starts out as a gorgeous, Pixar-esque “spooky” Gretel and Hansel type of story, but very quickly devolves into a bloody gruesome horror game. And it does this with so much cinematic charisma.

The game is absolutely gorgeous. One of the best looking games I’ve played. It nails both painterly lush landscapes and absolutely chilling horror atmospheres. It has great character designs as well.

The gameplay is a mixture- guided platforming, stealth, walking sim, puzzles, boss battles… it’s constantly evolving and switching the formula, which makes it hard to put down. It reminds me a lot of little nightmares and God of War 3, as you are a small character in a larger world trying to survive.

My only complaint is the ending. The music choice is horrible, and I’m guessing they ran out of funding for a composer… it ends very abruptly and didn’t quite stick the landing for me

Absolutely recommend this - it is one of my favorites this year.