I’m always dying to get stuck into the latest within the horror genre, and while Bramble: The Mountain King isn’t going to be in any top ten scariest video game lists it will undoubtedly stay with you for a long while afterward. A tense and twisted fairytale adventure dripping in Nordic mythology, Dimfrost Studios has crafted something genuinely impeccable that left me overjoyed and speechless by the end of it. Published by Merge Games with an attractive £25 price tag slapped on, Bramble: The Mountain King is a must-play game in 2023. If you’re a fan of games like Limbo, Inside, or Little Nightmares then this game might be right up your street. Very simple in its gameplay yet with the ability to captivate this game truly came out of nowhere and left a great big smile on my face. It will definitely be going on my list of games that I never shut up about and nag everyone to play.

The atmosphere is amazing in Bramble: The Mountain King

Watch Your Step

What starts out as a deceptively charming and cute adventure, running around playing hide and seek with the friendly gnomes in the woods very quickly takes a dramatic, twisted turn as you begin to see that this place isn’t as peaceful as first thought. You take on the role of Olle who is on a dangerous quest to find his sister Lillemor who has been kidnapped. A twisted fairytale revolving around adult themes such as suicide isn’t to be expected after such an innocent introduction. After you find yourself comfortable the game will quickly rip that comfort away from you and make you feel vulnerable and exposed as it completely switches gears in a matter of seconds. Players need to take on all kinds of different creatures and obstacles that can result in some pretty gruesome deaths should any mistakes be made and you do it all from a fixed camera perspective. While this isn’t one of my favorite camera perspectives (first-person Resident Evil over fixed-camera Resident Evil) it works so very well here, serving to add tension to situations and actually helping to guide the player in others while shifting focus to properly frame a beautiful landscape as you travel through it.

Accompanying the many gorgeous pieces of scenery is an equally beautiful and fitting soundtrack that acts as icing on a perfect cake. There is no dialogue between characters, however, nor are there any text boxes full of dialogue to read either, instead replaced by cute little grunts and groans by characters which honestly was fine. The animations and emotions do a stellar job on their own of portraying how a character is feeling at any particular moment. You do have a narrator who accompanies the journey and manages to strike a nice balance where they don’t talk excessively but are there where it counts and the voice acting for the narrator is very well done, especially when you find the collectible storybooks throughout the game. These are a particularly nice find and it was always a treat to flick through the pages and listen to the narrator tell a story.

All of this comes together to form a fantastic atmosphere and creates some tense moments. An original game soundtrack (By Dan Wakefield and Martin Wave) lends itself nicely as it feels completely tailored to each scenario. Big heavy hitting and chaotic tracks during heart-pounding moments like being chased by the undead all the way to calm and peaceful tunes when befriending the local gnomes. Everything that Dimfrost Studios have designed from the world, the characters, and the music all just molds together brilliantly creating some truly incredible moments.

The boss encounters are truly special and memorable

Gruesome Encounters

As you journey through Bramble you will have to solve puzzles in order to progress. These are never very taxing or thought-provoking which is nice as it keeps the game flowing preventing you from losing the magic and getting stuck in one area, frustrated because you’re struggling to solve something. It does have a very trial-and-error approach to its gameplay though, which can break the pacing up if you find yourself stuck in one area trying different things to progress. Thankfully this occurrence is a rarity and mostly happened on my part due to not looking at something that was clear enough to see anyway. Speaking of, the game is wonderfully paced and takes you across various different biomes, never outstaying their welcome which helped to keep it fresh and engaging. You usually enter a new area after a boss encounter and while these bosses aren’t hard per se, they can take a little bit of that previously mentioned trial-and-error gameplay approach to defeat. The way you stumble upon the bosses and their introductions is amazing and overall makes for some quite memorable encounters.

I’ll keep beating this drum but once again, the soundtrack that accompanies these boss encounters is spectacular. It really adds to the tension in these moments and makes for a very cinematic feel, especially in the moments leading up to or when being chased by a larger enemy. Without entering spoiler territory, my only issue with these encounters is with the trial-and-error aspect as one encounter, in particular, had me shocked, surprised, and overjoyed, that was until I suffered gruesome demise after gruesome demise which only tore down the effectiveness of the bout. Thankfully I only experienced this during one of my encounters and impressed by what I was playing it didn’t so much ruin the moment as it did just dampen my mood slightly but came away afterward still feeling awesome.

Bramble: The Mountain King contains strong, adult themes

A Grim Quest

(Mild spoilers)

Every now and then a game does something that just sticks with me for a while. I remember feeling safe in The Last of Us at the upgrade tables until they pull that nasty bait and switch or carving off a lady’s face in Martha Is Dead. Bramble: The Mountain King has some very memorable parts undoubtedly with one in particular leaving me feeling kind of shocked and speechless. At one point we encounter Skogsraet, a boss on our journey and right at the end of the fight when you are winning you have to jump on top of her as she lies injured on the floor and met with a prompt to press X which will make Olle aggressively stab the boss in the face with his sword. Only I pressed X, then the prompt appears again, and again, and again and then it hit me, the prompts were only continuing to appear because I continued to press them and the moment I stopped, the fight was over. The boss clearly already died after the first couple of stabs but I sat there and continued to press X another 20 or so times each time blood pouring and spurting across the screen and dousing Olle until his face was dripping red. I then realized upon finishing the game and checking the achievements list that there is one achievement tied to stabbing her 100 times.

I wanted to mention this moment because it left such a mark on me and the game has a few moments like this, where I’m just left completely stunned (in a good way) for a second. By that, I mean moments that left me speechless or overjoyed and not just over-the-top senseless moments of violence. This is part of why I think Bramble: The Mountain King has left such a good impression on me because it had me enthralled throughout my time with it.

One of the many incredibly fun and tense moments

Final Thoughts

Bramble: The Mountain King is an incredibly special game that everyone who has an itching for horror should experience. I’d even encourage non-horror fans to give this one a look, you could be pleasantly surprised as it isn’t survival horror in nature and more just gory and grim with adult themes. With a length of around five or six hours, it’s a very generous package at the £25 price point and I adored this so much I would have happily paid double for it and still have been just as pleased with my purchase.

Overall this game is worth your time, and then some. It’s got an amazing atmosphere backed by a brilliant soundtrack and just an all-around great time that doesn’t overstay its welcome. I’ve tried to avoid all or most story-related parts so as to not ruin anyone else’s experience. My only gripe is the previously mentioned trial-and-error nature of gameplay in places which honestly boils down to more of a nitpick as it’s kind of cool watching my character getting caught in a bear trap and snapped into pieces from screwing up, or impaled on a giant knife among other things. I’m having a hard time trying to nail down anything I disliked about this game.

Bramble: The Mountain King is phenomenal and deserves your time and money, so much so I’d have to give it a perfect score. Kudos to the team at Dimfrost Studios for an outstanding experience.