Genre
An adventure
Publisher
Merge Games
Developer
Dimfrost Studio
Minimum Requirements
Windows 10 or higher, Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz or AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (1 GB VRAM) or AMD Radeon HD 7850 (2 GB) video memory), 8 GB hard disk
Recommended Requirements
Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz processor, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 graphics card
release date
April 27, 2023
age limit
From 18 years old
Localization
Text
Platforms
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One S | X, Nintendo Switch
Played on PC
Do not go, children, to walk in the forest at night. The thorn will confuse, the thorn will entangle, the thorn will drag you into the thicket. So warns the book that brother and sister Olle and Lillemore read at night. Now Olle stands alone in front of the book, it is night outside the window, the shutters are ajar. Lillemore is nowhere to be seen. What to do? It remains only to go down the sheet from the window down to the clearing – without a sister, it somehow feels uncomfortable. Yes, and all these are fairy tales, who believes in them. Well, parents … What parents? ..
⇡#rabbit hole
Actually, Lillemore has not gone far, and the night forest is no more terrible than the daytime: there are no wild animals to be seen, wide paths are well-trodden, the Moon perfectly illuminates the path through the transparent pine forest. Why not rush to the ruins of the old tower, a favorite place for games. Only this time, the guys suddenly found a wandering light there, with which Olle immediately learned to deftly handle it – illuminate his path and accurately throw it at the target like from a sling. It will be good fun, right? In the meantime, let’s play hide and seek with the gnomes! Oh, what a cute hedgehog they have in the paddock – but why is he as tall as us? ..
How it starts
Bramble quickly blurs the line between myth and reality, but is in no hurry to escalate tension. First, the brother and sister go on an idyllic adventure through the realm of the gnomes: tiny, in huge caps, the gnomes frolic carelessly in their cozy little world, most reminiscent of the Shire. However, we quickly realize that this is the Shire, which has already been touched by the Pale Hand, and it is not without reason that the dwarves play hide and seek so well.
But Lillemor does not really know how to play hide and seek – and in the blink of an eye he finds himself in a bag of a huge troll. Little Olla has no choice but to go in search of his sister, especially since the light shows the way. And he begins his descent into Hell. More specifically, the Mountain King.
How goes on
Already at this moment, the harmony of the narrative is somewhat lost: Olle’s path lies through the forest of trolls, Nekki’s pond, the swamp of witches – the guy will have to see a lot. But one adventure does not follow from another. It’s just a collection of scary stories, connected to each other either very conditionally, or not at all. We are in an anthology of terrible tales of the European North. The ultimate goal from Grieg’s overture seems to be outlined, but the plot movement is not substantiated by the authors in any way. There are even “magic helpers” here, but their appearance is not played up in any way – where they came from, who they are at all – the game developers do not bother explaining such nuances.
This is perhaps the main drawback of Bramble – the product frankly lacks integrity. We know the motivation and goal of the hero and even go through trials with him, look for ourselves and lose … Basically we lose, because the injuries in Olle’s journey are greater than the growth. It’s really Very dark tale, I warn you. But still, it seems to be a fairy tale, there is a basic frame. However, inside this frame, everything blurs and crumbles somewhat. It’s hard to identify with a character who seems to be on a bad trip rather than moving through a logically written story.
Do not go, children, to walk in the forest at night – the general morality is revealed in the first two minutes of the game
And since we are talking about the shortcomings, we will talk about the gameplay. No, I can’t call it all one continuous flaw – it would be stupid and then there would be no point in talking about Bramble at all. No, the gameplay here is quite tolerable, combining simple platforming, exploration of the world (there are even some collectibles), rather primitive stealth, puzzles that require minimal mental effort … and fights with bosses. Yes, at the beginning we learn to throw a light for a reason. And these are perhaps the most successful elements in terms of gameplay, tense and in a good way psychedelic moments. But again, slightly falling out of the general outline.
The only problem is that Olle is animated rather clumsily – and the same platforming sometimes delivers more pain than the authors intended. As well as a few, but very dreary battles. However, at some point, the slowness and awkwardness of the boy even begins to please, yet the main character of Bramble is a child. Why would he move like a witcher, right? But the fact is the fact – some gameplay components can only be endured. And even the good parts look like they were made at the end, after the whole adventure was conceived. “Oh yeah, it’s a video game, there should be gameplay.” For story-oriented works, the situation is not that rare – you can be glad that at least some mechanics are present at all, except for “come and see”, but still you can’t call the gameplay any exciting.
⇡#Bouquet
Those who have read up to this point are probably wondering why we write about such rubbish at all, especially since it slipped past the mass gaze. It’s simple – Bramble: The Mountain King is a truly outstanding work from an artistic and emotional point of view.
Yes, you can swim on a hedgehog here!
This game is a collection of small scary stories in the style of a Czech film «Bouquet», but in this case united by a common outline and the main character. And each individual story, though not told in an outstanding way, is shown in an outstanding way. Each individual episode is distinguished by its special atmosphere, the antagonists (which sometimes turn out to be something abstract, like the forces of nature) are written out powerfully, and with each subsequent act, the oppressive mood only intensifies. What at first was perceived as a scary (to some extent) fairy tale at worst, turns into a real horror. In some places even with screamers, but this is far from the point – the effect of that very descent of the protagonist into Hell (a kind of interpretation of the myth of Orpheus) is achieved primarily by the atmosphere.
Olle almost drowns in the guts scattered across the terrible flayer. It saves the dwarfs, touchingly squeaking with baby voices – but only so that some of them end their short life in traps, and the other … okay, let’s not talk about it. Falls into the swamp to the crazy Nekki, who lures pure souls with his diabolic flute. Sneaks through caves filled with sobs. He removes the key from the dead man’s stiff hand, moving his fingers one at a time. Engages in battle with a forest nymph, whose behavior is more reminiscent of Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo. And in this journey through horror and darkness, he commits (or, conversely, does not commit) acts in which he will have to repent in the future.
Here, not only beautiful landscapes in themselves, but also very skillful “camera work” – with appropriate (and resource-saving) shallow depth of field and sometimes breathtaking camera angles
But even an excellently written atmosphere, coupled with wonderful music that combines folklore motifs and oppressive ambient, would not be enough reason to get to know Bramble, if the game were not also visually stunning. Yes, the animations are sometimes a little clumsy, but the environment is incredibly beautifully drawn and, despite the obviously limited budget, manages to create a feeling of a living world: some small spirits are bustling about in the grass, the sun is bewitchingly playing with rays on the foliage, and wow, that mountain turns slowly in your direction to look at the little boy with unblinking glowing eyes. We are accustomed to the fact that even the most visually polished representatives of the indie scene look “poor but tasteful.” Here, too, one senses great taste, but one no longer wants to make allowances for poverty. Bramble: The Mountain King is a really strong visual experience.
***
The game is devoid of any variability, cannot attract with a particularly interesting gameplay and does not care too much about the harmony of the plot dynamics, but it is beautiful precisely as a collection of creepy Scandinavian fairy tales. These are stories that kids could tell each other at night under the covers, but with a degree of cruelty and ruthlessness twisted to the limit, including to the listener. Sometimes manipulative, sometimes incoherent, this work still has the powerful power of folklore, not cleared by Christian puritanism from the “unacceptable”. This is precisely the realm of the unacceptable – but at the same time bewitching.
Advantages:
excellent visual and sound range; high emotional intensity (including, however, due to an increased degree of cruelty); strong folklore basis; you can ride a hedgehog.
Flaws:
rather conditional gameplay; imperfect animation of the main character and minor control problems; the general plot outline can be traced with difficulty; will have to bathe in the guts.
Graphics
In dynamics, the game looks better than on the screenshots, giving out a really impressive picture, and of very different properties – from an almost monochrome plague village to idyllic natural spaces.
Sound
A spectacular combination of folklore motifs and gloomy ambient is powerfully finalized by a variation on the theme “In the cave of the mountain king”. The characters are not voiced, the narrator speaks for them.
Single player game
An adventure in a fantasy world with elements of platforming, stealth and simulated boss battles. First of all, this is a journey, the gameplay here is relatively conditional (although sometimes it can challenge).
Collective game
Not provided.
Estimated travel time
5-6 hours.
General impression
More a collection of scary tales under a common heading than a whole story – but each tale individually can be very impressive.
Rating: 7.5/10
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