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A unique survival horror game for the Wii that barely misses the mark.

Cursed Mountain is a mixed bag of a horror survival title on the Wii. On one hand, I love the setting, the background of the horror elements, and the overall atmosphere that the game delivers so well. On the other, playing the game feels like an honest to god chore, and the pacing is far too slow to keep me engaged and entertained throughout the course of the story. It's a pitfall that other horror titles have fallen into numerous times, and while I'd probably suggest horror fans to at least try out the game, I'm not entirely sure I'd plop down the full price they're asking for this new release.

The game revolves around two world renowned climbers, brothers by the name of Frank and Eric Simmons. Frank takes up the task to climb Chomolonzo in search of a something for a man named Bennett, but he eventually goes missing during the climb. You take on the role of Eric, and you'll start off in the city Lhando, which resides at the base of the large mountain. The first thing you'll notice is that this place is pretty deserted, there's nobody on the street, and there's no activity inside the few houses you're allowed inside of. There are remnants of some society around the city, mostly in the form of decomposing food, and the occasional body, just enough to signify that something awful has gone down. As you advance in the story you start to learn about a few things involving the mountain, a curse, and exactly what your brother was searching for to begin with. The story is actually pretty well told here, and while the game does rely on you to read up on the journals and other bits of paper you'll find scattered about, it's interesting enough to keep you involved, even in text form. The cut scenes are a little on the cheap side though, mostly with spoken dialogue and still scenes that switch around, which takes away from the scare factor the game is going for.

The gameplay takes the camera behind the player, using a third person view that similar to most modern horror titles, but drawn a bit more than something like Resident Evil 5 or Silent Hill Homecoming. It reminds me a little of earlier Silent Hill titles, and I suppose part of that is due to the lack of HD visuals. However, the setting really reminds me of D2, which wasn't particularly popular or fun to play, but was another game that nailed that snowy outdoor setting that this game incorporates. The action is plodding, your character doesn't move particularly quick, even when you've engaged the run function. The camera does track you fairly well though, I never had an instance where it went off the rails or obscured my vision. Combat isn't too involved, but can get difficult with multiple ghosts/monsters about. You have a couple options in combat, one which is just a melee attack with your current weapon or pick axe, while the other is a ranged magic ability using the third eye that Eric unlocks early on. To completely destroy a ghost, you'll want to make use of that ability, which has you holding down a button the nunchuk to see the symbol that's present on the ghost, and you can exorcise that by a series of movements with the Wii remote and nunchuk to fully destroy them, and gain back a bit of health. Alternatively, you can just beat them to death, but combat that's up close in this title isn't really ideal, and it's a good way to get hit or ganged up in a fight with multiple spirits.

Really, my biggest issue with the game comes from the pacing, and while I agree that slowing things down compared to a typical action title isn't a bad idea at all, at the same time I think that you need to spice it up a little bit instead of just having a player run from spot A to spot B over the course of five minutes or so, with nothing to do in between. You'll have the occasional enemy encounter, which are almost always choreographed with you picking up an item or entering a door, but the game world just seems really bland to explore. There are plenty of buildings around you, but very few are marked for entry, and it's hard to tell which building you can enter and which one you can't until you're right on top of the door and see the open prompt show up on screen. That makes what little need for exploration that's present absolutely annoying, and just serves to slow down the game even more. I love the setting and atmosphere, but I just about loathe actually playing the game. It's a shame that both sides aren't balanced out, or else Wii owners could have had a pretty special experience on their system of choice here.

Still, as a fan of the genre, I think players should check this one out, at least as a rental. I'm not convinced that it's worth that $50 price tag, but at the same time I think it's an interesting entry, and it does manage to get some things very right. So give this one a go yourself, but if you're dead set on buying it, I would suggest waiting a bit for a price drop or two before taking the final plunge.