When it comes to inspirational figures within the genre of horror, few can compete with the staying power and influence that H.P Lovecraft has achieved. He’s not the most inspiring and likable figure, mind you, but his work has fueled many a mania-infused horror game.
However, while many games have produced fun ideas, and interesting moments utilizing Lovecraftian themes, few games have truly managed to capture the essence of his work and bring it to the video game scene.
Games like Dredge, Bloodborne, and Darkest Dungeon are the exceptions to the rule, and The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu aims to join that exclusive club. Doing so with a rather unique proposition. A Lovecraftian horror extraction shooter.
Alongside three friends, you can descend into the deep jungle and descend into madness, all in search of the most lucrative treasure imaginable that awaits you at The Mound. However, is this game a multiplayer treasure, or just a cruel optical illusion?
Welcome To The Jungle
Always nice to kick off with a Guns and Roses lyric. Only, in this game, you can expect less ‘fun and games’ and instead, expect occult trickery and certain peril. But, ‘if you got the money, honey’. You just might make it out alive and get your haul back to the ship.
To fill you in, The Mound is an extraction shooter, but unlike any other that you have likely played. Mainly because the extraction gameplay loop plays second fiddle to the mind-melting horror that unfolds with every new expedition. Gathering items is the easy part, it’s getting out alive that proves such a difficult task.
The game is built on a foundation of emergent multiplayer systems hellbent on driving the player insane. Whether that be through creating illusions, increasing your madness to invoke more hostility from the jungle, or even turning your own friends into foes.
I have to say, these aspects of the game are what make this a potentially worthwhile multiplayer outing, as the opportunity for standout moments among peers from run-to-run is commendable.
In just a few sessions, I had been deceived into opening cursed chests; solid ground had given way beneath me, dropping me into a spike pit. I had hacked away at a monster, only for it to end up being my ally, and I watched myself be corrupted by the island’s curse, helpless as my possessed body killed the remaining party.
I’ll go on record and say that there has never been a sanity system in a video game that I feel truly hit the nail on the head. Something that I still believe even after witnessing what The Mound has to offer. But, I will say that it uses this multiplayer format to its benefit, and gets a lot right. The issue is that it probably gets as much right as it does wrong when it comes to sanity.
Critically, the system is too obtuse for its own good at times, and in my personal experience, too unbalanced and harsh. It’s jarring how quickly you can go from a manageable, albeit forest setting to a disorientating red haze flooding the screen, assets turning invisible, and enemies coming in their droves.
This harshness would be somewhat tolerable if there was consistent ways to manage your mania and avoid this build-up. But, the reality is that there aren’t enough clear-cut ways to regain sanity, the map’s timer that ups the ante/difficulty moves too fast, and that’s even more of an issue if you’re trying to appease the game and keeping things quiet and low-key.
But above all, especially in solo mode, it’s damn near impossible to avoid falling into the trap of becoming isolated. As the friendly AI in this game is wonky to say the least.
The Ox cart has a mind of its own, often sauntering off away from you, doubling back on itself to make the tracks it leaves on the ground useless, and any NPC companions the game provides for you often get bogged down chopping branches, collecting firewood, or just getting lost. Effectively leaving you for dead.
In short, the madness system offers standout moments, but it’s lofty peaks and deep valleys. Making it just like all madness systems that have come before. An ambitious idea that never quite reaches its true potential.
See Evil, Hear Evil
While the madness system leaves a lot to be desired, the overall presentation largely delivers in The Mound, boasting gorgeous visuals, and intentionally harsh lighting to create that fear of the dark any good horror game needs.
The lush vegetation of the jungle is eye-catching, the rolling tides of the coastal areas are pristine, and the more cursed and corrupt later areas are a more ‘on-the-nose’ unsettling that ups the ante appropriately.
However, in terms of presentation, it’s the sound design that steals the show, as this game employs the use of Spacial sound and proximity chat to make for a more immersive and nightmare-inducing feel.
Even taking your pals out of the equation, the sound design as you explore every map is sure to make the most level-headed horror fan paranoid as all hell. With gut-wrenching screams of corrupted enemies and monsters, to the rustling of leaves, and unexplained bumps in the night that make you swear you’re seconds away from a claw in the back, or a tentacle down your throat.
But, again. Every time you want to be positive about this game, it gets in its own way. As the animations in this game are laughable at times, with the Ox Cart floating in midair when you try to access it on a hill, or when you get attacked, only for that animation to conclude and you get turned around, leaving you open to another attack.
It’s a visual and auditory showcase at its best, but there’s a certain level of jank that often detracts from what could be an immersive, bone-chilling experience. A shame really, because these aspects are probably the best the game has to offer in truth.
Extracted All The Substance
This is where things take a turn, because I’m about to run out of semi-positive things I can say about The Mound. The moment the word ‘extraction’ crossed my desk, I knew that the game was going to one that bit its nose to spite its face. So it proved to be, as the extraction aspect of this game is about as boring and basic as can be.
To keep things as succinct as possible, as it’s quite a rap sheet, the variety of items you’ll hunt for is few, the buzz of finding an item of note is completely absent, the environments you explore are so indistinct with very little RNG or procedural generation at play, making every run feel cookie-cutter, and the AI, be it friend or foe, borders on brain-dead.
The only saving grace, really, is the combat. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to survival horror FPS. But it’s implemented well, with tense close-quarters melee encounters, intentionally awkward gunplay, a setup that rewards headshot accuracy, and even offers a variety of passive options to allow players to keep a low profile.
However, I’m less interested and irritated by what the game does do, and more aggrieved by what it doesn’t do. It’s baffling to me how a game like this, having seen what’s out there in the multiplayer horror space, and indeed, the extraction shooter space can offer such a threadbare experience.
As mentioned, the gunplay, the madness systems, and the visuals. They all have their moments. But it’s clear that the developers have expected these aspects of the game to carry the load, and they flatter to deceive. Which only serves to highlight the lack of a proper story beyond sporadic audio files, the lack of distinct character abilities, or dedicated roles. Even the ship that serves as a hub throughout the entire game feels devoid of life.
This game had the potential to be a Lovecraftian Left 4 Dead. It had the attention of a ‘The Forest’ fan like myself, hoping for another survival horror outing that felt wholly unique. But, in the end, it just feels like a bunch of half-baked ideas, a game that I would generously label as ‘high production value friendslop’ as much as I loathe the term, and above all, a real letdown across the board.
The Mound: Omen Of Cthulhu has the bones of a Lovecraftian nightmare worth enduring. But sadly, when examined closely, there's very little meat on those bones. Some sanity system mechanics create memorable multiplayer moments, but due to a lack of substance, half-baked mechanics, and the fact that it inexplicably sets out its stall as an extraction game, The Mound: Omen Of Cthulhu will go down as a great idea executed haphazardly.
The Good
- Interesting Madness Mechanics
- Great Spacial Audio
- Crisp visuals
The Bad
- Basic extraction format
- Repetitive and dull expeditions
- Janky animations & occasional crashes
