This game is unique if nothing else, for films I could draw comparisons to Midsommar or The Witch but for games this stands pretty much alone and is worth to try just for that. The visual style isn't always the prettiest, the pencil-drawn textures aren't the exciting feature that they were made out to be, but wow can this game look absolutely stunning in certain environments, making these all the more rewarding. The gameplay features some unique twists that you wouldn't expect going into this game for the first time, but ultimately it is the fantastic atmosphere, absolutely beautiful and haunting score and sound design and firm grasp on unsettling imagery and careful tuning of the horror-screws that shine bright in this game.
I ran into a glitch where I had to hold the w key for 30+ minutes to get a hay stacking vehicle to move an inch every 2 minutes. Most games, this would be a dropping off point, but I stuck through it with this one because of how engrossed I was in this creepy, corrupted version of real life Swiss municipality, Mundaun.
This is one of those games where you can talk about this game on a deeper level with pals, but in the moment of playing you're scared as shit that you're gonna die from a bee attack.
This is one of those games where you can talk about this game on a deeper level with pals, but in the moment of playing you're scared as shit that you're gonna die from a bee attack.
Etâ Mundaun bão!
While Mundaun is interesting aesthetically and setting wise, I never found it engaging with the story. I think it's still worth playing through since there's not much else like it, but it didn't really engage me as much as it could have.
The horror is at times quite vivid when the game is in its storytelling mode, but the gameplay is never suitably tense and is, in my opinion, always slower and less eventful than it should be. But, then again, had things been faster paced (in a horror/tension kind of way) and more eventful, the stealth, action, and combat would likely just drag this game down even further than it already does. What is for certain is that the art is, usually, pretty wonderful and I appreciate the Swiss setting and culture as intriguing and unique to horror videogames. I just wish the game was more tightly designed around its horror gameplay rather than the art and plot. Made it about 3/4 the way through, by the looks of things, and decided not to go on when I am pretty sure I encountered a gamebreaking inventory glitch after a crash. This was a horror title I was pretty excited for, so I am above all disappointed.
Pencil based mediums always take a special place with me because I personally found it the only tool I could actually illustrate with. I don't play a lot of horror games these days, but I'll try to set time aside for games that like to dwell on the atmosphere like Mundaun.
The uncommon representation of this Swiss language also lends itself to a novel experience. All the voice acting plays like a flute, endlessly bouncing between the melodies of this language.
The uncommon representation of this Swiss language also lends itself to a novel experience. All the voice acting plays like a flute, endlessly bouncing between the melodies of this language.
Es un poco el Blasphemous de los alpes.
Terror folclórico que trata muy bien la cultura de donde se inspira, el doblaje mismo es en idioma romanche, la estética es muy bonita y bla bla bla.
Pero el gameplay es el tren de la bruja cuidaoooo que viene la bruja y te pega con la escoba.
Los enemigos son aburridisimos y no hacen más que tocar los cojones pero vamos como en casi todos los juegos de terror.
Pues eso que es un juego de terror cutre con una skin chula.
Terror folclórico que trata muy bien la cultura de donde se inspira, el doblaje mismo es en idioma romanche, la estética es muy bonita y bla bla bla.
Pero el gameplay es el tren de la bruja cuidaoooo que viene la bruja y te pega con la escoba.
Los enemigos son aburridisimos y no hacen más que tocar los cojones pero vamos como en casi todos los juegos de terror.
Pues eso que es un juego de terror cutre con una skin chula.
This game's presentation and atmosphear are so sick. I really like the setting and language. like playing one of the dark fairytales I think it must be based on.
Mundaun reiht sich ganz oben ein ins Indie-Jahr 2021. Der Stil ist unvergleichlich und trägt die schaurige Story perfekt, die bis zum Schluss spannend bleibt.
Super rad surrealism horror. Great artstyle, fun story. I really like this.
A beautiful surprise in the steps of Eggers' filmography.
I like a lot of things about Mundaun. Unease permeates most of the journey, only fading away at times when the pastoral beauty simply becomes overwhelming through picturesque views of the mountainside parish. The Swiss folk horror storytelling mixed with good ol' creepy Catholicism and light touches of antique tech gives the game such distinct character, blurring the familiar with the unfamiliar to heighten the feeling of things being a bit off-kilter.
There's a quiet confidence to the slow pacing that I admire. The game lets you explore open environments at your own leisure without worrying about you triggering progress to hit the next plot beat. Curiosity is rewarded with scraps of worldbuilding, items to help you on your quest, or arresting vistas of the mystic alps. It never feels like a waste of time to get off the beaten path.
When you are on the critical path, you find yourself somnambulating through hazy daydreams of hay demons and paper vessels slicing sea and sky, ponderously navigating chiaroscuro nightmares of talking severed goat heads and dark figures casting ominous shadows, and spiraling into vignetted memories of foregone duty and pacts undone in claustrophobic tunnels and caverns as you stare into pictures that stir the past. Oh, and you do simple horror adventure game puzzles like play musical notes on hooked carcasses so that a key oozes out of a hanged man's mouth.
You drive a hay baling truck sometimes. You can tune its radio to any of the stations that play different flavors of traditional church music, operatic ballads, and local talk radio in Romansh, then leave it playing as you wander off. You can also turn on the headlights to serve as a beacon at night. But you can't leave the engine running. You have to turn the key every time you get in to start moving your beloved Muvel. It can go surprisingly fast, but its handling cannot handle any surface outside clearly marked roads at a speed any faster than a crawl. You have to drive it deliberately, somewhat like a normal person in a normal world would, or you risk careening off winding tracks and barreling down steep slopes. It can feel a wee bit silly.
That deliberateness and silliness extend to the rest of the mechanics, in a way that's charming and effective at times and immersion-breaking at others.
When I had to make coffee by filling a pan with water by the fountain a stone's throw away from grandpa's house, returning home to put it on top of a stove, pouring coffee beans into the water-filled pan, placing a log in a compartment and lighting it on fire, waiting to let the coffee boil, then using a cup to collect the coffee, I found the process to be a soothing little ritual.
When I had to weakly poke at lumbering enemies with a pitchfork that broke off one prong with every hit, rendering it useless after three strikes, resulting in two consecutive game over screens for me, I found myself cursing at the intrusion of combat and hard failure states once more. Never have I so quickly turned down the difficulty setting of a video game to easy.
The explicitly game-y stat upgrades and on-screen text like saying you did "bonus damage" for a successful sneak attack feel so out of place and took me out of the reverie whenever I had to contend with them. They're jarring compromises to facilitate survival horror elements that don't add anything to the experience. I don't need the game to be a straight-up, conflict-free, linear walking sim, but the puzzle-solving and exploration were totally enough to keep me engaged on a mechanical level. The tension in the narrative and presentation was all the tension i needed.
While I can't say I was emotionally engrossed in the story and that it was fairly easy to grok the broad strokes, the odd imagery in its set sequences and the small tricks it pulls made for a captivating time. I wanted to see what weird thing it would show me next, and I was satisfied with the ending that fit the genre.
Aside from a couple of minor complaints about the mechanics, I enjoyed Mundaun, with the pencil-drawn visual style, the unsettling mood, and the strange sights as the obvious highlights.
There's a quiet confidence to the slow pacing that I admire. The game lets you explore open environments at your own leisure without worrying about you triggering progress to hit the next plot beat. Curiosity is rewarded with scraps of worldbuilding, items to help you on your quest, or arresting vistas of the mystic alps. It never feels like a waste of time to get off the beaten path.
When you are on the critical path, you find yourself somnambulating through hazy daydreams of hay demons and paper vessels slicing sea and sky, ponderously navigating chiaroscuro nightmares of talking severed goat heads and dark figures casting ominous shadows, and spiraling into vignetted memories of foregone duty and pacts undone in claustrophobic tunnels and caverns as you stare into pictures that stir the past. Oh, and you do simple horror adventure game puzzles like play musical notes on hooked carcasses so that a key oozes out of a hanged man's mouth.
You drive a hay baling truck sometimes. You can tune its radio to any of the stations that play different flavors of traditional church music, operatic ballads, and local talk radio in Romansh, then leave it playing as you wander off. You can also turn on the headlights to serve as a beacon at night. But you can't leave the engine running. You have to turn the key every time you get in to start moving your beloved Muvel. It can go surprisingly fast, but its handling cannot handle any surface outside clearly marked roads at a speed any faster than a crawl. You have to drive it deliberately, somewhat like a normal person in a normal world would, or you risk careening off winding tracks and barreling down steep slopes. It can feel a wee bit silly.
That deliberateness and silliness extend to the rest of the mechanics, in a way that's charming and effective at times and immersion-breaking at others.
When I had to make coffee by filling a pan with water by the fountain a stone's throw away from grandpa's house, returning home to put it on top of a stove, pouring coffee beans into the water-filled pan, placing a log in a compartment and lighting it on fire, waiting to let the coffee boil, then using a cup to collect the coffee, I found the process to be a soothing little ritual.
When I had to weakly poke at lumbering enemies with a pitchfork that broke off one prong with every hit, rendering it useless after three strikes, resulting in two consecutive game over screens for me, I found myself cursing at the intrusion of combat and hard failure states once more. Never have I so quickly turned down the difficulty setting of a video game to easy.
The explicitly game-y stat upgrades and on-screen text like saying you did "bonus damage" for a successful sneak attack feel so out of place and took me out of the reverie whenever I had to contend with them. They're jarring compromises to facilitate survival horror elements that don't add anything to the experience. I don't need the game to be a straight-up, conflict-free, linear walking sim, but the puzzle-solving and exploration were totally enough to keep me engaged on a mechanical level. The tension in the narrative and presentation was all the tension i needed.
While I can't say I was emotionally engrossed in the story and that it was fairly easy to grok the broad strokes, the odd imagery in its set sequences and the small tricks it pulls made for a captivating time. I wanted to see what weird thing it would show me next, and I was satisfied with the ending that fit the genre.
Aside from a couple of minor complaints about the mechanics, I enjoyed Mundaun, with the pencil-drawn visual style, the unsettling mood, and the strange sights as the obvious highlights.
This review contains spoilers
the devil is in the details, literally
It's an audiovisual masterpiece, but below the surface it's all a bunch of untapped potential. The tone is off the charts, but when everything that made me gasp happens outside of its mechanical boundaries, it does leave me wondering if Mundaun is a good game to begin with. I feel it should either be much simpler or more elaborate than it is; as it stands, it all feels very middle-of-road. But again, it does look and sound absolutely incredible!
Mundaun es todo lo que te ofrece cuando te lo venden: es hermoso, bucólico y terrorífico. Es una historia de suspense y terror psicológico que te atrapa desde el minuto uno. Con un arte preciosísimo de carboncillo que le aporta originalidad y protagonismo. La intriga hace que te metas profundamente en el juego y que quieras saber más y más a medida que avanzas. La BSO es magnífica y sabe encajar en cada escenario a la perfección.
El folklore suizo y su mitología también tienen presencia. Al principio puede parecer todo una locura sacada de la retorcida mente del creador, pero conforme avanzas, y si investigas un poco por tu cuenta, descubres que los miedos son «reales».
Mundaun es un juego con encanto e identidad propia, perfecto para pasar unas 6-7 horas de miedo e intriga en los Alpes.
Posdata: ¿Os he dicho que podéis acariciar cabritas?
Reseña completa en https://orgullogamers.com/analisis-de-mundaun/
El folklore suizo y su mitología también tienen presencia. Al principio puede parecer todo una locura sacada de la retorcida mente del creador, pero conforme avanzas, y si investigas un poco por tu cuenta, descubres que los miedos son «reales».
Mundaun es un juego con encanto e identidad propia, perfecto para pasar unas 6-7 horas de miedo e intriga en los Alpes.
Posdata: ¿Os he dicho que podéis acariciar cabritas?
Reseña completa en https://orgullogamers.com/analisis-de-mundaun/
Un juego de horror folk con una historia típica (sin llegar a genérica) sostenida, y de hecho realzada, por una ambientación y estética sobresalientes. No es perfecto, ni mucho lejos, pero muestra un mimo en muchos aspectos que hacen que sea una gran experiencia.
This review contains spoilers
Mundaun left me feeling, more than anything else, underwhelmed. It's a competently made survival horror experience with an interesting art style (I'm choosing that word because I think at times it looks very good and evokes a unique mood, but in the end it never escaped a gimmicky feeling, and, especially in the late game when the game was at its visually darkest, it became pretty muddy and unclear), a pretty engaging folk horror story that feels very much invested in a particular time and a particular place (always a good thing for a story), and a... very barebones sort of stealth-action game kinda welded in the space between those two things.
The gameplay itself is fine. It had its moments. But those moments were more or less sequestered for me in its puzzles — which were definitely more coherent than Resident Evil's "find the three non-key keys for this locked door" and generally intuitive enough that I never felt lost — and not in anything else. Moving through this world felt like a chore, and not in an evocative way. There are very light systemic elements like the Muvel, the sleds and, a bit later, the snowshoes that give it some variety — but it's still just a lot of trudging down long paths from Significant Point A to Significant Point B. And the stealth/combat is just... I'm sorry, it's bad. Specifically I'm thinking about Dia Lacina's axiom from this twitter thread:
https://twitter.com/dialacina/status/1083408387356921856?s=20
That stealth is only as good as what happens when stealth breaks — and when stealth breaks in Mundaun... you either hopelessly jab a pitchfork at thin air or miss five rifle shots in a row before having to reload and getting got by whatever enemy you accidentally made contact with. It manages to be both irritating and boring. And re: the rifle — it's a cool concept, but the fact that only headshots really seem to do anything is a weird piece of realism for a game with talking goat heads and the literal Devil as the main antagonist.
That's all to say that Mundaun never convinced me that it shouldn't have either had no combat options at all — and more clearly-laid out stealth — or no stealth at all, with no fail-states and a more scripted feel like a walking sim. As it is, what it really feels to me is dated. It's inevitable that survival horror games remind me of Silent Hill 2. It might be the most absolute touchstone in any genre of game. The point being, Silent Hill 2 is a 20 year old game. More or less taking its mechanics at this point, when survival horror games like RE7 VR, Devotion, and SOMA exist in the same space just isn't going to grab me. Mundaun had a cool world with some trippy moments and some playful uses of time and space... but those were fewer and farther between than I would have wanted them to be. And everything in between them just felt like a slog.
Maybe that's unfair? Or my expectations were out of whack? I seem to be very alone in these feelings, and I do feel kind of bad dissecting an almost-one-dev indie game like this... but it is what it is. I do want indie games to have enough power and support for projects like this to exist — to take risks and maybe not succeed at everything — because that's what makes a medium healthy. But I don't know if we're there yet.
The gameplay itself is fine. It had its moments. But those moments were more or less sequestered for me in its puzzles — which were definitely more coherent than Resident Evil's "find the three non-key keys for this locked door" and generally intuitive enough that I never felt lost — and not in anything else. Moving through this world felt like a chore, and not in an evocative way. There are very light systemic elements like the Muvel, the sleds and, a bit later, the snowshoes that give it some variety — but it's still just a lot of trudging down long paths from Significant Point A to Significant Point B. And the stealth/combat is just... I'm sorry, it's bad. Specifically I'm thinking about Dia Lacina's axiom from this twitter thread:
https://twitter.com/dialacina/status/1083408387356921856?s=20
That stealth is only as good as what happens when stealth breaks — and when stealth breaks in Mundaun... you either hopelessly jab a pitchfork at thin air or miss five rifle shots in a row before having to reload and getting got by whatever enemy you accidentally made contact with. It manages to be both irritating and boring. And re: the rifle — it's a cool concept, but the fact that only headshots really seem to do anything is a weird piece of realism for a game with talking goat heads and the literal Devil as the main antagonist.
That's all to say that Mundaun never convinced me that it shouldn't have either had no combat options at all — and more clearly-laid out stealth — or no stealth at all, with no fail-states and a more scripted feel like a walking sim. As it is, what it really feels to me is dated. It's inevitable that survival horror games remind me of Silent Hill 2. It might be the most absolute touchstone in any genre of game. The point being, Silent Hill 2 is a 20 year old game. More or less taking its mechanics at this point, when survival horror games like RE7 VR, Devotion, and SOMA exist in the same space just isn't going to grab me. Mundaun had a cool world with some trippy moments and some playful uses of time and space... but those were fewer and farther between than I would have wanted them to be. And everything in between them just felt like a slog.
Maybe that's unfair? Or my expectations were out of whack? I seem to be very alone in these feelings, and I do feel kind of bad dissecting an almost-one-dev indie game like this... but it is what it is. I do want indie games to have enough power and support for projects like this to exist — to take risks and maybe not succeed at everything — because that's what makes a medium healthy. But I don't know if we're there yet.
This is a very neat experience! Genuinely pretty spooky at times, and an interesting story that baffles at times in a positive way! Exploring the environment is great because the art style is unique, and there are little items and interesting places hidden throughout. There is combat in the game, but as the other reviews will say as well, it is quite clunky. It can be fun at times to use the weapons, but mainly, you'll be sneaking around or avoiding enemies, there are more fights in the later half of the game though. It's a slow burn type of game, but it truly picks up a lot in the second half! There are also puzzles to solve throughout, and they are definitely not challenging, but still very clever. This is a solid horror game, and if you were curious at all by looking at it, you should totally pick it up!
Munduan feels as if it is held together by tape and will unravel at any moment. Movement and animations stop and start with sharp twitches and weapons shiver in your hands. The hand-drawn textures wrap around the low-poly world with uncomfortable tension, like crude sketches over cardboard backdrops.
Exploration of the world evokes Highway 17 meets Resident Evil. Instead of a buggy you commandeer a janky old harvester and instead of safe rooms you take refuge in safe houses, welcoming spaces for brewing coffee and tending to your journal. Creatures wander the landscape in a quaint manner, almost like mobs populating 90s platformers (recalling my childhood fear of evading the enemies of Croc 2 or Gex).
Supernatural events take shape in the world in the form of optical illusions, animated shadows and altered reflections, taking a similar approach to the hard artificial limitations of the artwork. The sound design gives texture to every object in your inventory, and the soundscape of the mountains is full of ambient winds and eerie stillness. “Close up sounds” (according to their sound designer) bring to life paintings and photos(?) found in the world, hinting at muffled voices from the past.
Exploration of the world evokes Highway 17 meets Resident Evil. Instead of a buggy you commandeer a janky old harvester and instead of safe rooms you take refuge in safe houses, welcoming spaces for brewing coffee and tending to your journal. Creatures wander the landscape in a quaint manner, almost like mobs populating 90s platformers (recalling my childhood fear of evading the enemies of Croc 2 or Gex).
Supernatural events take shape in the world in the form of optical illusions, animated shadows and altered reflections, taking a similar approach to the hard artificial limitations of the artwork. The sound design gives texture to every object in your inventory, and the soundscape of the mountains is full of ambient winds and eerie stillness. “Close up sounds” (according to their sound designer) bring to life paintings and photos(?) found in the world, hinting at muffled voices from the past.
Ah yes, that parallel reality in which European arthouse director Ingmar Bergman makes a Silent Hill game. Actually, Mundaun feels very much that.
When your protagonist, Curdin, arrives at the eerie, titular town on the mountain, to investigate the death of his grandfather, the strange, Swiss townsfolk indicate an evil force pulling the strings.
As expected, the game’s signature hand-drawn design does wonders for its rural, textural environment, doused with an olde sepia tone to transport the player to a time and a place that only once was. As a result, the jagged animations of the doodled character models give them a superbly uncanny quality reminiscent of old PS2 games (always a plus).
But Mundaun’s strengths go far beyond aesthetics, vital as they may be. The horror-adventure gameplay is exploration-heavy as you solve puzzles and unlock doors to new areas in town, not mention making yourself coffees, collecting hay in a truck and even sledding. The bizarre puzzles - including locating an area through the shadow of the church or hitting slabs of meat in a certain order - are delightful, albeit dismissed by some people as ‘obtuse’ - they’ve probably never played a Siren game in their life! Moreover, the combat is appropriately clunky as you fend off some creepy monstrous foes with a pitchfork and a rifle, and it often makes more sense to run away.
These enemy encounters are undoubtably the most traditionally ‘scary’ moments. Elsewhere, the game focuses on building a sense of dread and unease as you delve further into the sinister goings on, much more akin to the subdued, quiet horror of films like Hour of the Wolf or The Wicker Man than, say, The Lighthouse.
Whilst there are pacing issues, notably due to the nature of uncovering the mystery without any immediate sense of a deadline, the world design and exploration gameplay are enough to rope the player in with every play session, making for an experience that is never truly boring.
The “obtuse” puzzles and gameplay might divide some, but there’s still so much to love in the game’s rich atmosphere and storytelling over a beautiful soundtrack. Simultaneously old-school and refreshing, Mundaun sets a bar that all indie horror titles should strive for.
When your protagonist, Curdin, arrives at the eerie, titular town on the mountain, to investigate the death of his grandfather, the strange, Swiss townsfolk indicate an evil force pulling the strings.
As expected, the game’s signature hand-drawn design does wonders for its rural, textural environment, doused with an olde sepia tone to transport the player to a time and a place that only once was. As a result, the jagged animations of the doodled character models give them a superbly uncanny quality reminiscent of old PS2 games (always a plus).
But Mundaun’s strengths go far beyond aesthetics, vital as they may be. The horror-adventure gameplay is exploration-heavy as you solve puzzles and unlock doors to new areas in town, not mention making yourself coffees, collecting hay in a truck and even sledding. The bizarre puzzles - including locating an area through the shadow of the church or hitting slabs of meat in a certain order - are delightful, albeit dismissed by some people as ‘obtuse’ - they’ve probably never played a Siren game in their life! Moreover, the combat is appropriately clunky as you fend off some creepy monstrous foes with a pitchfork and a rifle, and it often makes more sense to run away.
These enemy encounters are undoubtably the most traditionally ‘scary’ moments. Elsewhere, the game focuses on building a sense of dread and unease as you delve further into the sinister goings on, much more akin to the subdued, quiet horror of films like Hour of the Wolf or The Wicker Man than, say, The Lighthouse.
Whilst there are pacing issues, notably due to the nature of uncovering the mystery without any immediate sense of a deadline, the world design and exploration gameplay are enough to rope the player in with every play session, making for an experience that is never truly boring.
The “obtuse” puzzles and gameplay might divide some, but there’s still so much to love in the game’s rich atmosphere and storytelling over a beautiful soundtrack. Simultaneously old-school and refreshing, Mundaun sets a bar that all indie horror titles should strive for.
Immaculate vibes. The low-poly models combined with hand-drawn textures gives the game a completely unique look I'm not sure I've seen in anything else. Appreciate the mixture of cozy slice-of-life in the day and horrifying Wicker Man stuff at night. Definitely willing to respect a game that pulls from Ingmar Bergman. Some areas and monsters end up feeling a bit bullshit, but this one will stick with me.
A delightfully unnerving folklore-driven adventure thriller. The art style is obviously stupendous, and really helps sell the creepy disjointed subjects of Mundaun. The animations are similarly alarming, keeping you on guard for every interaction. Cool puzzle/world design and well handled UI and management. I wish combat was more satisfying if even it had to be there at all. Not a fan personally of being paralyzed more the closer an enemy gets to you. Otherwise, an excellent one-shot spooky experience perfect to scratch the Resident Evil itch you may be having.
Normal human errands, including, but not limited to: eating, making coffee, driving, petting wildlife, sledding, walking, hiking, playing meat as instruments, going to church, eldritch strawmen, dreaming, quenching the thirst of the talking head of a goat, using the toilet, burning your hand, unlocking doors with a small figure of your grandfather, shooting an old rifle, collecting hay, making a pact with the devil, getting impaled on an icicle, smoking a pipe, drawing, collecting honey, navigating an old bunker by using the sprites of dead soldiers, seeing reflections of ghosts in water, riding the bus, painting, drowning, being paralyzed with fear, getting stung by bees, drunken comrades, abominable snowmen, giving toilet paper to a man stranded in an outhouse, solving tactile puzzles, & staring at yourself in the mirror until your very own vessel of flesh becomes contorted beyond recognition you don't know yourself anymore your quest is all but finished do not let the dark take you listen to the bell of the headless goat follow the sound sign the pact do not sign the pact the soldiers are coming you must hide take shelter do not give up fire when ready, & sleeping!
One of the most unique looking games I've played.
There's this weight on your shoulders the entire playthrough that doesn't go away. Mundaun does a great job of maintaining that unsettling feeling through it's one of a kind pencil drawn artstyle and great sound design.
The actual gameplay and narrative didn't quite grab me enough though, I'd say. I felt like I was often lost in these massive environments and unsure where to go in order to progress.
Loved the vibes but not the game.
There's this weight on your shoulders the entire playthrough that doesn't go away. Mundaun does a great job of maintaining that unsettling feeling through it's one of a kind pencil drawn artstyle and great sound design.
The actual gameplay and narrative didn't quite grab me enough though, I'd say. I felt like I was often lost in these massive environments and unsure where to go in order to progress.
Loved the vibes but not the game.
i love a game with a strong sense of geography, culture and history; a bit of a gameplay balance between friction and stark simplicity; and a compelling art style (in this case, one so befitting that it makes you ask what came first, "the story or the art?" because they're so symbiotic).
it's fitting this was the second last game I played of 2021 (last one before my PS5 and 'NeXt GeN gaming' arrived) because it sort of represents a culmination of every game philosophy I came to admire across the year. like if i could take every game I loved in 2021 and shove them into a ball of meat for lunch, it'd basically just be Mundaun.
it's fitting this was the second last game I played of 2021 (last one before my PS5 and 'NeXt GeN gaming' arrived) because it sort of represents a culmination of every game philosophy I came to admire across the year. like if i could take every game I loved in 2021 and shove them into a ball of meat for lunch, it'd basically just be Mundaun.
The kinda game you sink right into. I absolutely loved it.
There's something meditative about it. You don't feel rushed, or like you're plodding around aimlessly. You can pretty much explore this Swiss village at your leisure. Soaking in the wee cultural touches you've never seen before. Picking up clues to what's happening here and there.
Such a unique look with all hand drawn textures, and that off-white colour palette. Everybody speaking beautiful Romansh. Unsettling imagery paced just right. Man, this would have absolutely been my Backloggd 2021 GOTY if I'd played it last year.
There's something meditative about it. You don't feel rushed, or like you're plodding around aimlessly. You can pretty much explore this Swiss village at your leisure. Soaking in the wee cultural touches you've never seen before. Picking up clues to what's happening here and there.
Such a unique look with all hand drawn textures, and that off-white colour palette. Everybody speaking beautiful Romansh. Unsettling imagery paced just right. Man, this would have absolutely been my Backloggd 2021 GOTY if I'd played it last year.
weird and wonderful if very concerning escape to the rural mountains
I actually don't know why I liked it as much as I did. My guess is because this game feels like a slow melancholic autumn-y drive through pretty county side.
I came to like the overall environment vibe with more houses than there are people, the need to go and fetch some water to make coffee, the weird but surprisingly soothing voice acting and gently screaking doors.
For some reason developers decided to include gameplay features like stealth and critical attacks on unalarmed enemies, notification of which instantly drops you out of immersion but somehow making it more enjoyable in the long run. Maybe it has so little to do with the game that it comes out of another end.
The plot is a pretty simple story of your everyday boy coming back to the village to attend grandpa's funeral. Alas, as it usually happens in small rural villages, your grandpa was cursed and you have to resolve this conflict with evil powers. Considering no one of the characters is really bothered by crooked churches or talking goat heads, I guess this is just a normal Swiss day. And this chill presentation of anything that's happening here is what gets me.
One thing I'd like to change though. I'd like muvel to be a bit slower, so the player could see more of the scenery.
Forgot to mention, I think visual style plays a major role in this game. And it's good. Not marvelous or stunning, but pleasing and relaxing.
I came to like the overall environment vibe with more houses than there are people, the need to go and fetch some water to make coffee, the weird but surprisingly soothing voice acting and gently screaking doors.
For some reason developers decided to include gameplay features like stealth and critical attacks on unalarmed enemies, notification of which instantly drops you out of immersion but somehow making it more enjoyable in the long run. Maybe it has so little to do with the game that it comes out of another end.
The plot is a pretty simple story of your everyday boy coming back to the village to attend grandpa's funeral. Alas, as it usually happens in small rural villages, your grandpa was cursed and you have to resolve this conflict with evil powers. Considering no one of the characters is really bothered by crooked churches or talking goat heads, I guess this is just a normal Swiss day. And this chill presentation of anything that's happening here is what gets me.
One thing I'd like to change though. I'd like muvel to be a bit slower, so the player could see more of the scenery.
Forgot to mention, I think visual style plays a major role in this game. And it's good. Not marvelous or stunning, but pleasing and relaxing.
Mundaun is easily one of the best games I've played in recent years. I love movies just as much as I love games and the way Mundaun manages to be cinematic all the while feeling like the clunky little indie game it is, is kind of astounding. It's testament to how much you can achieve with the right atmosphere created through unique visuals, wonderful sound design and a setting that, even though it's minimalistic, brings to life a very eerie place. The mountain village is a character in itself and the (almost lost) language it's inhabitants speak, give it a dreamlike context. Mundaun is capable of scaring you more than once, not only through occasional jumpscares, but also through moments of solitude and silence. I cannot stress enough how much I loved this game and how masterfully it's built.
Tense and atmospheric from the first moments, Mundaun stands apart from other indies with hand-drawn texture work and classic immersive sim gameplay.