Imagine “Little Nightmares”...Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

Okay, I’m being a bit mean to the devs of “Bramble”, but the source of inspiration for this fixed camera, narrative driven, 2.5D horror puzzle-platformer starring an adolescent protagonist is obvious. It’s not bad per se, but I don’t feel like the game does enough to differentiate itself other than putting on a different coat, this time swaying into the direction of Germanic fairy tales and taking full advantage of how gruesome they were.

The controls aren’t as tight as I’d like them to be and the fact that there are some perspective issues making it hard to calculate where Ulle is going to jump doesn’t help either. There are very few puzzles that will make you actually stop and think about what you need to do next, with the ‘alchemy’ sections the most obvious example of “we kinda needed a puzzle here, but couldn’t come up with one”. There are a few tense moments, mostly towards the end of the game, where you need to use your environment to escape a horde of enemies and in general they’re well directed, but it doesn’t change the fact that for long bouts of the story you’re just walking forward with not much to do other than appreciate the art design.

The visual side is definitely the highlight here. The haunted forest is beautifully realized, with lots of detail and a colorful palette that brings this place to life. It’s an even greater shame, then, that there is so little opportunity for exploration. This is an on-rails experience and an unforgiving one at that. The character models are subpar and animations rather stiff. I did enjoy the boss fights, though - most of them are the definite highlights in the visual department.