For a while now, I’ve been obsessed with fairy tales. Not the lighthearted Disney versions for the whole family, but the original, darker fairy tales. And yes, I’m aware that those were also technically written for children, but let’s be honest, more than one child has been traumatized by them. Developer Dimfrost Studio seems to be well aware of the appeal these darker fairy tales have, and have turned nordic fables into the grim adventure game Bramble: The Mountain King, published by Merge Games.
They have absolutely nailed the vibe of a dark fairy tale, and that’s more difficult than it sounds. Because dark fairy tales are stories of contrasts. They’re children’s stories that are inappropriate for children, they tend to tell big stories in few words, they have to feel enchanting yet sinister. Bramble: The Mountain King manages to be all of that and more.
Bramble: The Mountain King starts with a young boy, Olle, waking up in his bedroom with his big sister, Lillemor, gone. He’s a timid little lad, scared without his sister. She seems to have gone into the forest, so he follows her. At first it all seems so beautiful, sunrays falling onto the mossy ground through the luscious foliage above, little gnomes and animal friends that help you on your little quest, and a magical ball of light that guides you towards your destination. You even manage to reunite with your sister sooner than you could’ve ever imagined.
But as the night draws closer, and the darkness encrouches, the forest becomes a much more dangerous place. And before you know it, Lillemor is snatched away. Olle, once again all alone, knows this is his time to step up, and so he follows the magical light, trusting it to guide him to save his big sister. What starts as a whimsical journey becomes more and more grim as he ventures deeper into the forest, resulting in what I’d consider, at least in parts, a horror story.
The classic enchanted forest has to be one of my favourite settings in fiction, and Bramble: The Mountain King realizes it stunningly. It’s not just the forest though, every location in the game looks incredible. I can’t count how many times I have come across a new landscape and just stood there in awe for a couple of seconds admiring the view. It might not be the game with the highest graphic fidelity ever, but its art direction makes more than up for it.
Bramble: The Mountain King goes for something close to realism, but still stylized enough that it doesn’t have to worry about entering uncanny valley territory. It uses colour to tremendous effect, really going for some bold colours and clearly defined colour palettes for each area. In some cases, that means taking away the colours as well, the effect of which is only highlighted by the stunning use of them in the rest of the game. The camera in Bramble: The Mountain King is fixed, and it’s positioned perfectly at all times to create beautiful compositions and show exactly as much as it needs to. There are some cinematic techniques it uses as well. Such as a rather shallow focus that you’d get from a micro lens, emphasizing how much smaller you are than the environment. It also plays around with digital grain quite a bit to create interesting effects.
But beyond anything else, the lighting is what really makes these environments shine… no pun intended. You won’t find ray tracing or anything like it, but that’s not needed either. Because the camera is fixed, the lighting is fixed as well. And just as the camera is positioned perfectly wherever you go, so is the lighting. The individual sunrays in the forest, a single lamp post in the darkness, shadows painted onto the walls. And this all makes sense, of course, since light is an important aspect of Bramble: The Mountain King, after all. There’s the light that guides you on a story level, for example. But there’s also the gameplay, which is tied to light in its own way as well.
As I mentioned earlier, you come across this ball of light quite early on. It has many abilities, and can take on many forms, as Olle needs them. But with a literal ball of light being your primary, and basically only, item in the game, many of its puzzles naturally revolve around light as well. Now let me say right away, if you’ve played this kind of game before, Bramble: The Mountain King won’t exactly surprise you with any of its puzzles. You will have seen them before, they’re simple, and they get the job done. You have to send a light pulse towards magical barriers to get past them, you have to hide in bushes from enemies 10 times your size (probably much more than that actually), you have to move a cart to jump on it and get to a higher ground etc.
BUT, they’re primarily designed to get you to engage with the world around you more, and really take in what you’re surrounded by. Before you can pass the gate, you have to play hide-in-seek with the gnomes that inhabit the little forest town. If you want to cross the river, you have to carefully rummage through all the nearby abandoned houses, finding a plethora of items from the people who used to live there before you get access to a boat. And you don’t just pick up the key you need from a random table, you have to take it from the cold grips of a dead woman, forcing you to face what was done to her after she was labelled a witch.
And exploration is certainly rewarded. Scattered around the world are books that tell the classic fable that the game is inspired by. This is a neat little addition for someone like me who is really interested in that kind of stuff. Because let’s face it, Bramble: The Mountain King isn’t retelling Hansel and Gretel, or Cinderella, or any other famous fairy tale. Many of the tales retold here will be unknown to the vast majority of players, so lending a helping hand and teaching the player about some of them is a nice bonus.
Bramble: The Mountain King is at once a small, intimate story, as well as a big story of almost mythical proportions. On one hand, it’s a story about two siblings that can’t live without each other, about a little boy who has to find his courage and take independent action, but it’s also about accepting the consequences of those actions. Beyond just that, though, it’s the story of a fallen kingdom and its inhabitants, most importantly its king, the titular Mountain King. Many of the creatures you will face were once simple townsfolk, but through one misfortune or another, were turned into the dark creatures they’re now. And so, as you face them one by one, a larger picture of a kingdom pulled into darkness becomes apparent, while never losing track of the personal journey the young boy goes through to reconnect with his sister.
Bramble: The Mountain King creates a world that’s so compelling that I didn’t want to leave it. The relationship between the two siblings is just as real as the threats that come your way, and, as such, you feel the same need to move towards your goal as Olle does, despite how scared he, and you, might be.
Nairon played Bramble: The Mountain King on PC with a review key. Bramble: The Mountain King is also available on Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch.
