Going into this game, I wasn’t fully sure what to expect, but after playing this short preview demo I am now pretty excited to see more of the game! Bramble: The Mountain King is an upcoming adventure horror title from Dimfrost Studio and Merge Games about a journey through the dangerous world of Bramble in search rescue your sister. Set in a dark world filled with dangers from Nordic fables, this title definitely will catch the attention of Little Nightmares fans.

Gameplay

Players are thrust into a world without context and sent on a journey without any narration or dialogue. Simply watch the beginning scene and let the adventure begin. This time taking place in a 3D space, players will need to follow a fairly obvious pathway made of dirt in the midst of a grassy plane.

At first, this game seems very beautiful and positive before the atmosphere slowly begins to be much darker than the initial aspect of the game would suggest. To progress through the game, players will have to solve puzzles that don’t always look like puzzles, cross platforming challenges, and eventually avoid or evade the dangerous creatures they face.

In the demo, you will spend most of the time in the adventure and platforming sections of the level, but then players will come face-to-face with their first creature encounter; The Näcken. Playing a musical instrument to lure you into their domain leads to an escape the area run across the water and then down a river! This chase is definitely where the beauty in the world is overshadowed by the horror that plagues the land.

This preview did a fairly good job showing off all the different aspects of the game and the different control styles that can be expected for different parts of the full game. While I hope they can make the controls when going down the river a little cleaner, this game has some seriously solid controls in place.

Expectations

I love how much of the Little Nightmares influence I can already see in this game. That said, I hope when we find our sister that we get to do some traversing with her and the game will be able to properly handle an escort escape type of level. There are a lot of ways for the game to play out but with the focus in the lore based on rescuing the sister, I hope to see some high-intensity moments with her tagging along.

There are some controls to work out, such as when the player is floating down the river. It felt like I was gliding in the opposite direction as my controls and I can see that being problematic for some. At first, I thought it might be to symbolize the river pushing back from my movement, but I’m not sure if they were actually aiming for that. At least the main game controls are well done.

Verdict

Bramble: The Mountain King is a surprising little title that I am now excited to see finished! This title turned out to be quite entertaining and the demo left me wanting so much more. I can confidently say that this is a game with potential and isn’t going to be one to miss. In fact, don’t miss your chance to try the demo yourself when it drops on Steam this Halloween. It is planned to release in 2023, so we have some time to learn more about the game before it launches.