I love video games, though I will be among the first to admit that I am not very good at them. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize when something is incredible, and that’s what I felt when Nacon hosted a hands-on preview session with “The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu” in late May.
Co-op horror isn’t necessarily new, and as a result, there are particular tropes we have seen being reinvented over and over again. However, where I am typically used to traps or even hostile enemies, I’ve never played a co-op game where I was afraid of what I might hallucinate or what my teammates might see when they look at me. The setting within “The Mound” is essentially a character in and of itself, notifying the darkness around it of the strangers roaming through and helping create a deep sense of loneliness and being watched all at the same time.
To really get a sense of what developer ACE Team was creating, I was invited to a rather intimate Discord server to play the game with several other journalists in the wide world of video games, where I was placed in a group hosted by founder and designer Andrés Bordeu.
Madness Turns Every Mission Into a Test of Trust
At first glance, the gameplay for “The Mound: Omens of Chtulhu” seems like a mission-based multiplayer game, where you and up to three other players choose your loadout before diving into an unforgiving jungle to retrieve equipment, treasures, and more. However, there is far more going on under the surface that will take a few plays to really grasp.
My team went through about three missions, forcing us to face unlikely enemies and strange events that helped define the worldscapes H.P. Lovecraft created. Things seemed easy enough: follow an ox cart through the world as you pick up relics and artifacts that can be brought back to the ship and appraised. When either you or the jungle has decided you’re finished, then it’s time to leg it back and make sure your crew stays alive while also defending both them and yourself from the forces of… whatever.
The hour and a half of playtime gave me a clear understanding of what the objectives are and how to be a good member of my team, but I’ll admit to feeling a bit confused throughout. Bordeau would lead the crew through various missions, explaining how each map was developed and how a progression system can be shared, not limited to the host of a co-op session.
Despite the actual loop being relatively simple (follow the cart, get an item or person, run back, and earn rewards), the randomness of what could happen was pretty exciting. Considering the concept of madness, the longer you are out hunting for items with your crew, the longer you are being subjected to the mind melds that the jungle and the entities within it are, the more unsure you are of whether the dangers you see are real or made to trick you into taking your team down.
What do I mean by that? There was a point in one of the sessions where I had quite literally assumed I had somehow wandered away from my group. I couldn’t hear or see them anymore. But, from the corner of my eye, I saw something I didn’t recognize and immediately lunged at it. It wasn’t long before my teammates’ voices came back through and I realized that I had attacked my own group. When I got back, I could hear some of my teammates going through their own madness, trying to communicate with the rest of us to differentiate what’s real and what’s fake.
Confusion Sometimes Gets In the Way of the Horror
Personally, the only thing that I wasn’t very sold on was actually the means by which you are expected to attack enemies or protect yourself. During the three sessions that were played, there were instances where it was unclear if the expectation was to attack the enemies or book it to safety.
As I had explained before, because there would be instances where teammates would experience different hallucinations or events, it became difficult to understand what the proper next steps should be. It was also difficult to determine if whatever your choice was was having an actual effect. I think what made me the most frustrated was in death.
Sure, dying in a game when others are relying on you can feel pretty bad, but, more often than not, I found myself unsure of what it is that I was supposed to do about it. Will I be resurrected? Am I supposed to keep following everyone? Am I actually dead? Wait, am I alive now?
While this definitely made for an interesting conversation on the mic, I felt that it also added to the confusion of what we are supposed to be doing beyond the base loop of finding relics and bringing them back. That might very well be a feature of the game, though Bordeau made a point to say that the future of the game is still being shaped by player feedback.
That being said, my personal feedback was that the visual presentation was excellent. While I think it is easy to create a concept like this, putting it on paper in a visual representation isn’t. ACE Team did a phenomenal job with this, ensuring that something as mundane as a jungle could still feel powerful and terrifying through the usage of breaking branches, restricted movement through denser areas, and even the sounds of far-off animals that are likely not even there to begin with.
‘The Mound’ Might Be Exactly What Co-Op Horror Needs
I will admit that I am not very fond of co-op games, but more because of my lack of awareness when it comes to literally anything. In “The Mound,” every session is tied to genuine progression, so long as you will it. If you choose a mission that asks you to find someone, then you’ll earn a new character to play as. If you choose a mission that asks you to find an item, then chances are you’ll be able to use it to act as an entry into the last level.
Considering that you don’t need to play through areas all over again just because you had completed it with a person in their session, it makes jumping in and progressing feel so much more worth it. This is also a great time to say that, since the games are player-hosted, keeping servers alive won’t be as much of an issue as it is in a live service title, already paving the way for co-op gameplay long after the game is no longer supported.
Fortunately, while playing, Bordeau teased the likelihood of additional content for “The Mound” should there be a significant enough audience for it.
“The Mound: Omen of Chthulhu” might be bringing a fresh breath of air to a genre that has come to be a bit oversaturated in recent years, with a concept that already looks to be leagues away from what we are used to. No, the beings created by Lovecraft aren’t a brand new concept, but not limiting these stories to squid-like creatures and going mad, as they all seem to do, feels as though I am approaching the topic for the first time, with a brand new pair of lenses.
“The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu” launches on PC via Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on July 15.
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