Bramble: The Mountain King Review (Lobo Nero)
Two words: totally impressed. After starting to play a few minutes of Bramble: The Mountain King, I told myself I'd make a review for this game after my playthrough - yet it became immediately necessary during the part where I heard one of the songs of the game, "Blomstertid", man - I was literally taken aback by emotion hearing it, simply the most beautiful music I've ever heard in a video game, even if short - and came to a realization, although I have yet to finish the game: in spite of its' tiny flaws (that don't prevent from enjoying it), this game has something really special and wonderful to show and give.
What caught first my attention were the graphics though: an incredible care and sense of detail were brought to them, the beauty is visually omnipresent too, although counterbalanced by some necessary darkness and gloom, the game having some horror elements - by the way, it seems clearly inspired by old fables, a bit like Hansel and Gretel, but with . . . a gory side to it by what I saw, so I couldn't say Bramble would be for kids: there are explicit depictions blood and cadaver meat included here : )
Otherwise, as for the "bright side" of the game's art, when it's cheerful and joyous, it really is: bright colors, vivacious elements of nature, and strange beings / animals taken straight out of a tale give all of it an enchanting vibe, the graphics and music finding a cohesion and coherence that is near perfect.
My only small gripes with the graphics were that the textures / renders looked a bit "plastic" and old sometimes in my opinion, nothing shocking nor preventing from enjoying the game's beauty, but I think the devs could have done an even better job with the renders, even if easy to say. Otherwise, it's just an incredible work of art, in which you can feel all the love and attention poured into it, so can't criticize that much.
The gameplay is very simple, nothing demanding nor difficult to get - I'll be honest, I have yet to go on with the game, so I don't know if it gets much harder after, but so far it's really not challenging; and even with this rather "easy" aspect, I got hooked from the start of Bramble and couldn't let go of my controller until I decided to make a review. So as for the gameplay, no noticeable thing to say, aside that the difficulty makes it welcome to any player, and it renews itself enough to keep the player captivated from the start and after. The only flaw I encountered with it was that sometimes the movements feel a little slow and stiff, but absolutely nothing gamebreaking.
Well I wish there were more games like this on Steam! I first started it by default, without knowing that much what I was getting into, and was more than "not disappointed", I was surprised and amazed - so frankly, I'd recommend Bramble: The Mountain King to any player (over 10 yo maybe lol) who wants to play something different and refreshing - because all inspired from some old fables it is, it simply reactualizes all of that kind of folklore into an indie game offering a little journey between light and darkness, with a personality of its' own, and a remarkable one at that - fully recommended.