I installed Mountains of Madness with a fair amount of anticipation – not just because I’m a fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s works, but also because I’d very much been in the mood for a first-person narrative adventure game that (I had hoped) would skillfully and elegantly adapt the eerie atmosphere of the famed author’s otherworldly locations. As an interactive adaptation of Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, developer Deep Dive Project’s game invites players to the coldest corners of Antarctica in search of answers – answers that may or may not be better left forgotten. Psst: this is a Lovecraft story, so obviously it’s not going to end well, but hey, investigators gotta investigate, right?
At the corridors of emptiness
In any case, let’s get to the meat of the game right away: Mountains of Madness is pretty much an exploration simulator, where 90% of your gameplay will consist of wandering around massive open spaces and trying to find your way forward with varying levels of success. Now, for those who enjoy eerily abandoned locations whose sheer atmosphere can almost be overwhelming at times, there is *some* good stuff to be found in here, with a heavy emphasis on “some”. Although the storyline’s opening segment begins in a dark and dreary cave system (which is so dull it might cause players to preemptively drop the game), the protagonist’s journey later transitions into exploring a series of ancient, otherworldly ruins that are sort of just... there, completely empty, forgotten and without life. You then proceed to explore vast, empty spaces that once served a purpose, while occasionally reading bits of disturbing Lovecraftian lore about Shoggoths and Old Ones and everything else you might expect from a game adapting the original author’s work. There are some very basic puzzles to solve (find items, use items), but the primary focus of Mountains of Madness is, without a doubt, the process of unguided exploration. Allow me to elaborate on that: essentially, the latter half of the game simply drops you into this massive, labyrinthine ruin and sort of just... expects you to figure out where to go. I won’t lie, I did get some degree of enjoyment out of the absolute lack of hand-holding present in the game, but sadly, the level design ends up working against this otherwise interesting core idea – the ruins you explore are fairly boring and unremarkable, and what’s worse, consist mostly of seemingly copy-pasted segments that make it exceedingly easy to get lost or keep going in circles.
Man’s best friend: the ladder
And yet, although a sizable chunk of the game is spent being frustrated by the aforementioned level design, I did manage to appreciate the level of freedom that Mountains of Madness gives the player through the inclusion of a handy-dandy ladder. Yes, you read that right: relatively early on in the adventure, you acquire a ladder that can be freely placed down in the environment, allowing you to create makeshift bridges in order to traverse otherwise very precarious landscapes. Found a gap that’s too large to jump across, or a wall that’s too high to climb? Have no fear, ladder is here. The ladder, I must note, can be placed down with a surprising amount of freedom, and there aren’t any strict rules to its usage, meaning it’s up to the player’s own creativity to figure out how best to use it in order to get from A to B. Sometimes, it feels almost like you’re cheesing your way through certain areas, but that’s what made it so fun in my eyes. Also, while we’re on the topic of positives, the game does feature some pretty imposing architecture when you get to the alien structures in the later portions of the storyline – it’s still empty and devoid of interesting things to do, mind you, but at least it’s nice to look at sometimes.
Closing thoughts
Sadly, the versatility of the life-saving ladder and the occasional screenshot-worthy vista are still not quite enough to make up for the project’s various shortcomings: the dull and extremely samey level design that really harms the game’s atmosphere, the lack of engaging storytelling, and the similar lack of any memorable moments, with perhaps the exception of the ending scene that, admittedly, did manage to conclude the game on a sufficiently creepy note. All in all, while I did find a handful of things to like about Mountains of Madness, I still cannot in good conscience give it a recommendation; to be perfectly honest, I think you’re probably better off simply reading – or re-reading – Lovecraft’s original story, as your imagination will likely do a much better job of conjuring up its horrors than the game.
Mountains of Madness is available on Steam.