It pains me to rebut Dr. Suess’ overused high school graduation sentiment, but the sad truth is that no…there are some places that you willnevergo. Not only do you not have the time and cash to explore all corners of the globe, but that language barrier, amiright? And yet, hope remains. The recent rise of country-specific gems by international devs has made it possible for players to experience exotic locations from the comfort of their subtitled TV sets. That’s what Mundaun offers me in the form of the Swiss Alps.
Released in 2021 by Swiss studio Hidden Fields, Mundaun is a first-person sepia-drenched ticket to terror. The game works on a few different levels to serve a variety of purposes with all the precision of a fine-tuned Swiss army knife.
Let’s begin with Mundaun’s most obvious successful element: setting. Far be it from me (an American) to wax intellectual about geography seeing as how the majority of my fellow citizens can’t differentiate Belgium from Bulgaria, but everybody knows Switzerland. The landlocked nation sits smack in the middle of Europe, populated by 1.5 million people and 10,850 mountains. We know them as the Alps. They’ve been luring in and killing off hikers for decades. Thankfully, Mundaun is not an e-sports mountain-climbing game, nor is it a mildly engaging ski slalom racer, it’s something else: an amalgamation of pagan European folk tales, Christian beliefs and the appreciation of everyday Swiss mountain life.
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Switzerland’s unique crossroad position in Europe makes it a lightning rod for linguistic variety. The four national languages are: German, French, Italian, and…Romansh. If that last one doesn’t seem like an elective you picked up in high school, don’t feel bad. As Mundaun—the eponymous setting of the game—is located in the member state of Graubünden, the Romansh dialect maintains a strong foothold in the region. As of 2020, 13.9% of the 200,096 population are fluent. It’s a melodic sounding tongue, but almost near impossible to follow, unless you speak German. Regardless, the game provides convenient English subtitles that prove extremely necessary as the story unfolds. From the game’s start to finish, Romansh fills the air, and it’s not unpleasant.
Speaking of things not unpleasant, let’s talk about art for a second. The game is incredibly detailed at times, portraying the landscape as accurately as a Breath of the Wild scene, but at others, especially with elements intended to be disturbing, the use of pencil and charcoal changes. Crude hurried strokes lend human features, notebooks, paintings and items a disturbed manic feel, like the scribblings of a mad man. This is especially true when inanimate objects become animated. The movement is jerky, like watching an early stop-motion film, which were always terrifying in general to me.
It’s as if the only finely-detailed parts of the game revolve around the plains, trees and mountains that surround you. And why not? They’ve been here forever and always will be.
The humans and their animals involved in the diabolical plot are always portrayed as a bit…off. That being said, the barrage of sepia has been said to throw players off, even to the point of nausea. True, the color choice may interfere with in-game puzzles, orientation, and, in some cases, you can’t see adamnthing, but the decision from the studio was deliberate. The game maintains on aging beige, as opposed to a cold heartless monochrome, perhaps to keep one foot rooted in humanity.
If you were to go into this game cold (a little Swiss Alps humor there) without a shred of context, the direction of the story’s thread may feel familiar and new at the same time. Based on the ominous intro, with its letter from the local parish and eerie music, something bad is in the air, but it’s not entirely obvious yet. In fact, my first thought was, “Huh, this feels like the introduction to Dracula.” A letter, a journey, a mountainous landscape in Central Europe. It has all the trappings of a classic horror setup.
This point becomes crystal clear once you reach the church. You know you’re in for a dark ride with a logically infernal conclusion once you meet the priest. The dichotomy between light and darkness is constantly at play. In fact, the main weapon mechanic to ultimately defeat the unholy forces at work hinges on a kind of “sun” lamp that saints and World War 1 soldiers used to ward off ultimate evil years ago.
Mundaun’s evil takes the form of several characters culled from Germanic, Swiss and Christian mythology—not least Ol’ Scratch himself. Ubiquitous Straw Men prowl the hills, lighting hay bales on fire in attempts to smoke you out. Surprisingly, several well-placed thrusts of a rudimentary pitchfork will take them out. Others are not so easy. Horned demons girded in goat pelts hunt you with foul intent, the surreal presence of whichin broad daylightgives you a chill. These things are the stuff of legends, bound by books and pages of haunted authors. The contrast of the pure natural environment with its wooden homes, cooking appliances and livestock, and these hellish creatures, is the stuff of nightmares.
Perhaps my favorite feature of the game is its slice of life detail. In every home that contains a stove, you have the option to boil water with the purpose of making coffee that will give you added strength. As goats are essential for life in the Alps, the game also allows you to pet them, giving them comfort in spite of their ungodly futures. At one point, you even hold a conversation with one of the goats, but only its decapitated head. Additionally, you have access to sleds and even a Muvel, or művel, a vehicle which serves as a way to quickly collect and deliver hay. One of the best parts of the game is cruising up and down the mountain in this farming buggy, enjoying the beautiful scenery for just a few seconds before being dragged back down to your devilish duties.
Mundaun looks and feels like a story you’ve read somewhere before: a good vs. evil plot wrapped inside a fairytale setting. Perhaps even the game’s origins were cobbled together from variations of local tales, but it’s the execution that you’ve never seen or heard before. Mundaun may not pop up on a travel agent’s TOP TEN VACATION sites, but it’s an experience you’ll want to re-visit again. Maybe leave the kids at home though.
