phenomenal storytelling. great graphics. stupendous ability to accurately portray classic elements of folktale!! child friendly if you're cool <3

Solid little game, was a fun experience.

What a night story it was.

Controls are mostly terrible, though story is interesting.

This is a beautiful narrative driven game. What starts as a children fairytale very quickly takes a dark turn. Game takes inspiration from scandinavian folklore about scary stories and presents it in a unique fashion. Gameplay is simple but what is special in this game for many will be the beauty of the atmosphere and the creatures. For me personally, what makes it special is that it was a gift from a beloved person.

I went in not really knowing what to expect and i was so impressed with this game. I got so immersed into the beautiful forrest scenery, the music and of course the story. You never know whats going to happen next and the game really takes you on a journey. The game is not too difficult mechanic wise but still never gets boring and i never experienced any bugs. Its fairly short but so well made and i would definitely recommend it to people who likes an immersive experience and i would also recommend playing it without looking up any spoilers first. But do be aware that the game does get dark and plays on different kinds of fear, but not too intense. I enjoyed it a lot!

bad game play and frequent frame drops

Nice game, great atmosphere, best soundtrack

Love it so far. The narration and beautiful but disturbing yet charming environment makes this game very enjoyable. A certified coward like myself can play it without pissing themselves!

Bramble reminded me a bit of Hilda, with all its Nordic folklore content and child protagonists - except that it would feel like Luke Pearson woke up that morning and chose violence.

This game surely pulls no punches: right from the start, after that traditional health warning that we all ignore, it also warns gamers that we're about to see a lot of horrific stuff: infanticide, suicide, carnage... and trust me, such warnings are warranted. But let's address Bramble as a game first.

The Mountain King is so visually demanding that my no-break started bipping as soon as my character stepped out of his home and into the woods. To make matters worst, my PSU started dying on me, restarting my computer during gameplay. At first I thought it was the game's issue, that it was poorly optimised and it was its fault, while other games worked fine. I tried lowering the graphics, but the problem persisted. So I uninstalled it never to look back, only to find out it was indeed my rig's issue. So I returned to the game's dark world with a new PSU, and I was happy to know it wasn't the game's fault, as I was very much enjoying it when I left it.

Bramble at times may feel like taking cues from Limbo and Inside, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only who thought the same by playing it. There are some moments that employ the core principle of such Playdead games: to kill players in order for them to learn what to do. For an instance, against the first boss, he smashes the table you're standing on, and this causes your character to lose his footing, becoming vulnerable to attacks - so, for the next try, I learned to jump when he was about to smash. I'm not a particularly fan about this method of gameplay, for I feel this is counter-intuitive and interrupts the flow of progression. But fortunately, these moments are not so prominent during the game: when you see, for an instance, a large character scooping around, and there's tall grass, it becomes clear you have to crouch and hide in it. Mountain King also reminded me a lot of the early Resident Evil outputs, in that the game is heavy with fixed cameras, specially when you're at a closed environment.

In grand gaming tradition, the first level introduces the mechanics of the game, regarding platforming, climbing, dragging objects and general interactivity. Interactive objects have a white dot close to them, and when you get close, you get an input. Some of these interactive moments are just to look at things, while others regard puzzles that must be solved to clear the path - and puzzles in this game are pretty light and barely count as such. Early in the game, you'll gain this glowing stone that can work as a lantern, but also as a weapon against some enemies, such as bosses and the titular bramble. This is why I preferred playing this game with keyboard and mouse, in that the WASD keys worked fine, and aiming with the mouse was great.

Bramble is heavy with stealth sections, specially since your character doesn't have many means to defend himself. Some enemies are more perceptive than others, and may pester you through an entire section. Others who dwell in darkness are actually attracted by your light, so it becomes tense to walk without knowing where you're going. The game also has its fair share of jump scares, and moments you just have to RUN.

The game is very linear, but there's a fair share of collectables along the path. Some are right at your face, while others are so well hidden that only a few players have found them - as in, their achievements are regarded as rare. While you progress, you may find books (which are not so well hidden on propose) telling the stories of the places and characters we saw, explaining the lore. And this is when I address the story and visuals.

As my personal experience exemplified, this game really demands a lot from the hardware. While the models are clearly cartoonish, with big eyes and small noses, the visuals are ultra realistic and incredibly immersive, really conveying that you're at this dark fairy tale in medieval Scandinavia. It really pushes the Unreal 5 engine to its futhest. On top of that, the soundtrack is beautiful, with ocasional gentle yet powerful vocals, complementing the scenes and pinpointing their moods, from times of peace and quiet in the woods to desolating moments of despair.

The game can get quite gruesome, and I would go out of my way not to find out the death animations - some YouTube channels already covered that, but I won't. I make that clear so there can be no doubt this game is not for everyone, specially children and the faint at heart: at one moment, you have to traverse this pool of flesh, where a creature hidden beneath it chases you as soon you jump in. But it's not all gore: some gentler moments of ma can offer players a break from all the brutality, with beautiful sunlight and meadows to please the eyes.

If you can stomach this game (and I have stomached far more horrific than that, namely Kane & Lynch 2), you'll find a genuinely beautiful game, with instances of light within the darkness, and vice versa - a damn good game. While it can be a bit janky at some times, it never frustrated me other than technically.

I'll just say this game was more damaging to my PSU than to my emotional.