3.5/5 ★ – Empyrean's review of Bramble: The Mountain King.

YOU CAN RIDE A HEDGEHOG 10/10 NO NOTES As someone who thinks the original Little Nightmares is a masterpiece and one of the best horror games ever made, and also someone who was deeply disappointed in the sequel, I really wanted to love Bramble. At times I did, and it has some undeniably phenomenal aspects. It’s soundtrack (the final boss!!!) and art direction (hideous character models aside) are some of the best of 2023, and a strong case to bring back fixed camera angles. Sadly, as excellent as Bramble can be, it is a deeply flawed game. It is janky, unpolished, tonally inconsistent, poorly paced, derivative, antiquated, and straight up frustrating at parts. The fairy tale nature of the story is simultaneously one of its biggest strength and also an irritating flaw, because whilst I was also utterly enraptured by this world, stuff just fucking HAPPENS before ushering you on to the next set-piece. Despite its flaws, of which there are a lot, I still ended up preferring this to Little Nightmares 2. Dimfrost Studio has a lot of potential, and I’d love to see them tackle something like this again. We need more Scandinavian folklore in games, and these guys clearly know their stuff. Also can Nola Klop narrate all games please 👉👈