The Mound is a testament to the fact that anything can be adapted into an extraction-style title, even a novella ghostwritten by H.P. Lovecraft about the titular mound that serves as a dimensional gateway. The real question is whether it can be fun, especially coming from a developer like ACE Team, famed for the absurdist and irreverent Clash: Artifacts of Chaos and Rock of Ages. The answer? Well, as always, it’s complicated.
You’re essentially part of a crew traversing cursed lands for treasure, but some modicum of plot binds these expeditions together. It kicks off with what might be one of the strangest single-player prologues I’ve ever seen. You play as Zamacona, one of the novella’s characters, and after traversing close to the mound – hacking away at a vine or two for your troubles – you encounter a strange figure and become mentally scarred, seemingly forever.
This entire sequence takes less than three minutes (maybe four if you’re really slow) and is little more than a walking simulator, not a proper introduction to whatever is going on. Off to a great start, I thought, before actually indulging in the meat of the story within co-op, but “not putting its best foot forward” quickly becomes a running theme.
“One of the appeals of an extraction shooter is gathering sick loot and escaping with it, defying all odds, including other players.”
As one of four other explorers, your job is to explore the regions for anything that can help the expedition. Forbidden relics are obviously on the menu – who could resist their stylings? – but provisions and other supplies also help. Each character has their own past of sorts, which doesn’t really affect the actual missions, much less in how they play. The core gameplay, at the end of the day, is comparable to Lethal Company: Enter a location, collect as many worthwhile items as possible, and leave with your sanity intact. Die, and you get nothing.
Okay, that’s not entirely true, because you aren’t chaining missions to meet a quota or building a steady supply of tools. Instead, you’re assigned random gear and items before each expedition. A Flintlock pistol here, an old rapier there, maybe some Ammonia Salts to revive a downed ally – you get the idea.
There is some freedom to pick up additional items from a “vendor” using Tokens, though the selection is initially limited to torches, a Medallion, and a map. Those same Tokens can be used to upgrade weapons or trade them in for something different. Honestly, I don’t mind this approach, even if that polehammer that I became attached to in one mission is gone upon returning.
One of the appeals of an extraction shooter is gathering sick loot and escaping with it, defying all odds, including other players. Right away, The Mound doesn’t offer either of those things. You don’t really keep what you find, much less use any of it in subsequent missions, and the threat of other players is handled…differently from what you’d expect. On the plus side, anything found can be used within the mission, which removes some of the greater barriers of entry to an extraction game, namely the need to grind for an arsenal before taking on tougher activities, and having to restart from zero whenever you’re wiped out. So thumbs up to that.
After choosing a contract, you can also select a location, which can have different conditions and modifiers. Weather and time of day can be huge difference-makers. Matchlock pistols and rifles become useless in rain, while nighttime and fog can reduce visibility. So maybe you’ll be encouraged to bring bows and arrows, storing the firearms for whenever things clear up. Some missions also require traversing to a fort at the very end to retrieve a Logbook, which unlocks a new location and sheds more light on previous bizarre adventures.
“Due to the static nature of the maps and the relatively straightforward objectives, The Mound freshens up runs by introducing its own spin on the Sanity system from Eternal Darkness.”
Upon landing, it’s pretty much everyone for themselves. Explore the map, chopping away at any vegetation that impedes your progress, pick up anything worthwhile – quickly becoming annoyed at the limited inventory slots (which thankfully expand as you rank up) – and deposit them back at the wagon. The latter follows along as you delve deeper into a location, though it too has its share of bizarre quirks. Sometimes, it will match how much you’ve explored and catch up, but at others, it simply turns around and goes the other way before changing its mind once more. It can also block your path in some places, though such occurrences are few and far between.
Due to the static nature of the maps and the relatively straightforward objectives, The Mound freshens up runs by introducing its own spin on the Sanity system from Eternal Darkness. It’s not really dependent on a meter or anything – rather, the longer you spend in the mission, the more bizarre things begin to occur (though your health will become affected upon witnessing them). One of my allies turned into a tree – funniest thing I had ever seen for a minute or two. Ominous birds herald effects like your buddies (and the wagon) turning invisible with only an outline to distinguish them unless you take them out. A fly or four may suddenly crawl on your screen, and on at least one occasion, my character would black out before reawakening somewhere else.
If that wasn’t enough to mess with you, allies can also become Corrupted after going down and not being revived in time, resulting in the AI taking control of them to attack you. It can happen at completely random moments too, and don’t even get me started on the monsters impersonating teammates, with the occasional beast-like noise being the only thing to distinguish them. That, and proximity voice chat – there really isn’t much else in terms of communication, besides the limited gesture wheel. So if you’re hoping to play this without a mic, paying attention to certain telltale signs is key to avoid a sudden betrayal.
At first, there’s some intrigue in trying to discern the different Sanity effects and how to deal with them. The problem is that they quickly become repetitive. My newfound ally, the walking tree, goes from bizarre to comedic in short order. The Eldritch ox feels more annoying than frightening since looking at it affects my sanity – not really from afar, but more up close, like when depositing things in the wagon – so it’s a constant annoyance.
The Mound repeats several of these effects for the sake of acclimation; I get it, but this only underscores why the system works so much better in a single-player setting, since your character’s grasp on reality is constantly challenged and questioned.
With one of its core gimmicks feeling a little too gimmicky, it’s down to the core combat and exploration to really make the gameplay shine. And unfortunately, those stumble as well. Even if you can get used to the slow aiming and lethargic sprinting, further reinforced by the sheer lack of stamina or speed, combat can feel so finicky at times. It feels like you’re rolling the dice with each potential weapon swing, never mind the backstabs, which work when sneaking up on a foe or when an ally grabs their attention but not when you avoid their attacks and get behind them.
“The Mound has some interesting ideas wrapped up in a typical extraction gameplay loop, especially if you can meet the combat and movement on their own terms.”
Firearms feel underwhelming compared to bows in terms of damage while also not having the benefit of potentially reusable arrows. The enemies themselves can feel harrowing to fight at times, especially when coming face to face with the giant twisted beasts, but you have very little recourse to deal with the latter in the early going. And all they need to do is get close enough for a grapple that takes all your health and breaks your armor before dissipating. Oh, and it turns out one of your allies is corrupted, so one stab from them and the expedition is lost before you even had a moment to recover. I also like how every single enemy can make you stumble, resulting in a third-person cutscene before shifting back to third person. Every. Single. Time.
The Mound has some interesting ideas wrapped up in a typical extraction gameplay loop, especially if you can meet the combat and movement on their own terms. But its mix of psychological, reality-altered horror, co-op treachery and survival horror elements often feels shaky when it’s not plain annoying. Even with the addition of an AI companion, solo players are advised against signing up because of how easy it is to become swarmed and lose an entire expedition after 15 minutes of busywork. Performance on PC is also an enigma – turning down multiple settings and activating DLSS/Frame Gen eventually stabilized things, and while some of the details look nice, it’s hardly the kind of fidelity that should warrant such odd optimization.
If you’re looking for a co-op horror title for hijinks with your friends, then The Mound may be a decent fit, as long as you keep expectations in check regarding the core gameplay, presentation, narrative, and whatnot. But as much as I tried to find the fun amid all the oppression, it simply felt like wasted potential.
This game was reviewed on PC.
