For a long as I can remember I have been a huge fan of Lovecraftian horror, psychological tension, and survival games. So, when The Mound Omen of Cthulhu came along it immediately caught my attention. The premise is genuinely simple but intriguing, in a team or solo you must venture deep into an ancient jungle in search of treasure. While you are exploring you will find yourself descending into madness as otherworldly horrors begin to twist reality around you.
The concept on paper sounds perfect as it blends cosmic horror with co-op survival which is should be a match made in heaven but I will tell you from the get go. Spoiler alert, it falls short of anything spectacular and becomes a mid-tier game where I was hoping for Lovecraftian greatness and instead felt like some B side horror that you watch once and wonder why you bothered.
A Lovecraftian Adventure Into Madness
The Mound Omen of Cthulhu is inspired by Lovecraft’s tales to create an oppressive and unpredictable atmosphere. The supernatural does not merely hunt you, it distorts your perception of every situation, making you lose your grip on reality. Faced with unholy creatures and unexplained phenomena, the boundary between reality and illusion crumbles, sowing doubt and paranoia within your group. Join a squad of explorers in search of riches.
From your galleon, prepare each mission by selecting weapons and equipment before venturing into the cursed jungle. The further you progress, the greater the danger, leading you to the gates of a legendary underground world where unimaginable treasures await.
My Experience With The Mound on PS5
After I spent a good amount of time with the PS5 version, I came away both let down and conflicted. The Mound Omen of Cthulhu showed flashes of creative promise particularly with the sanity mechanics, but that quickly got buried beneath technical issues, repetitive gameplay, and performance problems that constantly undermine the experience.
Don’t get me wrong there were times where I enjoyed go out on contracts but this was mainly when I was in a full party of four with real players. Playing Solo, for me, isn’t worth the time and stress that comes along with playing with one AI helper against the hordes of Lovecraftian nightmares.
The Sanity System Is The Standout Feature
I would say by far the biggest positive and easily the game’s standout feature is its sanity system. Whereas many horror games have sanity show and act like another health bar, for example, Phasmophobia or causes the occasional visual distortion. The Mound Omen of Cthulhu makes paranoia a core gameplay mechanic that keeps you on your toes every time you venture into the cursed jungle. As your sanity deteriorates, the game becomes increasingly unreliable.
Hallucinations appear around you, the environment shifts in unsettling ways, and perhaps most interestingly, your teammates may not actually be seeing the same things you are. This creates a sense of panic and fear that I have never experienced before in a co-op survival game. This mechanic helps create some genuinely memorable moments. I found myself warning my team about enemies which for them they couldn’t see, or questing whether the path we were on is safe because the world around us kept shift or falling from underneath us.
It defiantly captures the essence of Lovecraftian horror as it made you doubt your own sense of judgement and actually questing whether what was going on around was truly happening. One of my favourites is when your party suddenly goes from four to five and you have to try and figure out who the imposter is.
Communication Is Key
You might be wondering, how can you possibly overcome the madness and truly know what is real. Well, that comes down to one key thing, communication. When playing with others it becomes just as important as combat. Everyone needs to band together and make sure that everyone is on the same page and everything is being highlighted as it could be the difference between a successful run and a tragic end.
Those situations can be a bag of emotions from tense, funny, and occasionally downright terrifying. It’s an original mechanic that deserves praise, and I honestly wish the rest of the game had been built to the same standard. That being said this mechanics is missed entirely if you are playing Solo as you don’t have anyone to communicate with and the AI helper really isn’t that much help.
PS5 Performance and Technical Issues
And just like that, unfortunately, this is where my compliments come to an end. The biggest issues for the PS5 version that I came encountered was the performance. Horror games rely heavily on atmosphere and immersion but how can you do this when The Mound Omen of Cthulhu is littered with technical problems that constantly get in the way and pull me out of the experience.
The frame rate drops were common, especially when the action became more intense or multiple visual effects were happening simultaneously. But there were moments where the game felt noticeably sluggish, making combat and movement feel less responsive than they should. I also a on number of occasions experienced crashes where the entire game closed and asked if I want to submit a report to PlayStation. This inconsistent performance was enough to become a distraction throughout my playtime and affect my overall enjoyment.
Then there were the visual glitches that cropped up more than expected which affected the animations of the characters, objects in the world behave strangely and overall, the game felt like it lacked any major polish but we see that with many game releases nowadays. Get it out, fix it later.
Atmosphere and Immersion
What is frustrating is there is so much potential with the atmosphere. The jungle environments are appropriately oppressive, and the sound design does a good job of building tension. But that doesn’t matter when technical issues interrupt the experience every few minutes. It’s hard to stay scared when you are pulled from the immersion.
Gameplay is another frustrating area where The Mound Omen of Cthulhu struggles to find its feet. The basic loop for most expeditions is to explore, collect resources, avoid or fight enemies, manage your sanity and extract successfully. While that sounds like a trailed and tested gameplay loop for pretty much all extraction games it doesn’t evolve enough over to keep things interesting.
Repetitive Gameplay and Exploration
To begin with, objectives are fun and exploration is enjoyable but after several runs it starts to feel like you’ve already seen most of what the game has on offer. Which is highly disappointing. Don’t get me wrong as you progress more of the island unlocks and more of the story unfolds but that isn’t enough to keep you hooked for hours on end. This is upsetting as it makes the later sessions feel more like routine rather than survival horror.
The combat also leaves a lot to be desired, where I would normally love to get into combat with survival and extraction games, because the encounters in The Mound Omen of Cthulhu feel clunky rather than tense it makes you want to bypass this fighting completely. Weapons lack impact, enemy reactions can feel inconsistent and overall fighting isn’t something that screams for glory. Horror games don’t necessarily need excellent combat as they pick up their moments else where but when you’re expected to engage with enemies frequently you’ hope that this mechanics was enjoyable and fun to use.
Enemy Variety and Combat
Enemy variety is similarly limited. While there are certainly some unsettling creature designs that would find themselves at home in any Lovecraftian setting, you end up encountering the same threats often enough that the initial fear begins to wear off. For example, the Necromorphs in Dead Space hold their horror and fear factor throughout the entire series whereas these creatures give you a jump scare the first time around then just become a pain. You can easily learn how to counter most of the enemies which makes it more of a methodical chore than an epic fight.
Progression System
The progression system also feels underwhelming, like you’re working towards nothing. You can unlock new equipment and upgrades but they rarely feel meaningful enough to dramatically change how you go about future expeditions. I never had a true feeling of satisfaction after the first five hours as it was hard to come about new and exciting ways to play.
Instead, progression often felt like checking boxes rather than actually expanding the experience that The Mound Omen of Cthulhu already struggles to bring to the table. The problem is that for a game that is meant to encourage repeated runs with stronger long-term progression it should have something that entices the players to be them wanting to play more.
Co-Op and Solo Gameplay
All is not lost, as playing cooperatively, can help salvage a sinking ship, that is off course if it wasn’t so annoying to get into a party in the first place. If you manage to already have a team of four ready to go then great but if you are like me and need to find friends in the vast online community, it takes some menu diving to get there. The Sanity mechanics are at their best when playing with others it makes the party talk to each other which is nice. There is nothing like being thrown onto a cursed island with a bunch of strangers.
It a shame that the Solo side of this game is a complete night and day comparison. You literally feel like billy no mates as you run around with you AI helper who is shocking by the way, and basically have to pick up the pieces yourself. That is why I made it my priority to find a party before going on any expeditions. A good multiplayer game should enhance the fun already present, not rely on your friends and party to carry you through the game’s weaknesses.
Eventually you realise that the repetitive objectives, inconsistent combat and technical problems all catch up and basically impact the level of enjoyment you get out of The Mound Omen of Cthulhu.
Lovecraftian Horror and Artistic Direction
I think from an artistic perspective, the developers understood the brief of making a Lovecraft themed game and it feels that rather than focusing exclusively on giant monster and jump scares, they attempted to capture the uncertainty and psychological horror that defines cosmic horror.
This helps when the whole vibe with The Mound Omen of Cthulhu is to make you doubt reality itself. Though as clever as this gameplay design is it can’t carry ten plus hours of gameplay on this feature alone. There are other mechanics present in the game but they don’t execute themselves well enough to bring the game from an average experience to a great one.
Could The Mound Omen of Cthulhu Be Improved?
I think that with some much-needed polish, performance improvements, expanded content, and more satisfying gameplay systems, The Mound Omen of Cthulhu could genuinely become a very enjoyable cooperative horror experience. At the moment, it feels like the foundation is stronger than the final product suggests. As it plays at the moment, I feel like the game probably should have had a few more months in development and maybe an open-beta or two to really play test it with the public.
A Wasted Opportunity?
It feels more like a wasted opportunity to me, I certainly don’t think The Mound Omen of Cthulhu is completely without merit, the sanity mechanic when playing with others is fantastic and can carry you through a lot of expeditions but when playing alone it’s a completely different experience and in a way feels like a totally different game.
There were several moments where I was genuinely impressed by how effectively the game manipulated perception and encouraged distrust between teammates. Though, sadly, those moments become overshadowed when put alongside everything else.
Conclusion
The Mound Omen of Cthulhu has one genuinely excellent idea in its sanity system, delivering moments of paranoia and psychological horror that perfectly capture Lovecraft’s themes. Unfortunately, inconsistent performance on PS5, repetitive gameplay, clunky combat, and a general lack of polish prevent the rest of the experience from reaching the same standard.
Right now, as it stands, I can’t recommend this title, for an asking price of £39.99 for the physical and £29.99 for the digital I would highly recommend waiting as it probably won’t be long before this one ends up on the PS stores discount list.
It also might be worth seeing if they release any updates or patches that fixes these issues and make the game a bit more enjoyable. It’s not a terrible game, but it’s difficult to ignore its shortcomings, leaving it as a decidedly average experience with flashes of brilliance. It’s a shame as I’m a huge Lovecraft fan and after seeing the trailer for The Mound Omen of Cthulhu I was looking forward to it but it just didn’t hit the mark and for these reasons it’s getting a midrange score of 5 out of 10.
The Mound Omen of Cthulhu Trailer
This review was based off a PS5 playthrough.
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The game was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.
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