The Mound brings something fresh to co-op horror that could do with some more polish

Co-op games can feel quite stale at the moment. Everyone is chasing the Friendslop train, copying successful surprise hits like Peak and Phasmaphobia, or going for clipability on social media. But, now and again, someone actually has some fascinating ideas and creates something fresh, exciting, and genuinely novel. The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu does just that.

This co-op horror FPS feels exciting all the way through thanks to its oppressive 16th-century South American Lovecraftian jungle that constantly tricks your brain, drains your sanity, and has you challenging yourself to distinguish reality from hallucinations. While the concept and hook are strong, it doesn’t completely land smoothly, as the moment-to-moment gameplay has many frustrations that pop up over its 40-to-60-hour runtime. But there’s a fascinating core here that kept me glued to the experience of trekking through a haunted jungle.

Time To Embark

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is very loosely tied together by a 16th-century story of expeditioners hunting for treasure across southern America to enrich Spain. But this serves as more of a premise to allow for co-op adventuring in the jungle than a fully realized deep story.

There is a strange introduction you can play that feels almost entirely pointless. It effectively equates to a two-minute cutscene where you pick up a machete, wander through a forest, and then see a Lovecraftian creature before abruptly throwing you back to the main menu. It’s a really strange choice and arguably more confusing than just omitting it entirely from the game.

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Beyond the character models, the different playable characters have very little effect on gameplay.

But while you are engaging in expeditions solo or with friends, you will explore an interconnected world, made up of 18 maps you can explore as you get closer to the mythical and legendary Mound. Each map is unlocked as you find logbooks, which provide access to new maps and also audio logs from expeditions that have come before you. The voiceover quality here is surprisingly good and helps build out the world Ace Team has created. But it’s still a pretty threadbare narrative that could have been handled better, honestly.

While there isn’t a story here, this is the closest the game gets towards it, alongside its many reveals in the back half of the game that delight and surprise with incredible environments and fascinating gameplay mechanics and twists that help expand the jungle and this world as a character in and of itself.

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The Mound has a lot of visual, environmental, and gameplay surprises that help its 40-50 hour runtime feel exciting and entertaining.

Loot and Leave

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is playable on your own or with a party of friends up to four players. There are also public matches you can join and create if you don’t have friends to play with. While the game is built for co-op, I actually found it to be most entertaining and engaging when playing solo. You just won’t get to see everything its Sanity system has to offer (more on that below)

Aboard the expedition galleon, you choose a contract to complete, which can include finding a certain amount of treasure or completing a specific objective on a certain map, and begin to build your loadout. You only have a limited amount of gear when you set out, oftentimes lacking a melee weapon, ranged weapon, armor, or enough medicinal supplies, requiring you to be careful when you do explore. This is enhanced even more in multiplayer, where each player often has to fill a role, with some hunting for treasure and supplies and others guiding the group with an oil lamp or engaging in combat.

The Mound emphasizes that aspect of survival, and it is oftentimes brutally difficult because of it, although not excruciatingly so (except for in a few objective-driven contracts and boss fights that feel almost impossible to complete alone). You won’t ever have enough supplies or resources to kill everything, and tactically avoiding enemies, silencing potential threats quickly, and learning how to avoid or throw off enemies you can’t kill is one of the best feelings The Mound gives.

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Learning how some of the more dangerous enemies of the jungle work and how to avoid them is satisfying and rewarding.

The game doesn’t tell you much, but it’s never so esoteric that I felt the need to start googling or finding a YouTube video to help me out. The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is a giant, riveting puzzle box you have to figure out as you play.

It’s just a shame that the actual melee combat, gunplay, and AI don’t match the quality on display elsewhere. Combat feels patchwork at times, and it’s hard to really engage in fights with any level of skill because enemy behavior can be unpredictable and melee hits lack impact. The camera can get caught in awkward positions when grabbed, and I often found myself trapped on the bot NPC who accompanies you in solo or the oxcart you stuff your treasures into. Additionally, the game’s bleed mechanic kicks in far too much and is immensely infuriating to deal with alongside all the other threats you are faced with.

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Combat, especially during high-stakes escapes from the jungle isn’t always the most polished experience.

I also had a few performance bugs while playing, including freezing for moments during gameplay and a couple of hard crashes that wiped 30-60 minutes of progress in an expedition.

Don’t Believe What You See and Hear

Arguably, the most impressive part of The Mound is the jungle itself. It truly feels alive, and how it interacts with gameplay is fascinating. A combination of the visual fidelity, environment density, sound design, and audio makes the jungle truly daunting to explore. Cannibals and other Lovecraftian creatures lurk in the bushes and caves, and you get the sense that at any moment anything could be lurking around the corner.

The game cleverly paces new systems and ways the jungle can keep you on edge so that almost every few hours, you are surprised by something. An early example is the first time a cannibal falls out of a tree branch as you are looting a chest, and you suddenly hear a thump next to you as its body hits the rock.

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The Mound continuously surprises with its mechanics and Sanity system.

Mixed in with all of that is a Sanity system, where the longer you are in the jungle, the more your sanity starts to be sapped away by its presence. You will start to hear and see things that aren’t there, and this is a core part of gameplay.

Some examples include flies appearing on the screen that throw you off at first but become obvious over time. Other ways this can pop up include the jungle itself mimicking player voice chat from earlier in an expedition, playing back things you said ten minutes ago. A fifth person may appear out of nowhere. You may hear fake gunshots that send you into a panic that you have awakened the more dangerous creatures of the jungle. Treasure will disappear in front of your eyes. Bushes will rustle when there is nothing in them. Friendly teammates will appear as enemies.

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One of the many ways the jungle can play tricks on your mind is by having you believe an ally is actually an enemy.

It’s a remarkable way to build a relationship with the jungle itself as you start to learn how it behaves and entrust yourself to determine what you are seeing is real vs what may be a hallucination. As mentioned, the pacing of these mechanics feels fantastic and helps evolve the gameplay in new ways, despite the moment-to-moment exploration and combat rarely ever deepening beyond exploring, looting, and returning to the galleon.

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is one of the strongest titles from Nacon yet and Ace Team’s most innovative and impressive game concept. The jungle and how they have made it feel alive and ever-evolving is enrapturing, and I felt on the edge of my seat almost all of the time while playing. It’s a truly oppressive and haunting environment enhanced by excellent sound design and great environmental and enemy design.

It’s just a shame that the actual combat and gameplay, as well as the performance, don’t match this quality or feel fine-tuned. But with a few updates, that could change. There’s an amazing core here and a meaty experience that could absolutely get its hooks into you if you aren’t afraid of a bit of friction along the way.