Have you ever wondered what it would be like to step straight into one of Lovecraft’s stories and experience first-hand what it feels like to slowly lose your grip on sanity? The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu gives you exactly that opportunity. While fans of cosmic horror will undoubtedly appreciate the game’s atmosphere, you don’t have to face its nightmares alone. This is a co-op horror adventure that takes you and other players deep into a world where the line between reality and madness grows thinner the longer you remain there.
At its core, the game follows a looter extraction formula, meaning that your goal, either alone or in a team of up to four players, is to travel to a chosen location, gather valuable items and make it safely back to your base. Both its format and its focus on co-op help it stand out among the many games exploring similar themes.
What Is The Worth of Your Sanity?
Before you embark on your first real expedition, the game offers a brief prologue to familiarize you with its premise before placing you aboard a ship, where you can choose your character.
The game draws inspiration from the story of the same name, ,,The Mound”. In it, an ethnologist arrives in the town of Binger, Oklahoma, in 1928. to investigate strange stories surrounding a nearby mound believed to be haunted. According to local legends, a mysterious Native American man wanders around it during the day, while a headless woman appears at night. However, the same mound also conceals a passage leading to an underground civilization known as K’n-yan.
Instead of an ethnologist, the game follows a group of Spanish conquistadors who arrive aboard their ship, the Tempestad, in a cursed Chilean wilderness in 1652. Driven by greed as well as their own personal demons, they set out in search of ancient gold, unaware that every step takes them deeper toward the very place Lovecraft warned us about in his story – K’n-yan, a hidden realm connected to ancient beings.
Each of the characters you can choose from has a short backstory that gives them a certain degree of depth. There is Alonso de la Torre, who is searching for his freedom, Leonor, who fled after taking someone’s life in the hope of escaping punishment, Don Rodrigo de Medina, who sees no purpose in the wars being fought and hopes to find that purpose in the treasure hidden within this land, Fray Gaspar, who believes he will find prosperity in the wilderness, somewhere he will no longer have to watch even the cross itself being forged into a weapon, Beatriz, who has had absolutely nothing since birth except her sword and the determination to use it to take whatever she desires and Hassan, who has witnessed all manner of horrors and believes there is no law other than the law of the sword. You can switch characters before any expedition, so there is really no need to worry too much about whom you choose first.
Although the game does not feature a linear story, there is plenty to discover through documents scattered throughout your search for gold. After finding them, you can sit aboard your boat while the narrator, with his old and weary voice, tells you more about the secrets this place is hiding.
Survival By Lovecraft’s Rules
Once you have chosen one of the many available characters, it is time to explore your ship. Before starting a mission, you can visit the captain and choose from several contracts that provide you with specific objectives. Early on, many of these contracts are fairly similar, requiring you to bring back a certain amount of gold, food, ammunition, weapons or other supplies to meet the quota stated in the contract. The longer you play, however, the more varied, interesting and complicated these contracts become. The contracts available to you also depend on the level of the player hosting the server you have joined.
The area where the game truly shines is the way each player functions as part of the group. There will not be enough weapons aboard the ship for everyone, meaning that each player naturally takes on a particular role. Someone might carry the torch to light the way, another player might be responsible for weapons, while someone else may leave their inventory completely empty so they can carry as many valuable items as possible. This approach encourages you to experiment with different playstyles until you find the one that suits you best, and whenever that starts to feel repetitive, you can simply change things around. Even if you decide to play alone, the game will provide you with an NPC companion who faithfully follows and protects you.
The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu features a fairly wide map divided into several regions that you can gradually explore.
Once you have selected an expedition, decided how you want to play, chosen what equipment to bring, signed a contract and picked your destination on the map, you will be accompanied by an ox pulling a cart and the man guiding it. The cart allows you to store the items you collect, which is particularly important because your inventory is extremely limited at the beginning, especially if you choose to carry a weapon. As for weapons, you will find rifles, beautifully crafted pistols filled with tiny details, bows and arrows, crossbows, swords and knives, as well as a cross that can protect you against certain enemies. At first glance, the game may appear fairly straightforward, but it is anything but that. This is another aspect of the experience that is absolutely fantastic. The longer you remain in a particular location, the more aggressive that place becomes toward you, essentially giving you a limited amount of time to complete your mission.
Everything may seem peaceful at first, until you hear an enemy growling somewhere nearby, encounter strange birds that begin screaming when you approach them and alert everything around you, start hallucinating and see your ordinary ox transformed into a horrifying mutant, or suddenly find yourself being attacked by zombies, grotesque insects and even the jungle itself.
Throughout all of this, your faithful ox and its cart will continue following you, leaving behind a trail leading back to the boat, where you ultimately need to return once you decide you are ready to end the mission.
After every completed mission and all the horrors you have endured, you receive a certain amount of XP that allows you to increase your rank and unlock various upgrades. You will be able to improve your weapons before an expedition, purchase items that make future expeditions easier, expand your inventory and much more. However, everything you acquire during an expedition is lost both if you die and once you successfully complete it. Still, every permanent upgrade proves useful, especially considering the impressive variety of enemies, which was definitely another reason I kept coming back for more. Finding a journal during an expedition can also unlock a new map.
It is worth mentioning that the game is not particularly friendly towards solo players. Yes, you are given an NPC companion, but the game becomes considerably easier and more forgiving when playing alone. With several players, however, it becomes incredibly entertaining, especially when a clone of one of you suddenly appears and confuses the entire group, or when an enemy seemingly kills you, only for you to wake up and start hunting your own teammates.
The Dark Beauty of the Unknown
Visually, this game is an absolute treat. The jungle is packed with detail and beautiful vegetation, and you will often find yourself surrounded by warm, peaceful colors, only for those same tones to gradually transform into something completely unnatural, cold and alien. The game does not attempt to make every environment constantly dark. Instead, the transformation happens gradually, almost as though the jungle itself were suddenly changing its mood, shifting from peaceful scenery into a foggy, rain soaked nightmare where you are surrounded by enemies, skulls and monumental structures that make you feel as though you have stepped into a place that no longer belongs to your world. The enemies have received just as much attention, and Lovecraft fans will find plenty to appreciate the more time they spend on expeditions. The sound design is equally impressive, something you will notice very quickly, as every rustle could signal your potential demise, which complements the atmosphere perfectly. From the very beginning, you feel as though you are not welcome here, as though something is constantly following you and almost playing with your mind, until you finally come face to face with the creatures that have been carefully watching your every move.
As We Near The End Of Our Expedition
In the end, I would absolutely recommend giving The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu a chance if you have a group of friends who enjoy a challenge, an excellent atmosphere and some genuinely great gameplay mechanics. Although the game’s difficulty can occasionally become frustrating, it is incredibly easy to spend hours increasing your rank, unlocking new things and repeating that eternal phrase ,,just one more expedition”, especially when you have good company along for the ride.
What separates it from many other co-op extraction games is the way it uses Lovecraft’s world as far more than a simple set. The gradually changing environments, hallucinations, unpredictable enemies and constant feeling that the jungle itself is reacting to your presence mean that even returning to a familiar location can turn into an entirely new nightmare. It is precisely this uncertainty that tempts you to take one more risk, stay for just a few more minutes and grab one more valuable item, even though you know perfectly well that this very greed could cost you the entire expedition.
Unfortunately, the solo experience does not fully showcase everything The Mound does best. Its true potential emerges when you gather a group of friends, divide responsibilities and collectively decide when it is finally time to stop pushing your luck and retreat to safety. That is when horror, chaos and unpredictability come together to create an experience that can be every bit as hilarious as it is tense.
We would like to thank NACON for providing us with a copy of the game for review purposes.
The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu (PC)
The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu may not actually make you lose your sanity, but it will very easily convince you to put it on the line for just one more expedition into the unknown. And for a game inspired by Lovecraft, it is difficult to imagine a more fitting compliment.
