The Story of Mundaun: A Game Review

Spoken in Romansh in the Swiss Alps, Mundaun is both horrifying and delightful when it’s all said and done.

You start off the game with a blazing fire, setting your grandfather’s home ablaze. From there, things only get worse and much more weird and/or creepy. With a day/night cycle, the hand-drawn game really comes to life as enemies do as well from haybales.

The haybales attack you with straw, and the more you get hit, the slower you are able to move until you die from…being stuffed with hay? I can only guess what happens to your character when the death screen pops up.

There are interesting mechanics in the game. One in particular was obtaining a vehicle, because let’s be honest, walking in the alps is not ideal if you’re in a hurry to find out why your grandpa’s house was mysteriously set ablaze. This mechanic is not explained in the game, so you have to find out on your own (which adds to the survival aspect of the game). You will see posters of vehicles at certain areas. What you have to do it stare longingly into the poster, and a vehicle will arrive. Weird, but effective.

You also obtain a goat’s head to carry with you, as well as meet a little girl that travels in the vehicle with you. Why? Apparently, you also need to collect hay while haybales are trying to kill you.

The alps must be a rough place to live.

But, what makes this game shine is when the story finally comes together as you discover where the little girl lives and why.

You travel through a tunnel until you get to a hidden bunker. Within the bunker, an eccentric, old, and loud man not only thanks you for returning his granddaughter to the bunker, but also thanks you for returning the love of his life – the goat head you’ve been carrying around.

I wanted to leave immediately.

But, apparently, there is a story to be told by this man dressed as a soldier. As it turns out, this delirious man holding a goat’s head while another live goat is in the room with him (stuck to a wall by the way), knew your grandfather. And your grandfather was also a soldier alongside this interesting man.

But why the bunker? Why the goat’s head? Why everything that has presented itself in this game so far as being well crafted yet very odd?

Well, looks like dear old grandpappy was in a losing battle in a war. In order to survive, the soldiers each made a pact with a mysterious man and the man caused an avalanche in order to take out the incoming soldiers.

Of course, there was a catch – this mysterious man was the devil in disguise and held that moment over those soldiers as a debt to eventually be paid in return once the time was right. Ever since then, the seemingly crazed old man in the bunker hid with others in order to avoid facing the devil’s wrath when the time came.

But to my surprise, as the game progresses, we find out what really happened. Y’see, the old soldier was not lying to us – the mysterious devil man was. As it turns out, those approaching soldiers in the distance were really just toy figurines. But the devil used that in order to spook the soldiers to gain their trust.

It’s at this point, you’re probably wondering what happens next, but with the game being quite the shorter experience, I encourage you to find out what happens when we see through the lies and deception of the devil and decide not to make the pact that ultimately killed our grandfather.

Overall, the game is very good, and worth the full playthrough if you get the chance. Right now as of this writing, you can get Mundaun on Steam for $20. I also believe you can get it on the Playstation, but I play most of my games on my little laptop that is probably about to die at any moment. Maybe a triple A title will finally set it off? Who knows! But I thank all of you for reading my reviews.