Now, I did not plan this. When I reviewed Layers of Fear and talked about how terrible of a game it was, I did not plan to review another indie horror game right after it. This is just a happy accident. A very happy accident because Mundaun is an amazing game and the perfect thing to play after being nearly bored to sleep by Layers of Fear! And one I was not expecting given that until a couple days before picking the game up, I hadn’t even heard of Mundaun. It completely flew under my radar when it was originally released back in 2021, but much like Layers of Fear, an updated version was released and that’s when I finally picked it up. And like I was saying before, I am so very happy I did!

Mundaun comes from developer Hidden Fields, a game studio based in Lucerne, Switzerland. They developed Mundaun and another game called The Colony which I really can’t find much information about. Regardless, just going off Mundaun, this is a strong start for the small studio as this is one of the more gripping horror games I’ve played in awhile!

I bring up Hidden Fields not only to give them a shout out, but to let you know that they are a small indie developer. In a previous post I talked about how indie horror games can very much be a mixed bag. Sometimes they are striking and innovative, and other times they are just chasing tends or are nothing but jump scares. And while it doesn’t fall perfectly into either of these descriptions, Mundaun falls closer to the former for sure. So while it isn’t the most innovative game, it is very striking! Something you can probably see from just a single screen shot of the game.

This is Mundaun‘s biggest drawing point and it’s certainly a good one. The entire game has a hand drawn look to it despite being a 3D game. This visual style goes a long way honestly and does more for the game than just making it stand out. Super realistic graphics can be very impressive to see in any game, but a lot of times they can also just be boring or bland if the game doesn’t have much else going for it. But above all else, sometimes realistic graphics don’t do anything to make a game more scary. For instance, most real life objects aren’t all that scary regardless of how much blood you put on them but that isn’t the case with Mundaun. The hand drawn look of everything really can be creepy all on it’s own! Regular places and objects suddenly become unnerving and unsettling to look at. So you can probably imagine how effective the art style is for things that are actually meant to be scary!

I’m honestly kind of surprised we haven’t seen this art style tried before, or at the very least I haven’t seen it, because it works at giving Mundaun a unique look while also just being plain scary! The only thing I can think of that might have stopped people in the past is that it can be a bit of a strain on the eyes. When I first started playing, I did feel a bit of discomfort just looking at the game. But after pushing through that my eyes did adjust and seeing the game was no problem at all! So hopefully that will be the case for anyone else that struggles a bit with the style at the beginning because the visuals really are just the start of things with Mundaun!

I’m honestly not sure how much I should talk about when it comes to the story of the game. Unlike with Layers of Fear, I actually enjoyed the story here and I’d rather not spoil too much of it. So I think I’ll stick with just talking about the set up for the story instead of going too in depth with it!

In Mundaun, you play as Curdin who is returning to his hometown, named Mundaun, located in a valley by the Alps after hearing about his grandfather’s untimely death. It appears Curdin’s grandfather burned to death in his barn, but the moment he arrives it’s clear there is more going on than that! After stepping into a painting depicting the fire that took his grandfather’s life, Curdin meets the ‘Old Man’, a shady other worldly figure who seems to be the true cause of his grandfather’s death. And from there, it’s up to Curdin, and the player, to figure out what is really going on before Mundaun and everyone in it is swallowed up by the evil that took his grandfather!

While not the most original or groundbreaking story, it’s still was a good one all the way through! More than good enough to keep me going for the eight hours that it took for me to beat the game. And unlike something like Layers of Fear, sorry I keep going back to that game but it is a good reference point, Mundaun has a lot more going for it than just it’s story. It actually has some compelling and fun game play to go along with it! And while it isn’t exactly groundbreaking, just like the story, I very much enjoyed my time with it.

Unlike a lot of indie horror games, Mundaun actually has some combat and survival elements to it! Both don’t go too deep but they go deep enough that neither felt like an after thought or something thrown in just to try and set the game apart. The game is basically sectioned off into levels starting with your grandfather’s barn and house, then to the chapel and surrounding area, and then further up the valley until you reach near the snowy peak! They game isn’t exactly large, again I beat it in about eight hours give or take, but it still manages to give you a lot of variety with it’s different locations and each area changes up the game play as well!

Beyond just having every area look different, each area also has their own enemies that roam around in them, most of which need to be dealt with in different ways. This makes going to a new area both scary and exciting! On one hand you’re getting to see an all new area in that amazing hand drawn style and are getting a fresh new enemy type to deal with, but on the other hand you also are going to have to figure out how this new enemy type works and how to deal with them while adjusting to any changes in the environment. This is the kind of horror game I really like! The kind where the scares don’t just come from the subtle stuff or the jump scares, and Mundaun does have both, but also from the stress and tension that comes with dealing with a new threat. Stuff like this is always far more compelling to me than walking from one place to another just to have something jump out at you. And while Mundaun does have some scares like that, they feel far more earned when they aren’t the only way the game scares you. And beyond that, while a spooky village isn’t exactly original, one in the Alps is! You don’t see a lot of horror games set in snowy areas and I wish more were because it can be very spooky as Mundaun shows us here! And it’s not completely over done like hospitals or insane asylums or spooky mansions or schools. Why haven’t more horror games tried this before? There’s so much creative potential! But that’s probably a topic saved for another time.

One last thing I want to praise about the game beyond it’s game play, story, and art design is it’s length. Eight hours might seem short but it’s kind of the perfect length for a lot of horror games. I’ve spoken a bit on this in the past when discussing game length, but horror games in particular benefit a ton from being shorter than most other games. Mundaun never over stays it’s welcome. I never got tired or bored while playing it, and I certainly never said to myself that I hoped it would be ending soon! But I also wasn’t upset when it did end. While I may go back and attempt to get one of the other endings, right now I am very happy stepping away from the game as I’m more than satisfied! I mainly wanted to bring this up since I know some people might be turned away from spending money on a shorter game which I can totally understand. And yeah, if you want something that will last you a long time then you may not want to pick up Mundaun, but if that’s the case then I’m guessing you weren’t looking for a horror game to begin with. Mundaun is $20 on the PS5 and I think that is a pretty great price for it! It’s a bit cheaper on the PS4 and PC, so maybe you’d want to pick it up there, but I was more than fine with paying $20 for this game. _{It’s also on Xbox and Switch if you’d like to play it there!} Because Mundaun, and a lot of other horror games, are a lot more about the experience than trying to get more bang for your buck. And I hope after everything I’ve spoken about so far that you might be interested in experiencing the game yourself! Especially if you hadn’t heard about the game until this post or just recently like I had.

Mundaun is truly a hidden gem. It’s one of those games you find long after it’s original release that makes you go, “How am I only hearing about this now?!” But hopefully this post will help change that! Or at the very least convince one or two people to check the game out because Mundaun really deserves more recognition. While it’s not the greatest horror game ever made and probably won’t be life changing to anyone, it is an awesome horror experience that clearly had lots of love and care put into it! And for that, it truly deserves to be more than just a hidden gem.

But those are just my thoughts! What are some of yours? Had you heard of Mundaun before this post? If not, are you thinking about giving it a try now? I’d love to hear your thoughts so don’t be shy!

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