As I mentioned in my last review of a game set within H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, there are no shortage of titles inspired by his work. The Mound, however, attempts to do something a little different. Most games drawing from the Mythos cast you as an investigator slowly losing your sanity while unraveling an unspeakable mystery. The Mound instead puts you in the boots of a band of treasure hunters venturing to a mysterious island in search of unimaginable riches, only to uncover the dark secrets of an ancient civilization along the way.

A sanity system will change your perspective on the world. Not creative, but gets the job done.

The Mound is a four-player cooperative horror experience in which you and three friends venture into a hostile wilderness, gathering as much loot as possible before escaping the dark forest that threatens to consume you. Before each mission, you’ll board your ship to choose from a selection of contracts, each of which determines the loadout you’ll take into the expedition. You can distribute equipment amongst your teammates or stash it on the cart before setting off. You’ll also be able to spend your hard-earned coins on a handful of supplies that may improve your odds of survival.

Completing a contract unlocks higher difficulty versions that offer greater rewards, and there doesn’t seem to be much of a penalty for failing one. Unfortunately, those rewards are fairly underwhelming. Your currency has very few meaningful uses beyond buying a limited selection of supplies, and you can’t really fine-tune your loadout in any significant way, making progression feel surprisingly shallow.

Once you arrive on a map, your objective is simple: escort the cart through the wilderness, gather as much loot as possible, and survive whatever dangers stand in your way. To eventually reach the titular Mound, you’ll need to complete expeditions, collect enough treasure to level up, and gradually unlock new regions. Along the way, journals scattered throughout the world flesh out the game’s lore, while clearing each major area opens the path to the next. The progression system is generally solid, but the rather slow XP gain means you’ll need to grind more than I’d have liked. It’s not a dealbreaker, but the pacing could definitely have been a little faster.

Each of the game’s regions is absolutely massive, packed with caves, hidden paths, abandoned forts, and the crumbling ruins of an ancient civilization. It’s easily one of The Mound‘s strongest qualities, constantly rewarding players who are willing to venture off the beaten path. That said, exploration isn’t entirely carefree. Expeditions are timed, and once the clock runs out, you’ll need to extract quickly as your health begins to drain. With environments this sprawling, it’s remarkably easy to lose your bearings, and even harder to find your way back, especially during the opening hours while you’re still learning the game’s layout.

Be prepared to see this… a lot.

The gameplay, at its best, is perfectly functional. Most of the time, it works exactly as you’d expect: hit an enemy enough times and it will eventually go down. However, there are moments when enemies barely react to your attacks, leaving you awkwardly trading blows with little sense of impact. It makes combat feel clunky and unresponsive more often than it should. Instant-kill backstabs can also be frustratingly inconsistent. You’ll eventually gain access to ranged weapons as well, from bows to firearms. Guns deal tremendous damage, but there’s a catch: they can’t be reloaded while it’s raining.

One mistake is all it takes to ruin an otherwise successful expedition. To call The Mound punishing would be an understatement. Between the expedition timer, the sheer variety of environmental hazards and enemies, and the overwhelming odds you’ll often face, the game seems determined to end your run at every opportunity. Charging headfirst into combat is almost always a bad idea, as even two or three enemies can prove lethal if you’re playing solo. And just when you think you’ve got everything under control, The Mound throws another obstacle into the mix: a sanity system.

Where The Mound truly shines is with its surprisingly inventive sanity system, one that interacts with multiplayer in genuinely interesting ways. The longer you spend wandering its dark forests, the more your mind begins to unravel. Enemies may briefly appear where there are none, blood can suddenly start pouring from the sky before vanishing without warning, mirages of valuable treasure lure you off course, and the world itself grows increasingly grotesque as your sanity slips away.

The most interesting part, however, is how these hallucinations affect cooperative play. The eldritch forces haunting the island will imitate your teammates, using their appearances or even their voices to lure you into danger. It’s an incredibly effective twist on the traditional sanity mechanic, and one of the few implementations of the concept that has genuinely impressed me after being critical of it in so many other games.

Nope nope nope.

While The Mound can be played solo, I wouldn’t recommend it. Its core gameplay loop simply isn’t engaging enough to justify the price of admission without a group of friends. Constantly running back and forth to the cart to unload your loot becomes far more tedious (and considerably more dangerous) when you’re on your own. An AI companion is available and can occasionally distract enemies, but it offers very little value beyond that, as it can’t even help carry your loot. Playing with randoms is a bit of a mixed bag as well, as uncooperative, gung-ho teammates can easily become more of a hindrance than the enemies themselves. Thankfully, the server browser is solid enough to make finding players who speak the same language relatively straightforward.

As a whole, The Mound is an interesting game filled with good ideas, but they never quite come together in a way that makes it truly special. It eventually becomes overly repetitive, and while I generally enjoy punishing games, many of its deaths feel more cheap than challenging.

Beneath the layer of visual sludge so often associated with Unreal Engine 5 (aggressive post-processing, underwhelming performance, and that instantly recognizable look), the game still manages to craft a remarkably dense jungle that’s absolutely dripping with atmosphere. The enemy designs are excellent, and I genuinely found myself on edge throughout much of the adventure.

Caves pretty much demand someone to bring a light source.

From the very first moment you step into one of The Mound‘s environments, its atmosphere makes a strong impression. Trees are packed densely together, their branches rustling as you cautiously make your way through the forest, while the game’s caves are appropriately pitch-black, forcing you or one of your teammates to rely on a lantern to navigate safely. Meanwhile, the sound design does a solid job immersing you in the experience with unsettling ambient noises and clever auditory hallucinations that toy with your senses, occasionally even mimicking your teammates through the game’s voice chat to lure you away from the group.

If you’re looking for a solid cooperative horror experience, The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu has plenty to offer thanks to its inventive sanity system and genuinely tense, sprawling environments. At the same time, it can become repetitive as you’re asked to revisit the same maps and face the same enemies over and over again. There’s clearly the foundation for something great here, but Omen of Cthulhu doesn’t quite reach that potential yet. Bring a couple of friends and you’ll likely have a good time, but if you’re planning to tackle it solo, I’d give it a pass.

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is available now on PC, Xbox Series and PlayStation 5. 

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070, Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 32GB RAM. 

A copy of The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu was provided by the publisher.