Do you remember the halcyon days, where we would hop on a couch or a Skype call (remember Skype?) to play Left 4 Dead together and mow down a bunch of zombies with our friends? Or the ancient time of yore, where we played through Resident Evil 4 (or Resident Evil Outbreak, relevant to this article) for the first time? Or, for the slightly younger, maybe you remember the primeval days in Project Zomboid, sweeping from house to house for supplies?
Have you ever longed for those days again?
If not — maybe you’re too young, or those were never your games of choice — then Whisper Mountain Outbreak will need a bit of selling. If so, however, skip the rest of this article and go wishlist Whisper Mountain Outbreak on Steam here. You can spend the time you’ll save playing the demo.
Now, for those still around, let me tell you about my time with Whisper Mountain Outbreak at PAX West 2024. While there, I joined Toge’s own Kris Antoni Hadiputra and Arya Wiryawan Wibowo to play the demo for the game. Before I arrived, I’d already played through it once alone, so that was my chance to play through the game as intended — cooperatively.
Immediately, I should clarify some earlier statements: Whisper Mountain Outbreak does have the aesthetic sensibilities and some skeletal aspects of Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil 4, and Project Zomboid. That is to say, it is a survival-horror, zombie-slaying experience, with some strange occult coding and denser lore than you might expect.
That said, while people who enjoyed those games are very likely to enjoy Whisper Mountain Outbreak, it is also a unique experience in-and-of itself. That is because, unlike those games, a large portion of Whisper Mountain Outbreak occurs on a tactical level. This was something I didn’t get playing alone, but I immediately understood playing with friends; accomplishing objectives and taking out enemies is best done by divvying responsibility and planning ahead.
And it’s all thanks to — of all things — resource management. Yes, I mean it.
Because, in Whisper Mountain Outbreak, everything is a resource, and no one person can manage them all.
Inventory is the first resource. After all, you only have 8 inventory slots, and between healing items, ammo, weapons, quest objectives, and miscellaneous supplies, those fill up quickly. And each of those items — most, especially ammo and healing items — are resources, valuable and scarce, so divvying them up effectively is mandatory. Quest objectives are resources, whether they take up an inventory slot, or simply require clear communication. And, worst of all, time is a resource.
And let me tell you about time as a resource.
In Whisper Mountain Outbreak, combat is not particularly punishing. This is important, as it allows you to spread out with your group in order to find everything you need in order to accomplish your objective and escape afterward. However, ever-looming is the timer. Not because there is an explicit time limit on the mission, but because, as time progresses, so too does the aggressiveness of your folklore-inspired, zombie-like enemies.
At first, this seems manageable. Let’s explore an example: A few minutes in to your mission to the hospital, one where you are going to try to eliminate the paranormal presence there, you might be attacked by a horde. That’s fine; you are pretty powerful in Whisper Mountain Outbreak, and so you can take on a few mindless hordes. But… Well, each time one attacks, it delays you. And then there is another delay: none of you can find the code to the door. Someone amongst you swears they came across it earlier, but it is nowhere to be found.
By the time you do finally locate it, ten minutes have passed, and another horde has borne down on you. There are still at least three more steps before the end of the mission, but you can feel the weight of time barelling toward you. And, because you are an expert agent in an elite zombie fighting force (in other words, you’ve played the game before), you know that you need to be quick. Something is coming.
You rush, opting to spread out far and wide to accomplish objectives, a decision that — if you don’t move quickly — might be the death of you. A teammate finds an item to unlock the next area. You find one of the final things you need to complete your mission — some dark, obscure ritual that will surely bring with it a wave of horrors.
But, then, a roar echoes through the halls.
You had just found the last thing you needed but, because of your earlier decision to spread out, you are nowhere near your friends. One of them yells out that they are being attacked by it. A second later, he is dead, too far away to reach. You run through the halls, desperate to rendevous at the ritual site, when your other friend is cut off. It is there. He does better, deals massive damage (so he says). But, inevitably, he is slain.
You make it back to the ritual room, and you can hear it behind you. You are alone, but maybe — just maybe — this will be the time you succeed. Just maybe you’ll be able to complete the ritual. But, just as you reach the pentagram scrawled onto the ground with blood, you see it. Amidst a horde of zombies, a huge monster with black tendrils behind it and a face that is just begging to consume your flesh charges forward.
You toss a grenade, and then another. Direct hits, but… they aren’t enough. The monster barrels forward, moving aside its zombie allies and coming straight for you. Your supplies of bullets and healing herbs — already low from the earlier onslaughts — wear thin, and eventually run out. And, as you desperately hope that your baseball bat is enough to take out the monstrosity, it leaps at you once more, delivering a final blow and leaving you dead on the ground.
And, with that, your mission is halted.
Now, doesn’t that sound exhilarating? There is a healthy mix of inspiration there — from the obviously Racoon-City inspired setting, to the co-op thrillfest of Left 4 Dead, to the time limitations from the burgeoning “extraction shooter” genre, and a million more — but ultimately Whisper Mountain Outbreak takes everything that works with those various games and puts them in a simple, heart-pounding, mad-rushing package that is everything I want to see in a co-op survival-horror experience.
By the end of my time with the game, even having fallen to the monster every single time, my heart-was racing, and a smile on my face must’ve given away my feelings towards it. “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time to play again,” Kris told me. And he’d guessed correctly — I wanted to say “one more time.” It’s always a good sign when you lose and still want to play more.
I had a feeling that he’d died somewhat on purpose, just to pit me against the monster alone, but I was fine with that. He got his message across. And he communicated to me exactly what the game was: a top-down, co-op game filled with tactics and suspense, where every resource counts and time — ever ticking down — is your most valuable commodity.
I haven’t even had a chance to touch on the dimly-lit aesthetics, the masterful level design, the Resident-Evil-style puzzles, or the little tidbits of story that I was able to piece together as I played. But, rest assured, each of those aspects only adds to the heart-pounding, goosebumps-inducing nature of the game. And, besides, those things you can see for yourself, through the demo, which is available on Steam here. While there, make sure to wishlist the game so that you can join me in taking down the hordes of undead when the game releases in 2025.
In the meantime, try not to get caught in the dark alone.
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Graves
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he'll try. When he isn't working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
