Mownt: For Peace (IGMC 2017)

Mownt: For Peace is a tough game to describe…

Its technically a turn based RPG, but it doesn’t play like one. It has a bleak and pessimistic tone throughout which does lift occasionally, but only to leave things feeling bitter sweet at best. Its visuals are a jump up from the creators last game Three Ghostly Roses, but retain that games largely muted colour palette. Likewise, the music styling too is very similar to Three Ghostly Roses, feeling like some long lost John Carpenter B-Side album which really adds to the games opressive atmosphere.



Mownt: For Peace is a tough game to describe… without ruining it.

The less you know going in the better. What I can say is that the game focuses on a small community of insects called “Mownt”. In all honesty the species name is probably my least favorite thing about the game, if only for how awkward it is to say out loud. To the North of the community lies a colony of agressive ants and to the South lies an 8 legged wasp known as “The Clinger”. Trapped between conquerer’s and hunters, its your goal as one of these little Mownt’s to simply find a life of peace.



Finding peace in any other RPG is usually as simple as destroying whatever evil forces lurk in the dark, not so the case here. You get plenty of options as the player as to how you want to find peace. You can go solo into the rival ant communities hive and try to poison the queen, or you can go in as part of a bigger army and take her forces head on. Of course, you could always just try to flee the conflict entirely , either on your own or with your family should you choose to start one. These are all valid options and they all have consequenes, its how these consequences play with the games mechanics that make it really interesting.



Endings and deaths come fast and frequently. Each time you achieve one of these endings your characters new abilities and stats carry over into the next playthrough for a total of 8 (as far as I could tell) individual endings that all build on each other. The game is a microcosm of ideas and concepts that play with the cyclical nature of not just life, but video games as a media. How much of this is deliberate and how much is just a result of the games initial design or story concept is up in the air, but that makes it all even more interesting to me.



On a more technical level the game only uses a small number of maps, they are all interesting to look at and easy to navigate which is always nice. I did run into one small glitch with a “-3″ appeared on screen after a map transition and didnt go away until I enter a battle and there are a few typos throughout as well. It did however run well and sounded great. I also found a lot of the late game upgrades were rather unnecessary and didnt really help in combat all that much, my character ended up feeling quite overpowered in the end. While Three Ghostly Roses felt like it was designed to bring up memories of the NES, Mownt: For Peace feels a lot less specific, sitting somewhere between the 8bit and 16bit consoles in terms of visuals and sound design.



I absolutely recommed giving Mownt: For Peace a go. I dont think its overly bleak tone and message of futlity is for everyone, but as an entry for IGMC in particular I feel like the game packs enough philosphical and game design questions in its short one hour run time to make it worth a play for every budding young game designer, especially those interested in making RPGs that dont remotely feel like your bog standard typical RPG.