Title: Whisper Mountain Outbreak
Developer: Toge Productions
Publisher: Toge Productions
Release Date: August 11th, 2025 [early access]
Platforms: PC
Reviewed on: Steam
Price: TBD

Remember when Resident Evil tried to do co-op? While Resident Evil 5 held up well and still a fan-favorite, Resident Evil 6 was the game that had Capcom pushing the reset button. But why am I talking about Resident Evil? Well, Toge Productions has been hard at work (as usual) to develop and/or publish a diverse portfolio including titles like Coffee Talk (cozy, visual novel), Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly (cozy, visual novel), A Space for the Unbound (story rich adventure), Kriegsfront Tactics (turn base tactics), and Moses & Plato: Last Train to Clawville (detective/mystery). Today we talk about Whisper Mountain Outbreak, Toge Productions’ answer to horror and co-op greatness. While giving off Resident Evil vibes, this game holds its own identity while taking me for a while ride.

Summary

Whisper Mountain Outbreak takes place in the late 1990s. You must work with B.R.I.M, an agency set to uncover the secrets of, but more importantly, escape, the horrors unleashed from Mount Bisik when a mining facility disrupted an ancient ruin.

When the ruins were disturbed, a fog descended from the mountain and impacted residents, causing them to hallucinate–hearing whispers and seeing monsters. From there, many descended into madness, and turning into vessels of their own insanity and rage.

Work with friends to survive various areas in the Mt. Bisik area in this co-op PvE isometric, pixel-art, horror survival game.

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Analysis

Gameplay

At a high level, Whisper Mountain Outbreak functions well as a survival horror game. Supplies are limited, and there are dangers lurking around every possible corner. It is set up with a player “base” where you must first choose your character type, aka. specialty. You are given three randomized options such as Firefighter, Sprinter, and Rookie Agent. Each come with their own strengths and weaknesses. Once your friends have joined the fray, you select a level to travel to. This base is available after the success of each level or after dying. At this base, you can craft items and upgrade your skills (e.g. melee, healing ability, etc).

At present, Early Access provides eight levels with three mission types at locations such as a clinic, market, and more. Each mission carries its own challenges and possible loot such as more powerful weapons. At the start of each level, you have a mission, a map, and numerous enemies and puzzles that stand in your way. The puzzles are reminiscent of Resident Evil. While most aren’t too hard, I believe that is intentional as the challenge actually lies with the ever-present threat of monsters that barrel in and kill you. That’s why it’s important to balance your roles in co-op (one does puzzles while the other shoots down threats) because even when it seems quiet, there are occasions enemy hoards that can storm the area at any time. This adds a unique and fun twist that has taught me several cruel lessons to converse my ammo and grenades. It was an absolute joy to pick locks or radio-in codes to my partner as we oscillated between traveling together and splitting up.

The controls were early to learn–you can walk, sprint, dash, use a melee weapon, aim and fire a firearm, and use proximity chat. While aiming and firing a gun at first was hard to maneuver in an isometric view and a controller (I can only imagine mouse and keyboard may have been mildly easier); however, after playing (and dying) a few times, I finally got used to the fact that the reticle needed to merely in the direction of the monster. As long as the monster was in range, the bullet(s) would normally land.

One important thing to note is stamina. It is a limiting factor that Resident Evil generally didn’t leverage (Resident Evil 6 is the exception), and this inclusion allowed for added challenge. I couldn’t just sprint my way back to the B.R.I.M vehicle or bash the monster in the skull indefinitely in order to consume ammo.

Whisper Mountain Outbreak also leans heavily on randomization. This is intended to extend the player experience after several runs, and I felt the options for randomization–specialization, level, puzzle piece placements, item drops–were appropriate. I especially liked the several specializations you could select for your character.

I will note that the randomization aspect caused my friend and I temporary confusion during the first few levels. There were instances where he’d notify me of an item I needed, but when I traveled to the location, we learned that the item was different for me than it was for him. For example, he saw SMG bullets on his screen and knew I had the right gun for it. When I look at the same item, it was revolver ammo. Again, it was temporary confusion as there are images in the map to detail the item, and once we realized we had our own randomized items, we moved on and playing according to that knowledge.

Overall, the gameplay is solid. It was easy to create a room for co-op, and the level design was simple yet impactful. I did notice during this playthrough, there is no meta progression, which can be a major bummer; however, I did read in the developer notes that meta progression is planned during the games’ full release.

Art and Music

Whisper Mountain Outbreak is an excellent example of how pixel-art can still bring the spooky vibes. The art style is detailed, from the monster design or the pulsating…red things on the walls. The quality truly speaks to the fact that you don’t need realistic graphics to induce a visceral reaction to the game. The isometric view proved to work in the games’ favor. An isometric view is a limiting one, and sometimes it can be hard to see what’s around that corner or on the other side of the room before of how your character is oriented. You can easily shift directions, exposing the mysterious corners, and I held my breath a few times in anticipation of what I may find. It took getting used to, especially aiming a melee weapon in that view, but the dev team made it work and work well.

The sound design matches the theming of the game. It is eerie and yet not intrusive when communicating with my partner. Like with the art style, the sound design helps fully immerse myself in the cursed world known as Mt. Bisik.

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Final Score

There is a reason why I look forward to Toge Production’s games: their high-quality and personality. Whisper Mountain Outbreak pays homage to one of the greatest survival horror (and sometimes action) franchise in gaming history, Resident Evil, and it not only does so with respect and quality, but Toge secures enough of its own identity within the game to make it stand strong on its own.

To recap, some great tributes to Resident Evil are the puzzles, map system, breakable crates containing items, green herbs to restore your health, focus on inventory management, and the green-yellow-red health bar. If your partner is down, you have a limited time to revive them.

Whisper Mountain Outbreak manages to hold its own with the aforementioned enemy hordes, eastern influences on enemies, lore, and world-building, isometric point-of-view, and art design. There is also in-game proximity chat that really pulls the strings of immersion together.

There is little critique I am able to offer at this time, especially with the consideration that this is an Early Access game. According to the dev team, their future plans include more story elements, upgrades, equipment, enemies, mission and level, and meta progression. All of these things really would be the cherry on top of a game that clearly laid a strong foundation; therefore, it is an easy 4.5 out of 5, and I have every plan to play its full release and revise that score!

To close, this may be my personal favorite game in Toge Productions’ portfolio to date. If you love Resident Evil, co-op games, and/or a highly stylized game with some fun randomization, I can’t recommend Whisper Mountain Outbreak enough.

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Source: Toge Productions via Steam
Featured Image Source: Toge Productions