Cairn, Climbing Made Fun

PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Cairn is a game that perfectly delivers the pulse pounding action of slow and meticulous decision making by painstakingly placing each limb one at a time.

Replayability seems high, with an interesting cocktail of chill and stress as your character huffs and puffs in your ear. There’s a demo on steam where you can complete the first basic climb in under half an hour, so you can decide whether the concept is for you or not.

Here’s the loop. Plan a route or don’t! Then climb a cliff controlling one limb at a time to make your way up. Stretching out too much or getting into bad positions makes your character start to freak out and eventually fall. A working knowledge of how humans work will prove invaluable in your quest for success. A limited number of Pitons and a quick time event allow you to anchor your position and take a break. Failure during the quick events ruins pitons for future use. Hike a little bit, gather some fresh water and maybe a few supplies for the next leg. Camp, repair your pitons and make a meal for buffs and continue on.

Judging by a few reviews by people who might know what they’re talking about the game is quite faithful to the mechanics and techniques used in actual rock climbing, that is if your legs could clip through each other and a robot can pick up all the stuff you leave behind.

The freedom of the mechanics are like a loving long term relationship. Doing the same route over and over again with a little experimentation can be exhilarating.

The devs did a little competition comparing routes people did in the demo and apparently the level designer was bamboozled at what some people were able to achieve, which I think shows the level of adaptability and freedom this game allows, pretty rare in climbing game.

Between each climb is the chance to wander a little and gather ingredients for meals that offer buffs, the inventory bag system is both a nightmare and pretty accurate as far I’m concerned.

Camping also makes time pass so you have to consider whether you want to be climbing at night or not.

You should add it to your wishlist so it can harass you to buy it for four times a year for a decade before you finally cave and buy it for a dollar.