Cairn

Cairn was a game I actually had discovered through steam’s calendar recommendation which has a been a nifty tool in finding a bunch of nicher games that I otherwise would probably overlook. Though judging from sales and reviews I think Cairn was actually pretty popular, it just went under my radar.

The reason why I got interested in this game is that for some reason I found myself on a climbing game kick? Not that I would even call it that since the only other climbing game I played was Peaks of Yore, but I actually have really liked climbing in games in general. Mostly because I find it fun to reach new heights and looking down from high up (though I’m too scared to climb IRL).

Of course though, Cairn is a very, very, very, different kind of climbing game. Peaks of Yore is almost like an arcade game with how you can zoom through maps but Cairn requires you to be a lot more cautious. That is also in addition to the survival mechanics which require you to also think about while embarking on climbs.

You also control your limbs one by one, which is an interesting way to sort of mimic climbing? No idea how realistic it is (in terms of the actual climbing) but it definitely prevents some of the crazy stuff I could do in Peaks of Yore.

What was cool about it is that how it felt like the developers put a lot of emphasis on making the climbing aspects feel natural. And by that I mean the auto limb selection made you feel like even though you weren’t “climbing” that much, you actually ended up climbing a lot. It’s an almost zen like experience planning out your climbing path and executing it. The survival mechanics I felt were also never so intrusive that it felt like I had to really struggle with them, except for the very end of the game.

Now, there were some things I had complaints about with the climbing aspects. It boils down to a few things, namely how placing limbs worked. You are encouraged to find cracks/holds/good spots to rest your limbs on which makes sense. But due to the camera angles, this was sometimes incredibly annoying when Aava would block the view. Sometimes the limb also wouldn’t grab the hold/crack I expect it to grab which would cause me to have to try to constantly place it in the right spot.

This is in combination with sometimes it felt like the weight distribution system felt very off. There were many locations where I felt that I had a strong hold, legs on a crack, arms on a crack, sufficiently spread out, but the character would shake and eventually drop. I could only assume that one of the cracks that I had thought was stable was not. This was rather rare though, I found that for the most part the game does a good job indicating when you were in a stable/unstable position (combined with common sense).

There were also a few animation bugs where Aava’s legs would freak out and clip into the wall, which fine, given the freeform structure of climbing I could accept. What was annoying though was sometimes when you think you were above a flat stable surface and decided to jump off, Aava would just leap off the entire cliff. This happened a few times, which was frustrating to lose progress due to something that felt like should not have happened. I found that the auto climb for ledge system also sometimes didn’t function, leading me to have to practically spider climb onto the flat surface before Aava would detect that yes, I am on a flat surface she can stand on.

But overall, the gameplay was good. It was fun, strangely addicting, and smooth. The story I thought was… good? I would hesitate to say bad, but there were also aspects of it that I didn’t enjoy.

For starters, I think the themes of the game were very good. I thought they did a good job showing the struggles/pursuit of someone who wanted to focus whole heartedly on their one goal, in this case, Aava with climbing the mountain. I liked how you’re not exactly supposed to like her, she dismisses the people who supported her and she really is just focused on accomplishing her one goal. She ignores her sponsors, her girlfriend, and she pursues her goal relentlessly. Despite the infrequent dialogue, they did a good job conveying that with how she progresses through the mountain.

Where I did find some annoyances was how the game would sometimes force you into cutscenes and interrupt the flow of climbs. At the start I thought they did a good job with messages playing on the climbot allowing you to progress while listening. But later on, they start forcing you into these cutscenes that really took me out of the climbing flow. I wish the conversations were better integrated so that it didn’t require a full blown cutscene instead.

Spoilers for the ending ahead!

I also felt the ending was a little bit of a miss for me. The climb into the stars is “cool”, but I would’ve much preferred a more bittersweet ending. An ending where Aava just quietly lies there would’ve in my opinion, played better into the themes of how she focused so much on her goal that was ultimately meaningless. Nobody will know that she made it, and only she will know for her own self satisfaction.

Anyways, that’s all to say I did like this game. I have some complaints with the delivery of the story, but I think the story as a whole was good and I liked the gameplay. It was relaxing, fun, and despite being different from Peaks of Yore, I had a lot of time exploring the mountain. Also the freelook review of your path was really cool!