Every once in a while a game is released that instantly reminds me why I have always loved video games, and this is one of them. Genuinely beautiful game so far, that makes the slow act of climbing incredibly engaging

Cairn is everything I'd hoped it to be, and more. Nearly every aspect of the game reinforces its portrayal of climbing as a feat that is extremely demanding, and perhaps reckless. Everything is meant to keep you on edge and make you calculate your moves — and in its best moments, you feel just as stressed as Aava would be.

The tension is primarily kept up with two things. The first are the survival mechanics — you are on multiple timers (mostly Hunger and Thirst) simultaneously, all of the time, and you have to manage them to ensure you're in best shape to continue climbing. The second is simply Aava herself. Every shake of a limb, every vocalization of pain helps convey the struggle and put you in her place.

The sound design in general deserves a lot of praise, both in effects and in music. The weather sounds just as oppressive as it should, and the soundscape does a good job at immersing the player. The soundtrack by The Toxic Avenger really elevates the setpieces, and the ambience (both ambient music, and general nature sounds) are pleasant to the ear.

Admittedly I'm still conflicted on what the story meant to convey, there are still a lot of things that I need to mull over, but to me the narrative was one of what we're willing to sacrifice for what we define as parts of ourselves. I'm baffled by the discourse surrounding Aava being unlikeable though — like, yeah, that's the point??? Main characters being disagreeable and not someone you'd root for isn't anything new for The Game Bakers, let alone media in general (see also: Breaking Bad and Moby ♥♥♥♥). Yet this set people off for reasons I cannot even fathom.

Onto the cons:

• The auto limb select sucks, straight up. The game is impossible to play without having to correct with manual select at least once at every wall. The algorithm for choosing limb priority is flawed and has a worrying consistency at being wrong.
  
• The "tiring" system sometimes doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Positions that look fine will exhaust Aava, and something seemingly inhuman will allow you to catch your breath. It can catch you off-guard and cause you to panic.
  
• Despite how much emphasis the game puts onto the weather, and it being very effective in terms of aesthetics, it ends up not really affecting the gameplay. I never felt affected by the wind or the cold, the fog basically doesn't exist, and I think the rain makes surfaces slippery, but I barely felt that. It ends up just kind of... being there.

Jusant, step aside. The boss has entered.

Summing up the current:
2+ hours played so far
+2 hours in the demo, which hooked me immediately and made me throw it straight into the wishlist.
A year of waiting for the release, with delays along the way.
A French team that sweated over this project for 3 to 5 years, depending on diff sources.
And what can I say.

So far it looks like Game of the Year material.
Maybe not a straight-up “Game of the Year” title, unless Gabe suddenly takes mercy and releases HL3, or Playground somehow doesn’t screw up Fable, but it absolutely looks like a strong contender for “Indie of the Year”.

First: the climbing mechanics. Control here is extremely precise down to every movement, the controls are comfortable, animations are smooth, and the sense of the character’s body weight and that constant “one more slip and you’re done” feeling is spot on.

Second: you actually have to plan and survive. I liked Jusant, it have its charm, but that’s a pleasant, casual, beautiful fantasy story (also by the French, by the way). But here we have a hardcore game. Hunger can kill you, thirst can kill you, cold can kill you, falling and cracking your skull is very much an option, and resources are not infinite. Yes, there are plenty of consumables around that can be crafted or cooked into something useful/what you can eat, but you still have to find them. You can bandage each finger separately, cook food out of whatever crap you scavenge nearby, the weather changes, and there’s a day-night cycle. I can already imagine what awaits higher up the mountain: far more aggressive cold, far fewer resources.

Third: unexpectedly, the game actively rewards curiosity and exploration. If you like climbing somewhere extra or slipping into some side passage where a bonus, a perk, a bit of lore, or maybe vital survival resources are waiting for you, this is your place. I was trained from childhood on Deus Ex and Thief, so I’m the kind of player who loves poking around off the critical path, into caves or cracks, just to happily find loot or a fragment of story. It’s a great feeling when developers in games like this give you a knowing nod that says, “Yes, we expected you here, you curious little bastard. We added this specifically for the 5% of players like you. Here, have some loot and a medal, you my playful fool.” And you grin at the monitor with that warm sense of pride from a dopamine hit. I mean, that’s why we play games, right?

Fourth:atmosphere. Ambient sounds play, you’re in a tent on a high cliff, a pot is heating water, wind tears at the tent, and rain rages outside. The game is quite tense, yet it always finds moments like these where you can breathe and relax. That cost too much, especially after hard day at work - boot up your PC or console, relax, take yourself into different world or situation or....I mean, that’s why we play games too, right??

Fifth: the sense of progress. A strange plus, but there’s something powerful in it. Look at Half-Life 2: you constantly see the Citadel. With every step, it gets closer and closer. The entire journey behind you feels like one big adventure toward a single goal, almost a road movie, and that goal is always in front of your eyes. The Talos Principle 2 is built around this idea. Stealth games live off it entirely, take Styx (French game again!) or Thief 2 with its massive Mechanists’ Tower. Here, it’s a huge mountain. From the very start at its base, there’s a feeling that you’ll never conquer this thing. With every cliff you climb, the summit feels closer and closer, the goal more achievable than before. This is wired into our DNA, really. I think this is the psychology of climbing itself.

Sixth: minimalism. Before Cairn, I booted up BF6, and the 50 tabs in the main menu, the notifications, battle passes, battle pass points, whatever those even are, gave me a headache. I honestly don’t understand 60% of the menu. It feels like someone took a dump all over it. So many elements, so much clutter, and I only ever use five of them. I just want to run around and shoot some tanks after work, not grind battle pass points. This isn’t even a dig at BF6. The poor series just became a victim of trends. Most games are like this now, even ones that aren’t live services.
And what a relief it is to launch Cairn and see a clean main menu with four neat tabs, no unnecessary crap, a tidy interface that doesn’t cover half the screen. Want to support the developer? Here’s a separate Deluxe page that clearly tells you what you get. It sounds weird, but when I bought the game, I paid for that too. Not for a menu-induced headache of “uhhh, I just want to drive some tanks… where do I go… where are the settings… okay… and where’s the server browser…?”. That just a dev respect to players basic principle.

Good games are experiences.
And the experience Cairn offers is special, because the project is genuinely unique and currently has no real equal. Sorry, Jusant, you’re good in your own way. DontNod, we love you, no hard feelings.

If you don’t want to crack your skull in real life while climbing mountains, you can do it here instead.

My only complaint, and the developers probably won’t read this anyway, but ill try - is that I really love to see a Ukrainian text localization. I’d really love for more people from the Ukrainian community to get familiar with a project like this.

Otherwise, of course:


P.S.
As a small bonus:
If you enjoy the atmosphere of this game, I highly recommend checking out the French (again!) animated film Le Sommet des Dieux (2021). It’s based on a Japanese manga, so the film feels like an intriguing blend of Eastern and Western cultures. The theme and atmosphere are very similar to the Cairn: it’s about a person’s journey toward a dream, about living in the moment, and about how all of that can justify the all this risks (which is quite controversial for many).