Cairn

Given how stiff and QWOP-like it can look from the outside, climbing in Cairn feels surprisingly natural at first. The automatic limb selection and the movement of Aava's body are mostly intuitive: overextending loses your grip, awkward body positioning drains stamina, etc. But, I can't recommend the game because of the moments where that intuition fails. Aava is as capable of holding the splits in the rain while hanging off a sheer cliff face as she is in collapsing from exhaustion with two feet firmly planted on flat ground. Have a little bit of soup or apply some chalk and she's sticking to the wall again like Velcro. Is Aava's leg shaking because she's losing stamina and about to plummet to her death or is it just a graphic bug and you're totally secure? These little inconsistencies break what's otherwise a fairly immersive climber. I wouldn't mind as much if retrying after a fall was more fun than tedious, but I spent most of my time route-planning in the free-camera mode, zoomed in and sliding the view along rock faces trying to determine whether divots in the rock were possible holds or just painted-on texture. I feel less like I accomplished any climb as much as I simply got through it. The game would benefit greatly from both a more robust tutorial to learn about the otherwise-ambiguous mechanics and more feedback during a climb to show your current stamina and quality of your holds and positioning. Everything else about Cairn is fantastic! The world is gorgeous and interesting, and I ended up enjoying the walking and exploring more than the climbing. I completed the game because I was compelled by the bits of story and character interactions we get between the climbing challenges. But, if I'm recommending a climbing game, a mountain climbing game, or a difficult mountain climbing game with themes of intrapersonal struggle, there are other games I'd recommend instead.