Review
Annie here!
If you're not playing Cairn, what are you even doing. This game released about a week ago and it's making waves, for good reason. We normally try to showcase "undiscovered" games on the newsletter, but we just have to talk about this one.
In Cairn, you play as Aava, an experienced mountain climber, as she attempts to scale Kami, a mountain never-before-conquered and responsible for claiming the lives of over a hundred climbers. Along the way we begin to understand Aava's character, her extraordinary determination and how much she'll sacrifice to achieve her goals.
But it's not all story. Cairn features a robust climbing simulation mechanic that, as someone with a tiny bit of bouldering experience, really gets you in the mindset of a climber.
Alright that's enough preamble, let's get INTO IT.
Gameplay
The developers came up with something really cool here.
The climbing system in Cairn is limb-based, making it super simple. All you have to do is move the stick to move a limb, and press a button to place it once you've found the right spot. An automatic system selects which limb to move based on a variety of factors (though you can also manually select one). This means the loop is just: move limb, place limb. Move limb, place limb. Simple, right? Well, yes, but now add in all the nuance that comes along with rock climbing. We're not climbing perfectly vertical ladders with evenly-spaced rungs. As you climb, you'll notice Aava's body respond to the placement of her hand- and footholds. Her weight shifts dynamically as you move, and certain limbs will get tired or slip altogether based on how comfortable or secure the grip is. The game uses a variety of visual and auditory cues to inform you of how Aava's feeling. You'll begin to notice intuitively when her grip is weakening or off-balance. You'll naturally know when to take breaks to recover stamina, or when you're at risk of falling. I found that as I played, I truly felt the fear of falling that Aava pretends not to.
Beyond the actual climbing, there's more gameplay complexity, too. You have stats to manage and a handful of status effects that can help you on tough climbs. Managing these things usually involves finding ingredients and cooking whatever you can when you get the chance.
You also have pitons to deal with. Pitons are those little metal anchors that climbers drill into walls to attach their ropes to in case they fall. You have a limited number of pitons and they're not 100% reliable, but they're your only protection from a near-limitless drop below.
Graphics
The graphics in Cairn are great. It's a good balance of stylization and detail so everything is really beautiful but still readable and clear. I did have some performance issues on my gaming laptop, which might be related to the graphics, but limiting the framerate to 60fps mostly fixed it. There's also a handful of quality settings so you should be able to run it on the average system.
Story
I'm about 3 hours in, but the story is compelling from the start. Aava's strong-willed and often cynical nature shows through immediately, and there's a healthy but sparing dose of exposition to get you started.
I really like how we get to see Aava's personality not just through story beats but throughout the game in tiny moments, like when she loses her footing, is safely caught by her piton, and can't help but scream in frustration with herself. Or when she finds a particularly good foothold and gives a self-satisfied "That's it!"
The environment also has a lot of secrets to offer that are easily missed, so I'm looking forward to playing more and uncovering whatever it is that Mt. Kami is hiding.
Final Thoughts
Cairn is a great game, and I think most players would appreciate it, whether they prefer indie or AAA. Players who enjoy unique and immersive movement mechanics, adventure, compelling characters, and atmosphere will especially love this one.
We unfortunately missed the free demo period for this one, but the launch sale is on now and I highly recommend checking it out.
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