Cairn Review - Cairn You Handle This Brutal Survival Climber?

Barely Magic Mike
17 minutes ago
8 min read

I’d like to start this review in an unusual way by talking about a game seemingly unrelated to Cairn, and not even an indie game at that – heresy, I know! But hopefully, it will make sense why. I’m talking about Death Stranding, the most interesting game I’ve ever not really liked. I’m not veering off course here to talk about that game’s flaws, because chances are that you’re either well aware of them and agree, are unbothered by them and love it anyway, or don’t really give a crap either way. All reasonable perspectives. What I liked about that game, though, is that it takes the act of merely walking around and adds a level of mechanical complexity to it that makes the term “walking simulator” feel like a way to describe an actual gameplay mechanic, rather than a semi-derogatory term used for games where not much gameplay actually happens.

Let me reiterate – Death Stranding and Cairn have nothing in common, except perhaps that fans of Death Stranding’s walking mechanics might find Cairn’s rock-climbing mechanics satisfying in an oddly similar, but almost undeniably better way. It’s a weird comparison to make, granted, but stick with me here, because thankfully, it’s only one of the many ways that Cairn succeeds.

Cairn’s journey puts you in the shoes… or rather… bandaged bare feet?... of Aava, a famous mountain climber embarking on her biggest challenge yet – ascension of the notoriously treacherous Mount Kami. Nobody’s ever made it to the top of the mountain, and plenty have died trying, but Aava’s drive to conquer this peak is unshakeable (unlike her limbs while actually climbing it). What followed in my roughly 13-hour playthrough was a tense, difficult, and surprisingly emotional journey about grit, sacrifice, and finding your purpose. Aava is a compelling, yet flawed character who feels uniquely human in ways both crucial to the plot (which I won’t spoil) and the moment-to-moment gameplay.

So let’s talk about what that gameplay looks like, because I can nearly guarantee that you have never played a game like Cairn before. It’s certainly not the first mountain-climbing indie to exist, but it does feel like the first to focus its energy on a realistic, tensely challenging climbing experience in line with what it would feel like to accomplish such a feat.

One thing is without a doubt – Mount Kami is the most realistic, thoughtfully depicted, intricately designed mountain to ever star in a video game. One of the developers has described climbing each wall as being its own sort of boss fight, and that’s a great way to convey how it feels. Every inch of Mount Kami is adorned with ledges, handholds, cracks, and crevices that Aava can dig into and use for leverage. You progress through each climb by moving Aava’s arms and legs one at a time, carefully positioning them in such a way that she has a firm enough hold to traverse comfortably. I mostly allowed the game’s automatic limb selection feature to choose which one I wanted to move and when, though you can always hold the right bumper for the ability to precisely select which arm or leg you want to maneuver. This is worthwhile sometimes because while the automatic limb selection works about 95% of the time, that other 5% can result in some odd choices or even mess me up if I wasn’t paying careful attention. I never felt tempted to turn it off since it does work well overall, but I appreciate that doing so is an option.

If you manage to position Aava precariously enough to weaken her grip or start to slip, the limb in trouble will shake, you’ll feel a vibration on the controller, and the camera may begin to zoom in. At this point, you’ll have a couple of opportunities to shake out your hands to relieve the tension, but after that, you’ll just fall. Thankfully, unless you’re playing on Free Solo mode, which is very difficult and not recommended for a first playthrough, you’ll have a handful of pitons you can hammer into most rock faces that functionally serve as a checkpoint. If you fall with a piton in place below you, you’ll only fall as far as the length of the rope required to get back to it – possibly still far enough to get hurt, but usually not enough to die. At that point, you can use the rope to climb back up to your piton as though nothing even happened, or rappel back down to a save point if there’s one nearby. While playing on normal mode will have designated save points scattered around the mountain, it was nice to see there are a handful of times the game autosaves anyway to avoid frustration.

Some frustration is inevitable though, unless you play on easy mode or use the game’s surprisingly vast array of assists, which include rewinding falls, infinite climbing gear resources, auto-saves, and no survival elements. I’d personally recommend leaving those options off unless you truly don’t want a challenge because normal difficulty is a well-balanced experience that’s just tough enough to connect with Aava’s struggle up the mountain, but never enough to earn itself an inappropriate soulslike comparison.

You’d think a game about mountain climbing would require some dexterity and reflexes, and to a degree, this can be true, but Cairn overwhelmingly demands patience, preparation, and precision from the player rather than twitchy, platforming-coded reflexes.

You’ll want to take your time on each climb, ensuring you have firm enough footing to not feel the dreaded vibration that comes with Aava beginning to slip. For this reason, among others, it’s highly recommended to use a controller here. The vibration felt crucial to the experience of knowing when Aava might fall even with the visual cues included, and though the controls take some getting used to no matter how you play the game, once they clicked, it was hard to imagine another way to play.

The preparation piece of each climb is especially important, as Cairn has survival elements that need to be taken into consideration (unless, of course, you decide to just turn them off). That’s your prerogative, but even as a self-proclaimed hater of most survival games, I found these elements in Cairn to be deeply immersive and not the least bit irritating or tedious. You’ll occasionally collect food, drinks, tape, chalk, or other items from climbers’ abandoned backpacks or elsewhere in the environment throughout your ascent. While resting during a climb, you’ll have the opportunity to consume items from your backpack to ensure hunger, thirst, and cold resistance meters are filled, as well as tape your hands to ensure you’re getting a good grip. When camping out at save points, Aava will also be able to use her Climbot companion to repair pitons or cook up different meals and beverages based on what items she’s managed to scavenge.

While much of the game’s journey is experienced alone and immersively benefits from that solitude, Climbot is arguably a character in his own right - speechless and out of the way most of the time, but always in the periphery retrieving your pitons and quietly assisting your ascent.

While the only way to Kami’s peak is technically up, there’s surprising variation in the ways you can get there. Seemingly every major area has multiple routes that vary in difficulty, as well as numerous opportunities for exploration that can yield resources and new tidbits relating to the game’s story. And what’s crazy is there’s seemingly never any loading, with your ascent only being occasionally interrupted by cutscenes. I have to also mention one of the coolest features I’ve ever seen in a game, which is that when you finish, you can go back to your completed playthrough to use what’s presumably a drone’s perspective to follow and trace your entire path up the mountain. In a game that so cherishes the journey at least as much as the destination, this feature is a clever celebration of that.

Much of the game’s immersion benefits from a presentation that’s often stunning. Climbing the face of a rock wall at night with only your solitary light glowing while stars shine in the distance evokes the feeling of being small and insignificant in a vast, beautiful world. The shifting weather and day/night cycles add new challenges like visibility in dense fog, slippery ledges during rainfall, and intense cold at night. And despite the entire game taking place on one mountain, the visual variety crammed in is fantastic, with each section feeling recognizable and unique in its own right. The sense of scale achieved is often incredible, with the camera frequently zooming out to show you the world around you and allow a quick glance below to see just how far you’ve come - at its best, it can be truly astonishing.

The only flaws I see in the visual presentation are that Aava herself has an odd character model whose face looks almost like one of the Cromulons from Rick and Morty. SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT, AAVA. Additionally, there’s perhaps no escaping that Aava’s animations while climbing are both incredibly impressive for how dynamically they react to the terrain, and a little strange as she shifts into odd, unnatural positions that would make even contortionists cringe. It’s hard to knock this too much because it makes a quite difficult game slightly more forgiving when the main character is so flexible she seems like the offspring of a yoga teacher and a pile of rubber bands. That said, it can be a little immersion-breaking in a not-so-serious way.

One more serious issue, in my opinion, is that despite Cairn holding a Verified tag on Steam Deck, I could think of few games less deserving of it. Cairn runs like absolute trash on the deck, rarely managing above a consistent 20-25 fps even at the bare minimum settings on the review build I played. Perhaps there are plans to dramatically increase performance by launch, and in fairness, the game’s pace is so slow that even such a choppy frame rate is technically playable. Technically. But it does no favors for immersion to have the game’s otherwise lovely presentation be so choppy, so if you’re looking to play it on deck, please be aware of just how rough this one is before diving in.

Sound design in Cairn is also great, but often minimalist. A rousing soundtrack kicks in at more intense moments throughout the campaign, but otherwise it’s mostly just Aava with the sounds of Climbot, the wind, the rain, and nature around you filling in the gaps. There’s a well-earned sense of Mount Kami being a real place, but there’s also Aava’s story surrounding it, which thankfully benefits from great voice acting. Even outside of cutscenes, Aava is frequently commenting on the climb, making aggravated grunts of frustration or celebratory gasps when she manages to avoid a fall. It adds to her character’s authenticity and helped me root for her even in moments where I didn’t find her especially likable.

Cairn is a marvel of an experience. It ironically feels so grounded, with a narrative and gameplay that harmonize beautifully, providing a deep, polished challenge that had me hooked from beginning to end. There is simply nothing else like it, and even despite its minor flaws, I would call Cairn an early game of the year contender for 2026, and frankly one of the single best indie games I’ve ever had the pleasure to play. For those patient enough to ascend this snowy peak, Cairn is likely to be an absolute triumph.

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