TO A climber clings to a dizzying rock face, toes dug in, knuckles white, one limb shaking from the effort. In that precarious moment, a few options present themselves: move quickly to regain balance, take a few seconds to rest, or simply let go, praying the belay area will hold the weight of a body that has succumbed to the massif.
Cairn, the new “survival climbing game” from French studio The Game Bakers, is full of moments of panic and danger. There is no visible stamina bar, meaning the player must gather all information about the status of their playable climber, Aava. Under extreme pressure, Aava’s breathing will intensify, becoming faster and shallower, and her body will begin to shake. “We want you to focus on her posture and the handholds in front of you,” says creative director Emeric Thoa.
Beneath this naturalistic presentation lies a deluge of mathematical calculations. You steer Aava’s body and all of her limbs using only the left analog stick, confirming a hand or foothold with the press of a button. Simple enough, but Cairn The system calculates in real time the stress that Aava’s limbs and torso are under. This determines the next, more physically realistic movement. “The system automatically chooses the limb and predicts which arm or leg is willing to move fluidly and easily,” explains Thoa. “The challenge for the player is to keep Aava balanced.”
This kind of dynamic climbing is a far cry from the automated parkour of Assassin’s Creed, which requires the player to simply hold down a trigger to cling to a stone wall, or the navigational puzzle-solving of recent climbing hit Jusant, in which players were required to latch onto mineral outcrops on a prescribed path up a mountain. Cairn presents a more complex take on this most dizzying of activities, combining its freeform control system with a meticulously designed mountain, the criss-crossing routes of which not even Thoa and his colleagues fully understand.
“I know it’s 2024 and there are words like ‘procedural’ and ‘AI,’ but we’re designing and building this mountain entirely by hand, placing every rock, crevice, and handhold,” Thoa says. “It’s really a lot of work, very repetitive, and I’m very grateful to our level design team.”
What landscapes and emotions will players and Aava encounter on their ascent? Thoa has remained tight-lipped about that, saying only that he and the studio consulted with famed mountaineer Élisabeth Revol, who said she felt “an intense freedom in pushing beyond her limits… at the zenith of the Earth itself.” Another detail that stuck with the game’s creator: upon reaching the highest, thinnest air on the mountain, Revol experienced an almost delirious euphoria, “crying, screaming, being in some kind of strange trance.”
Cairn will arrive with multiple game modes. In the story, Aava takes on a single mountain during a grueling multi-day climb, and there’s also an expedition mode that includes mountains and additional challenges. You can play solo, for those who want to forgo the safety of ropes. “This is where the fun really begins,” Thoa says with a devilish glint, confirming that in Cairn, unlike Jusant, “you will die without hesitation.”
So the Dark Souls of climbing games? Maybe, though as Thoa stresses, “it’s not a rage game.” Cairn aims to convey what “climbing and mountaineering really is,” he says. “Try and fall; try again and fall; and then when you do manage to climb, it’s super satisfying.”
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