Video games I play (and maybe some other stuff)

So, I finished Cairn.

I believe it was the great Miley Cyrus that said it best:

‘Ain’t about how fast I get there. Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side. It’s the climb’

And she’s right.

Cairn is a game about climbing. It’s so unapologetically about climbing.

You play as Aava, a seasoned climber who is dead set on climbing Mount Kami. Even in the face of the tension it causes in her relationships, personal and professional, she still chases down the summit of Mount Kami.

In assuming the role of Aava, we learn how to climb. You control each limb and attach them to hand and footholds on the mountain to make your way up. If this wasn’t complex enough, you’re managing stamina, a health bar and survival gauges – three in total: hunger, thirst and temperature. 

You’ll use pitons to clip on and keep yourself safe for a break on the wall and your bivouac which is the sanctuary in the save spots where you’ll cook, rest, tape up your fingers and repair broken pitons.

All of this makes for an interesting cocktail of things to manage while also trying to not fall to your death on a regular basis.

The game is filled with gorgeous views, incredible moments and some phenomenal music which rams up towards the end of the game – photo mode is going to be used many times with it.

In a game about climbing up, there’s also a lot of exploration throughout Mount Kami. You’ll find flowers, berries, fish and other things to forage to keep yourself fed and watered. There’s past expeditioners who have left notes, old backpacks or even their own corpses lost to the mountain with their own poignant tales. The game has some interesting lore within, which was something I did not expect and thoroughly enjoyed and kept me moving when I lost the rag.

I’ll admit it. I rage quit and deleted this game at one point.

I spent hours trying to climb one section before I threw the controller in frustration.

I said it on the podcast but it’s so true but that quote ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results’ and this game drove me fucking insane but I wasn’t accepting any of the help the game was trying to give me.

Accessibility options such as rewinding to the moments before you fall, no survival pish and unlimited pitons meant I could make progress and didn’t feel like it cheapened the experience and meant I could actually finish the game which definitely changed how I felt when we recorded our most recent show (Episode 98).

Anyhoo, definitely an experience that’s worth having but one that is hard to recommend.

Three out of five pitons