The journey is what counts, not the destination. It’s an oldie but goodie that definitely rings true whenever we’re talking about any lifelong undertaking, especially one like mountain climbing. For Cairn’s protagonist Aava, though, it’s truly all about getting to the top of Kami, the highest one of them all, where many have tried and were never able to reach. For that, she puts aside practically everything, but will she give up her humanity as well?
This is a game that I’ve been anxiously expecting to play ever since it was first announced last year, and I can say for a fact that I was not disappointed when I eventually hit credits, but not because it was especially enjoyable to play. For what it goes for, Cairn can be considered a successful experience, by offering the experience of having lots of control during your climb, even if with it comes a list of problems.
Laugh all you want at this comparison, but this one has a lot in common with last year’s Baby Steps. Bear with me here before hitting the close tab in your browser, please. First and foremost, for as tonally opposite as both games obviously are, Cairn and Baby Steps are both about surmounting a specific challenge, that is navigating an environment, which happens to be a mountain, and they also happen to be extremely dependent on a robust physics engine.
While Bennet Foddy’s latest tends to rely on that premise and some incredibly funny writing and antics to deliver an often frustrating but rewarding experience, the folks at The Game Bakers, known for hits like Fury and Haven, steered Cairn towards driving home the fact that Aava is a very determined woman, sometimes to a fault. Her obsession with reaching the summit is borderline maniacal, which ironically is what helped push me along on the ride, just to see where that would eventually lead her.
In fact, I didn’t play 12 hours of the game in order to reach its conclusion because it was fun. What started out as an experience with admittedly clever mechanics eventually turned into a marathon of annoyance, one full of moments where I would’ve just quit if it weren’t for the miraculous discovery of some much needed accessibility options. They made for a literal safety net that although not a fix for Cairn’s unpredictable situations, helped me squeeze by and get to the end.
Basically, much like Baby Steps, you get to control the main character’s limbs as she reaches out to cracks and improvised steps in order to get higher and higher up the mountain. As with actual mountain climbing, these aren’t obvious to the naked eye and sometimes aren’t even there, forcing you to take some desperate measures at times, forcing Aava’s stamina and endurance to their limits as you stumble to the next spot or fall to your death below. This in itself would’ve been okay if the consequences for carelessness were consistent between attempts, but they aren’t, and that’s thanks to the procedural nature of the limbs that make each try completely unpredictable.
You could be having a grand old try at one point only for the game to decide that it’s time to put Newton’s laws into practice when otherwise it would’ve been totally fine, while at others, when it was obvious that you had no hold whatsoever, Aava turns into Spider-Woman for whatever reason, her limbs turning into glue for just long enough to push as high as needed. These instances basically threw any sense of effort out the window for me, turning Cairn into more a game of attrition than anything.
And it’s not like it doesn’t offer meaningful tools that would otherwise almost realistically explain these effects. You can cook food and drinks that give boots like extra courage, stamina, or grip whenever you set up camp, as well as bandage up her fingers – weirdly enough, no mention of her poor toes since she climbs basically barefoot for most of the journey – and rest up in order to wait out nasty turns of weather during the climb. It’s the failure and inaccuracies of its simulation model that should’ve been the highlight of Cairn that ultimately play against it.
Everything else about playing it was quite excellent, mind you. Aava’s character developmental path as she pushes her friends and family aside putting her goal in first place is very well developed, especially when she comes into contact with other folks at Kami as the mountain’s grim presence makes itself known the farther up she gets. And visually the game is gorgeous and runs smoothly, with colorful vistas and the limited and sometimes eerie soundtrack that make the perilous trek quite enjoyable to the senses.
It’s a shame that overall Cairn turned out this way for me. I had high hopes it would pay off in spades after coming out a bit disappointed with Jusant, another climbing game that also had plenty of personality to it but lacked the depth this one tries too hard – and fails – to drive home. As with the studios’ other releases, Cairn is positively gorgeous but stumbles in its delivery. It was only thanks to toggles I would otherwise try to avoid hitting that I got through this one, and at its current state, I have no plans to go on this journey again soon, sadly.
