How far are you willing to go to achieve your goals? That's the question I pondered as I ascended through Cairn ($29.99, reviewed on PlayStation 5, also available on PC). On its craggy surface, Cairn is a rock-climbing survival game with a limb-based control scheme reminiscent of titles like QWOP, GIRP, and, most recently, Baby Steps. But as I delved beneath its mountaineer exterior, I found that it's a game about patience, obsession, and sacrifice. Cairn's challenging gameplay, paired with a surprising soul-searching narrative, made it one of my favorite PS5 releases this year, and one that stuck with me well after I left the mountain.

Precise, Limb-Based Climbing

Cairn was one of the games that I kept mentally returning to after I first played it at IGN Live 2025. Billed as a survival climber, Cairn's approach to rock climbing is far different than most titles. Games like Peak and Tears of the Kingdom let you adhere to any wall, with only the length of your stamina bar holding you back. Cairn, however, wants you to plan your route thoughtfully. That means not only rationing your supplies and managing grip strength, hunger, and thirst, but also knowing where to place your character's hands and feet. 

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You play as Aava, a mountaineer on a mission to be the first human to reach the top of the fictional Mount Kami. Unlike Jusant, another rock climbing game with a similar climbing mechanic, you must search for the mountain's dips, cracks, and bends to stabilize Aava if you ever hope of reaching the mountain's peak.

Cairn automatically decides which limb to move first, based on Aava’s posture and position. Admittedly, this takes some time to get used to as you play. It seems simple at first, but if you've ever rock climbed in real life, you know that scaling a wall is like solving a puzzle in real time. If you place your hand or foot in the wrong place, it can ruin your ascent. That’s the case in Cairn, too. You're welcome to bend Aava into a pretzel, but doing so will quickly send her plummeting to the ground, which results in massive damage or even death.

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As mentioned, Cairn is reminiscent of Baby Steps or QWOP, two Benett Foddy-developed games with limb-based mechanics. While not as comical as those titles, Cairn harnesses the difficulty—and the reward—of manually manipulating limbs to propel your character forward. Cairn seeks to emulate the tension and relief of rock climbing, and it largely succeeds on that front. As it turns out, rock climbing is the perfect framing for this quirky control scheme.

Having played dozens of hours of Peak, another climbing game, I constantly fought against my natural inclination to just go for it and power up the wall. In fact, it's possible to brute force your way through those first few climbs. However, you'll find yourself burning through energy, food, and water faster than you can replenish them. I wanted to cry out in frustration, along with Aava, as I slipped from a significant height, losing precious progress and slamming into the wall, taking serious damage. Moments like these punctuate your journey, but they make getting to solid ground that much more meaningful.

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Limited UI, Robot Assistant, and Discoveries

I especially enjoyed the limited UI, as Cairn makes you rely on audio-visual cues to convey that you're reaching your limits. Aava whimpers and shakes when her grip is slipping, and her breathing becomes ragged as she becomes strained. On the flip side, you’ll know you’ve found your rhythm when Aava whispers a brief affirmation.

Aava climbs alone, though she's accompanied by her robot assistant, the Climbot, which assists her with belaying, composts garbage into much-appreciated climber’s chalk, and sets up camp for much-needed moments of respite. While in the tent, Aava can cook stat-boosting meals, tape her hands to improve her grip, and wait out bad weather while recovering health.

As you climb Mount Kami, you’ll also stumble upon different discoveries. Mountaineers who didn’t make it down, abandoned campsites, dilapidated lifts, and even a society of troglodytes who called the mountain their home. These discoveries usually lead to valuable resources in the form of food, climbing gear, and maps, and even a few encounters with local wildlife.

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Beautiful Graphics, Peaceful Music, So-So Frame Rate

You'll want to hang around, too, as Cairn is a lovely game to look at. Previous Game Bakers titles, Furi and Haven, were visually striking titles in their own right, but Cairn does a great job at stylized, naturalistic scenery. It is as beautiful as it is deadly. That might be a bit of a shock if you're drawn in by its cozy visuals and struck down by its challenging gameplay (though there is an assist mode that will undoubtedly help the climb).

The game performance mostly holds up, though I noticed more than a few frame rate drops during my playtime. Not enough to ruin the climb, but enough to make the game feel unstable in certain areas. On the upside, the music is meditative, giving the game a serene feel. It is sparse, but when it arrives, it's beautiful, too. It reminded me of Death Stranding's needle drops.

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The Allegory of the Mountain

Cairn would've been an excellent game based on climbing alone, but it's more than that. Aava is an intriguing character. At first, she's shown as being antisocial and even a little rude. As Climbot relays messages to her from loved ones at home, she appears unbothered. But the messages convey a lot about Aava's psyche as she climbs the mountain. In one telling message, her manager begs her for a photo, but Aava has already destroyed her camera. In another message, it's revealed that Aava began her climb before celebrating her birthday with her partner and friends.

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Aava is determined to reach the summit of this peak by any means necessary. As you continue your climb, you realize she may not be planning to come back down. Early in the journey, Aava runs into a younger climber named Marco, who asks her why she's going up. She replies, "The best feelings of freedom, pleasure, and meaningfulness I've ever felt, they came to me when I exceeded my limitations. Those fleeting moments when I’m not in the mountains…But I am the mountain." Cairn is a game about rock climbing, but beneath its mountaineer exterior, it’s a touching game about sacrifice. 

Mountains have stood in as metaphors for mental illness in games before—Celeste features a very literal interpretation of depression and anxiety in the form of Badeline, the protagonist's shadow form, who attempts to thwart your climb—but Aava's journey is far more subtle. Later in the game, when you reencounter Marco, Aava explains her decision to continue ascending the mountain, to which Marco replies, "I think the mountain is all in your head. Like a disease that’s eating at you. You can heal if you want to."

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However, healing is easier said than done. This is what makes Aava’s journey so tragic: her quest for purpose and meaning is ultimately self-destructive.

That said, Cairn drags during its final act. At around 15 hours, Cairn is a sizable journey. But once I realized its message, the final few hours of the grueling climb wore on me—though that might've been the developer's intent. Was the journey worth it? Or was it the destination? For me, it was a little of both.