The Climb is a rock climbing game made by French developers Crytek in 2016, released in April of that year. It features three modes in differing types of locations.
The Climb 2 is the sequel to the original game with the addition of new climbing gear and integration with Oculus Quest hardware. I have played about two dozen or so games on this platform for around 5 hours total so far. So I will not be considering myself an expert at this point but experienced enough to tell you what I think about it…
I have spent most of my time on The Climb 2 since it came out Thursday afternoon playing the classic mode just because that’s what I’ve always done in The Climb. By Saturday night I had completed all 4 levels of the classic mode with 3 out of 4 gold medals, just to give you an idea of how much I have played.
The first thing that is notable about this game is that there are more climbing locations than just the Alps which were in the original. Now there are more locations you can climb, including Yosemite National Park and Thailand. There is also more climbing gear (items) to use now too like nylon ropes with ascending devices, ladder rungs etc… But I only used it a few times for fun for like 5 minutes or so because I didn’t feel like spending time figuring them all out again. It would make sense though if you wanted to practice using different gear over different obstacles.
And it’s still not real rock climbing but an arcade game. There’s no risk of falling to your death, if you have the right gear you just use it and climb back down immediately after getting where you want to go, or drop all the way down until you get to another place that gives you a better grip. It’s not real rock climbing in the sense of taking your time to make sure every one of your movements is precise. That being said, if it was too realistic people wouldn’t be interested in playing it because they might think it’s boring or for some other reason.
This is essentially what The Climb 2 is, including all DLC that has been released up to this point but with new climbing locations and more equipment options. That being said I can understand why people who did pay for the original game are disappointed. The Climb 2 should be discounted if you already own the first game. I’m not sure if this will happen or how it would work but that’s my opinion on it.
Update: They have announced they will be discounting the first game by 50% starting next week!
I’d like to point out that it’s really impressive how smooth everything is (like seeing your hands actually grip onto a rock when climbing), it feels like real rock climbing except without all of the consequences and dangers… But still, even though what I’ve seen so far doesn’t look realistic enough it definitely drew me in to make me ignore those flaws because I was having fun doing something different than normal (for example video games).
I’m having fun playing The Climb 2 while it lasts (which I assume will be more than a month or two if they keep adding new locations and gear like the original game did) but once it’s gone there won’t be much else to do in this game. It’s not like other games that have an endpoint where you achieve something (like beating the game), there is no end goal for this game because all of the climbing equipment is only used on certain levels. It’s more like short term entertainment with long term potential depending on how often they add content into it. Maybe one day they might eventually add harder difficulty modes with free climbing instead of just following routes… Who knows… But for now, it’s fine the way it is.
It’s not worth $40 right now IMO, but if they go on sale for less than $10 it would be a good deal. I didn’t pay $8 for it because it wasn’t at its cheapest yet so I was paying the normal price (which is still only 1/2 of what The Climb cost when released). If you never played the first game and are wondering if this one has any replayability after beating all the levels… I’m not sure, maybe? But you can never tell with games like these that seem to rely heavily on content updates (like Fortnite) until time tells.
I’m having fun with it right now, but I don’t think it’s worth the current price (not that it’s bad because it’s not, but it should be cheaper IMO).