Today I’m reviewing Climbey, an obstacle climbing, semi-puzzle game for VR owners on Steam. I played on the HTC Vive. This is a fun, challenging, and rewarding game. It has some really interesting levels, massive levels, polished movement and controls, an excellent little community, and an active developer.
It’s also one of the few VR games that legitimately gives me sweaty palms, vertigo, and balance issues. This doesn’t really bother me and even makes the game unique among my collection, but, if you’re susceptible to motion sickness, you might want to steer away. It also poses a danger risk to smashing things in your play space or possible injury from falling over. I also routinely get tangled in my VR cable despite it being above me on my VR rig. This setup works really well for almost all games, but Climbey still manages to defy it.
Controls
Controls are simple and intuitive, but jumping is hard and inconsistent. It can be really frustrating trying to get around the map because a slight error can throw you backwards for what seems like no reason. I’ve also witnessed many other players trying to learn the game because even jumping a little bit is challenging. Definitely go into the game with some patience and the willingness to experiment with how it works.
The game has free locomotion movement, but be aware that it might fuck you over. It’s one of the rare games where you might actually want to turn free locomotion off because accidentally swiping the trackpad could launch you off an edge and lose a bunch of progress.
Online Multiplayer
Multiplayer is fun and easy to get into. You can play with your friends either cooperatively or competitively. It gives you the freedom to decide. It has a small online community, but people are routinely online, they contribute interesting and fun levels, and my experiences have been really positive. Players actually help each other in multiplayer (reaching down to help pull you passed a challenging climb) which is refreshing to see. The community content also keeps the game fresh and replayable.
Settings & Options
Overall, there is an average amount of settings and options (performance, controls, comfort, server options, aesthetics) but it’s not comprehensive. I’m hoping the developer adds more and more options as the game grows. One thing I don’t like is that some menus have no explanations for buttons and acronyms. Other VR games like Beat Saber have tooltips on hover and this game definitely needs that, descriptive text, or a giant poster with explanations in the starting area.
SteamDB Stats
You can check out their SteamDB stats page here. The main items to point out are:
- Excellent 90% rating
- Small number of online players, but regularly online
- 4-5 hours of average play time with potential to increase
- $7-$10 to purchase = fairly good price to content ratio (for VR)
- Active developer releases many regular updates
Do I recommend this game?
Yes, it’s an excellent VR game and I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s simple, mostly polished, fun, replayable, challenging, and rewarding. There are some negatives like occasional bugs and frustrating learning curve, but overall it’s the sort of VR game and developer we need to see more of.