Here's a dilemma, what to do with a game that is by all accounts gorgeous, atmospheric, and the work of great vision that does everything it sets out to do, but isn't that much fun to play?
Is it a failure or a success? Is it even fair to judge in such binary terms? Games are an art form that combine multiple disciplines together, yet they have to function as one coherent whole to make sense. A part of that is the gameplay experience itself. The loop has to be addictive and fun enough to justify the time spent on the product.
In Cairn's case, I'm torn about that last part. I spent almost two weeks climbing the mountain and exploring its secrets, and I can't say how much of that was fun. I spent an endless amount of time admiring the scenery and the mood, which are both immaculate, and at times I felt a sense of accomplishment when I got over a particularly annoying hurdle.
But for the most part, I was frustrated. I felt like I was fighting the game instead of learning from it, and I never got into the groove it required. I kept wondering about the mechanics well into the minimalist story, and I couldn't help but compare the overall result to the far better Jusant, which hits most of the same beats.
Unlike Jusant, Cairn goes for the "realistic" aspect of gaming, where things are hard and fiddly for the sake of it. Some call it the masocore genre; the whole point is to ask why you'd inflict this misery on yourself.
This means the climbing itself is convoluted and full of survival mechanics. You control each limb of your hero as you move about increasingly difficult rock faces on the road to the top. Some of them are too sturdy for your anchors, so if you fall – and you will, often – it might end up costing you the entire climb.
The mechanics are reminiscent of frustration simulators like QWOP or Getting Over It. Games that bully the player as a core part of the loop. Cairn isn't as punishing as those two, and it does come with some adjustments in the settings to make things easier, but it shares a similar mindset. A small mistake can easily kill you, which in turn leads to the loss of anywhere between ten to thirty minutes of gameplay.
On top of that, you can suffer from hunger, cold, and injuries. You have to constantly monitor your thirst and grip, and each stop at your tent means juggling between the little bits of rations you have left to keep going. Your backpack is a perpetual mess, yet the only mechanic to make room is to shake it around. You have a limited amount of anchors, which can break if you plant them wrong in the quicktime event each one requires before placing.
During the nights, you have to cook food that you scavenge from broken machinery, dead climbers, and scattered bits of nature found on the trail. If you hurt your hands, you bind each finger separately. Wrappers require composting so you can make chalk for better grip.
It's a lot, and most of it detracts from the big picture. When it's just climbing, Cairn is a methodical and often hypnotic experience that captures the romantic sense of conquering mountains. It isn't realistic at all, but more of a visual tone poem about pushing forward no matter the odds.
Which is at odds with the rest of the gameplay that keeps getting in the way of that beautiful experience. It's annoying to stop every few minutes to fiddle with clumsy menus and figuring out which bit of grass mixed with boiling water gives you just enough strength to reach the next level.
There even is a built-in mechanic that works just fine as a visual cue for the climbing experience. As you reach out to different ledges, the character's legs and arms wobble depending on how much strain they're under. It's a wonderful flourish that makes parts of the experience intuitive.
And, to Cairn's credit, there are accessibility options that make the climb easier and ignore the surival mechanics altogether. It just feels silly that to access them, the game tells you in a roundabout way that you're about to play it wrong.
During my time with Cairn, I also found a hosting of odd mechanics and bugs that got in the way of my enjoyment. Because of the numerous meters for health, hunger, grip, thirst, and so on, there were times when the character would fall without warning, even if my grip was supposed to be solid. The review copy was also littered with bugs, sometimes leading to the character randomly leaping to their death instead of climbing a ledge or teleporting mid-fall upwards to their destination.
Despite these issues, which are notable, I would recommend Cairn to almost everyone. Even as a thought experiment. It's the kind of passionately designed indie game that deserves attention, even or especially when it gets in its own way. In the moments where it focuses on the pure experience of climbing, it is an atmospheric masterwork. Visually, it is one of the pretties games released this year. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't grab a bunch of awards on art design alone.
Just go in with reservations and the understanding that like any auteur-driven project, Cairn won't be for everyone, even if everyone should give it a try. That's how it goes with art. All art.
