Aava hangs by one trembling hand. The world contracts into the feel of skin on stone, the rasp of breath, the tiny rhythm of finding purchase and not losing it. That sensation—close, physical, terrifying—is Cairn's operating system.
How it plays (and how it hurts)
Cairn is a limb-by-limb climbing survival game: you move Aava's hands and feet one at a time, hunting for tiny ledges, cracks and micro-holds on Mount Kami. There are pitons for safety, tape for torn fingers, and tents for the rare moments you can breathe. Food, water, daylight and functioning gear are finite; everything matters.
The Game Bakers lean hard into immersion. Instead of on-screen meters you read animation, sound and controller rumble. Fingers tremble in the model. Breathing grows ragged. An encroaching visual vignette signals collapse. For some players that makes the climb viscerally immediate; for others it can feel opaque—Polygon's critique that the simulation's inner logic is sometimes hidden is fair. You feel more than you know.
Mechanically, Cairn sits somewhere between puzzle, survival sim and boss fight. Each wall is a problem to read: pick a steady, circuitous line to safer ground or gamble on a brutal, direct scramble. Misjudge a move and you can lose minutes of painstaking progress. Permadeath-free modes let you experiment; hardcore Free Solo mode will make you swallow the word "permanent".
The story behind the suffering
Aava is a champion climber who keeps climbing. Mount Kami is the kind of peak that collects stories—lost camps, corpses, faded notes—and the game sprinkles these remnants along your route. Critics have diverged on what the narrative ultimately does with that material. Several reviewers (including The Guardian and Game Informer) praised the way Cairn interrogates obsession and the human cost of single-mindedness, and many players report the ending lands with real emotional force.
Others, like the AV Club, find the narrative frame undercooked—suggesting the game stages sacrifice and performative hardship without offering concrete answers about purpose. That's not an insignificant quarrel: Cairn asks heavy questions, but whether it answers them is partly in the eye of each player looking down from a tenuous hold.
Design choices: brave, brilliant, sometimes cruel
There are design decisions here that create the game's peculiar pleasures and frustrations. Foregoing explicit HUD information sharpens immersion: when Aava's limbs shake, you respond instinctively. But that same choice makes some failures feel unfair—sometimes you can't tell whether a fall was skill or a quirk of an inconsistent interaction. Frame hiccups and camera annoyances have crept into a few critiques, too.
Difficulty tuning is thoughtful: assists exist for players who want the sensation without the teeth. But when you accept Cairn's cruelty, the payoff is real. Game Informer called its control innovations among the year's best; others liken the climb to combat in a Soulslike where stamina, grip and balance are your enemy and your toolkit.
Who should play it (and who shouldn't)
Play Cairn if you like slow-burn tension, precise inputs, and games that make you live inside a character's body. If you enjoy methodical resource management, emergent beauty (a star-lit bivouac, a surprise animal sighting) and narratives that let you sit with ambiguity, you'll find a lot to love.
Skip it if you want tidy feedback systems, frequent checkpoints, or a story that ties every loose end. The pacing is patient and sometimes punishing; the emotional payoff is proportional to the hardship you endure.
Practical notes
Cairn is out on PC and PlayStation 5. If you prefer handheld or streamed play, recent developments mean more options for where you can experience games like this—PlayStation's streaming improvements are broadening how PS5 games reach devices such as the PlayStation Portal, which can matter if you want to play away from the TV (streaming update details). And PC players who favor portable setups should keep an eye on handheld-friendly features like the Steam Deck's low-power download mode when considering long climbs away from a desk (Steam Deck update). If you're upgrading hardware to play on console, the PlayStation 5 Pro is an option to consider.
Cairn is not a neutral piece of entertainment. It's a crafted, sometimes cruel simulation that insists you feel the cost of every inch. Some moments will infuriate you; some will make you cry on your sofa at two in the morning. That variance is part of its personality. If you're curious about what climbing can mean as a game—physically, morally and emotionally—Cairn is a rare, arresting experiment worth the climb.