Oddly, when I take the headset off, I realise I've moved around the room a hell of a lot too - contrary to the fairly static stereotypes of Rift usage (as opposed to Vive usage). I feel like I've done something, and gazing out at all that wonderful 360, 3D scenery is my reward for it. At the summit, when you've hauled yourself upwards for a climactic time, the view opens up, 360 degrees of sweeping prettiness, and your character's hands throw upwards as he bellows "woooooo!" Me, I'm quietly exhaling for what feels like the first time in forever, but the sentiment is the same. Some game-y elements help promote this mentality, points awarded for rapidly mantling from grip to grip rather than fearfully pausing between each one, but really it's just that I want to beat the mountain. No time to waste, there's a mountain to climb. There's also the pull to get the top, the trophy, the achievement, a very real sense of accomplishment: made it. I've got both hands on secure grips, so stamina isn't draining and I'm not about to do a Wilhelm-soundtracked plummet to my death - it all feels a bit too life and death to start gazing around. Or, to be more accurate, too busy clinging onto rocks for dear life to look around. Though they offer some of the prettiest photoreal-intended scenery I've seen in any VR title, and put paid to any concerns that the graphics processing requirements for 90 frames a second of virtual reality places stark limitations on what's possible (thank you, asynchronous timewarp), the reality is that I'm starting at rocks. I wanted to be on top of a mountain in a far-off place, rather than a small, musty bedroom in a bitterly divided country that rains for 350 days a year. These were, after all, what I'd signed up for when I installed The Climb, stay-at-home tourist that I am. It's a bit like a greatest hits of Cryengine games, really. The strange thing is that I don't spend much time gazing at the dramatic scenery: American canyons, Alpine peaks, Far Eastern bays. I believe I am climbing up a mountain, and parts of my body respond accordingly. I won't be so foolish as to pretend this is actually analogous to real-world free-climbing, because for one thing I'd be a jam puddle within 12 seconds if I tried that, but it's a surprising workout. It's the strangest thing: I barely move but I feel sweaty and achey after reaching a summit. I am trying to get to that grip myself, and I am clenching and stretching muscles to do it even though all I'm really doing is pressing buttons on a gamepad, the rest of my upper body seems to be working hard. If the grip is just that little bit out of reach, or around a corner, I strain over to it, my avatar's hands stretching upwards or to one side even though my own remain firmly clamped to the gamepad. Quite instinctively, I'm using my actual human head, encased as it is in a sweaty shoebox of plastic and polyester, to look at the grip I want to lunge to, it's taking my torso with it. This creates both mental and physical tension - the reason The Climb becomes a true VR game as opposed to just first-person climbing on a dramatic scale is that is asks you to use your body, rather than a targeting reticule, to navigate around the rocks. If you're only hanging on by one hand and that hand runs out of stamina, it's goodnight, sweetheart.
![can can](https://6dofreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/The-Climb-Oculus-Quest-Review-3-1024x576.jpg)
This expires rapidly if you're dangling from just one hand, but replenishes when hanging by both, so you need to both know in advance where the other hand is going to go and have a certain amount of accuracy in making that happen. The key challenge is not running out of stamina in either arm. You've got each hand bound to one of a gamepad's two triggers, and need to grab, lean and lunge your way up and around various mountains and cliffs looming out of beautifully Cryengine-rendered environments. It's a rock-climbing game, basically, but it's neither the forgiving auto-mantling of an Assassin's Creed or Uncharted or the torture-physics of GIRP. Three fallacies I'm occasionally guilty of believing:ġ) The Oculus Rift does not involve any of the physicality of the HTC ViveĢ) VR gaming is riding a cart to minigame hellģ) There's a ceiling on how good VR games can lookĬrytek's beautiful and involving Oculus Rift game The Climb is a pretty good riposte to all of the above.