PC User Reviews

An incredibly awesome and concise story paired with breathtaking visuals, and that constant sense of danger really keeps you on the edge of your seat. It's been a while since I've played a game this satisfying. Every single aspect is top-notch—the gameplay, the graphics, and most importantly, the atmosphere.

Fantastic game. My only problem is that once you complete it you can't go back to the various checkpoints that you made. It's a great game before you go to bed. It gave me a deep appreciation for those that climb.

Cairn me ha gustado mucho, la verdad que todo está muy bien llevado, pero me ha dejado un sabor de boca agridulce por el tramo final. Para mí, se queda en un 7 por culpa de la frustración del **** mejor del juego es que la música está muy bien y la historia es una pasada. Consiguen algo dificilísimo: hacen que le cojas cariño a todo el mundo prácticamente sin conocerlos, lo que te mete de lleno en la piel del personaje y en su motivación para escalar. Visualmente los gráficos están bien también, acompañando genial a esa atmósfera de montaña tan inmersiva. En lo jugable, el sistema de la mochila está muy bien pensado, obligándote a gestionar tus recursos y planificar cada paso de la ascensión de forma muy realista. En general, todo el desarrollo del juego funciona de **** embargo, el gran problema viene al final. Me quejaría mucho de la dificultad del tramo final, es extremadamente complicado pasarse el juego. Los pitones (los clavos de escalada) son escasos a más no poder, y hay zonas en las que vas con poquísimos y no es nada fácil avanzar; de hecho, todo lo contrario. La cosa se vuelve cuesta arriba de forma exagerada, y todo, hasta los ganchos de la pared en los últimos tramos, se vuelve increíblemente complicado y exigente, llegando a desesperar un poco después de todo el viaje. Es un buen juego con una ambientación brutal, pero ese pico final empaña bastante la experiencia.

Uma interpretação impressionante de um sentimento completamente humano! Cairn traduz magistralmente o sentimento da escalada, a concentração exigida a cada movimento, a adrenalina da altura, a solidão da vastidão, a magnitude da montanha e a obsessão por se chegar ao topo. Te permitindo não só compreender a personagem, como se colocar na pele dela, ao demonstrar o porque abandonar tudo e arriscar a vida para vencer a montanha, cada vitória é comemorada e cada queda é sentida na pele, tudo através de um controle e uma tela, se o grande mérito de um jogo é quebrar a barreira do real e te transportar para um outro mundo, esse jogo faz isso com esplendor!

Good but not great, I was honestly expecting a bit more. Still, pretty entertaining.

Cairn is one of those rare games that remind you why interactive media can be so powerful. What initially appears to be a climbing simulator gradually reveals itself as something far more profound: a meditation on perseverance, self-discovery, vulnerability, and the relationship between humans and nature.From the very first ascent, Cairn establishes a sense of immersion that few games manage to achieve. Every movement feels deliberate. Every handhold matters. The climbing mechanics are not merely a gameplay system; they are the language through which the game communicates its themes. Success is earned through patience, observation, and adaptation rather than reflexes or spectacle, creating a uniquely intimate connection between player and character.What impressed me most is how the game transforms the simple act of climbing into an emotional journey. The mountain is not just an obstacle to overcome but a living presence that constantly demands respect. There are moments of tension, moments of exhaustion, and moments of awe when reaching a new ledge and looking back at the path you've carved for yourself. Few games have made me feel such a tangible sense of **** environmental design deserves special praise. Every cliff face feels handcrafted, every route presents meaningful choices, and every section introduces new challenges without relying on artificial difficulty spikes. Cairn trusts the player to learn organically, and that confidence pays off beautifully. The result is a game that feels demanding yet never unfair.Beyond its mechanics, Cairn excels through subtle storytelling. Rather than overwhelming players with exposition, it allows themes to emerge naturally through the journey itself. The solitude of the climb, the constant confrontation with risk, and the quiet moments of reflection create an experience that resonates long after the credits roll. The mountain becomes a metaphor for personal challenges, and every setback feels like part of a larger narrative about growth and resilience.Visually, the game is stunning. Its art direction captures both the beauty and indifference of nature. The landscapes inspire wonder without ever feeling romanticized. Nature in Cairn is magnificent, but it is also unforgiving—a balance that gives the world authenticity and emotional **** sound design is equally remarkable. The absence of constant musical guidance allows environmental sounds to take center stage, strengthening immersion and amplifying the feeling of isolation. When music does appear, it feels earned, enhancing key moments rather than manipulating **** I had to point out a weakness, it would be that Cairn's deliberate pacing and demanding mechanics may not appeal to players seeking instant gratification. Some sections can feel slow, and the commitment required may test the patience of certain audiences. However, I would argue that this is less a flaw than a consequence of the game's artistic vision. Cairn knows exactly what it wants to be and never compromises that identity.Ultimately, Cairn is an extraordinary achievement. It takes a niche concept and elevates it into something meaningful, memorable, and emotionally resonant. It is a game about climbing, but also about persistence, humility, and the quiet satisfaction of overcoming seemingly impossible challenges one careful step at a time.A truly special experience, and one of the most immersive and thought-provoking games I have played in recent years.9/10

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Cairn is a beautifully crafted game that I truly enjoyed. Its minimalist design and immersive climbing mechanics create a unique, almost meditative experience. Every move feels meaningful, making it both challenging and deeply satisfying.

Le jeu est lent mais l'histoire et incroyable et tres **** vous le conseille si vous êtes patient.

It's a good game that gamifies the act of climbing. There is an interesting lore going on in the background. But the main issue of the game is that it doesn't do anything interesting with the lore, character, and story. I felt unsatisfied when the credits rolled, and was expecting to get a much deeper conclusion. High potential wasted.

Precise gameplay, wonderful graphics and music, amazing feeling of freedom and discovery. It is a real adventure with huge replayability potential. In my top 5 games ever, clearly a masterpiece in my opinion.

It is a game that I had tried since the demo and since then I loved playing it it was quite an experience and very sentimental it left me satisfied but reflected on many things I really appreciate that they believe games that know how to reach the players

It’s a fully immersive and thoughtful video game; you feel part of the universe of Cairn from the very first moment you start playing. I climb in real life, and the climbing in the game feels very natural. Of course, there are certain details, but the game is an absolute marvel with a simple yet captivating story and an atmosphere that overflows with soul everywhere. It’s one of the best video games I’ve had the chance to play in the last five years. If you enjoy nature and climbing, this game is 100% for you.

This game has a super fascinating world, lore, soundtrack and mechanics. I don't give an higher vote because the story arc of the main character felt a bit banal to me. Anyway I hope to return again to dig more into the history of the troglodytes!

This game is breath of fresh air gameplay wise. There are very few true exploration/hiking/climbing games (individually), there are even less that feature all three in the same game. This game just hits all the right spots. The graphics are stylized and look great, the music is incredible, the design of the mountain is amazing. It's really impressive from a level design aspect how they put this mountain together, honestly. The sense of scale when you are climbing some of the bigger walls is not something replicated in any other game out there on the market. The story is interesting, and the endings are thought provoking. Do yourself a favor and play this, it's my Indie GOTY so far.

História boa. Mecânicas boas. Arte sensacional. Um jogo pra quem gosta de jogar e pra quem gosta de uma boa experiência sensorial.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Juste Incroyable , novateur et incomparable dans le paysage Vidéo ludique. Une grande aventure, beaucoup d'émotions et une belle surprise qui restera gravée en moi longtemps Merci aux développeurs

In short, Cairn is an unprecedented adventure. There are no battles, no shooting, only one enemy: the great challenge that awaits you on the ascent of Mount Kami. Aava's journey is an adventure that combines strategy, exploration, resource management, and a high degree of precision and cunning. Every step you take in Cairn could be fatal, so you must carefully analyze each move and decision to avoid future regrets.

Originale, l'esplorazione è super soddisfacente e la difficoltà è giusta e non punitiva. Una boccata d'aria fresca

The story is good and the climbing feels the best out of all the climbing games I've played.

Fun and challenging game, with good scoring and pretty good characters. This game is for sure going in my 2026 goty contenders category and I can’t wait to see whats next for The Game Bakers, I enjoyed their last game “haven“ So glad I fought through the challenging climb towards the end and made it to the summit!!.

Content worthy of GOTY. The game practically invented "Climbing 2.0" like no other game has. Beyond that, it explores what an exploratory game would be like in its purest verticality, rewarding you with better items, lore, and beautiful vistas. Along with this, its story offers much reflection on life and death, with a very impactful **** we have here incredible, fun gameplay with a good story. For me, it's a 10.

Un gameplay au top avec des commandes super intuitives et des aides personnalisables, Beau graphismes et musique 10/10, testez ce jeu c’est réellement quelque chose

Cairn is a true hidden gem, an elegant yet intense climbing experience. From the very first plays, the game stands out for the clarity of its rules and the depth of its decisions: every handhold, every move matters, and you really feel that thrilling tension that defines great ascents.What truly makes Cairn shine is its balance between strategy and risk-taking. You are constantly weighing ambition against caution, managing your resources with care.Accessible while still demanding, Cairn appeals both to casual players and hardcore gamer with its free solo mode. It delivers tense, readable, and memorable sessions. A smart, immersive, and deeply satisfying game.

Cairn es un juego tan retador como la montaña misma. No es un titulo sencillo ni de ser jugado ni de ser abordado. En mi caso, **** alrededor de una hora y media entender qué era lo que THE GAME BAKERS estaban intentando contarme y como quería el juego mismo ser jugado. No fue sino hasta después de un intento fallido inicial de subir las primeras cimas, decidí empezar otra vez y hacer el TUTORIAL COMPLETO, con las paredes de prueba (ALTAMENTE RECOMENDADO PARA ENTENDER EL LENGUAJE DEL JUEGO).Cuando tu mente hace click de que este no es como todos los juegos de escalar y aceptas las reglas que te propone CAIRN, te conviertes en Aava y el Kami se vuelve tu record personal, un reto que al día de hoy, con más de 300.000 copias vendidas, solo el 13% logró superar. Somos unos 40.000 **** momentos con ganas de abandonar la travesía, como la misma protagonista, por momentos motivado por lo conseguido, y por lo conseguir, CAIRN es la primera gran sorpresa del 2026. Un juego artístico, maravilloso, fuera de lo común como la gente de THE GAME BAKERS nos tiene acostumbrados.

Cairn is one of the most emotionally powerful gaming experiences I’ve ever had. It makes you feel like part of the mountain. It truly makes you feel part of a story. Perfect music, and gameplay that is incredibly fun and realistic.

I laughed with Marco. I cried at the end. The most impactful indie story game I’ve played in my life. I regret buying it on Instant Gaming, the developers deserved all of my money. I’m so sorry.

I really like the game and its art style. It’s nothing groundbreaking, yet at the same time it feels special. I can’t think of another climbing game that comes close to this level of realism.I know the mechanics aren’t perfect (like the 180-degree rotating legs), but overall I enjoyed the game because it genuinely tries to be as realistic as possible with the technology and ideas available to them right now. The story and environmental details are nice points of interest that help keep the gameplay loop fresh.Overall, it’s a well-rounded game, and I hope it will receive updates to fix some of the issues.

Rating: 8/10 — atmospheric, meditative, and introspective — best enjoyed by players who appreciate slow, thoughtful journeys. Full Game on YouTube Channel 'Lumiro' - youtube/X6a2XXuPCqQ

An extremely lazy game in every sense, where even the core mechanic barely works and functions terribly. Some of the worst and most unrealistic animations I’ve ever seen - the heroine’s limb physics are literally like spaghetti. She can rotate her leg 180 degrees and, using just one toe of that leg, lift her entire body upward through her own body textures while pushing off a flat surface. .but next time she might fall while standing on a convenient ledge and keeping his feet firmly on the groundAnd this is just one case out of hundreds - the game is terrible in every aspect. And this is not a gameplay convention, but an incredibly lazy implementation that hurts your eyes every second. On top of the gameplay, the game has lame story, graphics, style and dialogue

There are a plethora of ways that any given game can completely immerse you in its world. While some games go for ultra-realistic graphics or attempt to tell a profound and relatable story, Cairn successfully achieves said immersion by making the player be a part of almost every single minute movement that the protagonist Aava makes along her excruciating ascent to the top of Mount Kami. Every piton you place, every tiny crack you manage to find and grip with your toes, every gust of wind you soldier through, and every successful plan and ledge you manage to clamber over feel like a monumental achievement. It is actually shocking to see how much I've learnt throughout my multiple journeys to (or at least close to) the top. Whereas my first ascent was littered with almost a hundred falls and dozens of deaths, my latter attempts saw me reaching almost 2/3 of the mountain on the hardest difficulty (no pitons and way more limited inventory space) without a single fall. There is a consistent logic to the game's climbing systems, and when you begin to come to terms with said logic, the game becomes nothing short of meditative. Paths that don't seem viable at first glance become a great test of skill and knowledge on return visits. Exploration and experimentation aren't just encouraged; they heavily reward the player with unbreakable pitons, flowers that revive, maps that show the best routes, a bunch of ingredients that can be prepared in a plethora of ways to provide Aava with game-changing buffs that last for minutes on end, and more. With every other survival element, from taping your fingers one finger at a time to recycling unwanted items to make chalk for more grip, just adding to the game's depth and the overall gameplay loop. That's not to say that Cairn doesn't try to tell a profound story or anything… I just found the execution of it to be a bit sloppy. From the overly monotonous way that the main character delivers her lines to the unnatural way some conversations evolve, I can see what the developers were going for, but it didn't quite work for me. The ending(s) themselves tend to be pretty great, and the few moments where the game allows you to just quietly ponder over what's going on in Aava's head likewise, I just didn't care for much else surrounding Aava's story. There also tend to be a few frustrations on the gameplay side of things. Once in every one thousand or so times the game just decides to choose the only limb that is keeping you stable and alive (killing you in the process), you can't just eat a granola bar or recycle a broken flask you find in the open... You have to first put it into my inventory AND THEN interact with the item, which leads to more moments of frustrating inventory management than necessary. A few moments and encounters (that I won't spoil) feel unnecessarily oppressive and resource waste-y, and the game in general just tends to be quite glitchy with Aava sometimes refusing to step on solid ground, phasing through the wall or even getting softlocked if you decide to place a safety piton at the jump on the final bridge before reaching the last part of the ascent. Luckily these few frustrations don't bring my enjoyment of the overall experience down too much. For me, Cairn is a very early contender for not just Indie GOTY, but potentially one of my top 5 games of 2026, depending on how the rest of the year pans out.

Just finished my first playthrough, and wow—what an amazing game. It really shines thanks to its climbing mechanics: complex and even a bit overwhelming at first, but smooth, natural, and deeply satisfying once you get the hang of them. It’s rare to find a game that can feel both relaxing and anxiety-inducing at the same time, helped by the breathtaking scenery, the music, and a deeply curated world and lore.

Cairn is a demonstration of what a game can be when you put all your love and effort in it. This is Independant video game, free and Bold! Overcome yourself, and feel the emotions

Fun climbing game! There’s a fair amount of jank and sometimes this “pro climber” fails to do things that I can very easily do as someone that’s terrible at climbing but the idea is so cool. Also they made the main character really annoying and cringe for no reason. Very odd choice the way she talks to others and complains constantly after a fall. But you can skip the cutscenes and ignore the complaining for the most part. I definitely recommend this game to anyone that likes climbing in real life.

Merci pour ce jeu, un chef d'oeuvre tout droit sorti d'une BD 619. L'ambiance, la musique, le réalisme du gameplay, les graphismes et les design artistiques, les dialogues. Je pensais faire une simulation d'escalade, et beaucoup de belles heures plus **** je me suis retrouvé transformé, à voir la beauté de la vie, de chaque instant, pour faire partie d'un tout ! Merci l'equipe, j'espere qu'il y aura des DLC.

This is a such special and unique game! Accurate, challenging climbing gameplay, immaculate visuals and vibes. Performance is good and bugs are extremely minimal, but I have a different threshold for that than other people, especially about indie games.

This is a really cool game that I’ve been waiting for a long time, but it has quite a few issues. First, the main character's physics. While climbing, you can get into tons of positions that would cause a real person to fall immediately, get exhausted very quickly, or are simply anatomically impossible. Second, the mountain surface structure. I often fell in spots where the character should have been able to walk calmly. Even in situations where she should lean against the wall and shimmy along the ledge, she almost always falls instead. Third, the stamina system. The calculations seem off here. Even with maxed-out stats, good grip strength, and an easy route, the character gets exhausted almost instantly if one or two limbs aren't perfectly placed on a hold.

Just tried the demo and i loved it. This game is something completely new. A very realistic attempt on climbing. The gameplay is slow but in a calming way.

Thebest mountain climbing game this year 2026 just arrives with this amazing game I played the demo from that I am fan so this game so much!!

From its artistic direction and storyline to its unique controller, Cairn has everything you could want and makes you want to push yourself to succeed in climbing Mount Kami. With its challenging gameplay, realistic representation of alpinism and sense of freedom so well captured, this game will remain in my memory ‘for eternity’.

It understands the basics of climbing and provides a zen like state when everything goes smooth. While other times you're scrambling for a good position or dreading a fall because you placed your piton way to far below you. 9/10, would recommend!

The most stunning representation of climbing I've ever experienced in a game. A beautiful, meditative, and sometimes frustrating adventure, and something I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to play. I adore this game.