Surmount: A Mountain Climbing Adventure Review (PC)

So, there I was, tethered to a friend, bungeeing back and forth between a rock and a hard place in a last-ditch effort to secure a sturdy hook on the next available foothold. In my mind, Mount Om wasn’t about to beat us, for we had only a short distance to go before being able to reap the benefits of our labor and sacrifice. It was going to take a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to reach the summit, and thrice as many arguments over who would secure the next hook, and who would open the portal to the next piece of stable ground — but we ascended, alright, and we somehow managed to make whatever curveballs Surmount: A Mountain Climbing Adventure threw at us appear harmless—forgiving, even. That was, of course, until we touched the clouds and realized that, in spite of our efforts, it wasn’t over.

Surmount: A Mountain Climbing Adventure, in case you’ve yet to dip your toes into its waters, is a single and two-player physics-based mountain climbing game, one in which players take to the deadly feats of Mount Om—the “highest” mountain in the world. It isn’t quite Everest; it doesn’t feature an enormous variety of ashen trees or snow-drizzled peaks, but rather, a procedurally generated landscape that includes a treasure trove of unlikely obstacles and other natural wonders. Think Crash Bandicoot, and how several of its levels had you ascending trees that would eventually transition into playgrounds for boars, cannibalistic flora, and Indiana Jones-like traps — and you’ll have a good idea of what I’m talking about. That, in short, is Surmount: an unruly summit of oddities and impeccable feats.

One Small Step

Surmount: A Mountain Climbing Adventure, in a similar vein as Jusant, is all about rock climbing—an extreme sport that requires a mixture of careful footwork, dedication, and a claw-like grip that allows you and your teammates to tether together and tackle even the minuscule forms of terrain. The game, which takes place on the peaks of Mount Om—a luscious mountaintop that’s famous for its spectacular views and sky-high trails—invites you and an additional pair of hands to create your own climber, and fashion a toolkit that will grant you access to the apex. As it’s a procedurally generated summit, each of these ascents aren’t massively co-ordinated; in fact, in each new climb, you’ll find an entirely different set of obstacles and other eccentric paths.

Aside from the actual climbing, which we’ll talk about in a moment, the game also offers a collection of small mountainside villages, campsites, and other cozy biomes to explore. It’s within these quaint quarters that you essentially acquire new tools to conquer greater feats, and unlock additional gear to create your near-perfect avatar. The goal of the game, in short, is to gradually work through the ascents, and accrue better items and equipment to travel even further. Suffice it to say, it’s an incredibly simple gameplay loop that doesn’t require a great deal of forward thinking. With that said, it does, on the rarest of occasions, generate a world that can be a little more demanding and complex.

An “Easy” Feat

Thankfully, Surmount: A Mountain Climbing Adventure isn’t all that difficult to navigate; in fact, it’s actually rather easy—surmountable, even, and doubly so if you’re playing alongside another person. Before you launch your campaign, you’ll find a small haven at the foot of the mountain known as New Tully—a region that comes loaded with its own basic tutorials, quests, and NPCs to speak with. In addition to this, you’ll also find a slew of rather useful items, including snacks to keep your health and stamina in tip-top shape, as well as a myriad of upgrades and other cosmetic features. Granted, the cosmetic items, such as facial accessories and hats, don’t necessarily alter the gameplay; instead, they allow you to simply add a bit of extra flavor to the experience. Are they worth pouring money into? Meh, it depends; how much is a new beanie worth to you?

As far as the campaign goes, there are four biomes to traverse in total, with each one containing a fresh batch of procedurally generated levels. In each of these levels, your only major objective is to ascend to the next campsite, and find a place to replenish your health and stamina, whether it’s by chowing down on some of the local fruits, or obtaining an upgrade that allows you to climb for longer, or perhaps even withstand greater impacts. To obtain these items, you need only accrue Gems, which can be earned by completing small requests for local climbers or scientists, or making gradual dents in the peaks of Mount Om. Sure enough, the higher you’re able to travel, the more you’re likely to earn, and so on and so forth.

The Climb

It’s a physics-based game, and so, naturally, you’re going to spend a lot of time navigating a board and using a variety of tools to overcome certain obstacles. In most cases, a simple bit of rope is enough to get you through the campaign, but in some instances, a wider range of tools are needed to progress, which includes taking full advantage of the gazers and flora to secure anchor points and either climb, swing, or jump to a new position. It isn’t massively difficult, but due to the game constantly changing its layout, a bit of forward planning it often made to feel mandatory. There’s also the stamina gauge to keep tabs on, too—a slider that depletes as you make longer climbs. But, that’s where a bit of general exploration comes in handy; straying off the beaten path can provide you with some additional goodies—fruits, for example.

There is one major downside to all of this: the lack of checkpoints in each climb. As it turns out, if you do happen to fail, then you have to rewind back to the base of Mount Om and start from scratch in New Tully. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen all that often, as the game does make a genuine effort to provide you with enough tutorials and preliminary information to prevent you from falling at the first hurdle. Again, though, as each of the levels are completely randomized, there is always a chance that you’ll wind up falling at the hand of some mismatched route. But hey — that’s all part of the learning curve, I guess. Sure enough, you will fall, but don’t expect it to coerce you into believing that the climb is over and that there’s little left to see or do.

Verdict

Surmount: A Mountain Climbing Adventure is not only a great single-player climbing game, but also one that’s as equally fun to explore as a duo, thanks to its generous selection of incentives and other useful features that tend to sprout up more for double acts. Granted, it can be a little tricky to learn, but, for me, I found that, by onboarding all of the information and tutorials before making an attempt at reaching the summit, I was able to bypass a lot of the grizzly deaths and drive straight towards the apex. Don’t get me wrong, I did fall, and I did have to endure the headache of having to restart each section from scratch, but thanks to a certain upgrade that allowed me to jump straight back to the previous feat, it wasn’t all that bad.

I’m thankful, in ways, that Surmount: A Mountain Climbing Adventure isn’t just a generic A-to-B sort of gig; on the contrary, it has a lot more to it than most games of its kind, including a generous selection of quirky NPCs, as well as enough solid dialogue to formulate a narrative that’s surprisingly easy to grasp and flow with. The fact that it also contains a level system that’s fresh in each new turn, also, makes it a game that doesn’t run short of ideas at the first piton. And so, even when you do fail to reach the next campsite, it isn’t as if you’re returning to the same obstacle or route; in fact, the journey is almost endless, which means, you can’t really complete it.

Anyway, if you are looking to grasp a foothold in a new climbing adventure that touts enough bells and whistles to warrant a few hours of your time, then definitely consider this one.