One of the biggest wins is the “half press technique.” Making good use of the pressure triggers on the Oculus Touch remotes (still among the best VR controllers in the industry), you can “half” press in to maintain a zen-like balance without overexerting yourself. When you add in the need to constantly grab onto objects with both hands and chalk (a simple button press, which requires a free hand), it gets real strategic real fast. The Climb 2 also mixes things up with crumbling grips (think Mario‘s disappearing ledges), sharp grips (which pierce you and mess with your stamina meter), and grips you need to clean off before grabbing. VR is essential to the core of the game and it’s better for it. Or, you could look up or down to get a better view.

Sometimes you might need to grab a ledge and “peek” around a corner to see the next vantage point. The main appeal of the original returns, in that it isn’t always apparent where you’re supposed to go. There’s 15 jungle gyms to climb and all of them are worth playing at least once.

From there, the environments branch out into three levels (easy, medium, hard), and then two modes (casual, standard).

There’s five biomes: Alps, Bay, Canyon, City, and North. You’re literally climbing up a bunch of jungle gyms either for fun, or for time trial bragging rights. There aren’t any convoluted modes or parameters in The Climb 2. The Climb 2 (Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest 2 ) The Climb 2 builds further on that, and adds my most-requested feature into the mix: city maps. It offered a unique perspective on a harrowing activity, and used the VR medium to juice up the atmosphere on an already-firm climbing game foundation. The Climb was a really fun effort from Crytek to help cement why VR gaming has a place in the industry. I mean, it’s a niche at this point, but I’m thankful. That’s about how long mainstream VR tech has been out, and thankfully, a handful of plucky studios are still plugging away at VR games. It’s crazy to think that it’s been nearly five years since The Climb!

The climb vr update 2