Hands-on: Crytek’s ‘The Climb’ with Oculus Touch Feels Like an Entirely New Experience

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Aug 18, 2016

The Climb is a climbing simulator game from Crytek designed for the Oculus Rift. Originally premiering in April using the Xbox controller, The Climb is getting an update to work with Oculus Touch, the company’s yet released hand controller.

From the start, it surprised us to find that The Climb would launch ahead of the Oculus Touch controller—after all, it seemed like a perfect fit. Somewhat unexpectedly, it actually worked pretty well with the motion-less gamepad (our review here). Even so, it seems as if eventually adding support for VR motion controllers was the developer’s long-game from the start, as using the Touch version of The Climb felt profoundly different.

Traversing the mountain face was easy, and while it left my arms tired (as I was constantly grasping for handholds) the results are so much more satisfying when you’re mimicking the movements of reaching and grabbing, instead of craftily manipulating a gamepad and craning your neck for purchase.

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Moving your arms to reach for a new grip changes your point of view in the direction of the next hand hold, so even though your head is fairly immobile, you feel like you’re traveling left, right, up or down depending on your chosen direction. While this doesn’t sound technically appealing (any undue movement is usually a bad thing in VR), it felt more like I was pulling the world with me, and that I had a tight control over my locomotion even if it was exaggerated to help me move from handhold to handhold. Even making a risky jump to a next handhold felt like a natural movement, if only because I was engaging more with the physicality of the game than I would have otherwise.

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There’s only a minimal auto-locking mechanic for when you get close to your target handholds, but you’re expected to really stretch and work for the next move despite this. I know the content of the game hasn’t changed at all, but with the addition of Touch support, I really want back into my copy of The Climb for an extended session, because from what I saw today, it feels like an entirely new experience.

The update to add support for Oculus Touch to The Climb will come at the same time that Touch launches, which the company has only confirmed will be before the end of 2016..

J.C.

Cool. When the oculus store adds native support for the Vive, I’ll happily buy this.
- Rick
  
  And I’m sure it will come eventually. New store and company, it would be hard to support both platforms to the quality they want to.
  - vrsvpro
    
    I’m very concerned about SVPRO 3D VR headset(http://www.trendsloving.com/best-3d-vr-display-glasses-headset-for-games-and-videos-p-25.html) can play this game.But I can’t sure it
Sebastien Mathieu

Yep, Yep and Yep!!!
Graham J ⭐️

So it was like playing a Vive version of the game. Cool!
- PrymeFactor
  
  Yeah, playing Knack was exactly like playing Uncharted 4 since they use the same controllers.
  
  Still can’t believe grown adults would troll over VR HMDs.
  - Niero Gonzalez
    
    You overestimate adults. Have you not been following the elections?
James Friedman

Yeah this was one reason why I had zero intention of purchasing this game. I’m holding off till the touch controller finally make it to market
Liam Mulligan

The fact that this was ever released on a gamepad was ridiculous. This game has so much potential and it made me angry when I saw it was the case. Gamepad VR can take a walk. Finally someone got a bright idea. Will buy if it comes to vive.
- Brym
  
  It’s my favorite and most-played VR game over the course of the 3.5 months I’ve had my Rift, so I’m glad they released with gamepads.
- Steve Dennis
  
  Gamepad version is easily my #1 VR game right now. You can get angry all you want, but they shouldn’t withhold something from people who might like it because you don’t.
  - Ned Hoon
    
    Im with Steve on this one took the words right outta my mouth.
- PrymeFactor
  
  Gamepad version works well.
  
  I’m sure an angry young person on reddit told you VR wasn’t fun without motion controllers and ‘roomscale’, but people are enjoying this just fine.
- Veraxus
  
  The gamepad version is actually pretty good. It’s certainly not worth more than $30, but it’s a solid VR game and the controls work surprisingly well.
Doctor Bambi

Awesome, it looks like Crytek really nailed Touch support. Got to try the Climb at an Oculus demo and was really impressed by how quickly it drew me in, just using my head and a controller. Looks like short play sessions/ showing to friends and family will be great with Touch. Where as longer/ more competitive playthougths would be better with a controller. It’ll be nice to have both options.
- vrsvpro
  
  Yes, I am a outdoor enthusiasts.When it rains or is too tired, I can play the game to experience mountain climbing.
- Tedplus
  
  ytr
RavnosCC

I guess no news on when Oculus (home) exclusivity will end then?
MacGoose

Is it just me or are the VR community filled with Vive owners degrading the Rift because they cannot play the games that are exclusive to it? And they mostly do it with stating that the game would be so much better on the Vive if it was released for it?
- DM
  
  Seems that way to me certainly. IMO they should have just bought a Rift in the first place, or maybe we should take it as a sign that Oculus has a better gaming catalog than the Vive and it’s gonna be worth the wait for Touch.