Cairn review: The Game Bakers' limb-by-limb climbing sim due Jan 30, 2026

PC Gamer's review by Shaun Prescott examines Cairn, a limb-by-limb climbing sim from The Game Bakers slated for release on January 30, 2026. The review calls it a sprawling, tactile ascent and describes it as "among the best videogames" Prescott has played in years. You play as Aava, a renowned but reclusive climber attempting to scale Mount Kami in a roughly 15-hour odyssey (or potentially endless journey).

Movement is deliberate: every hand and foot placement matters, and the game uses diegetic stamina cues—shaking limbs, strained breathing, screen blur and controller rumble—to communicate risk. Cairn’s tools and rules amplify that risk. Aava can place limited pitons as temporary safe zones and go "off belay" to rest and access her backpack, but pitons aren’t save points and are often scarce (the reviewer usually had three or four).

Aava also has a generations-old robot pet that can fetch pitons, though they sometimes break. Survival systems require Aava to eat, drink and sleep, and saves only occur at predetermined campsites. Prescott notes these systems can be toggled off but recommends keeping them on for the emotional payoff: the game makes physical limits and resource tension central to the experience, and it deliberately frames Aava as brilliant but fallible rather than heroic.

Prescott compares Cairn loosely to navigation titles like Death Stranding and Baby Steps and to body-focused experiments such as QWOP, calling Cairn quietly surreal and cinematic.

cairn review, limb-by-limb climbing sim, cairn release date, january 30 2026, aava protagonist, mount kami, the game bakers, diegetic stamina cues, pitons temporary safe zones, robot pet piton retrieval, survival systems toggle, shaun prescott pc gamer