Jusant review – a skyscraping climbing game with the gift of perspective

PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox Series X/S, PC; Don’t Nod
The mostly wordless adventure tasks you with ascending an exquisitely rendered mountain with a troubled past

Jusant doesn’t so much do away with the cliche of the video game vista as reorient it. Instead of giving you a stirring panorama to gaze upon, it fixes your view on the vertiginous mountain stretching above and below, your task being to guide a quiet, androgynous character across its rocks and ridge-splitting crevasses. This climbing game isn’t about the expansive possibilities of its space (as with Starfield and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). Instead, it homes in on the challenge of navigating in the here and now, one dusty handhold and firmly lodged belay at a time.

The magic of Jusant lies in its ingenious control scheme. It foregoes the straightforward one-button climbing of other action games for something more dexterous, equipping your character with a handful of carabiners, a generous length of rope and a strong stomach for vertigo-inducing heights. Each outstretched hand is controlled by one of the shoulder buttons; hold and release the shoulder buttons in tandem and you start to build a thrilling sense of fluidity, scaling the cliff at a considerable rate of knots. At other times, you’re required to proceed more slowly, planning your next move while gripping on to a ledge with both hands (the correct way forward is often the longest way round). Quickly, Jusant finds a pleasing rhythm of tension and release, the drama of climbing punctuated by safer moments of more grounded exploration.