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.
About Author
More Stories
Virologist Wendy Barclay: ‘Wild avian viruses are mixing up their genetics all the time. It’s like viral sex on steroids’
Microsoft unveils chip it says could bring quantum computing within years
‘It would be seen as political’: why the Royal Society is torn over Elon Musk