The Climb 2

The Climb 2, a virtual reality platform game from Crytek, arrived on Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2 on March 4, 2021. It builds on the foundation of its 2016 predecessor, tasking players with scaling cliffs and skyscrapers. Critics generally gave it positive marks.

**Gameplay** The core climbing mechanics carry over: players must scan for handholds, maintain a grip with one hand while reaching for the next, and use chalk to restore stamina—though this process is faster than in the original. The game offers five biomes: Alps, Bay, Canyon, and North return from the first game, while City introduces a modern, skyscraper-filled environment. Each zone contains three distinct levels. Levels still feature shortcuts and branching paths for faster ascents, along with crumbling grips that give way after a set time. New additions include environmental hazards like rattlesnakes that bite and cause players to lose their hold, grips mounted on disappearing and reappearing Trivision prisms, and sliding grips that send players downward unless they snag the next hold mid-slide. The asynchronous Ghost Race mode uploads player performances to an online leaderboard, allowing competition against friends' ghost avatars.

**Development** Crytek began production in early 2020, aiming to diversify the settings beyond the first game's natural landscapes. Introducing man-made environments required a more reactive physics system, where structures respond to the player's weight and momentum. The city design drew inspiration from Miami, capturing its vibrant colors and sunny, bright vacation feel, but the team avoided direct replication of its highrises, which they felt would be dull to climb. Instead, each city level incorporates varied surfaces and horizontal traversals—for example, scaling three skyscrapers in a single level, each with unique mechanics. Natural environments were inspired by Maya Bay, the Grand Canyon, the Alps, and Iceland. The game was announced on September 16, 2020, at Facebook Connect 2020, originally slated for late 2020 but delayed to March 4, 2021. On April 21, 2021, Crytek announced the "Freestyle" expansion pack, split into two parts adding 12 new levels and a mode where players climb and grab handholds in rhythm with background music. Part one released April 22, 2021; part two followed on June 10, 2021.