Jusant

Don’t Nod’s Jusant is a lowkey game about climbing, but there’s more to it than that. Its gorgeous visuals, wordless narrative, and minimalist score make it a far more contemplative game than you might otherwise assume. Throughout its gameplay, you can discover notes detailing the interiority of an abandoned civilization. Environmental details, such as wall scrapes and old carabiners left behind by past climbers, give its world an impressive depth despite there being no other characters or NPCs around. And the complexity of the climbing mechanics, like finding the appropriate protrusion to grasp onto before moving onwards and upwards, offer a creatively challenging puzzle that’s rewarding when solved.

Although simple, Jusant consistently puts new obstacles in your path—immovable boxes here, broken ledges there—and tasks you with figuring out how to reach the next objective in a variety of ways. Jusant’s brainteasers had me enraptured from the start, but its final moments were some of the most emotionally resonant I’ve experienced while playing a game.

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