Insurmountable

Insurmountable’s 2.0 update brings all the missing content that the original release desperately needed; while the new stuff is anything but cozy, it is challenging, which is the exact kind of thing players who love survival games are looking for. Insurmountable revitalizes the tired roguelike genre with its new setting and careful, slow-going mechanics, but it can feel a bit stale after a summit or two so it’s best to play this one in short bursts. If you’re always searching for that something over the next mountaintop, Insurmountable is cooler than cool — it’s ice cold.

If you like watching and maintaining stats, then this is the game for you! If you like slow, methodical decision making and no combat or twitch reflexes, then Insurmountable is the game for you. If you want a narrative, linear progression of any kind, or compelling characters, then this is not the game for you. You will just be walking around a mostly ambient noise-filled world incredibly slowly, but that could be your jam!

Insurmountable combines diverse features to create an experience that is both meditative and tense. Guiding a climber to the top of mountains is an interesting activity, mainly because of the different mechanics, such as managing vital resources and assembling routes. However, the experience is compromised by offering very limited diversity of content, which makes runs too similar to each other too quickly. The new features of the 2.0 update help to alleviate the problems, but they are not enough to solve the many negative issues. In the end, Insurmountable is a creative adventure, but one that takes patience.

Insurmountable gains a new gameplay layer with the 2.0 update, which gives the experience a clearer structure and players more clear goals to aim for. Climbing peaks, with limited resources and careful planning, continues to be compelling. There are plenty of strategies to try out, many events to deal with, some mysteries to untangle.

Those wins make you want to play, and play, and then, play Insurmountable some more because, well, go back to what I said about peaks and views and random events in which your choices may make or break you. Insurmountable is beautiful, engaging, clever, and a delight to play - even when I was halfway dead on the side of an icy peak and slowly dying of frostbite. It sounds like it would be tough to make that fun, but Insurmountable pulls it off.

Amusing climbing of lonely mountaineer with weather effects and permadeath.

There may be some good ideas and systems at play in Insurmountable, such as inventory and meter management, but the title is only remotely enjoyable when those meters are almost completely drained and you're near the end of the level.

Mountain climbing is no joke. On an average climb, you’ll have to come well-prepared with the right equipment and a solid level of fitness. But for much grander adventures, an unshakeable will and strong constitution will be needed to see you all the way to the mountain’s peak. It sounds exciting, but who can be bothered with all the effort? let alone the potential risk of death at greater, more dangerous heights. Thankfully, Insurmountable brings the mountaineering experience to you, where you can reach the highest peaks from the safety of your own home. But while it tries to emulate the excitement and intensity of a treacherous mountain climb, Insurmountable stumbles a little too often for it to succeed.

The whole design of Insurmountable, not only the graphics but also the gameplay, is very well done. The strategic elements become most apparent as the difficulty increases and the game offers a nice challenge. At the same time, I really felt a sense of satisfaction after I reached the top and realised that being an alpinist - that is, a person who climbs high mountain peaks - is not easy. In the game, you're pretty close to utter exhaustion and death quite often, and there's nothing more harrowing than getting to the top and not making it back down.

The reality is if Insurmountable were a real board game, I’d be interested in picking it up, and the price would be much steeper due to the physical pieces. The digital experience it offers is a unique one worth having for any fans of slower-paced strategy games, even if its freshness is shorter-lived than I would like.