I have gone rock climbing quite a few times in my life, and it’s often much trickier than one would think. I have no upper body strength, so often get tired and find it difficult to figure out what path to take. However, neither of those things are really a problem in Klifur – a physics-based puzzle game all about rock climbing.
Klifur gives you 12 simple looking levels, for you to climb around. There is one rock, with highlighted colored lines around it, is your goal in each level. You can grab and move your character’s feet and hands to different rocks on the wall, moving them along. You will need to ensure that at least one hand is on a rock at all times – nobody can climb with their feet – and if you hold onto a body part for too long, pulling on it, the character will then just fall. This is showcased from a little circle that is quickly running out.
Trying to get yourself to the end block is often a challenge. You might need to swing around to make it or move in a strange way. Your body is like a ragdoll, so unlike in real life, you can actually bend and twist into a strange configuration and make your way through. As levels progress, you end up having rocks that can hold more than one part, and you can drag where you are grabbing to different parts of that large rock, which can help you get further.
At the end of each level in Klifur, you will see how many different holds you made and the time it took you to complete the level. These can be used to measure how well you did, but aren’t given stars or anything to indicate if you have done better than expected. Klifur feels like a really easy puzzle game at first, but quickly becomes one that takes a lot of thinking and a lot of falling.
You can play Klifur in your browser, on itch.io.