Before The Multiplayer Chaos Of Peak, Jusant Was A Beautiful Solo Climb
Hold on tight.
The co-op climbing game Peak has been a massive success recently, but it’s not the only recent game to tackle the challenge and joy of scaling a mountain. One of the best games of 2023 takes a very different approach from the chaotic tone of Peak for its climbing adventure, and it’s available for free this July to PlayStation Plus subscribers.
As opposed to Peak, Jusant is a (mostly) solitary experience. It’s about scaling the side of a gigantic mountain with no one except the strange creature living in your backpack for company. Exactly what you expect to find at the top is a mystery at first, but you do know what you want to accomplish by getting there. The world of Jusant is dry and barren, with rains that used to fill entire oceans having long since ceased and entire civilizations gone missing alongside them. With the help of your strange companion, you hope to restore rain to the world, if you can just make it to the peak together.
Jusant is a meditative but difficult take on mountain climbing.
Jusant wants you to pay close attention to the feeling of climbing. You progress up the mountain one handhold at a time, manually grasping and releasing each one along the way. Pulling the left trigger on the controller to grasp with your character’s left hand or right trigger for right hand, letting you pull yourself up just a tiny bit closer to the summit each time. That could make the process utterly laborious, but in Jusant, it’s thrilling. The longer you hold on, the more your stamina will deplete, so climbing becomes a desperate race as you fight to find the best path up in time before your grip gets too weak and sends you plummeting back to the ground.
The higher you climb, the more the mountain itself becomes both an obstacle and a tool. Harsh winds batter you in one moment, rapidly shredding your stamina if you’re caught in them, then you find your way to plants that will carry you far beyond your own ability to reach in the next. Jusant’s mountain is neither a friend nor foe — it’s the place your people once called home, and like they did, you need to learn to use what it offers while surviving its dangers to make it to the top.
Despite how much of a struggle it can be to climb, Jusant never makes it feel like a chore. Thrilling sequences where you swing and jump from ropes or use the mountain’s wildlife for a boost break up the slow work of climbing. Aside from reaching your final goal, you can also push yourself to find collectibles by exploring the abandoned homes of the people who used to make the mountain their home, offering you moments of respite and a better sense of those who came before you.
The story of Jusant reveals itself as you climb your way to the summit.
Jusant never slows down the pace to force exposition on you, but it tells a compelling story nonetheless. While you’re the only one left to climb the mountain, you’re not the first to make the journey. As the world’s water receded, the people who called the mountain home were forced to relocate again and again. As you make your way to the top, you’ll find remnants of their lives and journals detailing how they struggled to survive in a changing world, along with records of those who tried to reach the top before you. As exciting as it is to reach a handhold just in time or to make a perfect landing after swinging across a chasm, it’s just as thrilling to uncover the lives of the people whose homes you’re now climbing through on your own journey.
After its release, Jusant captured a cult fanbase, but if you missed it the first time around, its addition to PS Plus makes it a great time to play. Whether you’re looking for a singleplayer alternative to the co-op game of the moment or want to play a game that’s both meditative and challenging at the same time, Jusant is a climb that’s well worth making.
