A Cairn Tale is a beautiful contemplative mountaineering adventure where you climb, jump and abseil to carry a heavy burden to the top of a mountain in search of enlightenment.
Currently in development by Students at GOBELINS Paris, A Cairn Tale is a mountaineering platforming adventure where you control a strange humanoid being as it attempts to transport a bunch a bunch of mysterious stones to the top of a mountain. The gameplay is quite similar to the climbing sections in Tomb Raider or Uncharted, but with much more freedom of movement, tighter platforming controls and a nifty grappling hook-esque ability.
It takes around 30 minutes to reach the top of the mountain and it’s a very enjoyable ascent. As well as offering up some breathtaking vistas, A Cairn Tale tests your problem solving abilities as well as your platforming skills. You have to figure out your route through the world and deal with environmental hazards such as wind tunnels and flowing water, sometimes even using them to your advantage.
The dialogue in A Cairn Tale is entirely in French at the moment, but it’s not necessary to know what it says to play (and enjoy) the game. The dialogue is minimal and seems to just give you tips about your abilities (which are easy enough to work out). It’s a wonderful little Journey-esque adventure that makes for a challenging, but very pleasant and stress free ascent to the summit. Highly recommended.
Note: The current build is only in French and is set up for an AZERTY keyboard as default. However there’s only a little French dialogue (which doesn’t affect the gameplay) and you can play with a control pad or switch to QWERTY controls in the options menu.
Check Out a Gameplay Video Here
Download A Cairn Tale Here (Windows)