INTRO
Don’t Nod Studio’s newest entry Jusant is a strange game to categorize. Personally, I like to call it more of an experience than a game per se, but still one I’d recommend. It’s not exactly a walking sim but there are similarities. The elevator pitch I’d use to recommend it to a friend is ‘a chill relaxing version of Get Over It, that tells an interesting and meaningful story.’
GAMEPLAY AND STORY
The gist of Jusant’s gameplay is rather simple, you climb. Climbing is done by alternating between trigger buttons on a controller for your arms and direction control from the stick. That evolves into using various climbing techniques like adding pitons, swinging, jumping, rest stops, and stamina bars. Later on, you also gain access to magic powers to create handholds, change the environment, and use the terrain to your advantage. From my experience with Jusant, I expect the game to have serious appeal to the speedrunning community; the climbing mechanics are incredibly smooth, easy to learn yet hard to master, and I can see the draw in competing for fast you can climb to the top.
The story is where Jusant pulls out all the stops. It is very much an example of show not tell. While the specifics of Jusant’s world background are uncovered from collectible letters and journal entries found on your journey those are not required to enjoy the simple yet compelling world of Jusant. In fact, I don’t want to go into too much detail here because such a large amount of the Jusant experience is exploring the world and puzzling out what happened to bring about the current situation. However I will give you a general idea of the story, you play as a climber in a strange deserted area, climbing a mountain that seems to reach the stars; accompanied by your mysterious magic tardigrade/whale baby. Any more I’ll leave it up to you to discover.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
Jusant’s graphics are highly stylized, and while not anything groundbreaking, some of the vistas and views you can come across are absolutely stunning. I did come across some issues with frame rate at times, but it was rare, didn’t get in the way of enjoying the game, and I expect it to be patched out quickly upon release.
Jusant’s sound is very much secondary to the story, visuals, and gameplay, but it does play its own important role. There’s nothing incredibly complex about the background music, just your basic calm and mood-setting pieces to accompany a pretty chill game. The most interesting the sound design gets, is in terms of story, throughout the game there are collectible conch shells you can pick up that trigger a short cutscene that focuses on the immediate area around you letting you hear the long-gone sounds of the area in the past, from now disused machinery to rivers long dried up.
FEEDBACK
Jusant is a beautiful game, from the beautiful scenery to the intriguing story, there’s honestly not much that I wish was different. Bug-wise, I hope they get the game a bit smoother in terms of frame rate at times but that wasn’t even that big an issue. Jusant is mainly about the experience of playing it and therefore is a rather short game, only about 6 hours to completion, and another one or two if you want to go back to levels and find all the collectibles you missed along the way. If I was going to ask for something more I would say maybe one or two more levels to stretch the game out to 8 hours to make the $25 price tag a little more appealing. Part of that is also that each level introduces a new mechanic, but there’s not really a level that makes use of all the mechanics you’ve come across at once, and I feel like a level like that would fit in nicely before the final level of the game. Otherwise, however, I don’t really have much to complain about in regards to Jusant.
CONCLUSION
Jusant is a fairly short game, but it is first and foremost an experience, and one I highly recommend to people who enjoy calm games, beautiful scenery, and interesting stories. I loved my time climbing through the world of Jusant and puzzling out what had happened to bring about the events of the game. For anyone looking for a chill game to relax with and explore, or for the dedicated speed runners out there who love climbing games I highly recommend exploring the world of Jusant.
Jusant is available now on PS5, Xbox X|S, and PC via Steam.
