Jusant

Game Pass's 1€ trial returned in a nerfed manner: being only 2 weeks in length. Evidently that's not long enough for me to beat 2 short games and 1 bigger one (in a completionist style). I will have to return to finish the latter, Gotham Knights, some other time.

An enjoyable little climbing game

The first of the smaller games I beat was Jusant from the French Dontnod Entertainment, who have moved away from their name's palindrome appearance a bit and now go by as Don't Nod. The company has gotten rather prolific lately: their next game Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was originally going to release a mere week after Jusant, in November, but was then delayed to February. And their next project after that, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, has been already announced as well.

What piqued my interest in Jusant was how it's about climbing. I wanted to see if a game focused solely on that would introduce elements I had not seen before. The game's title is not related to climbing; jusant means ebb tide in French (though I think the game called it low tide). Jusant's working title (as revealed by the permissions request dialogue on the Xbox app again) was Ascension - P9. (P9 probably being Project 9 as this is Don't Nod's 9th game.)

Ebb tide has taken the sea from the massive tower of rock your character is about to ascend. All the people who lived there have left as well: no water, no life. There is no spoken dialogue, only notes left behind, and your mission is a mystery too. I'd say at the end of the first chapter you should be able to figure out your purpose there, though.

Jusant is not a try-hard game: it won't allow you to jump off ledges to your death even though it is possible to fall quite a bit of distance if you really try. But even then you take no falling damage. I don't know if the developers were aiming for a lower age rating (by avoiding gruesome deaths) or if they just wanted to make a chill game without pressure. Jusant is not quite a vertical walking simulator either, however. The climbing does take effort -- you actively hold down different buttons -- and on occasion Jusant requires somewhat precise timing for jumps and whatnot.

It took some time to get used to the climbing: having to take turns with holding and releasing triggers. I have previously encountered similar controls in one of the Wolfenstein games, albeit simpler and that I played with keyboard/mouse. I did eventually become a pretty quick climber, though.

There is a stamina bar to mind while climbing but you can stop to rest to restore it. Jumps will take away maximum stamina until you get back on solid ground. Your rope is somewhat advanced tech (or magical) because it can be detached remotely from its original attachment point to rewind it back to you -- as long as you're in a safe spot. You can also place up to 3 pitons per climb for a "checkpoint" and/or swinging point.

There are some fantastical flora and fauna that are used to progress but heavy winds could be a thing in a more mundane setting too. What Jusant is missing, is a sense of danger. There's no vertigo caused by the heights because the game is so protective; there's not much to lose if you fail to grab a handhold. While Jusant is a cool experience all the way through, and immersive despite the lack of true setbacks, I would like to see its climbing features implemented in a game that punishes you more for failing -- like in a future Tomb Raider game, for instance.

Jusant runs on Unreal Engine 5 but I reckon its fairly simplistic looks might have been possible to create back on UE3 already. The older engine wouldn't have made my CPU sweat so much. Meanwhile my GPU seemed barely bothered.