After the latest update, Sky Climb is way way better
So after my initial review went live, the developers got in touch with me and said that a future update to Sky Climb would introduce some new accessibility options that address the control & tracking problems I talked about in my review.
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Well, I played the game after the update and I am very pleased to say that the new accessibility options improve the whole experience by a lot. Instead of waving, spreading or swinging your arms wildly to glide, fall and toss yourself around, you can now do all that using the analog sticks.
The game plays and feels way better now as you have way more control where you fling or toss yourself. Don't get me wrong, the game is still very challenging, but at least now you don't feel like you are fighting against the tracking of the device. Anyway, below you can still read the original review of the game.
I think the idea behind the movement is cool, but on the other hand, the execution and clear limitation of the platform somewhat undermine the whole thing
Sky Climb is a really interesting VR climbing platformer that ultimately falters due to the limitation of the platform itself. Let me explain. The unique aspect of Sky Climb is how you move through the level. All movement is based on grabbing onto floating boxes in the fairly large levels and flinging yourself onto the next boxes and so on until you reach the end of the level.
While this movement mechanic is cool and somewhat satisfying at first, the floaty physics along with the hit-and-miss tracking of the Quest controllers quickly turn the experience into a real slog. When you grab onto one of these boxes, you need to swing your arm and release the grab button at the correct moment to propel yourself towards the next boxes. The inside-out tracking of the Quest headset is surprisingly good, but even it has its own limitations, and after spending a couple of hours with Sky Climb, I think these developers have hit those limitations.
To propel or launch yourself correctly, you will need to swing your arms in weird and unnatural ways, and most of the time, that swinging will happen just outside of the Quest's tracking range. So, most of the time, you will either overshoot and fly really far or fail to launch altogether, ultimately falling down to your doom or floating up towards the sky. When you start playing the game, on rare occasions, you will hit that perfect swing and release, and it's really satisfying. But most of the time, you will just try and try and try again, and that gets not only tiring on your arms but also quite frustrating.
The floaty physics help mitigate that frustration at times, as you have a couple of abilities like a dash that propels you wherever you are gazing, and you can also perform a dive gesture that allows you to fall down faster. You can also glide by spreading your arms and flap your arms to fly for a little bit. All of these abilities give you a little more control, but again, at the end of the day, it still feels like you are at the mercy of the Quest's tracking limitations.
Getting through the 65 different levels in the single-player mode will take you a couple of hours. These levels are spread out across different worlds that slowly introduce new mechanics like water guns to pacify angry crocodile floaties or dolphins that you can use as rockets to move around the level, obstacles like angry suns, bouncing blocks, tornados, etc., and each world culminates with a boss fight. Even though it might not look like it given its cute, vibrant, and balloon-y graphics, Sky Climb is a really hard game, borderline punishing at times.
Apart from the single-player mode, there's also a multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, as is usual with many weird and niche Quest games, the online population is either too small or completely nonexistent. I managed to get into a couple of matches, and yeah, smacking other players out of the way and seeing them fall down into the abyss has its charm, but that still doesn't change the fact that you still have to deal with the whole hit-and-miss flinging around. You can unlock cosmetics and customize your balloon character, but I don't see the value in it when you don't really see your character. There's also a level editor where you can create your own levels, and if you're into that kind of thing, that's one more feature for you to explore.
I'm not sure how I feel about Sky Climb. On one hand, I think the idea behind the movement is cool, but on the other hand, the execution and clear limitation of the platform somewhat undermine the whole thing. I really hope the developers keep working on this game more, tighten up the floaty physics a little bit more, maybe add more magnetism towards the boxes, or even introduce a completely new way to fling yourself, maybe some sort of a slingshot mechanic that doesn't require you to swing your arms wildly. There's definitely some untapped potential in this title, and if there's a trial available, give it a shot and see if the gameplay clicks for you. Thanks for reading!
The game was reviewed on a Quest 3 via a promo code provided by the developer. Sky Climb is available on Meta Quest and PCVR.
