Climbey for Windows

A well-developed VR climbing game for its day

Climbey allows you to climb within a virtual environment. The game has no real story or narrative because the game is more of a climbing simulator. The graphics are awful, but the core movement mechanic is cleverly done and was ahead of its time when it was released.

Climb, swing, and navigate a series of odd virtual environments

Climbey sets you in an ugly virtual world full of platforms, surfaces, blocks, and untextured surfaces. You are able to climb on, around, over and under these items in the virtual environment set out within the Climbey game. Despite the fact that this sounds as boring a picking your nose, it is actually enjoyable because of the way the developers incorporated realistic hand and head movement interpretations. Subtle differences in the way a user moves his or her hands and head will result in subtle differences in the way the virtual body reactions. For example, move your hands more quickly, and maybe you will have more momentum when you swing. You get to climb in three dimensions, and there is a multiplayer mode.

Climbey

Climbey was not a celebrated game because of its graphics. In fact, even though most games released the same year as Climbey had terrible graphics, Climbey seemed to have even worse graphics than those. Climbey was celebrated because of its controls and the way the developers had executed the game. The developers found a way to allow users to climb in all directions in a way that felt natural, and that incorporated realistic hand-and-head-movement recreations. The fact that a person could hang within the game while also being able to swing their virtual body and use gravity/motion physics to reach another platform was brilliant for its day. Other games had not yet figured out how to pull this sort of thing off with any semblance of realism.