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The Climb 2

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The Climb 2
Information
VR/AR Virtual Reality
Developer Crytek
Platform Meta Quest
Device Oculus Quest, Meta Quest 2
Type Game
Genre Sports, Simulation
Input Device Tracked motion controllers
Game Mode Single-player, Multiplayer
Release Date March 4, 2021
Price US $29.99
App Store Meta Horizon Store
Website https://www.crytek.com/games/climb2
See also: VR Apps and VR Games

The Climb 2 is a virtual reality rock-climbing game developed by Crytek and built on the company's CRYENGINE. It was released on March 4, 2021 for the Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2 at a price of US$29.99, as an exclusive for the Quest platform.[1][2][3] It is the sequel to The Climb, Crytek's first VR game, which launched on the Oculus Rift in April 2016 and was ported to the Quest in December 2019.[4][5]

The game shipped with 15 routes in five environments, four of them mountain or natural settings and one a new city environment in which players climb glass skyscrapers and cross gaps on ziplines.[1][6] Two free Freestyle Expansion Packs in April and June 2021 added 12 further levels.[7] It holds a Metacritic score of 75 and was nominated for Sports Game of the Year at the 25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.[8][9]

Reviewed 20 September 2026. Release dates, platforms, price, engine, gameplay features, expansion contents, review scores, D.I.C.E. nomination and every cited source. About review dates.

Gameplay

The Climb 2 is a first-person free-solo climbing game played with tracked motion controllers. The player grabs handholds, ledges and ropes by holding the controller triggers and pulls their body up a route while managing a stamina meter for each hand; chalking a hand restores its grip. A half-grip technique, in which the trigger is held only part way, slows stamina drain, and the player can jump from one hold to another to clear larger gaps.[10] Crytek simplified the chalk system and grip cleaning from the first game in response to player feedback, and rebuilt the tutorial around new elements such as monkey bars and ziplines.[11]

The launch game has five environments: Alps, Bay, Canyon, North and the new City.[12] Each environment has three climbs, and each climb can be played in two difficulty modes: a casual mode that removes stamina and chalk management but is excluded from the leaderboards, and a professional mode with full stamina management. UploadVR put a standard climb at roughly 10 to 15 minutes, with speedrun challenges that reward finishing in under four minutes.[10] Road to VR estimated about four hours for a single pass through the launch routes.[12]

New to the sequel are dynamic objects (moving ropes, ladders and hanging containers that the player swings between), sliding grips that give extra speed and reach if the player leaps before falling off them, and hazards such as crumbling handholds and spikes.[1][12] The City environment adds ziplines between buildings, glass facades climbed with suction cups, moving elevator platforms and flipping billboards; Crytek's lead environment artist Stefan Heinrich said the team built three distinct buildings with different surface types for it.[11][12] Routes have checkpoints, a rewind option after a fall, and an optional path-reveal ability.[12] Beating a route's target time unlocks a vista view from its summit.[1]

There is no simultaneous multiplayer. Competition is asynchronous: the game keeps leaderboards with combo-based scoring, and players can race the recorded ghosts of friends.[6][12] A Tourist mode with simplified mechanics and a practice wall are included for newcomers, and achievements unlock cosmetic gloves, watches and wristbands; Meta's launch post counted 32 gloves, 25 watches and 36 wristbands.[6][13] The game does not support controller-free hand tracking; senior producer Fatih Özbayram told Gfinity that the game "needs feedback in the form of a controller."[11]

Development

Crytek announced The Climb 2 on September 16, 2020, during the Facebook Connect conference (now Meta Connect), with a release window of the 2020 holiday season.[6][2] The announcement trailer ended with the line "only on the Oculus Quest platform", and Facebook confirmed the game as a Quest platform exclusive, covering the original Quest and the Quest 2; UploadVR noted that the trailer footage carried a "Captured on PC" label despite the Quest-only release.[2] Senior producer Fatih Özbayram said the sequel "builds upon a lot of ideas we had during the production of the original game" and singled out the urban environment.[6]

The holiday 2020 window was missed. On February 23, 2021 Crytek and Meta set the launch for March 4, 2021.[14][15] The game runs on CRYENGINE, Crytek's own engine.[3] For the launch Crytek partnered with Red Bull, which the studio described as a first for one of its games.[1]

Release

Platform Release date Notes
Oculus Quest March 4, 2021 Launch platform; US$29.99 on the Oculus (now Meta Horizon) Store[1]
Meta Quest 2 March 4, 2021 Same build, sold under the one Quest store listing[1][2]

The Climb 2 was released on March 4, 2021 for the Oculus Quest and Quest 2 at US$29.99.[1] Unlike the first game, which launched on the Oculus Rift before coming to Quest, it did not receive a PC VR version; UploadVR listed the absence of a PC release among its criticisms at launch.[10] As of September 2026 the Meta Horizon Store still lists the game at US$29.99 under the Simulation genre, with a user rating of 4.3 out of 5 from about 3,200 ratings.[16]

Post-launch updates

Crytek supported the game with the free Freestyle Expansion Pack, released in two parts of six levels each.[17][18] The Freestyle levels have no checkpoints, are playable in both casual and professional difficulty, and award bonus points for completing a route without using chalk; finishing them unlocks a new glove.[19][20]

Update Date Content
Freestyle Expansion Pack Part 1 April 22, 2021 Six levels, including "Keep the Rhythm", in which grips disappear and reappear to the beat of a background track, and levels with moving walls; general bug fixes[19][17]
Freestyle Expansion Pack Part 2 June 10, 2021 Six levels: Press Me!, Wheel'n'Jump, Obstacle Course, Rotating Blocks, Slides and Crumbling Madness, built around button-spawned grips, a rotating wheel, monkey bars, orbiting blocks, sliding courses and crumbling holds[20][21]

Road to VR counted 27 levels in the game after the second pack.[7] Principal game designer Andreas Liebeskind fronted both announcements.[19][20] No further content packs followed. Crytek's news feed for the game ends with the 2021 launch coverage, and when the studio laid off about 15 percent of its roughly 400 staff in February 2025, UploadVR described The Climb 2 as its most recent VR release.[22][23]

Reception

Aggregator or outlet Score
Metacritic 75 out of 100 (15 critic reviews)[8]
OpenCritic Top Critic Average 76, 78% of 10 critics recommend, "Strong" rating[24]
Road to VR 8.5 out of 10[12]
UploadVR 4 out of 5[10]
Destructoid 8.5 out of 10[25]

The Climb 2 received generally favorable reviews. Metacritic gives it 75 out of 100 from 15 critic reviews, of which 11 were positive and 4 mixed.[8] On OpenCritic it has a Top Critic Average of 76 and is recommended by 78 percent of the 10 critics counted.[24]

Scott Hayden of Road to VR scored the game 8.5 out of 10 (gameplay 9, immersion 7.5, comfort 8.5), praising the level design with its multiple routes of differing difficulty and the City environment's ziplines and cranes, while criticizing visual optimization on the Quest 2, including visible foveated-rendering borders, and wishing for more City content.[12] UploadVR's David Jagneaux gave 4 out of 5 stars, calling the half-grip and jumping mechanics excellent and reporting genuine vertigo at ledges, but found textures muddy up close on Quest hardware, thought the city buildings looked plastic, and objected to the announcement trailer's PC footage and the lack of a PC VR version.[10] A Metacritic user review notes that the game's online leaderboard servers have been offline for an extended period.[8]

Awards

Award Category Result
25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards (2022) Sports Game of the Year Nominated

The nomination, announced on January 13, 2022, placed The Climb 2 alongside EA Sports FIFA 22, NBA 2K22 and Riders Republic in a category otherwise made up of flatscreen games; Meta's Quest blog wrote that the game "broke out of the VR ranks" to be nominated alongside traditional flatscreen titles. Mario Golf: Super Rush won the award at the ceremony on February 24, 2022.[9][26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "The Climb 2 is out now for the Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2!". Crytek. 2021-03-04. https://www.crytek.com/news/the-climb-2-is-out-now-for-the-oculus-quest-and-oculus-quest-2. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 David Jagneaux (2020-09-16). "The Climb 2 Confirmed, Coming 'Only' To Oculus Quest Platform". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/the-climb-2-quest-confirmed/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The Climb 2 launches today!". CRYENGINE. Crytek. 2021-03-04. https://www.cryengine.com/news/view/the-climb-2-launches-today. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  4. ↑ "Experience an Extreme New Reality and the Adrenaline of the Ascent in "The Climb" from Crytek - Out Now on Oculus Rift". Crytek. 2016-04-28. https://www.crytek.com/news/experience-an-extreme-new-reality-and-the-adrenaline-of-the-ascent-in-the-climb-from-crytek-out-now-on-oculus-rift. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  5. ↑ Scott Hayden (2019-12-04). "'The Climb' Now Available on Oculus Quest, Launch Trailer Here". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/crytek-the-climb-oculus-quest-trailer/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 "The Climb 2 announced for Oculus Quest". Crytek. 2020-09-16. https://www.crytek.com/news/the-climb-2-announced-for-oculus-quest. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Scott Hayden (2021-06-11). "'The Climb 2' Gets 6 More Free Levels in Second Freestyle Expansion Pack". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/climb-2-quest-expansion-pack-part-2/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "The Climb 2 Reviews". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/the-climb-2/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards - Results". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. https://www.interactive.org/awards/2022_25th_awards.asp. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 David Jagneaux (2021-03-03). "The Climb 2 Review: Quest Gets A Real Cliffhanger". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/the-climb-2-review-vr/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Lloyd Coombes (2021-03-04). "Crytek Interview: The Climb 2's New Features, The Future of VR, and Whether We'll Ever Get A Hunt Showdown VR Game". Gfinity Esports. https://www.gfinityesports.com/article/crytek-interview-the-climb-2-oculus-vr-crysis. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7 Scott Hayden (2021-03-04). "'The Climb 2' Review - Ascending to Greater, More Fun Environments". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/the-climb-2-review-oculus-quest-2/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  13. ↑ "Such Great Heights: 'The Climb 2' from Crytek Launches March 4 on the Oculus Quest Platform". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2021-02-23. https://www.meta.com/blog/such-great-heights-the-climb-2-from-crytek-launches-march-4-on-the-oculus-quest-platform/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  14. ↑ "No More Cliffhangers: 'The Climb 2' Launches March 4". Crytek. 2021-02-24. https://www.crytek.com/news/no-more-cliffhangers-the-climb-2-launches-march-4. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  15. ↑ Scott Hayden (2021-02-23). "Crytek's Long-awaited 'The Climb 2' Coming to Oculus Quest on March 4th". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/climb-2-oculus-quest-release-date-facebook-2020-trailer/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  16. ↑ "The Climb 2 on Meta Quest". Meta Horizon Store. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/experiences/the-climb-2/2617233878395214/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Scott Hayden (2021-04-21). "'The Climb 2' Gets a Free Update Tomorrow with 6 New Levels & Rhythm-based Climbing". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/climb-2-update-oculus-quest-2-freestyle/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  18. ↑ Donovan Erskine (2021-04-21). "Crytek announces a Freestyle Expansion Pack for The Climb 2". Shacknews. https://www.shacknews.com/article/123962/crytek-announces-a-freestyle-expansion-pack-for-the-climb-2. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 "Free new challenging levels for The Climb 2 are out now". Crytek. 2021-04-22. https://www.crytek.com/news/free-new-challenging-levels-for-the-climb-2-are-out-now. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 "The Climb 2 Freestyle Expansion Pack Part 2 released today for free on Oculus Quest". Crytek. 2021-06-10. https://www.crytek.com/news/the-climb-2-freestyle-expansion-pack-part-2-released-today-for-free-on-oculus-quest. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  21. ↑ "'The Climb 2' Adds Six New Levels with Freestyle Expansion Pack Part 2". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2021-06-10. https://www.meta.com/blog/the-climb-2-adds-six-new-levels-with-freestyle-expansion-pack-part-2/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  22. ↑ "News & updates on The Climb 2". Crytek. https://www.crytek.com/tag/news/the-climb2. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  23. ↑ Henry Stockdale (2025-02-12). "The Climb Studio Crytek Lays Off 15 Percent Of Its Staff". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/crytek-laying-off-15-percent-of-staff/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "The Climb 2 Reviews". OpenCritic. https://opencritic.com/game/11019/the-climb-2. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  25. ↑ "The Climb 2 critic reviews". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/the-climb-2/critic-reviews/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  26. ↑ "Celebrating the 25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Nominees". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2022-01-13. https://www.meta.com/blog/celebrating-the-25th-annual-dice-awards-nominees/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
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