New Heights is soon to be released in Early Access on Steam. As a simulation, the game wants to focus on immersion and realism.
Parkour and climbing are part of many games. Whether both are usually implemented particularly realistically, however, remains to be seen. After all, it’s mostly about fun and climbing is only a means to an end. A sports simulation on Steam, however, now wants to focus entirely on rock acrobatics and let you become a virtual professional climber.
How does New Heights work?
The game promises realistic, physics-based climbing mechanics where balance and sure-footedness and grip play an important role. You can control your arms and legs individually and have to think carefully about your next step to avoid losing your grip. A first trailer shows you how this looks like in the game:
New Heights will be released on Steam in July 2023, initially in Early Access, with a full release planned for 2024. Which features you can expect then and what else distinguishes the game, they already reveal there:
- Rankings: Those who are particularly competitive can work their way up a player ranking list to boast themselves as the best climber.
- Skills and equipment: As you play, you’ll unlock new skills and equip better items (probably shoes and clothes).
- Real places: The rocks and structures visited in the game are modeled as closely as possible on real ones that were scanned for the game and then recreated. In addition to rock faces with beautiful views, you’ll also climb castle ruins, for example; here are some pictures:
After the Early Access release, New Heights shall then be continuously expanded. You should be able to climb in new places, get more customization options and a larger career quest line. The developers are also toying with the idea of a real-time multiplayer mode and the possibility of letting players create their own rock walls.
What do you think of New Heights? Do you find the idea behind the game exciting, and would you like to climb the most dangerous rock faces without risk? Or do you think that realistic climbing is not really fun and the controls will be rather complicated and not very intuitive? Feel free to write your opinion in the comments!
