Another of those rage bait games that are so popular with streamers. A Difficult Game About Climbing knows exactly who it is trying to appeal to and does its thing pretty competently. It's right along the lines of Getting Over It, and you're either going to click with the controls or you're not. I thought that the gameplay itself could be a little uncomfortable especially through tense moments as you're fingers will be locked to the mouse. The handling is fun once you finally get the hang of sideways jumping which is definitely the most challenging part of the game and really takes frustrating experimentation and practice to get used to since it's not the most intuitive thing in the world. This game will definitely have its fans.

Took one look at this game and said "oh streamer ragebait climber bennett foddy rip off" and nearly passed on it, but I noticed it was by the same solo dev as punch a bunch, which ended up being quite rewarding once I got used to the strange controls, so I figured I'd see if that was the case here as well.

I was then completely walled on the game's first proper obstacle, a simple jump. The controls felt weird, the climb back required an intended but precise skip, I could do the jump but I'd fall right before the next safe point.
I quit the game then and there.
Then the thought of "losing" to this game crept its way into my head; "I know I'm good at games, I Got Over It, with Bennett Foddy, I surely I can do the tutorial of its weird clone. That's it I'll beat the tutorial and then uninstall this stupid game."

After being stuck for more days of casual attempts, I finally overcame that first hurdle, and now I had some confidence, the controls had become comfortable. The exact same pattern as Punch A Bunch and its weird physics punching repeated itself.

All that to say, it's okay. It's obviously much shallower than Getting Over It (no ethos to be found here, just climbing) but despite the name it prioritizes creating fun climbing challenges rather than being as balls-hard as possible. The regularly spaced resting pools, and other well placed handholds, made me feel as though I was being (somewhat) protected from the brutal reality of vertical ascension; to begin with, as long as you can chain solid grip to solid grip there's virtually no risk of failure. This gives a strong feeling of fairness to the chaotic physicsy world; anything more precarious, like balancing a hammer on a cliff, would force the game to lock itself in a static state, or else become a physics based casino.

So this game surprised me with how much I enjoyed it, even though I had already seen the speedrun before committing to play it did nothing to lessen the enjoyment of going through and doing it myself. I think we needed a pretty good game about climbing.

Actually good game. DO NOT USE W EXCEPT FOR EXPLICITLY VERTICAL SECTIONS! IT'S A NOOB TRAP!

On my first run, I spent 7 entire hours on pool 6 before finally, barely clearing it, by doing horizontal jumps using the W key rather than mouse-only. I only figured out how to jump properly after a friend taught me, which allowed me to clear pool 7 and complete the game. To jump properly, you have to push up and diagonally very early in your forward swing, sort of "jumping off" of your elbow. When you get it for the first time, you'll know. Trying pool 6 again with this technique I cleared it literally first try.

After figuring out how to play properly, I beat it two more times and got a PB of 40 minutes. Really fun game, the best platformer I've played since Celeste. I hope the creator makes more levels or a sequel someday.

I'm a fan of Getting Over It, and similar climbing/rage games.
This game plays smoothly, has a climbing mechanic that has unique controls, and unique physics. It was satisfying to play through while gaining mastery over the climbing system.
That being said, it's a pretty straightforward game, and I just didn't find it that entertaining. It was enjoyable enough to play through, but I wasn't having an incredible time playing it, either. It's just a good way to kill some time if you like these kinds of games.

I cant believe it, A Game inspired by Getting over it that is actually well made, challenging in a fun way, and requires real skill and practice to beat rather than mastering an incredibly broken and unpredictable physics system? actually so awesome

dont get me wrong, i like bennet foddy's work, but whenever youre playing getting over it, it feels like youre fighting the games controls rather than just controlling your cauldron dude, but this game makes you feel so much more in control and this improves every aspect of it

this game is just as punishing as getting over it, and you will likely rage and die inside, but instead of it feeling unfair cause the broken physics messed you up like in getting over it, every failure feels like YOUR failure, not the game's failure, if you fall, that was your fault, and since it was your fault, it makes you want to overcome your failure, get better, get over the hurdles

basically this game masters challenge and reward in a genre of rage game like this, i fully think this game is much better than getting over it so give it a try if you enjoyed that

Very glad to have finally beat one of these "impossible" games. At least I think. I'll ask my carpal tunnel about it later. Definitely lite/almost anti(?)-Bennett Foddy because it is fun/satisfying to play (for the most part), possible to control (again, for the most part), and I would love to play another map from this guy (actually! but maybe that defeats the point of this? Whatever.). Hits a good amount of Foddy's musings though maybe not with the same impact and that's okay because I didn't want to kill everyone within a seven mile radius while playing this (or at least not as much) as I did in my few miserable hours of playing and healthily not completing Getting Over It. Wouldn't say that I'm done with this "impossible" genre being I plan on getting Foddy and company's Baby Steps when it comes out (assuming it'll be part of the genre) but this has definitely given me the strength to close the door on all those low-tier, rage bait games that I always have too much interest in.

I love Getting Over It and have beaten it hundreds of times. I was excited for this game, it looked the most similar to Getting Over It out of any other rage-bait game out there. Living up to the "foddian" name it talks about in the steam description.

But the core gameplay is just too annoying and painful. Like it literally hurts my hands to play this game for more than 10 minutes. Having to hold down the buttons and yoink my mouse super fast and hard to swing is like the least ergonomic activity in the world. So I'm refunding this game sorry.

The dev really did nail the style of Getting Over It perfectly though.