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If you’ve ever thought to yourself, I wonder what Jusant would be like if David Szymanski made it, you’ll be thrilled to hear about White Knuckle, “a first-person roguelite speed-climbing game” being developed by three-person indie studio Dark Machine Games. Even better, you can partake in its unique horrors right now thanks to a free demo on Steam.
At their most basic level, the climbing mechanics in White Knuckle and Jusant are quite similar: Your left and right mouse buttons correspond to your left and right hands, and you click and release to open and close them as you climb ever upward. There’s a rhythm to it, and once you’re in the flow you can make upward progress pretty quickly.
Beyond that, though, the two games couldn’t be more different. Jusant, which I will once again say is brilliant and grossly underrated, is built on “joyful rock climbing and fascinating storytelling,” as we said in our 89% review. It’s relaxing, meditative, and challenging but not stressful because you might stumble, but you can’t fall.
White Knuckle, on the other hand, is an ascent into hell. Even the tutorial is a goddamn nightmare: It starts off simply enough but within minutes you’re dealing with crampons, rebar, ropes, long jumps, dizzying heights, and no safety net—and unlike the tireless hero of Jusant, your cardio doesn’t seem super-hot either because after just a few seconds of dangling from one awful spot or another, your hands start to turn red and tremble. Fail to address that situation more or less immediately, and it’s kersplat time.
Inventory management is also designed to be psychologically taxing. You have two pockets, each capable of holding one item, and a backpack that will accommodate several. Pick an item up with one hand or the other, open the inventory with the TAB key, put the item in the appropriate spot, and release your mouse button—simple, right?
Now do it while you’re hanging one-handed about a million feet in the air: Open the inventory, pull out a crampon, close the inventory, slam the crampon into the wall, open the inventory, take out your hammer, close the inventory, pound in the crampon, open the inventory, put your hammer away, close the inventory, climb, rinse, and repeat.
You were switching hands throughout that process, right? Because if you weren’t, well, kersplat.
Eventually, if you persist in your efforts through the tutorial, will see this:
Yeah, it’s like that. And we haven’t even got to the monsters yet.
I can tell you right off the bat that some people will find White Knuckle immeasurably frustrating, because it demands speed and precision in equal measure, and it does not forgive. But it’s also really good. I kept falling, but I kept climbing, because god dammit, I can make it. And I did—through the tutorial at least.
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I’m not the only one who thinks White Knuckle is great. The demo on Steam is rated “overwhelmingly positive” across more than 1,000 user reviews, which is nothing to sneeze at. Even more impressively, horror game publisher DreadXP took notice of White Knuckle during the Indie Horror Showcase in October 2024 and ended up signing a publishing deal with Dark Machine shortly after. With development now fully funded, the team is ending its Patreon, although everyone who’s supported it will get all the promised perks; Dark Machine will still go ahead with an early access release for White Knuckle, though, because “having the community around during a game’s development is an amazing thing, and we don’t want to lose that.”
A date for that early access release hasn’t been set at this point, but for now the demo is a blast even in a pre-release state. I can’t promise you’ll like it, but I absolutely urge you to try it.
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Kurt Indovina
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