Insurmountable

Insurmountable is beautiful, engaging, clever, and a delight to play — even when I was halfway dead on the side of an icy peak and slowly dying of frostbite. It sounds like it would be tough to make that fun, but Insurmountable pulls it off.

More unique events, more little plot threads to pull on and a greater variety of hazards, would all go a long way to elevate the climb. For now though, Insurmountable is a fun, if simple little experience, that’s perfect for those who want something chill to fill an hour or two.

Insurmountable’s 2.0 update brings all the missing content that the original release desperately needed; while the new stuff is anything but cozy, it is challenging, which is the exact kind of thing players who love survival games are looking for. Insurmountable revitalizes the tired roguelike genre with its new setting and careful, slow-going mechanics, but it can feel a bit stale after a summit or two so it’s best to play this one in short bursts. If you’re always searching for that something over the next mountaintop, Insurmountable is cooler than cool — it’s ice cold.

I enjoyed my time climbing this peak, though. It offers three characters with unique abilities that made the climb feel different for each one, and while it doesn’t break a lot of new ground in the genre, Insurmountable is a welcome addition to the other roguelikes in my library.

Insurmountable is a very irregular experience, sometimes it succeeds in what it’s trying to achieve; sometimes it’s just boring. However, it’s a nice mix of genres with good ideas.