In the beginning there was Candy Crush and then we got a little bit more sweet with Wreck It Ralph, and there have been thousands of Candy Crush knockoffs in the time in between and afterwards. Fast forward to the early days of the Vive and you’ve got Sweet Escape: Climb or Die that makes climbing a real treat. Don’t expect to sit quietly while passively swiping at your phone with this game. Are you ready to climb your way to a fitter body?
What is Sweet Escape: Climb or Die?
This is an oddball of the VR industry to be sure but it is also the climbing game that existed before The Climb. The goal of the game is to not be last in climbing a long trail of giant candy in odd scenes while also trying to move around the candy so as to not fall because if you stop climbing, then you will eventually fall to your virtual death. This game is for the person that wants a climbing game, but it’ll definitely fill any virtual sweet tooth you have.
Graphics and Visuals Score 3/5
The graphics of the game the game are not that bad, but they’re also not that great. Since the entire purpose of the game is to climb trails of candy it’s kind of expected to not look so real and provide more of a cartoony atmosphere, which it pulls of great. Everything is very intuitive in the game though, which means that you know what you can grab on to and what you can’t grab on to, but without the cost of stick out like a sore thumb like what we’ve seen in The Climb.
Hardware Score 4/5
For as little there is to accomplish in the game, it does require quite a bit of RAM with the minimum being 8GB and the recommended being 16GB. This is because there are a lot of objects that need to be generated in the game and while the need for RAM may be high, the need for space is remarkably small at just underneath 1GB. You will need the standard i5-4590 processor and GTX 970 with the minimum Windows System being 7. It’s not the best, but it’s certainly not horrible when it comes to hardware.
Fitness Score 5/5
This is where the game currently shines even though they haven’t made that many improvements since the game released. Oh wait, never mind, they just released nearly thirty levels for the game just before Christmas so you can expect a lot of playable levels out of this. This game isn’t about making you move fast because actual climbing isn’t about being fast. Instead, it pushes your endurance because your arms will mostly be in the air during the time that you play this game and many take breaks from this game because their arms hurt from using them so much. This game intentionally goes after what it can in climbing and succeeds.
Gameplay Score 4/5
The overall gameplay is very intuitive and easy to pick up, but there’s a tutorial for you if you need a crash course to help you out. The ironic part about this tutorial is that it’s just another level with the instructions provided at the beginning whereas other levels will not have these instructions. Many play with others over the server, but you can solo in this game too and since each level will generally take you five to ten minutes you can schedule times to fit the fitness of this game into your schedule. For a game that’s only priced at $4.99, it provides exactly what you see in its trailer.
Overall Rating: 4/5
Very few of the fitness games out for VR provide what the trailer shows and the description conveys, but this game meets the expectations exactly. It’s good to see a climbing game that reinforces what makes climbing difficult while still making it fun to play.
