This Steam Next Fest demo reminds me of Horizon: Call of the Mountain in one crucial way

Jusant, a meditative 'action-puzzle' game from the creators of Life is Strange draws a peculiar similarity to the Horizon Forbidden West VR game.

I tried out Jusant's demo during Steam Next Fest, and I was intrigued to find a game nothing like the games that helped make Don't Nod famous. There's no teen angst in sight, no liberal use of the word 'hella'. In fact, there's no real dialogue at all, just the whistle of the wind and the creak of a decaying tower.

In your solitude, Jusant tasks you with climbing that tower, and it's there that the game's peculiar similarity to the world of Horizon appears. Climbing is a process of moving each hand independently of the other, grabbing a handhold in your left hand before moving upwards with your right, carefully grasping for your next hold, gradually adjusting and readjusting until you can move forward.

It might be a cozy indie and not a VR adaptation of an action game, but that climbing process immediately reminded me of Horizon: Call of the Mountain. A virtual reality, alpine spin-off of Horizon Forbidden West, its climbing mechanic is extremely similar to Jusant's, that same hand-over-hand maneuvering that makes perfect sense for a game but is a little different to the real-life experience of rock-climbing. Notably, both are likely to make you just as weak at the knees as the real thing if you have a fear of heights.

The cost of PSVR 2 means that Horizon: Call of the Mountain is disappointingly inaccessible, and if you've not got the headset there's no other way to play. Jusant, however, is currently playable for free as part of its Steam Next Fest demo, so check it out while you can.

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.