Cairn on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Reach a summit never climbed before in this survival-climber from the creators of Furi and Haven. Climb anywhere and plan your route carefully, managing pitons and resources to survive unforgiving Mount Kami. Discover what Aava is willing to sacrifice to achieve the ascent of a lifetime.
Cairn is a stylized, indie and exploration game
developed and published by The Game Bakers.
Released on January 29th 2026 is available only on Windows
in 11 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Traditional Chinese and Portuguese - Brazil.
It has received 2,185 reviews of which 2,058 were positive and 127 were negative resulting in a rating of 9.0 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 26.99€ on Steam with a 10% discount.
The Steam community has classified Cairn into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i7-6700 (4 * 3400), AMD Ryzen 5 1500X (4 * 3500) or equivalent
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4096 MB), Radeon RX 570 (8192 MB)
- Storage: 10 GB available space
- Additional Notes: SSD required. Controller recommended.
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Cairn is really good and unexpectedly calming — you don’t have to rush, you’re meant to be slow and precise. you have to control all your hands and legs yourself — the game won’t do it for you. sometimes you need to relax, drink water, or eat. it feels so real! the views are stunning, I can’t stop taking screenshots every time :) the music doesn’t play all the time — it appears only when you reach a new height I was worried about performance on the Steam Deck, but it runs perfectly!
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A mildly relaxing rock‑climbing experience that’s well worth your time and money when you just want to unwind. Graphics: The graphics aren’t mind‑blowing or on the level of something built in Unreal Engine, but that hardly matters. A game doesn’t need hyper‑real visuals to be great, and this one proves it. Its distinctive palette‑based art style fits perfectly and gives the world real charm. Some elements, like flowers and plants, can be a bit hard to distinguish when you’re trying to see what’s collectible, but overall the visuals are solid. Plus, the game runs smoothly at max settings without a hitch. Audio: The audio is simple, calm, and genuinely relaxing. There’s nothing overwhelming that needs adjusting, nor anything that feels missing. It suits the game’s laid‑back atmosphere perfectly, with subtle cues from the character—like soft grunts, slips, and the sound of the wind, adding just the right amount of immersion. Controls: The game recommends using a controller, and I completely agree. Playing with a keyboard and mouse made things far more difficult, while a controller felt natural right away. It’s easy to pick up but definitely takes skill to master. Game-play and everything else after: At its core, this is a straightforward rock‑climbing game. There are no skill trees to boost your speed or strength, no currency to grind, no skins to unlock (as far as I’ve seen), and no co‑op or racing modes. It’s just you and the mountain. Customisation is minimal too, you can only change your backpack item what hangs off which is fine. You begin with a tutorial, then tackle the first mountain before being set loose. Once you’ve done that, the mechanics click pretty quickly. The world is sprinkled with secrets, from a developer team photo to a hidden bee cove, and there are bits of text scattered around that might hint at deeper lore, time will tell. You climb up mountains, dip into caves, and occasionally catch subtle radio dialogue, but for the most part it’s a solitary, atmospheric experience. It’s relaxing, though the climbing can get intense if you forget to place a piston and take a fatal fall. Depending on your chosen difficulty, a mistake can mean a full restart, harsh, but kind of thrilling. Using materials you gather around the map, flowers, scrap, and other odds and ends, you can craft useful items whenever you pitch a tent to save. Setting up camp lets you make things like mushroom soup with your water bottle, nettle tea, and other basic consumables. Resources are limited, so managing your health and supplies becomes essential. Save points appear as shrines scattered throughout the world. Carrying too much junk will slow you down, but you can break items down and craft new gear with the help of the robot. For someone scaling mountains, her stamina is surprisingly short, she can only sprint a few steps before running out of breath, which feels odd but you learn to work with it. Setting up a tent becomes essential for patching yourself up: wrapping your hands in bandages, applying more climbing powder from your limited supply, and maintaining your pistons. It’s all part of the micro‑management involved in the ascent, adding an extra layer of challenge that pushes you to scavenge and craft whatever you can to stay stable on the rock face. At the time of writing, I’m still early in the game. I’ve stumbled across a few Easter eggs, but I really wish there were caves to rappel into. Apparently they exist, but I haven’t found them yet. The idea of a deep, shadowy descent, something like those cave‑diving videos where people squeeze through tight gaps, but with more open spaces to explore, would be incredible. Co‑op would be just as exciting. Climbing alongside a friend in total peace and quiet, sharing the same rope, tying off together, and taking on the ascent as a team would add a whole new layer. No racing, no pressure, just a calm, remote climb. Maybe one day. I haven’t progressed too far yet because I’ve been exploring, but so far it’s a calm, unique, and enjoyable game with no pressure and no rush, just pure climbing. Would I recommend this game? Yes, it's a decent calm, chilling game to climb and explore to some extent, there is no rush like a race, it's just pure climbing and something different to the gaming market.
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Jusant, step aside. The boss has entered. Summing up the current: 2+ hours played so far +2 hours in the demo, which hooked me immediately and made me throw it straight into the wishlist. A year of waiting for the release, with delays along the way. A French team that sweated over this project for 3 to 5 years, depending on diff sources. And what can I say. So far it looks like Game of the Year material. Maybe not a straight-up “Game of the Year” title, unless Gabe suddenly takes mercy and releases HL3, or Playground somehow doesn’t screw up Fable, but it absolutely looks like a strong contender for “Indie of the Year”. First: the climbing mechanics. Control here is extremely precise down to every movement, the controls are comfortable, animations are smooth, and the sense of the character’s body weight and that constant “one more slip and you’re done” feeling is spot on. Second: you actually have to plan and survive. I liked Jusant, it have its charm, but that’s a pleasant, casual, beautiful fantasy story (also by the French, by the way). But here we have a hardcore game. Hunger can kill you, thirst can kill you, cold can kill you, falling and cracking your skull is very much an option, and resources are not infinite. Yes, there are plenty of consumables around that can be crafted or cooked into something useful/what you can eat, but you still have to find them. You can bandage each finger separately, cook food out of whatever crap you scavenge nearby, the weather changes, and there’s a day-night cycle. I can already imagine what awaits higher up the mountain: far more aggressive cold, far fewer resources. Third: unexpectedly, the game actively rewards curiosity and exploration. If you like climbing somewhere extra or slipping into some side passage where a bonus, a perk, a bit of lore, or maybe vital survival resources are waiting for you, this is your place. I was trained from childhood on Deus Ex and Thief, so I’m the kind of player who loves poking around off the critical path, into caves or cracks, just to happily find loot or a fragment of story. It’s a great feeling when developers in games like this give you a knowing nod that says, “Yes, we expected you here, you curious little bastard. We added this specifically for the 5% of players like you. Here, have some loot and a medal, you my playful fool.” And you grin at the monitor with that warm sense of pride from a dopamine hit. I mean, that’s why we play games, right? Fourth: atmosphere. Ambient sounds play, you’re in a tent on a high cliff, a pot is heating water, wind tears at the tent, and rain rages outside. The game is quite tense, yet it always finds moments like these where you can breathe and relax. That cost too much, especially after hard day at work - boot up your PC or console, relax, take yourself into different world or situation or....I mean, that’s why we play games too, right?? Fifth: the sense of progress. A strange plus, but there’s something powerful in it. Look at Half-Life 2: you constantly see the Citadel. With every step, it gets closer and closer. The entire journey behind you feels like one big adventure toward a single goal, almost a road movie, and that goal is always in front of your eyes. The Talos Principle 2 is built around this idea. Stealth games live off it entirely, take Styx (French game again!) or Thief 2 with its massive Mechanists’ Tower. Here, it’s a huge mountain. From the very start at its base, there’s a feeling that you’ll never conquer this thing. With every cliff you climb, the summit feels closer and closer, the goal more achievable than before. This is wired into our DNA, really. I think this is the psychology of climbing itself. Sixth: minimalism. Before Cairn, I booted up BF6, and the 50 tabs in the main menu, the notifications, battle passes, battle pass points, whatever those even are, gave me a headache. I honestly don’t understand 60% of the menu. It feels like someone took a dump all over it. So many elements, so much clutter, and I only ever use five of them. I just want to run around and shoot some tanks after work, not grind battle pass points. This isn’t even a dig at BF6. The poor series just became a victim of trends. Most games are like this now, even ones that aren’t live services. And what a relief it is to launch Cairn and see a clean main menu with four neat tabs, no unnecessary crap, a tidy interface that doesn’t cover half the screen. Want to support the developer? Here’s a separate Deluxe page that clearly tells you what you get. It sounds weird, but when I bought the game, I paid for that too. Not for a menu-induced headache of “uhhh, I just want to drive some tanks… where do I go… where are the settings… okay… and where’s the server browser…?”. That just a dev respect to players basic principle. Good games are experiences. And the experience Cairn offers is special, because the project is genuinely unique and currently has no real equal. Sorry, Jusant, you’re good in your own way. DontNod, we love you, no hard feelings. If you don’t want to crack your skull in real life while climbing mountains, you can do it here instead. My only complaint, and the developers probably won’t read this anyway, but ill try - is that I really love to see a Ukrainian text localization. I’d really love for more people from the Ukrainian community to get familiar with a project like this. Otherwise, of course: This is absolutely Indie of the Year material, without question.
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Today is my Birthday, the fact I have been waiting for this to release for a while and its today of all days is great! EDIT: Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes, hope you all have a great day/night playing on your favourite games.
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I played the demo so much and was waiting for that game, it is great. One could say that.... it is peak gameplay here.....
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Frequently Asked Questions
Cairn is currently priced at 26.99€ on Steam.
Cairn is currently available at a 10% discount. You can purchase it for 26.99€ on Steam.
Cairn received 2,058 positive votes out of a total of 2,185 achieving a rating of 8.98.
😎
Cairn was developed and published by The Game Bakers.
Cairn is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Cairn is not playable on MacOS.
Cairn is not playable on Linux.
Cairn is a single-player game.
There are 3 DLCs available for Cairn. Explore additional content available for Cairn on Steam.
Cairn does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Cairn does not support Steam Remote Play.
Cairn is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Cairn.
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 31 January 2026 16:38 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 31 January 2026 13:43 |
| Steam price | 31 January 2026 12:51 |
| Steam reviews | 31 January 2026 15:45 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Cairn, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Cairn
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Cairn concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Cairn compatibility
Game modes
Features
Developer
The Game Bakers
Publisher
The Game Bakers
Release
29 Jan 2026
Platforms