2023-10-31 15:30:13
In certain places, you can attach a new stone to a cairn, a mound of stones marking the passage of the explorers who preceded you. DON’T NOD
Building on its success since Life Is Strange, in 2015, the French studio Don’t Nod continues to occupy a major place in the independent video game industry. After Harmony: The Fall of Reveriereleased in June, and in the meantime Banishers: Ghosts of New Edenscheduled for February 2024, it is the turn of Jusantthe story of a rock climb like no other.
“Easy”? An introductory card immediately informs us regarding this strange word: “Maritime term describing the period during which the tide is ebbing. » The opening sequence indeed offers our gaze a large desert in the middle of which sits a rusty anchor, a vestige of an ocean that we imagine has disappeared. We then reach a mountain in the distance, a gigantic peak planted in the sand and whose summit is hidden by the sky.
Haptic illusions
If our exploration of a dried-up world begins in a seemingly classic biome, that of a sunny mountain, various marine elements appear as we progress: fishing nets hung in the rock, a wall invaded by corals, rain boots or diving goggles abandoned in a corner… So many marks of a marine kingdom that has now vanished, ruins of an ancient world of which we collect the written echoes (letters scattered like the pages of the ship’s logbook). a civilization) and sound (the poetic evocations of certain shells which allow us to listen to the sounds of the past). The higher we climb, the more we have the strange sensation of sinking into the abyss: to climb a mountain is to reach the heart of the seas.
To progress, you must learn the basics of climbing. While the two triggers of the controller independently manage your right and left arms, rock climbing turns into a physical test for the player: hands numb, tense from having tightened them too tightly, and muscles that tense during the ascent phases. which gradually intensify.
You have to pay attention to your endurance gauge so as not to fall heavily and dangle like a common package at the end of your rope. DON’T NOD
We are never far from Shadow of the Colossus, clinging to a giant mountain like a colossus with multiple backs and bellies, whose changing entrails we survey. At each fall, with your body dangling at the end of the rope, you have to climb up to the last screwed piton, and start once more. Better manage trajectories, jumps and the endurance gauge. If you regularly wonder which path to take, careful observation allows you to get out of the situation, the environmental labyrinth taking shape with remarkable ingenuity from wall to wall.
Grasping the void
This constant ascent is not monotonous. Jusant step by step renews its lifting mechanics, in particular through the ballast, a magnetic and mysterious creature, entirely made up of water, which we transport, and which is capable of making elements useful for progression react. For example, it can accelerate the growth of climbing plants, useful for climbing, or burst buds that can be used as holds (ephemeral if they are in the shade). Curious stone-shaped insects also serve as mobile supports and give new variations to the climb.
This pot-bellied creature, placed there as headgear, is ballast. DON’T NOD
The virtues of climbing bear fruit when, through improvement in handling, we suddenly encounter a new dizziness: a certain grace, born from the fluidity of our movements in grandiose settings. Therefore Jusant strives to bring out the essence of climbing, organically, through its dangerous beauty and exhilaration in execution.
When we finally manage to put our feet on the ground, to regain a bit of horizontality, then we turn around, our lungs full of air. Contemplating the path traveled becomes a reward in itself. Then, recluse in the silence of a planet, we continue our journey driven by the desire to discover what this mountain can shelter at its summit. A secret that is naturally left in the hands of the player, his most precious assets for the cosmic expedition that awaits him.
Luminous cave paintings nestle in the nooks and crannies of the caverns. DON’T NOD
The Grandfather of Pixels
We liked:
the sensations of climbing which gradually intensify; the discovery of the mountain which evolves from biome to biome; the music, striking from start to finish; contemplating the emptiness and the beauty of the panoramas.
We liked less:
some errors in character control; the impression that the game ends too soon.
It’s more for you if:
you are a fan of Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger: Stalking the Summitby Renny Harlin; you want to start active meditation; you like cute little animals; you lack perspective on your life.
It’s not for you if:
you suffer from acrophobia; you abhor everything that is carabiners and pulleys; you must take care of your index fingers; you are climate skeptic.
The Pixels note:
8,102 meters above sea level out of the 8,849 of Everest.
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#tested #Jusant #dizzying #climbing #adventure #physical #poetic
