Insurmountable

Cerebral and engrossing, Insurmountable succeeds at making a tactical mountain-climbing rogue-lite. No frostbite required.

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.

Insurmountable gains a new gameplay layer with the 2.0 update, which gives the experience a clearer structure and players more clear goals to aim for. Climbing peaks, with limited resources and careful planning, continues to be compelling. There are plenty of strategies to try out, many events to deal with, some mysteries to untangle. The problem is that there’s not enough variety, even with the newly added campaign structure. After 5 or 6 climbs, nothing is surprising. The player can try new synergies or new ideas, but the mountains remain largely the same. Insurmountable has a great concept and some solid mechanics but can struggle to entice players to reach more than one summit.

It may not be action-packed and your enjoyment mileage may vary, depending on your views on roguelikes, but Insurmountable is a unique take on a genre that has begun to feel a little stale for me. With an interesting premise, good replay value and a nice clean look, it’s a game I’ll certainly keep installed on the PC for a while and boot up for a quick run from time to time. A good, if somewhat tense, time will be had.

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.

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.

Insurmountable suffers from the “pretty syndrome”. Pretty nice graphics. Pretty good music. Pretty cool idea. Pretty solid execution. And pretty much no emotions. [07/2021, p.34]

This rogue-lite survival’s ideas definitely feel fresh - its mountain-climbing setting is imaginative and the atmosphere is gripping. It gets repetitive soon, though, and boredom becomes a scarier threat than an avalanche.