Crysis, Ryse Dev Announces Rock-Climbing Game for Oculus Rift

Crysis and Ryse: Son of Rome developer Crytek has announced another virtual reality game. In addition to Robinson: The Journey for PlayStation VR, the German developer is working on a brand new rock climbing game that's appropriately enough called The Climb. This game is exclusive to Oculus Rift.

In The Climb, you scale deadly cliffs without ropes or any other assistance. The player is represented by a pair of hands that are controlled either with an Xbox One pad (which comes with Rift) or Oculus Touch controllers in conjunction with the Rift headset.

Gameplay involves exploring rock faces to find your way to the top, just as solo climbers do in real life. Rock climbing in real life is a physically demanding endeavor; climbers sweat and use chalk to get their grip back. This is also replicated in the game.

It also has a training mode and a range of difficulty modes and other settings.

The Climb boasts a number of "hyper-realistic climbing locations" from around the globe (built using Crytek's own CryEngine), including one in Southeastern Asia that GameSpot recently got to try.

"Crytek is renowned for leveraging their CryEngine tech to create beautiful, immersive games. Their early VR demos really captured public imagination, and to see their ideas come to life with Rift is incredible and not to be missed," Oculus head of worldwide studios Jason Rubin said in a statement. "The Climb is a beautiful combination of art and thrill that's bringing an entirely new level of adventure gaming to Rift."

The Climb will run on the Rift's recommended specs. No release date has been announced. The headset itself is slated to arrive sometime in the first quarter of 2016, though a launch date has not been confirmed.

For more on The Climb, check out GameSpot's new preview, "How Crytek Triggered My Fear of Heights in Virtual Reality."