Last updated on December 13th, 2025 at 07:12 pm
Crux: A Climbing Game – Action Game Review
Crux: A Climbing Game is a Action/Puzzle game from Benjamin Dressler, first launched in 1st September 2020.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 215+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Crux: A Climbing Game Stand Out
Climbing is about carefully planning your route and flawless execution. In Crux you swipe on either side of the screen to move your hands or feet to a new hold – but each hold will only let you hang on for so long. Find the sequence of moves that get you to the top and execute them! And when you mastered all the challenges – Crux lets you design your own routes to share with other climbers!
- AppStore 'Game of the Day' (Nov 13 '20)
- PocketGamer #1 'Game of the Week' (Sep 10 '20)
"Crux gives me some of the mental joys of climbing, if not the physical and social joy of doing it myself. In these shitty times, that’s a pretty great thing." Riley McLeod – Kotaku (Sep 11 '20):
This Action game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Crux: A Climbing Game is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 21st April 2022
Recent improvements include:
'Crux: The Great Outdoors' is in stores now! We're adding a few links in 'Crux' so nobody misses it!
Download & Availability
Crux: A Climbing Game is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Crux: A Climbing Game on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Would it be possible to add adaptive climbers to the climbers to pick from.
Very fun for ex-climbers or those interested. Not the same thing at all.
The challenge makes this game really fun. We recommend adding more features.
Just dont waste your time, the games better off dead.
We dont see a lot of climbing games like this and if we do it is really horrible. We would recommend this to all climbers. By the way, we are a climber so that is why we enjoy this game.
We really like the idea of this game. But the controls dont always work? And there are moves that are definitely possible that the avatar cant do for some reason? We think there shouldnt be like a chalk timer that makes it more difficult. And at every safe hold you chalk up. And or maybe idk if this is a thing yet. But have like different climbing shoes. & maybe a character customization. Like height/ weight/wingspan/foot size/ ect. We think that would make it a bit more appealing as well. And maybe real rock climbing would be a cool mode also crack climbing. A Jumping mechanic would be nice. But all together a new control system would be great.
First off, Ive been climbing for ten and half years. This game makes you climb like a newb. You have to match every hand and foot hold, and your climber never gets stronger. So, as you progress through the game, the levels get more difficult and confusing, but your climber can still only hold a small hold for a second or less. If you like doing the same thing over and over and over and over until you find the only possible path, this is the game for you. Have fun. If you actually know how to climb, this will likely be irritating, and absolutely not fun to play after the first twenty levels or so. Its a decent talking point, a fine attempt, and maybe its worth a couple of bucks, but as a game, its really aggravating.
This is THE rock climbing app youve been looking for.
This is a amazing game and Ive spent hours playing it and it hasent gotten old the only thing is there is one bug we found and we dont know how to let you know there is a bug so we are doing a review but here is the bug if you are stuck at a part you can turn practice mode on and go through the part without a timer and then you can turn it off after you get through the part and then the timer keeps going from where you turned practice mode on and then if you let the timer go and then you fall you respawn from where you feel so its kinda a cheat for if you cant get through a level we dont know if that was intentional or not just wanted to let you know that was happening we hope that makes sense.
We love this gone so much. We love the route reading aspect of it and how you need to find the beta before you climb just like real life. We have noticed to bugs and we dont know where else to report them so Im just saying it here. 1) The route called Going Under will not say it is finished. It has something to do with the practice mode because whenever you start the level, the game automatically switches to practice mode. 2) Sometimes when we fall of, our character falls to the ground and just lays there like she gives up on climbing. We dont know what causes this but it exists. Again we love this game in its entirety.
Love the game! Been playing since its release and the developers have been awesome! One quick question: When are you going to bring back the import gum function!!? We love creating routes and miss that feature. Also if you do bring it back can you include the ability to assign a difficulty level to your custom routes.
Fun game – great puzzles. We felt a little bored of it after mastering the movement and then, wouldnt you know it, the devs released a new puzzle piece to mix up the puzzles (directional holds). Well played devs. However, the game now feels slow and unresponsive for foot movements. Our swipe input feels simply ignored. We wondered if we were trying to make illegal moves…but nope, subsequent play throughs allowed the move. Something is up with the input of the foot moves, and its turning this pleasure of a puzzle game into something frustrating.
This is the first rock climbing game that Ive seen that doesnt look like a joke. Its animated extremely well. It looks like a real climber. Its basically a platform and a puzzler combined. The controls are simple to learn but difficult to master. Also its amazing that you can make your own levels especially on a game that is so young! Some issues that we have: the learning curve is too steep and the time limits are too short for beginners. Some of the harder levels appear earlier than they should. There is a practice mode to turn off time limits but it switches back on for every level. Swipe gestures dont always register. This game is a perfect example of a game that would benefit from a hardware controller option. Great job. Keep up the great work.
The app dont up for us our phone se2020.
Ive just downloaded this game but There is a problem in opening the game and the screen will be locked on the Logo when we want to open it! What should we do to fix it.
Great game and concept. Fun to play. Wish the control buttons were closer together for better response. Also a how to play/use guide somewhere.
It took us about 5 min of frustrating playing before we figured out there were virtual buttons and realized that hitting tap to play on the homepage brings us to a V16? The UI isnt exactly user friendly in our opinion. We feel like the first thing it shouldve brought us to was a tutorial about the controls and some gameplay tips, or at least an easy problem. We do like the graphics, and if we play some more, we can see it potentially getting more fun.
We just want to say that this game is impossible. In the starting level, we try to move and the girl falls before we even know how to react. Often the controls dont even do anything. This game is a waste of time.
Ive literally never written a review before. But this game is just too good. If youre a climber hunkered down for the duration of the pandemic this game is second only to a home gym. Mechanics are simple but mirror the climbing experience perfectly. We honestly feel almost like Im actually climbing when we play this. Congratulations to the developer for creating the first worthwhile climbing game Ive ever seen.
Does actually replicate a bit of the feel of bouldering in a gym. Also we noticed the icon looks low resolution and fuzzy.
Im an actual climber and we love this game. Yes its not exactly like climbing, but thats a good thing. The way its adapted gives it a very similar feeling to things youd experience climbing. For example, alternating moving hands and feet, falling on small holds, and resting on checkpoint holds. After a hard sequence, reaching one of those feels almost the same as reaching a rest hold. You stop and think about what youre going to do next. We do more sport climbing in real life and longer climbs in this game give you the same feel, as opposed to a boulder problem. We particularly love doing a long climb and seeing if we can do it top to bottom without falling. The last sequence gives you a taste of reaching the top of a high climb. A bit panicked and adrenaline pumped. And finishing a hard climb after figuring it out for a while is very satisfying. We have run into a couple of bugs, but its rare and not game breaking at all, and doesnt interfere with gameplay. The aesthetic of this game is amazing and it pleases us that we dont have to dread any ads from popping up. That mightve ruined it for us. We havent got the expansion yet but we definitely will. This game is a great blend of simulating climbing, and creating a puzzle like game. We have really enjoyed it. (Maybe there should be a multiplayer version with one person being a belayer lol).
One of the best games on the AppStore.
This game is really nice. We love the graphics and even if the controls are a bit slow, we think its on purpose to add a realistic touch. Some level are crazy hard and we love that. The only thing that bother us is it is hard to keep track with the swiping. Maybe put a little arrow when swiped to confirm the direction ? Over all its a wonderful game.
This is a great game but you cant hold on the small diamonds for too long so can you please slow the motion of the falling diamonds please.
We had fun doing the demo climbs, and really enjoyed the challenge of the last one, that we whipped off of numerous times, lol. We m looking forward to playing it more. Nice work! John McMullen, in Yosemite.
We dont like the game but we still like it. The controls are not working. Could you build a control thingy where you control it or fix this? Thanks.
Its almost impossible to make fast and accurate movements that they require. It feels like only a 1/3 of our inputs are being read. This makes completing most levels impossible, and this also makes the user created levels useless and impossibly hard. The sounds are repetitive and annoying. The best part is the visuals, and the ok music. Fix the controls and we will change our score. Next time, when you develop a game, test it on the devise your putting it on, and dont use anything like a Apple Pencil.
Tedious to move arms then legs separately your top and bottom half dont feel like they are working together and there are no inertia type forces where you can build speed with a controlled speed and your feet can only touch the black squares without the option of using the flat wall as a kick off point.
The game doesnt switch between the arms or legs grabbing properly so we get stuck in an endless loop of moving legs we are not trying to move. Or resetting the climbers body back to the previous position. We had to delete this as we cant get the climber to respond except foot to the left or right. Upper body wont budge when there are 3 options.
Hi it was so much fun until you beat the 3 or 5 levels.
Got this game and am having a blast with it. The puzzles are interesting and definitely take some work to sort out, which is great. Also, we were having some trouble with one part and got stuck a little and wrote the dev (Ben). Incredibly nice guy and definitely someone Im happy to support. Cant wait to see whats next with this game.
This game is great and we love the mechanics! It would be cool if there was a multiplayer mode where you could play tag, either online or against bots. But even as it is we love the game! Its a cool new approach to platform games that we havent seen yet.
This is a great app especially for those who are unable to climb for whatever reason. We are also having a problem with the response time when we swipe. It takes multiple attempts or we fall off due to the timer. This makes it very frustrating. We are also unable to compete because of it which Id really like to do. Regardless, Ill keep playing because its fun and we like the mental challenge. Its also a great way to learn how to plan routes until we can get in shape enough to get to the climbing gym.
We dont know if any of the devs or you have played the Lara Croft game but it reminds us of this app a lot. (Thats a compliment by the way). We think this game has a lot of potential and one thing you could add is different climbing places. Ex youre climbing a mountain ledge with notches in it. We dont know if it makes sense but we think it sounds cool.
The game is absolutely great by design. Honestly the only thing we have a problem with is the controls. Its one thing for it to be hard to fully register the swipes you make, but then when it does the character makes it way through to the next block. However it only does one move at a time and with those QTE of especially the small rocks make falling off really easy. It makes it super frustrating when youre so close to getting your foot over and before youre able to get your hands to move, the QTE ends and you fall off.
Challenging, addicting, but horrible mechanics.
Not for the faint of heart. The unprepared and the weak of mind will be unable to flash every level. Unfortunately, we are too impatient to plan out the whole level, so we can only flash 10 percent of the levels. Redpoints for this plebian scrub. Kudos to the developer for making a game where casual players can still proceed, but also have a brutal design that the gamer elite can still enjoy. Im not masochistic enough to reinstall the game over and over to try and flash every level, but we know there is a madman out there who will. And they would love/curse every moment of it. To the dev: If you want to give this game serious longevity, add a procedurally-generated infinite climb mode with optional fog-of-war and no checkpoints to test our ability to think on our feet. Oh and a leaderboard to go with it too. Fog and no fog separate of course.
If youre reading this stop reading and play the game! This game is amazingly made and is extremely addicting. At first when we saw the made with unity logo we were kinda scared but that quickly changed.
Its a cool idea and an interesting game. We like the overall design and the simplicity of it. Easy to pick up and play to pass the time. Swiping can be a little bit awkward and feels unresponsive sometimes; could improve the interface a bit and have indicators onscreen so user knows if their inputs are working/accepted. Nice work on this.
We dont know if its meant to be like that but the controls register late. It feels like it only register after we swipe and not during the swipe. Also, the ability to queue swipes would be nice in our opinion.
This game is amazing and beautifully designed, but the one complaint we have is about the timer. Im physically disabled, and Im horrible at QTEs. As many times as Ive tried, the game doesnt seem to pick up on our trying to swipe the other side of the screen once one has started, and our character ends up falling within the first move. Zen/practice mode is fun, but we dont think it counts for unlocking more levels? Im hoping for a way to make the controls one sided (spilt into the top and bottom halves of the screen instead of opposite sides) or a mode where the goal is to finish in a set number of moves or less, instead of having QTEs pop up.
Cant even figure out how to move from our phone. No instructions just a jump button to jump 1 time. We even tried the test section. NOTHING.
Thank you! A beautiful game without having to be bombarded with ads! The game play is fun and challenging. You really have to think about your approach. Very fun and entertaining cant wait to see where it will go.
This game is…well its…okay we cant even explain how good it is. We just finished the first area and Im already in love. Anyway, we have a suggestion. Im thinking maybe that we could be able to earn a currency (but not like other games where you have to pay for it) that you finds throughout levels, and we can use them to unlock characters and cosmetics. If somebody from the development team reads this, please put our suggestion into the game! The game is already great without it, but we would like that to happen. Thanks in advance if you ever consider implementing our suggestions.
Its honestly a great game but it has a few major issues Im gonna point out for example the levels are way too hard and we feel like they should be made easier thats all we had on our mind for now.
To be completely honest actually really enjoy this game each challenge is actually designed pretty well in each one is hard to conquer. But thats the fun part of conquering them our only problem is we actually wish there was joysticks or D-pad The swiping mechanic is actually difficult and sometimes when we swipe they dont register.
We have been playing this game for a few days and we got to legendary lines, but the next day when we went to play, we lost all our progress and it made us restart. The game is fun, but this was super frustrating.
After a few levels the control/ swiping is awful and frustratingly inconsistent!!! This had potential.
Love it. Just like solving a boulder problem, trying to work out the proper moves, then execute them quickly enough.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 3.5
- Size: 181.96 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Benjamin Dressler
Last updated: 21st April 2022 | Genre: Action, Puzzle | Developer: Benjamin Dressler