Game EXP: Climb Out: Escape from Anomalous Sewer (MQ2)

[Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Climb Out: Escape from Anomalous Sewer through Keymailer, a third-party company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game key was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that it be played, and content be created.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

Climb Out: Escape from Anomalous Sewer
Systems: Meta Quest 2/3/3S/Pro
Release Date: December 19, 2025
Publisher: Skycamp Studio
Developer: Skycamp Studio
Time Spent: 2 Hours 4 Minutes
First Play Videos on YouTube

I had decently high hopes for Climb Out: Escape from Anomalous Sewer (just Climb Out from now on), and then 0:04 seconds into the playing, you can actually see my confusion through my hand gestures in my First Play video.  The best way I can describe it is that your virtual hands, your hands in the VR space, are flipped 180 degrees.  So when your in-person hands are facing the ground, your in-game hands are facing up, like you're ready to receive alms or a loaf of bread.  This might not be a big issue, but in a game where one of the main mechanics is climbing a ladder, holding onto a zipline, and taking pictures with a handheld video camera, the default hand position can be integral to overall comfort.  Throw in some less-than-optimal hand mechanics and some questionable anomalies, and you have the makings of a game that is not always fun to play.

The premise for Climb Out is similar to other 'spot the anomaly' games, where you pass through a looping hallway.  If you see an anomaly, you go through one hallway, and if you don't see an anomaly, you go through the other hallway.  If you're wrong, you start back at the beginning.  Once you sucessfully make it through 10 passageways, you beat the game.  There are a few differences in Climb Out compared to similar games like The Exit 8 and Room 713, and that's to take a picture of the anomaly.  That picture (which is actually a pre-taken picture regardless of the actual picture you take) is automatically placed on an evidence board, complete with a red string connecting the pictures.  When you see an anomaly, you don't actually have to take a picture like you do in The 18th Attic, to sucessfully proceed to the next sewer tunnel, but there is a secondary quest of sorts to the game where you have to collect 20+ pictures on your board to unlock the true ending, or at least find out how/why your detective character ended up in the sewer in the first place.

The biggest problem with trying to complete your evidence board, or at least acquiring 20 pictures, is that, unlike other games in the genre, the pool of anomalies that the game pulls from doesn't seem to eliminate the ones that you've already come across.  During my playthough, I came across the hanging mannequin corpses three times, the ladder with twice as many rungs three times, the fleshy eyeballs twice, the floating tools twice, and the flipped tunnel twice.  By not removing already sucessfully observed anomalies from a pool that the game pulls from, the game artificially extends the time required for a person to play in order to see "the one true ending."  I don't like that approach.

Two other narrative choices the game makes, I can't figure out if they were planned and not implemented, or mentioned only to mess with the player.  The first is that the game tells you that while you have a headlamp, "and a digital camera on you, though the battery is dying."  Of all of the times I spent playing, I never once had the battery on either the headlamp or the digital camera die.  The headlamp would often flicker, but even playing for more than 30 minutes, never once did the game indicate that the camera battery was in danger of dying.  Maybe there was a planned mechanic, similar to Outlast, where you had to find and replace batteries that died, but that became too difficult to actually implement?  The second mechanic that didn't work was pressing the trigger button while riding the zipline across the open sewer.  The game says that you will be able to stop while on the zipline, presumably to get a better look at anomalies, but again, possibly due to in-game limitations, this function did not actually work.

The last thing I want to harp on is the design of the stage.  For those of y'all who haven't watched any of the gameplay videos, I'll do my best to describe the general layout.  You start in the sewer tunnel with a caution sign telling you which one of nine possible floors you are on.  In front of you is a ladder that leads up to a large open area with a zipline.  Behind you, while climbing the ladder, are two nooks that can hide anomalies.  While riding the appropriately slow-moving zipline across the water-filled gap, anomalies can pop up if they're not already visible.  Once you're across the gap, you can slide down one of two tunnels leading you back to the starting sewer tunnel.  I felt that the ladder should have been moved to the end of the level, so that you're climbing out into the next floor, and the reveal when you poke your head out is when you discover if you sucessfully made it to the next level or if you just climbed back up to the starting floor.  Having to climb the ladder during the first third of the stage felt very cumbersome, even after finding the two nooks.  The sliding tunnel also could have used some fine-tuning, as I felt that I had to constantly push myself to keep moving down to the next floor.

What I liked about Climb Out was that after playing a handful of these 'spot the anomaly' games, I really liked playing this type of game in a VR space.  Being immersed in a virtual world where spooky stuff is happening will always feel a lot scarier than when you play on a TV, computer, or handheld screen.  Playing Layers of Fear on my computer was really scary, but playing it in VR was terrifying, even on my third time through the game.  A couple of the anomalies were genuinely scary, like the woman who appeared right before the zipline ended, trying to get the player to jump and let go of the zipline, leading to "death."  I also loved the two times the world flipped upside down, as it made traversing more challenging, but in a way that was fun and not frustrating.

I really wish I had more positive things to say about Climb Out, but when I look up at everything I've written, it feels like I liked the concept more than the actual execution of the game.  The bones are somewhat decent, but the final end product still feels like it needs a bit of work, especially in the hand orientation department, before I could give it a glowing recommendation.  The coat of paint is nice, but everything else needs work.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Why Should I Be Frightened of Dying?