I thoroughly despise Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy. One of the most popular “games meant to generate Youtube reactions” released over the past few years, it was an intentionally poorly made title meant to annoy you. I don’t know what was worse about it: its ugly presentation, its intentionally-broken controls, or Bennett Foddy just spitting out philosophical garbage whilst you were constantly failing at climbing a wall with a pickaxe. Knowing that someone else was designing a game meant to be a love letter, a spiritual successor of sorts, to this abomination, was enough to make my blood boil. But the aptly named A Difficult Game About Climbing is more than just that. Is it annoying and overly difficult? Yes. But it’s also way more enjoyable than its main source of inspiration.

It takes the concept of Getting Over It, which is a bald man climbing a mountain comprised of random trash with complicated controls, but tweaks things in order to make them annoying, but beatable. It’s less about being a true exercise in frustration, having to endure horrendous controls, and more about properly memorizing a specific route which needs to be taken in order to reach the goal. The main difference is that, instead of whatever the hell you were wielding in order to climb that mountain in Getting Over It, you use your bare hands in A Difficult Game About Climbing. They are not the most reliable thing in the universe, but they can grab things. There’s a modicum of grip. There’s a way to beat the damn game.

It’s not easy to do so. In fact, it’s pretty freaking challenging. The controls are still stiff, but are at least responsive. There is one set way to beat the game, as in, climbing the crappy-looking mountain to the very top, but that will require a metric truckload of trial and error. I guess I have to commend A Difficult Game About Climbing in this aspect. No BS. No Bennett Foddy talking about Aldous Huxley after you’ve fallen to the ground for the tenth time. In fact, there’s not even a soundtrack, or barely anything in terms of sound, with the exception of some actually soothing waves, and the sound of a man clearly struggling to climb this nonsensical rock in front of him.

A Difficult Game About Climbing is obviously frustrating, and I don’t exactly think it’s a fun pasttime, but it’s exponentially more enjoyable than the horrendous Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy. It’s actually beatable with enough trial and error. Its mechanics, whilst not exactly polished to the brim, work as intended, with no intentional input lag. It’s still clearly meant for Let’s Play youtubers to film themselves losing their minds over it, but it can still be a passable challenge if you’re up for the task.

Graphics: 5.0 It still looks cheap like its main source of inspiration, but its level design (if you can call it that) is a bit more cohesive, and its assets look vastly better.	Gameplay: 6.5 Even though it was meant to resemble Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy in terms of gameplay, its physics are less clunky, there is no intentional input lag, and the game is meant to be challenging and frustrating, but not impossible to beat.
Sound: 4.5 With the exception of some tides and a struggling man’s occasional grunts, there’s not a lot of sound in this game. I guess it’s for the best. At least there are no monologues by Bennett Foddy.	Fun Factor: 6.5 Is it frustrating? Yes, a lot. Then again, it didn’t make me want to ragequit right away. It didn’t infuriate me like Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy did. I eventually gave up on it, but I’ve always managed to overcome obstacles, and feel relieved as hell, after a few attempts.
Final Verdict: 6.0

A Difficult Game About Climbing is available now on PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.