Cairn

Cairn

Steam Deck Verified

The Game Bakers · Stylized · Jan 29, 2026

Yes, worth buying.

It's at its lowest recorded price, $22.49.

94%
Very Positive
21k player reviews
High confidence
Buy it if you like
  • Story and characters: 145 reviews raised it, mostly praise
  • Gameplay: 101 reviews raised it, mostly praise
  • Graphics: 58 reviews raised it, mostly praise
Think twice if you dislike
  • Bugs: 34 reviews raised it, mostly criticism

Based on 21k player reviews · updated 3 days ago

What players think

The recurring themes across 300 analysed reviews: what players praise, what divides them, and what to know.

Why players love itThings to know
64% of themes are praise27% are divided9% are caveats
Story and characters
Players who bring up Story and characters mostly praise it.
The main character is extremely believable and the story is beautiful.
145 of 300 sampled reviews raised it
Gameplay
Players who bring up Gameplay mostly praise it.
Moment to moment gameplay ranges from totally serene moments of calm exploration to hand-drenching, nail biting suspense as you just barely scramble over a cliff edge, your arms trembling, knowing that all that stood between you and a ten thousand foot drop was a little bit of chalk and some luck.
101 of 300 sampled reviews raised it
Graphics
Players who bring up Graphics mostly praise it.
I like the graphics of this game but they are nothing special and the game should not run this bad
58 of 300 sampled reviews raised it
Audio
Players who bring up Audio mostly praise it.
Good parts about the game is the soundtrack, graphics and artstyle, climbing (when it works) and survival mechanics
49 of 300 sampled reviews raised it
Controls
Players who bring up Controls mostly praise it.
I recommend this game for everybody who likes to play a chilly game that sometimes makes your hands sweat through the controller.
17 of 300 sampled reviews raised it
Optimization
Players who bring up Optimization mostly praise it.
The visual and sounds are great but could use optimization in some areas.
14 of 300 sampled reviews raised it

+1 more the community rallied around

Theme by theme

Every theme is scored by what reviewers actually said about it, not just whether they recommended the game.

LovedMixedComplained about
Players love7 themes
Story and characters145 reviews
Gameplay101 reviews
Graphics58 reviews
Audio49 reviews
Controls17 reviews
Optimization14 reviews
Interface13 reviews
Divided opinion% still recommend
Difficulty53 reviews
92%
Performance20 reviews
80%
Steam Deck16 reviews
81%
Players complain% still recommend
Bugs34 reviews
82%

Ranked by how many sampled reviews mention each topic. A topic sits in a column by what reviewers said about that topic; the percentage beside it is how many of them recommended the game anyway. One more theme was raised by fewer than 6 sampled reviews and is not shown.

Should you buy it now?

Crit’s read on the price, from Steam price history.

Lowest ever recorded

Currently $22.49 (−25%). That's the lowest price we've ever recorded.

5 points recordedtoday · $22.49

The data behind the verdict

For the players who want the receipts.

Player review score
94%
Very Positive
Playing right now
Achievements
52
total to unlock
Rarest-achievement stats coming soon
Average playtime
Not tracked yet

We’ll surface hours-played once playtime ingestion ships.

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No recommendations for this game yet.

This game doesn’t overlap enough with games Crit has reviewed.