Jusant is a meditative journey in which, entirely through climbing and exploration, the player traces a historiography of man-made ecological annihilation. In terms of tone and look, Jusant gives off the impression that it’s another post-Journey Journey-like (such as Abzu), but these similarities are superficial. Journey was a game that painted with a broad brush, using a storybook framework to go through the motions of an intentionally broad hero’s journey, whereas Jusant is all about the specifics of apocalypse. Besides all of the forgotten villages, artifacts and otherworldly wildlife the player encounters, there are also many abandoned letters, journals, advertisements and work orders to read; it would be more apt to say Jusant is like a hilariously vertical Gone Home, in which the heart of the game is contained in these little familiar documents, which are rendered otherworldly by the absence of the people who wrote them. And unlike other eschatologically-minded games like Fallout or Last of Us, Jusant’s characters, off-screen though they may be, are normal people under an imminent threat of annihilation, making bad choices in bad circumstances, pitiable and/or sympathetic as opposed to idiotically cruel and/or murderously evil. The game’s mechanics, which are centered around freeclimbing, necessitate careful observation of the game world, enhancing the player’s relationship with the narrative.

It also lets you travel the world with a fun little alien guy, which is always a plus.