White Knuckle is a first-person roguelite speed-climbing game. Ascend through the guts of SUB-STRUCTURE 17 using precision movement mechanics. Sharp reflexes and resource management will bring you out from under ten thousand meters of concrete and decay.
White Knuckle is a first-person horror climbing roguelike in early access, where you grab surfaces with left and right mouse buttons and climb out of a hellish place while a rising ooze chases you. He finds it very unique, intense and immersive, with a very high skill ceiling and a stressful, punishing feel. His main complaints are that it takes too long to reach its best content and that it lacks meta progression. He recommends it for players who want a hardcore experience and places it in A tier.
Liked
Highly unique combination of climbing, horror and a Portal-like comedic radio voice
Minimalistic controls that are hard to master, giving a very high skill ceiling
Many varied biomes and hidden late-game areas he calls awesome
Immersive, spooky and intensely stressful atmosphere
Lots of secrets and a strong community (debug world, terminal secret area), reminiscent of Inscryption
Stamina and grip mechanics that reward experimentation
Extra roguelike game mode with more replayability
Disliked
Very punishing: a big fall can end a long run, and runs take a long time
Most players never see the later biomes because of difficulty; it takes too long to get there
Little meta progression; the shortcut system is so cruel it is not worth using
Consumables with hidden effects are unhelpful and mean in such a punishing game
Few passives, some much weaker than others; room layouts become repetitive once seen
Top 10 of 2025 (#8)
White Knuckle is a first-person climbing horror roguelike where an unfortunate character tries to escape horrors by going ever upward. He calls it possibly the most unique game on his list, blending 3D platforming with horror. The mechanics are easy to grasp but have a very high skill ceiling, and the story mode is an excellent adventure. He admits it is the hardest to recommend because it is punishing and very stressful, but still suggests trying this stressful gem, especially in early access.
Liked
Most unique game on the list, mixing 3D platforming and horror, two uncommon roguelike subgenres
Simple to understand but with an extremely high skill ceiling
Dedicated community showing insane climbing speed is fun to watch
Main story mode is an incredible adventure
Each biome is unique, with its own disturbing and fun obstacles
Disliked
Very punishing and possibly the most stressful roguelike he has played, which can be a pro or con
Early section is constantly on the clock, leaving beginners little room to experiment and risking missing later highlights
Early section differs wildly from the rest of the game
Roguelike elements are not the focal point
Community speed feats can be discouraging; content still thin in early access (wants more biomes, layouts, secrets, consumables, passives)
What players say
A first-person roguelite speed-climbing horror game where you grab ledges with left and right mouse buttons and ascend the vast SUB-STRUCTURE 17 while monsters, hazards and permadeath push you along.
Players love it: Steam lists it as Overwhelmingly Positive at about 98% of roughly 15,000 reviews (14,662 positive, 301 negative), and the review sample shows very high playtimes (many 60 to 400+ hours), which signals unusual stickiness. The tactile two-hand climbing, the horror atmosphere and a very high skill ceiling that feeds a speedrun community are the headline praise. It launched in Early Access on 17 April 2025 from Dark Machine Games and publisher DreadXP, and reviews from late 2025 into 2026 describe regular large content drops (new regions such as the Nest, an Endless mode, an elevator for skipping climbs). Formal critic coverage is thin: Metacritic shows only two early critic reviews without a score, and I could not find an OpenCritic page. The small negative camp mostly likes the core climbing but dislikes permadeath, lack of mid-run saves, RNG perks and harsh late-game enemies.
Players love
Climbing feel: holding ledges with separate left and right mouse buttons feels tactile and physical, and players compare the immersion to Shadow of the Colossus-style grabbing
Very high skill ceiling; a first campaign clear can take an hour or more while top players finish in under 10 to 20 minutes, which drives heavy speedrun/competitive engagement
Sweaty-palm tension: horror atmosphere, sound design and the constant risk of falling combine into genuine anxiety, with no easy respawn or checkpoint
Environments become more colorful and varied as you ascend, and a full-scale structure with no loading screens gives a strong sense of place
Depth layered under a simple premise: secret rooms, item caches, facility upgrades, artifacts, and lore people keep uncovering after the first clear
Frequent substantial content updates during Early Access (new regions, Endless mode, new perks/artifacts) keep long-time players returning
Distinctive dark humor and community in-jokes (roach currency at vending machines, a joke-review culture around the elevator), plus controller support although keyboard and mouse is widely considered best
Critics who covered early builds noted it was nearly bug-free for Early Access and had a motivating faster-and-longer loop
Streamer-driven word of mouth: several top reviews say they bought it after watching Jerma struggle with it, and many joke-reviews celebrate the clenching tension
Common complaints
Permadeath sends you back to the start of a long run; many negative reviewers say progress loss is soul-crushing and time-wasting, especially for new players
No cheap mid-run save: saving and quitting is costly (bugs currency) or awkward, and floppy-disk backups only respawn you at the computer where you inserted them
Late-game areas (the Abyss, Hanging Gardens, later regions) are called brutally hard, with enemies like the flying head and harpoon barnacles criticised as frustrating or unfair on precarious terrain
Heavy trial-and-error: several reviewers describe the campaign as a series of knowledge checks, and deaths can feel like they come from RNG or ragdoll/enemy randomness rather than player error
Physically demanding for long sessions; one older reviewer found the continuous intense mouse-and-keyboard input exhausting
Grab detection is seen by some as finicky (crosshair must sit on a hold for a moment), making recoveries inconsistent
Recent regions (the Nest) were criticised by a few high-hour players as repetitive, visually hard to read and thin on tile variety
Roguelike layer feels thin to some: perks are rarely offered and lackluster, so there is little power-growth excitement compared with other roguelikes
Can feel tedious
Replaying the same early regions every run because there are no real checkpoints is the most repeated complaint
Long time per run before reaching the next section, which punishes players with limited play time
Low-value or rarely offered perks can make early runs feel empty when RNG gives nothing useful
Rage-inducing hazards in the Abyss and Hanging Gardens where enemies block or harpoon you mid-traverse
Repeated tile reuse in newer regions makes Endless mode feel like a slog to some veterans
What's unique
A first-person climbing roguelite where your two hands are literally the core input, which almost no other game matches
Runs are a vertical ascent through a single continuous megastructure (SUB-STRUCTURE 17) rather than generic room-to-room levels
Horror that comes from physical exertion and fear of falling, not jump scares; chasing threats like the Mass force you to keep moving fast
Speedrun-first design: a built-in timer, a competitive mode that trims the perk pool, and a community that clears the campaign in minutes
Endless mode with an Abyss section where players compete for altitude (one reviewer reports steady runs around 5000 m)
Roach/bug currency, vending machines, floppy-disk lives and computer respawn points as a quirky meta-layer
Players want
Add a casual/campaign mode with checkpoints or persistent progress so players can reach new areas without replaying old ones
Make saving and quitting mid-run cheaper and more accessible, or let floppy-disk backups be banked or transferred between computers
Rebalance late-game enemies (Abyss and Hanging Gardens threats, harpoon barnacles) and reconsider the gun-driven last section
Clean up or merge the perk pool so weak perks do not dilute runs, and make perk offers feel more impactful
Improve transparency of mechanics such as inventory weight and its effect on movement speed, and add clearer on-screen tutorials
Commonly requested extras: a relaxed zen/no-enemy mode, a level editor or workshop, and more cosmetic/collectible content
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Early AccessParkourFirst-Person3D PlatformerHorrorPlatformerAdventureRogue-likeOld SchoolFPS
Tier list Part 4 (2025)
White Knuckle is a first-person horror climbing roguelike in early access, where you grab surfaces with left and right mouse buttons and climb out of a hellish place while a rising ooze chases you. He finds it very unique, intense and immersive, with a very high skill ceiling and a stressful, punishing feel. His main complaints are that it takes too long to reach its best content and that it lacks meta progression. He recommends it for players who want a hardcore experience and places it in A tier.
Liked
Disliked