Image: The Game Bakers

It feels wrong to say that Cairn - the critically adored narrative climbing sim from Furi developers The Game Bakers - released just this year. It feels like it was maybe a 2024 or 2025 game? But nope, it was one of the year's first hits. And now there's more of it. Clearly free of the time-dilation afflicting the rest of us, and not content to rest on their laurels, the team behind it are rolling out a big expansion in multiple parts, and the most surprising thing of all? It's free, with the first part, Deep Water, out now. But first, let's just address the elephant dwingus in the room:

Cairn - On The Trail: Deep Water Screenshot
Image: The Game Bakers

That mountain looks like a penis, right? There is no way the developers looked at that and said 'this mountain is suggestive of nothing', and then just made it one of the store promo shots. And you've got to really get your hands all over it, too! Dig into every little crevice and knobby bit to get past that overhang. Proudly stand atop that highest peak, or cozy up for a rest inside the... orifice. Hrm.

At least you've got a choice of which character is scaling Mount Turgid, as the expansion adds a new Free Play mode! Finally letting you tackle any of the new climbing spots (plus Mount Kami itself) without the story, and as either original protagonist Aava or new playable character Marco. Interestingly, they're more than just different skins, too. Each one has their own climbing style and mechanical twists.

But there IS story to unravel here, too. The broader title of the DLC series is 'On the Trail', and it has you following in the footsteps of Otto Mondo, a legendary climber, finding more history and hidden goodies up in the new locations. The main new challenge in this set is water soloing, presenting tough overhangs over perilous drops that thankfully have (comparatively) soft water beneath, so any falls will just bruise your pride instead of shattering all of your bones.

This first DLC is set across three new replayable locations (all much smaller than Mount Kami, for obvious reasons), plus adds a few new challenges to the indoor climbing gym to practice on. Thematically, the new locations are meant to be places where Aava and Marco would have trained to prepare for the Kami expedition, but obviously they're too cool for school. Perhaps it might be an interesting place to start if you're new to the game, though.

On the Trail: Deep Water is out now, free, and needs to be manually added to your Steam library to access it. You will, of course, require Cairn (which is excellent) to play it too, and is currently full price at £25/$30.