White Knuckle Steam Charts & Stats

White Knuckle delivers a gripping and highly original take on the roguelite genre, replacing traditional combat with the sheer tension of climbing for survival. Set in the towering industrial nightmare of SUB-STRUCTURE 17, the game challenges players to ascend through a labyrinth of crumbling platforms, rusted machinery, and ominous silence. Every movement depends on a detailed physics-based grip system, where each limb is controlled individually, and every hold drains your stamina. One wrong move, one second too long on a handhold, and you plummet—often all the way back to the start. This brutal simplicity creates a constant atmosphere of stress and focus, demanding precision without mercy. What sets the gameplay apart is the balance between minimalism and complexity. On paper, you’re just climbing, but as you progress, you gain access to essential tools like pitons, hammers, and ropes. Using them mid-climb is an intense trade-off—activating a tool means giving up that hand, even temporarily, and any loss of balance can send you spiraling into the abyss. As players learn to juggle their gear, plan routes, and manage stamina, each run becomes a tactical test of decision-making under pressure. The stakes never drop, and that's where the game excels—heightening the tension with every vertical meter gained. The atmosphere is as much a part of the challenge as the gameplay. Drawing from early 3D aesthetics, White Knuckle builds an oppressive world through lo-fi textures, jagged silhouettes, and stark lighting. There’s a deep sense of isolation—no music, no guidance, just the creak of metal, distant echoes, and the ever-present threat of rising sludge below. This creeping hazard serves as a dynamic timer, climbing with you, forcing you to keep moving or risk being swallowed. Each new zone—ranging from decaying silos to twisted ventilation shafts—has its own distinct threats and moods, ensuring that even repeated climbs feel fresh and unnerving. Progression is handled through classic roguelite structure. Death sends you back to the bottom, but collected data unlocks permanent upgrades like extended stamina, better grip efficiency, or more durable tools. The procedural level generation makes each attempt unpredictable, requiring you to adapt constantly, and the slow accumulation of skills gives every failure a sense of purpose. There’s no explicit story, but clues and environmental details suggest a world that’s long since lost hope. For those who enjoy piecing together lore from fragments and ambiance, White Knuckle offers plenty to chew on. However, the game doesn’t shy away from being punishing. The learning curve is steep, especially when first adapting to the unusual control scheme. Some players may also experience motion sickness due to the rapid camera movement and vertical shifts. There are no tutorials to lean on, and the experience is unapologetically solitary—there’s no multiplayer or competitive leaderboard to cushion the blow of failure. It’s just you, your hands, and the fall. Despite its uncompromising difficulty, White Knuckle succeeds in carving out a space that feels genuinely unique. It merges raw, physics-driven gameplay with a bleakly beautiful aesthetic and turns the act of climbing into something profoundly intense and personal. Every success is earned, and every mistake has consequences. For players seeking a challenge that’s both physically demanding and atmospherically rich, White Knuckle offers a singular, unforgettable experience where the only way out is up. Rating: 9/10

never have i ever spent 12h on demo game let alone the main game... this game is phenomenon, its good its hard ITS EVERYTHING YOU NEED. big love to the devs.. ya nailed it also THIS.. IS EARLY ACCESS?! cant wait to see the real deal

This is by far one of the best climbing horror/"stress" games I've ever experienced in my life. The movement is second to none, even if it takes an hour or so to finally click. This game had me scrambling to finish routes to resting points, screaming in terror as I plunged dozens of meters toward the soul-soup, and squealing with glee when I finally made that risky shortcut. This game has fluid controls, a masterfully crafted atmosphere and a progression system that keeps surprising you even 8-10+ hours in (so far). Play this game, support the developer(s)! I promise you won't regret it.

[h2] An Unforgiving Addiction [/h2] A fun find in today's market, with a simple concept perfectly executed within a unique setting. White Knuckle is highly absorbing, with a difficulty level that increases quite quickly; you will either come to love or hate this development. It requires you to know the mechanics thoroughly to make progress, and even then, you will be humbled many times over. This is not to say that the difficulty should scare you; as stated, this requirement will develop a knowledge and love for the mechanics that go beyond what you generally feel for most games today. This is a massive compliment to the game's simple design. The art and sound are also very well-crafted, creating the perfect environment for the intensity that sucks you in and constantly reminds you of the dilapidated tunnels and grimy sewers you will be climbing through. The tools provided are interesting and deliver a myriad of options for attacking any room you walk into. The secrets and subtle world-building are also a nice touch, providing a stepping stone that could easily be built upon, providing a more epic lore. For me, the game is only digestible in short bursts, as the intensity of the experience is quite overwhelming; it combines horror, speedrunning, and roguelike elements, which is unique in itself. This is a massive win for me, and I am super excited to see what comes next. Edit: It feels insanely good to get better as you play, but this game seems to requires a sense of perfection in the design itself. Like all these "climbing up" games that have been coming out as of late, one mistake and a fall to the bottom is potentially a lethal mistake. This follows in White Knuckle, to get to those later parts of a run can feel quite frustrating when one small mistake(a missed grab, head bump launching me backwards, variable climbing speed, others I am missing...) is the run reset. I will keep playing because it is a blast, and highly rewarding but it hurts me every time I do. Just got to the Abyss, what a rush to beat that!

Basit ve etkili bir formül, tırmanıyorsunuz. Kontroller son derece güzel hissettiriyor, mekanlar ilginç. Grafikler herkesin zevki olmayabilir ama ben çok güzel buldum. Terapi oyun

Sick and addicting gameplay with sick atmosphere reminiscent of the good shit like Quake, Silent Hill, and Half-Life.

Great concept for a game, mostly great execution. The problem with the game comes during Act 3. I won't spoil anything, but Act 3 is longer than Act 2 and Act 1 mostly because it's not about speed at that point but about smarts. There is only one section in Act 3 where you really have to go fast otherwise you'll die. But I'm getting off track here. What's the problem? The save system. A lot of players seem to like the roguelike "die and start over from the beginning" aspect of the game and I mostly do too. The gameplay during Act 1 and 2 is fast, so you don't really mind losing as you'll get to where you were fairly quick and keep doing it until it just "clicks" and you'll start getting past it like any other sections you've had trouble with. Act 2 ends with a really difficult part but once you figure it out, you'll get past it 50% of the time (with the other 50% consisting of dumb mistakes like missing a grab). Act 3 is... different. Like I said, fast gameplay doesn't apply here save for one section, which makes you spend more time planning and thinking. This is fine and I like this direction, but it doesn't work well with the save system the game has. For context, you can save during certain parts of the game only and even then it's not so much a save as it is a "limited life." Once you run out of them, you're back to the beginning and the items you need to save are fairly rare. You'll mostly be working with 1-2 additional lives for a section. Because Act 3 takes longer, the "I don't mind starting over because it's fast" aspect goes out the window. If I die during Act 3 right at the end after getting past most of it and spending almost an hour in it, then I won't want to play through it again. And by the time I decide to come back to it, I will have already forgotten how to get past certain sections resulting in even more deaths. Which means I won't get to ever finish Act 3 and see what this game's world and story is actually all about. There's around 7 acts in total planned for this game and if they continue in this non-fast paced direction, I think the game would really benefit from a better save system. Otherwise, very few people will actually finish the game (that they paid money for). That's why right now, I can't really recommend the game. Even to people that love roguelikes like me. Roguelikes punish your mistakes by making you start over and that's fine in the case of RPG-like roguelikes where you're forced to make a new character and go through a different story all-together or in the case of Hades where the gameplay loop remains consistent throughout the entire game. Mastering it is what allows you to get through the entire game in one go (which is what this game seems to want it's players to do). But unlike this game, that loop never changes. It's the same throughout. Let me be clear though that I love everything else about this game. The climbing mechanics are really fun and having to constantly be on the run pushes you to make risky decisions. It gets your blood pumping. I really enjoyed Act 1 and Act 2. I even love the new environments in Act 3 and the enemy designs are really cool and fun to work around. I think the issue with the pacing could be solved by having Act 3 be shorter than Act 1 & 2. Instead, you have to go through three sections that each have it's special gimmick enemy you have to work around. Act 3 could have been better by only having one instead of multiple. You'd essentially be spending just as much time on it as the previous acts, but instead of constantly moving, you'd be forced to stop and think things through. TL;DR: Game is almost perfect, Act 3 just needs a little tweaking or the game needs a better save system.

This game was made for me! I think. White Knuckle is a very fun game, with great feeling movement and mechanics and a lot of tech to master. There is so much for me to like about this game. The setting is very interesting and feels reminiscent of some of my favourite old games from the past, the levels are well designed and an interesting navigational puzzle to figure out, the game is incredibly tense and exciting and sometimes kind of terrifying, there is multiple game modes depending on how you want to play it, it is a game about climbing and I LOVE climbing! The main portion of the game is the campaign mode, which pretty much has to be all done in one shot, but at the very least, there is a save game mechanic you can use during significant check points which allow you to make multiple attempt on the harder areas ahead or quit the game and come back to it later. The current experience at a normal pace would probably take around 45 minutes for someone who isn't rushing through it, but that time can be ground down to less than 20 minutes without doing anything especially cheesy. That is just the three chapters currently in the game, but there is planned to be seven all in all. While only a portion of the full game is in so far, there is a whole lot of variety in those three sections and as you progress you unlock more. While all the levels are hand made, the items you may find in them are not set in stone, and each level seems to have alternate or mirrored versions, or different sets of enemies or hazards to deal with the keep it interesting, and there are plenty of secrets and side areas to find. The game will generally pick the rooms you have to pass through in a different order each time, and there is enough of them that in future runs you will still continue to see different ones throughout the run. Another thing that keeps them interesting is that there is generally one relatively obvious route through a level, but it can be a bit slow or a bit dangerous, but you can usually always find a quicker or more obscure way through if you look carefully. Pretty much every single level has a way to complete it without needing to use items, but through creativity you can sometimes even find ways through that weren't intended... Or you could just use the damn pitons and rebars you have been hoarding instead of dying carrying them! Being creative with your approach feels incredibly rewarding. Another thing I really love about this game is the leader boards. While I could never dream of beating the top times and scores, because I am a slow and methodical kind of person, I got plenty of motivation to keep playing by trying just to compete with my friends and in turn I think that goes back around to them. Besides just going for a faster time at speedrunning the campaign, there is also various endless modes in the game which is more about climbing further. From one specific chapter, to a combination of the first two from the demo version, or the entire campaign as it is so far. In the endless mode you can enjoy climbing for as long as you want or as far as you can while racking up lots of fun perks to live up to the rising threat as the game goes on. There is also now a set of challenge scenarios, which I have yet to delve into at the time of this review but they seem very interesting and different than the regular game. All in all, I am very happy with what this game has to offer so far and I am incredibly excited to see where it goes from here. I rate White Knuckle 8 out of 10 and it kicks assssssssssss.

several times my friends joked about it being called white knuckle despite the fact that your knuckles turn red as you hang off of things. then i realized it meant my knuckles, in REAL life, as my mouse creaks and cracks from the pressure of my hands squeezing the absolute fuck out of it it's a really good video game and you should play it. you. buy it buy it. buuuuuuuuy it.

First you think it's a ragebait "weird controls" stream game, then you actually like the controls, then *really* like the controls. Then you realize It's a horror game Then you realize it's a speed game Then you realize it's a roguelite Then you realize you've been having fun the whole time.