Only Up Rush Review

Nostra Games Ltd, Only Up Rush

Climbing games are really having a moment as of late. Single player titles like the incredible, Cairn, or the artistic and also impressive, Jusant have taken many of the critical plaudits. Though, alternative chaotic and co-operative takes on the genre like 2025’s mega-hit, Peak have equally left their firm stamp on the genre. A climb high into the sky, scaling objects that are thrown together from a wild pool of assets to create a semi-linear, sole purpose journey of joy and anger.

Only Up launched on Steam several years ago but was taken down following copyright and other issues, though it has influenced many similar ‘rage game’ climbers that have blown up in recent years – including new challenger, Only Up Rush. Now on console with an Xbox Series X|S launch, how does it feel to play? Our review.

Gameplay and Replayability

Only Up Rush is like nothing I have ever played. It is a diverse scale of items that are thrown together, and in many ways, it looks like a GTA mod. Starting in a construction yard with one sole purpose, go upwards by any means necessary. From ground zero onwards, I was having a good time.

This 3,400m vertical journey is very simplistic, though that doesn’t mean Only Up Rush isn’t a bucketload of fun that will undoubtedly test your patience. The game is a firm but fair challenge from start to finish, continually introducing new objects – visually and in form – for you to traverse. Throughout the game there are multiple paths, where often smaller, more tricky items can offer a shorter path leaving a second or third run to be very different from your first time.

Though the difficulty is the same for much of the adventure, there were two to three sections of the game were really difficult. Around 2,300 metres in a section where I had to cross a flipped over truck, I was a defeated man. The fall from which led to another four to five-minute re-ascent that felt worse than even the most criminal Dark Souls 2 runback. Thankfully, there are plenty of checkpoints on the ascent which are well-placed broadly evenly.

Only Up Rush does offer a real challenge for the speed running community. The clock is ticking from the moment you start, though it doesn’t impact a casual run by any means. Falling down and using a checkpoint to get back to where you fell from will bring significant time penalties. A brisk, almost faultless run would take a player around an hour, though there are some incredibly quick attempts on YouTube if you’d like to see what you’d be up against.

Controls

How a game feels is fundamental in the climbing genre. Tight controls, precise character interaction with the environment and accurate item boxes are essential to the player experience.

Before starting Only Up Rush, I had genuine fear that the game would handle terribly and I’d be sliding off items that I thought I’d reached. For the most part, that wasn’t the case. Player movement falls somewhere between GTA, PUBG and Fortnite, with the former two’s climbing style and the latter’s running and sliding.

Despite a few items being too blurry to fully identify the part to aim my jump for, I was happy with Only Up Rush’s handling. In a few instances I actually felt the game was more generous in the grabbing range than it could have been. In my four hour climb I did fall away from a few objects that I did definitely brush, but overall I was impressed with how the game handled.

Visuals and Design

The visual design of Only Up Rush is as mad as a box of frogs. From climbing playing cards, to helicopters, to space debris, there is consistently something new to see – and ascend. Broken into roughly 20 sub-sections which include a cruise ship, board games and more, every 15-minutes or so we’re somewhere new.

I was also very impressed by the game’s draw distances. After scaling the first 1,000m or so, looking back down I could see the majority of what I’d already passed. Then, after completing the game, diving directly to the bottom, past all the items I’d scaled was a really fun way to conclude my time with Only Up Rush.

Only Up Rush does begin with a rather basic, but acceptable character creator too. There’s simplistic options for players to customise their climber if you wish. There’s even a boob size slider, to award the game its gooner seal of approval.

Conclusion

Only Up Rush is a bananas game that does what too few games aim to do this generation – be basic, dumb fun. The ascent to the stars will test you and in a couple of sections, potentially temporarily break you. But the journey, is definitely worth the budget price of admission.

And if you get stuck on this eclectic climb, you could always listen to Yazz to remind yourself of the only way to go.