Celeste Review on How Tough Gameplay Can Still Feel Kind

The first time my partner played Celeste, he died 312 times in a single chapter and laughed through most of them. I sat next to him on the couch counting, half expecting the controller to fly across the room. It never did. That evening is the best way I know to explain this game: it is very hard, and it is also one of the kindest games I have ever watched someone play.

Celeste came out in 2018 from Maddy Thorson and a small team. You play Madeline, a young woman climbing a mountain while dealing with anxiety and a voice in her head that does not want her to succeed. It is a single-player precision platformer, but in our house it has become a pass-the-controller game, and that says a lot about how it treats players.

How hard is it, really

Pretty hard. The core moves are simple: jump, climb, and one air dash that refills when you touch the ground. Each screen is a short puzzle built from those three moves, and many of them need precise timing. A tricky screen in the later chapters might take a new player 30 or 40 attempts.

The optional content goes much further. Hidden cassette tapes unlock B-side versions of each chapter, which are brutal, and beyond those are even harder challenges for the players who want them. My partner finished the main story. I have watched him try one B-side for about an hour and set it down with a polite "maybe next year."

Why the deaths do not sting

So how does a game where you die hundreds of times still feel gentle? A few design choices, all of which are easy to miss if you only look at the death counter.

• Respawn takes about a second. You go back to the start of the current screen, not the start of the level. There is no lives system and no game over.
• Screens are short. Most take 10 to 20 seconds to clear once you know the route, so a failed attempt costs almost nothing.
• The controls are forgiving in small, hidden ways. You can still jump for a tiny moment after running off a ledge, and the game is generous about where your hands are when you grab a wall. You do not notice these until you play a platformer that lacks them.
• Deaths are framed as learning. Early on, the game tells you directly that a high death count means you are practicing, and that you should be proud of it.

That last point sounds like a small message. It changed how my partner talked about the game. Instead of "I keep dying," he would say "I almost have the pattern." Same screen, same number of deaths, very different evening.

Assist Mode and the "real way to play"

Here is where I part ways with a certain kind of player. Every time Celeste comes up online, someone says Assist Mode is for people who are not really playing the game, and that the struggle is the whole point. You will see it in comment threads about almost any hard game.

I think that view is wrong, and Celeste itself argues against it. Assist Mode lets you slow the game down to as little as half speed, give yourself infinite stamina for climbing, add extra air dashes, or turn on invincibility. The game shows a short note when you open it, explaining that the intended experience is challenging, but that everyone should be able to enjoy it. It does not lock content away when you use it.

I used Assist Mode at 70 percent speed for the later chapters, because my reflexes are honestly not great and I wanted to see the story. My partner played at full speed. We both reached the summit. We both cried at the same scene. I do not think his summit was more real than mine, and I am not sure the people who claim otherwise have thought about who is sitting on the other side of that argument: a player with slower hands, or a shaky wrist, or just a long day behind them.

Hannah made a similar point about God Mode in her Hades review, and I agree with every word of it.

A story that fits inside the gameplay

A lot of games tell you about a character's feelings in cutscenes and then hand you unrelated gameplay. Celeste ties its story to the climbing itself. Madeline's anxiety is not a backstory. It shows up as a mirror version of her, often called Badeline by players, who chases you through levels and later works with you.

Without spoiling anything, there is a chapter where the mechanics change in a way that matches a shift in how Madeline sees herself, and it lands harder because you have been fighting the same mountain for hours. The supporting characters help too. Theo, a cheerful photographer, is the friend everyone wants on a hard trip. The old woman at the base of the mountain is funny and slightly mean in the best way.

The soundtrack by Lena Raine deserves its own mention. We still play it while cooking on weekends, which is not something I can say for most game music. A few of the tracks build slowly for three or four minutes, and they make the long climbing sections feel calmer than they are.

Playing it as a couple

Since it is a single-player game, couch play is something you invent. What worked for us was trading the controller after every completed screen, not after every death. Swapping per death sounds fair but turns into a race to fail quickly. Swapping per screen means each person gets a full puzzle, and the other one gets to shout advice.

A full run of the main story took us about 9 hours over two weekends, with Assist Mode on for my turns only. That suited us well. If you want something truly built for two players instead, read our review of It Takes Two, or for something louder and messier, Overcooked 2.

Who it is for

Players who want a challenge but get frustrated by long walks back after failure. Anyone curious about precision platformers who has been scared off by their reputation. Couples who like to watch each other play and cheer. Players who care about a story about mental health told with honesty and without lecturing.

Who should skip it

If repeating the same 15-second screen 40 times sounds miserable even with instant respawns, Celeste will not change your mind, and Assist Mode only helps so much if you dislike the genre itself. Players looking for exploration and big open spaces will find the levels tight and linear. And if you want local multiplayer where both people are playing at once, this is the wrong pick for game night.