White Knuckle

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Climb out of ten thousand metres of dark concrete before what is below catches up.

Platforms: PC
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (98% of 15,183 reviews, Early Access)
Players: 1
Controls: Keyboard and mouse or controller (full controller support)
Made by: Dark Machine Games
Released: 2025

What frightens You climb up out of SUB-STRUCTURE 17, ten thousand metres of decaying concrete, by hand. The store warns that you are not alone down there: strange life grows in the dark, darker things haunt the halls, and something oozes up from the depths after you, growing angrier and never letting up. One slipped grip or fumbled item sends you back into the dark below.
Content: violence and gore (store notice), heights and falling, creatures.

White Knuckle is a first-person roguelite speed-climbing game by Dark Machine Games, published by horror label DreadXP and in Steam Early Access since April 2025. You haul yourself up through the rotting shafts of an underground megastructure while something oozes up from the depths behind you and stranger things live in the dark around you.

About White Knuckle

White Knuckle is made by Dark Machine Games and published by DreadXP. It entered Steam Early Access on 17 April 2025 for Windows, and new regions are still being added on the way to a full release.

You are at the bottom of SUB-STRUCTURE 17, under ten thousand metres of concrete and decay, and the only way out is up. You climb by hand with momentum-based movement, grab tools and resources from your bag, and push on as fast as you can. Carry too much and you become encumbered and fall; fumble for the wrong item at the wrong moment and you fall anyway. Runs end in death, and meta-progression unlocks augmentations for the next attempt.

What makes it frightening is the place and what lives in it. The store says strange life flourishes far underground and darker things haunt the halls, and something oozes up from the depths after you, growing angrier and never letting up. The screenshots show dim silos lit by a few strip lights, sewers and brick towers stretching into the dark, and a many-eyed creature clinging to a shaft below. Each region, from the Silos to the Pipeworks and the haunted piers of Habitation, brings its own threats.

It is a skill game first: a player who wants slow exploration or a story will find it demanding. It suits players who like their horror as pressure, a long drop below and something coming up it, in the way of climbing horror such as Idols of Ash.

How to play White Knuckle

Start a run at the bottom of the structure and look up for the next handhold.
Grab walls, pipes and ledges with each hand and use your momentum to swing and climb.
Pull tools and resources from your bag when you need them, and keep your load light so you do not become encumbered.
Keep climbing; what rises from the depths will not wait for you.
After a death, spend what you unlocked on augmentations and try again.

Screenshots

White Knuckle screenshot: a crowbar raised before a catwalk leading to a dark round opening, crystals and roots growing from the walls

White Knuckle screenshot: a grey concrete silo with an SB17 Industrial sign and a lit exit door, seen from below

White Knuckle screenshot: looking up between towering brick buildings with lit windows, pixel hands holding a climbing tool

Tips

Practise the movement early in a run, where a fall costs less.
Learn where things sit in your bag; a slow grab at a bad moment is a fall.
Do not carry everything you find; extra weight makes the climb harder.
Each region plays differently, so expect to adapt rather than repeat the same route.

Questions

Is White Knuckle a horror game?

It is a climbing game first, but it is set in a dark, decaying underground structure with strange creatures, and something rises after you from the depths. It is published by the horror label DreadXP.

Is White Knuckle finished?

No. It is in Steam Early Access, with new regions added in updates before its 1.0 release.

Is White Knuckle on consoles?

Only a Windows version on Steam is out so far.

Can I play with a controller?

Yes, the Steam page lists full controller support.