Crytek released a new free expansion for their VR game The Climb today, which added Oculus Touch support, along with the free North Expansion.

North adds a brand new environment based of Iceland and other locations in the Arctic Circle. This new setting is around the size of Canyon, another environment in the game, and includes three difficulty settings and two new shouldering challenges.

Onurhan Karaağaçlı, Producer of The Climb, described some of North's content:

"North brings a range of new challenges. You'll climb vertigo-inducing heights above the sea, pick your path up new routes on grips and ladders left by previous explorers, and climb over some truly spectacular objects like a crashed airplane (hold onto that propeller!), a shipwreck, and even frozen woolly mammoth tusks. As you scale these dramatic new routes, don't forget to check out the view – you'll see helicopters, an oil rig, submarines, and icebreakers in the sea, with snowy mountains stretching off into the background. Being in the wilderness also means being around wildlife – so keep an eye out for polar bears, wolves, puffins, and more. But you won't need to be paying attention to the 'star' of North's location – a huge volcano – it dominates the landscape. And as you progress through the time of day-based difficulty settings, you'll see this active volcano become, well, increasingly active."

Niklas Walenski, a Game Designer designer at Crytek, also had some input about the new environment:

"We wanted to create an expansion to The Climb that was really different and also more challenging than you have experienced in the game previously. Naturally, you've already developed your climbing technique in our other settings – Asia, Alps, and Canyon – and now you can really show your skill. The settings and visuals reflect this more hardcore experience – it's a beautiful but harsh environment. Our other levels were all about creating an exaggerated reality of tourist destinations – North is more about an extreme adventure, becoming an explorer, and getting a real feel of intensity in an isolated wilderness. Of course, this new environment required some new design choices too. You can't really climb on ice with your hands, so where you're not climbing on rock, you're climbing on man-made objects like special aluminum grips that are hammered into the ice, ladders, even pick axes… although as you'd expect, these grips can be a little precarious! The contrast in colors also helps us from a design perspective, as it helps us to mark out route options. I think it looks pretty cool too."

The North expansions also adds new achievements and gear to the game, which will surely be pleasing to completionists.

You can look at some screenshots and watch a brand new trailer featuring North below. The Climb is available on Oculus Rift.