PEAK: Making it to the top is harder than it seems

There is a wealth of multiplayer games out there to play with friends, family, or loved ones, and sometimes it can be difficult to find one that can hold your attention for extended periods. Eventually, you’ve experienced all there is to see, and you’ve run out of exciting experiences to share. PEAK, a new climbing game from Landfall Games, is here to change things. 

PEAK is a game for one to four players by default, although mods can be installed to allow more players into a shared game. After boarding a plane, you suddenly find yourself in a Lost-esque position, crash-landed on a deserted and mountainous island. The gameplay loop is remarkably simple: Survive the climb. Thankfully, there is no smoke monster to worry about here… Though there is a creepy Scout Master. 

Adorably derpy characters

If you’ve ever played Human Fall Flat, you’ll understand what I mean when I describe the player characters of PEAK as “floppy”. They kind of just… Slump, regardless of what you’re doing or where you’re trying to get to, and controlling them is far easier said than done. The only thing you really need to do is grab onto things and climb, but sometimes the hands just seem to fail you, and you find yourself slipping down a crevice and recreating 127 Hours while your health slowly diminishes. 

On the plus side, the player characters are adorable in the strangest possible way. Before every attempted flight and subsequent plummet towards your inevitable eventual death, you have the chance to customize your character by interacting with your passport. You can go in two directions, here: Charming or disconcerting. Either way, it’s impossible to look at your friends while proximity chat makes their mouths move and not want to laugh. 

Why does everything want to kill me?

When you wake up on the island after the plane has crashed onto the earth, you have nothing. There are various items in the immediate vicinity: A Backpack, a frog plush called Bing Bong, and a bunch of other useful tools. After that, you’re on your own, and you’ll need to forage from the local fauna or find lost luggage if you want any food or water to survive. 

Sadly, the local fauna seems to have a vendetta, and you might just find yourself poisoned unintentionally. Red apples are fine to eat, but green ones seem to have a negative impact. Spotted some mushrooms on a nearby ledge? It’s probably best to stay away from them. Those spikey purple bushes that litter the clifftops? Avoid them at all costs. 

As if having to clamber up the mountain wasn’t bad enough with your floppy and difficult to control hands, you’re also being attacked by the scenery and food. Not to mention the weather as you get up to higher altitudes. This is more like Lost than I initially thought…

Multiplayer mitigates the madness… Hopefully

When it comes to playing PEAK, it really is best done with friends. Although it’s entirely possible to play solo, it does end up feeling incredibly lonely and frustrating, especially if you slip down the side of the mountain and end up right back where you started. 

Having friends at your side for the climb doesn’t make the climb itself any easier, and you’ll probably still fall to your death more times than you can count, but at least having other people around to witness your stupidity means you can laugh about it. Shared frustrations are easier to deal with than those you face alone. It’s like a virtual team-building exercise.

However, teamwork takes effort, and there’s always that one person in any group who is easily distracted or prone to showmanship. If you have one of those people in your group, then it’s pretty likely that they’ll surge off ahead, or in the wrong direction entirely, when they see something shiny, and you’ll find your group scattered across the island with little hope of finding each other. 

Every day on the island is different

You can forget about memorizing a route to the top and speedrunning in PEAK. Even if you manage to do it one day, the map refreshes every 24 hours, and you’ll find yourself facing an entirely different challenge when you go back the next day. While that’s a frustration for speedrunners everywhere, it does keep the game feeling fresh and new even if you’ve played every day for a week.

A new map means new points of interest, new loot, and new potential trip hazards that will send you sliding down the mountain and breaking both legs on the rocks below. Trial and error is pretty much the only way forward every day, and you’ll need to learn to accept the humiliation that comes with every mistake. 

If you want to test both your patience and the strength of your friendships, PEAK is available to purchase and play now on PC via Steam.