Peak is a brilliant reminder of why I’m always excited about a new co-op adventure

Landcrab, also known as the collaboration between Another Crab’s Treasure developer Aggro Crab and Totally Accurate Battle Simulator maker Landfall Games, “finally” released Peak this week. After properly announcing it four days before launch, Peak came out of nowhere and, like a slap in the face, immediately evoked thoughts of last year’s hit Chained Together and previous Landfall title Content Warning.

It’s hard to tell with a game like Peak whether you’re in for the gimmick and low prices rather than the other reasons you might buy a game (gameplay, story, etc.). Landfall often sells the idea of a good time, and while I may have once been skeptical of that, I’m writing this article now because I realize that this is really what gaming is all about.

At Summer Game Fest, I found it very difficult to care about the latest action Soulslike with RPG elements, because even if the latest promises to be darker or sexier than all the previous ones, it’s just hard not to see the repetition, the same pitfalls of a saturated genre. It can get old. You know what doesn’t get old, though? Your friends.

Well, poor choice of words, really. Your friends do get old. I get old, you get old, we all get old. But you can always have new experiences, shared experiences that make you laugh years later when you remember the time one of your friends said you could all definitely climb that wall, only for each of you to tumble to your doom in the mist below. That memory, the creation of it, whether with friends or alone, is Peak gaming.

And that’s what Landcrab has managed to capture in Peak. This is not a review of Peak, but it is a recommendation. I find it hard to stick a score on something like Peak, a game that is as janky as it is cheap, an experience that can frustrate and reward a player at the same time, and a title that is mostly made in a month via a gamejam. I also think it’s a bit unfair to review Peak, since I haven’t reached the titular Peak yet (classic games journalist is a scrub, I know). But after a fair amount of time with it, I have come to the conclusion that this type of game – Peak -likes, if you will – are the titles I will be looking for in the future.

Peak feels like an incredibly streamlined game. All the fat has been cut out, if there was any to begin with. It’s a simple setup, if you don’t know it: you and up to three friends are scouts on an expedition when your plane crashes, and you must reach the mountainous Peak of an island to signal for help. By making you climb on any surface, you make the most of your stamina, as any misstep can spell doom for your chances of survival. With this simplistic focus, Landcrab has made a pretty genius move by letting the gameplay focus primarily on the background, allowing you and your friends to experience the journey without the upcoming trials being the sole focus.

And then you drop your guard and realize you can’t climb that cliff, or forget there’s a poison plant next to you. Landfall in particular is now well aware of how its games can make viral moments, as well as moments that you and your group of friends will remember for a very long time. While I will still long for the breathtaking experiences offered by games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, this little climbing game will come to mind when I think of Peak gaming.

So yeah, I won’t always be excited about the latest dark fantasy epic that ends with a posh English priestess telling me I’m the last flameghouler and I have to save the world, there’s still plenty of Peak out there. Big Walk, from House House, for example, looks to be a huge adventure next year. While you can dismiss people like Peak as “streamer bait” as I once did, if you have friends and are tired of yelling at each other for losing another ranked match, why not instead yell at each other for accidentally setting off an explosive plant that leads to the untimely death of everyone?