Keep talking. I’m about to PEAK!!!!!!!!!!! Peak has been one of those indie hit games that makes you want to buy it for your friends so they can play with you. Which is exactly how Peak became a part of my steam library. A friend of mine saw people play it, and was intrigued enough that he decided to buy it for myself and another mutual friend. What laid before us was a crucible full of twists, turns, betrayals, memes, shortcomings, and hubris (hello Mr. scoutmaster). The game itself sounds simple enough. It’s a rouge-like where you, or you and your friends, go on a simple flight. However, that flight crashes before you reach your destination. Once you wake up on The Shore, your journey begins. Currently the game consists of five stages. Shore, Tropics, Alpine/Mesa, Caldera, and The Kiln, with more stages to on the way. At time of writing they have just released another alternative to Tropics, called Roots. As soon as you wake up you notice a few things. One, there’s no putting this plane back together. Two, you’re starting to get hungry. Three, if you wait around long enough a fog starts to consume you and your friends (depending on difficulty). The controls are simple enough, it’s a first person game with jumping and climbing, so in essence, it’s a wonky first person platformer. Another thing you notice when you wake up from the crash is the various items scattered about. You’ll see things like a compass, backpacks, food, BING BONG, a flying disc, etc. All of these items are designed to more or less help you achieve PEAK performance. (NOTE: some are more useful than others) When Peaking, it’s important to take your partners needs into account. Are you lending them a helping hand when they start to get tired? (There’s a stamina bar in this game) Are you giving them items when they need them? Like the first aid kit when they get injured, or red crisp berries when they get hungry? Team work is essential if you and your team of scouts want to make it to the PEAK. But the best part of this game to me is the implementation of proximity voice chat. The game itself is a little wonky, so sometimes you’ll miss a jump you think you should miss, sometimes you’ll “accidentally” blow up a friend with dynamite. Sometimes you’ll “accidentally” throw the flying disc at your buddy so he slides down the mountain while his screams slowly fade away. Not only is the proximity voice chat perfect for comedic relief in this stressful climb, it’s also an essential game mechanic to reinforce the most important rule, NEVER LEAVE A FRIEND IN NEED.
Usually multiplayer indie games like this seem like streamer bait to me. Usually, I would agree. However, like most streamer bait games they’re often best enjoyed with friends. Thankfully, as mentioned above, I have a group of friends I am able to play with. Aside from that Peak is also a very enjoyable single player experience. After my friends and I started playing the game together I found myself enamored with the game, its items, and the various biomes. I was blown away when I learned online that there was a harder difficulty than the base difficulty. (yes I’m bad at this game, I am a casual after all) The first time I solo Peaked was a religious experience, yes it was on Tenderfoot difficulty, which gives you more stamina and no time limit, but it was still enjoyable. To me that is the mark of a well designed game with a good difficulty curve, one that doesn’t completely baby you on the easiest difficulty, but still has many levels beyond that once you feel comfortable. If you haven’t already, I recommend picking up Peak and playing it for yourself. It’s rare that a multiplayer focused game is still just as fun when playing alone, and in that regard I’d say this game reaches PEAK performance.