PEAK, developed by Landfall Games in collaboration with Aggro Crab Games, launched on June 17, 2025, and has already become a phenomenon in the gaming community. The game has sold over 1 million copies in just under a week, proving that sometimes the simplest concepts can create the most engaging experiences.
This cooperative climbing game throws you and up to three friends onto a mysterious island where your only escape is scaling a treacherous mountain. What starts as a straightforward premise quickly evolves into a test of communication, coordination, and patience that will either strengthen your friendships or destroy them entirely.
PEAK is a co-op climbing game where the slightest mistake can spell your doom. Either solo or as a group of lost nature scouts, your only hope of rescue from a mysterious island is to scale the mountain at its center. The game combines survival mechanics with physics-based climbing in a way that's both accessible and brutally challenging.
Originally born from a game jam between Landfall Games and Aggro Crab in South Korea, PEAK was developed by a team of seven developers in just one month. This rapid development cycle has resulted in a focused, streamlined experience that doesn't waste time with unnecessary features.
PEAK has its own approach to climbing mechanics. Instead of looking for handholds or routes, you can basically climb anything simply by pressing a button to attach to it. This accessibility is deceptive, as the real challenge lies in stamina management.
The climbing system revolves around simple controls where you hold the grab button to cling to surfaces, with universal climbing allowing you to scale almost any surface. However, your stamina dependency means your energy bar determines how far you can climb, while physics-based movement ensures realistic weight and momentum affect your climbs.
Unlike other climbing games that use stamina as one of several meters, stamina is the entire deciding factor in how far you can climb. This system creates constant tension as various factors chip away at your energy: inventory weight reduces maximum stamina when carrying too many items, hunger limits your climbing ability, injuries from falls and damage create lasting stamina penalties, and environmental effects like weather conditions impact your energy reserves.
The game truly shines when played with friends. Working together with up to three other players, the goal that sits before you may seem like a daunting one. Cooperation isn't just encouraged—it's essential for survival.
The multiplayer experience centers around proximity voice chat where communication range depends on distance between players, shared resources allowing players to share items and equipment, mutual assistance helping teammates up ledges and over obstacles, and a revival system where unconscious players can be revived at campsite altars.
The mountain layout changes every 24 hours, ensuring no two climbs are identical. The game features four distinct biomes, each with unique challenges:
A calm coastline with easy rocks to climb and minor hazards like poisonous jellyfish. Perfect for learning the basic mechanics. This area serves as a tutorial space where players can familiarize themselves with controls without time pressure.
A dense and humid jungle that introduces new mechanics like vine swinging, plant-based traps, and rain. Weather becomes a significant factor, with rainfall making climbing more treacherous.
A snowy and dangerous mountain where ice reduces your grip and increases frost buildup. This biome tests your preparation and coordination as visibility drops and environmental hazards increase.
The final volcanic regions present the ultimate challenge. The Kiln is the final level inside the volcano, a brutal vertical ascent surrounded by lava, requiring careful route planning and perfect execution.
PEAK's visuals are deceptively charming. For such a low-priced game, the art style delivers personality in spades. The game employs a bright, cartoon-like aesthetic that contrasts beautifully with the deadly nature of the climbing challenge.
The game employs a bright, cartoon-like aesthetic that contrasts beautifully with the deadly nature of the climbing challenge. Each biome features distinct designs that feel unique and memorable, while effective visual feedback through screen shake and environmental effects enhances immersion. The charming character design with scout uniforms and customization options adds personality to the experience.
The audio design is solid across the board. From the groan of rope bridges to the ominous shift in music as you climb higher, PEAK uses sound to warn, mislead, and scare you. The proximity-based voice chat isn't just a technical feature—it's a core gameplay mechanic that creates tension and urgency.
Players can discover a variety of helpful survival items, from energy drinks to climbing spikes to the mysterious Anti-Rope. The inventory system adds strategic depth as you must choose what to carry in your limited backpack space.
Essential items include ropes and climbing spikes that create safer climbing routes, energy drinks to restore stamina for crucial climbs, bandages to heal injuries that reduce maximum stamina, questionable food with various edible items having different effects, and specialty equipment like the unique Anti-Rope that defies physics.
If I made a word cloud just using everything that was said during an average game of Peak, "Grab my hand" would be slap bang in the middle in absolutely huge writing. This perfectly encapsulates the cooperative nature of the game.
The multiplayer experience creates organic moments of tension and hilarity. There are some truly hilarious co-op moments which have Content Warning's DNA all over it, referring to Landfall's previous viral hit.
The multiplayer experience excels through natural cooperation where the game encourages helping teammates, proximity chat that creates realistic communication challenges, shared failure where everyone suffers together when things go wrong, and memorable moments that create stories players will talk about for years.
For all its multiplayer strengths, Peak can feel utterly empty when playing it by yourself. While the game technically supports solo play, it's clearly designed around group dynamics.
The solo experience presents several challenges: increased difficulty with no one to help with difficult sections, reduced recovery options since you can't be revived when things go wrong, lost social element missing the banter and shared experience, and frustration factor where failures feel more punishing alone.
Solo gameplay opened up to me. It became less about brute forcing my way up as quickly as possible and more about exploring and learning the land, strategically choosing my path to make little pieces of progress. Some players find value in the meditative, puzzle-like nature of solo climbing.
PEAK has received very positive reviews, with 93% of the 38,689 user reviews being positive. However, the game isn't without technical challenges.
Common technical issues include server stability problems during peak hours, physics glitches with occasional clipping through geometry, voice chat failures where the communication system can fail at crucial moments, and reconnection problems with difficulty rejoining games after disconnects.
The developers have dramatically improved the stability of being able to reconnect to games after disconnecting and fixed a bug where spamming the climb button when out of stamina kills you instantly. The team continues to address these issues through regular updates.
At just $7.99, PEAK is an easy recommendation. It's short, yes, but endlessly replayable thanks to procedurally generated elements and the natural chaos of multiplayer. The game offers exceptional value for its price point.
For $7.99, you get endless replayability with daily map changes that keep the experience fresh, a badge system offering dozens of achievements to unlock, cosmetic customization to unlock new appearance options, regular updates with active development support, and community features including Discord integration and player guides.
PEAK excels through innovative cooperation mechanics that force genuine teamwork, accessible yet challenging gameplay that's easy to learn but difficult to master, excellent value providing hours of entertainment for under $8, a strong community with active player base and developer support, and memorable experiences that create lasting gaming memories.
The game struggles with limited solo appeal as it's clearly designed for multiplayer, technical issues including server instability and physics glitches, no matchmaking requiring play with Steam friends only, and limited content updates since developers have no plans for PEAK updates past this point.
PEAK is perfect for groups of friends looking for a unique co-op experience, fans of physics-based games like Getting Over It, players who enjoy challenging skill-based gameplay, and those seeking affordable multiplayer entertainment. However, it's not ideal for solo players seeking single-player campaigns, those frustrated by physics-based mechanics, players requiring polished bug-free experiences, or anyone without friends to play with regularly.
PEAK is short, sharp, and brutal—in the best way. Its tight mechanics, clever co-op design, and devilish biomes make every climb memorable, even when the servers don't hold up.
The game succeeds because it understands what makes cooperative gaming special. It's not just about reaching the summit—it's about the journey, the failures, the last-minute saves, and the ridiculous situations you'll find yourself in with friends.
Peak doesn't overcomplicate its structure. You climb, you survive, you laugh, you scream. And maybe, if you're lucky and coordinated, you reach the top. In an era of complex games with endless features, PEAK's focused simplicity is refreshing.
Rating: 8.5/10
PEAK is a remarkable achievement in cooperative game design that proves simple concepts can create profound experiences. While technical issues and limited solo appeal prevent it from being perfect, it's an essential purchase for anyone with friends willing to scale impossible heights together.
The game's rapid success story—selling over 1 million copies in under a week—demonstrates that players are hungry for genuine cooperative experiences. PEAK delivers exactly that, wrapped in charming visuals and backed by solid gameplay mechanics.
If you're looking for your next multiplayer obsession, PEAK is waiting at the summit.
Yes, but the experience is significantly different and more challenging. The game is designed primarily for cooperative play with friends.
PEAK supports up to 4 players in cooperative multiplayer, but requires Steam friends—there's no matchmaking system.
A successful climb can take anywhere from 1-3 hours depending on your group's skill level and cooperation. The daily map changes ensure endless replayability.
No, PEAK is a complete experience for $7.99 with no additional purchases required. Cosmetics are unlocked through gameplay achievements.
At the moment, the developers don't have any plans for PEAK updates past this point, as both studios are focusing on other projects.
No, PEAK does not support crossplay because it's only available on Windows PC via Steam. Since crossplay allows players to play with others on different platforms, there's no reason for it to exist when the game is only available on one platform. All multiplayer is limited to Steam friends only.
