PEAK Review: Co-Op Climbing at Its Wildest and Most Chaotic

Peak launched on June 16, 2025, and it’s already turned into the year’s most unexpected hit in the co-op survival genre. Made by indie team Landcrab and backed by publishers Aggro Crab and Landfall, the game costs just $7.99, but it’s packing millions of climbs, falls, and near-death rescues. Early Steam reviews are overwhelmingly positive. In fact, within the first nine days, Peak sold 2 million copies. A modest jam game idea quickly turned into a viral co-op experience players can’t stop sharing.

You and up to three friends crash on a strange island, your only way out being a towering mountain filled with deadly fog, toxic plants, food shortages, freezing storms, and eventually, lava. Everything wants to kill you. The game blends survival and problem-solving as you forage, craft, feed each other strange berries, and climb — always climb — toward the peak. And when you're not dying from poison or hunger, you’re probably hanging from a cliff yelling for help.

PC Gamer’s PEAK review nailed what makes the game click: it’s not just another trendy co-op title. It’s a system-driven survival climb that demands coordination, planning, and just enough chaos to keep it from feeling like work. They called it a perfect blend of survival design and friendly sabotage — and pointed out how even the silliest mechanics serve a gameplay purpose.

“Grab my hand” is the game’s unofficial motto. You’ll hear it constantly, and for good reason. Every climb can become a rescue mission. You can fall, lose stamina, get lost in a snowstorm, or fall behind and face something much worse: the skeletal monster that emerges from the fog to punish lone players. It’s fast, terrifying, and designed to punish anyone who abandons the group. And yes, it will throw you off a mountain if it catches you.

While Peak shines in multiplayer, it becomes something very different in single-player mode. It’s possible to go solo, but that changes the entire experience. Without backup, every decision becomes harder. Every missed ledge means a longer recovery climb. And if you fall and don’t die? You have to retrace your steps without any help. There are no checkpoints, no mid-run saves. Just your rope gun, your supplies, and the slowly rising fog chasing you up the mountain.

Playing alone transforms Peak into a kind of peaceful, frustrating solo puzzle. You can listen to music or a podcast, take your time planning routes, and avoid the distractions of chaotic teammates. But the moment something goes wrong, it becomes clear that this game wasn’t meant to be climbed solo. Dying alone isn’t fun here — it’s just a restart screen and silence.

That balance between frustration and fun is where Peak works best. It’s got the survival tension of Don’t Starve, the clumsy body physics of Human: Fall Flat, and the climb-or-die loop of Getting Over It. But it also throws in proximity chat, shared backpacks, and group recovery mechanics that create unforgettable moments. Whether it's getting split up in a storm, throwing bandages down to a friend trapped in a crevasse, or dragging someone through a lava biome while poisoned, Peak is always pushing players into absurd group problem-solving.

It’s not just the mechanics. The world design supports the madness. Biomes range from tropical jungles with toxic plants to frozen mountainsides with blizzards and deep snow. And then there’s the volcano, full of lava flows you have to time your jumps around. The map constantly challenges your pathing and coordination. Fruit can be healing or deadly. Suitcases contain tools or food, but getting to them can require risky jumps. You’re always managing your weight, stamina, health, and hunger while trying not to fall off a cliff.

PC performance is solid, at least with DX12. Vulkan, for some players, is still buggy. But controls are tight, and the moment-to-moment gameplay has that rare tactile feel where every ledge grab and stumble feels earned. Voice chat is local, so you’ll hear your teammates fading in and out as they get further away — or closer to danger.

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. It feels like a throwback to the kind of simple, repeatable co-op games that don’t need seasons or battle passes. It’s a full experience at a cheap price. And it’s exactly the kind of game that spreads through friend groups, because once you’ve helped someone out of a fog-covered hole with one energy drink and a rope, they owe you a climb.

And when it comes to the legacy of climbing chaos, Peak joins the strange family of games like Chained Together, Fall Guys, and even FlatOut in spirit — games that aren’t just about winning, but about what happens on the way. Whether you’re flinging yourself up ledges or failing in style, the goal is always to keep moving.

Peak isn't just a gimmick. It’s a tightly designed co-op climb that knows exactly what it’s doing. And for $7.99, there’s not much else out there delivering this level of laughter, frustration, and friendship-fueled survival in a single package.