Peak

About a quarter of all reviews (2,470) mention friends, co-op or multiplayer. They describe cooperation and sabotage in the same session: reaching out to grab a friend at a cliff edge, carrying a dead friend's body up the mountain, then throwing coconuts at that same friend. Stories of trolling with blowdarts, daggers, frisbees, coconuts or cannibalism usually arrive as a punchline: "Nothing builds friendship like watching your best friend fall to his death while carrying your last mushroom." One long review put it as "PEAK is simultaneously a great co-op game and a friendship stress test", and another advised players to "Stab your friend in the spine and gain ultimate power for betrayal."

Several of the most detailed reviews describe something gentler, the climb as a reason to spend time together and talk: "PEAK gives you something to do while you're spending time with the people you care about." Some play with their children or partners, and one plays with a long-distance best friend they hadn't seen in years. The cost of this design shows up under solo play and matchmaking below: people with nobody to play with get a smaller game.

Every Steam achievement appears as a badge on the character's sash and unlocks a cosmetic, so progress shows on the character, and players like it: "Making all of the achievements and challenges diegetic is such a cool way to introduce them." Several long reviews come from players who had just collected all 64, and one called PEAK the first Steam game they were happy to 100%.

Solo completionists object that some badges need other players ("I hate that for some achievements you need other people"), and a few say others depend on luck or on the biome rotation ("Some badges wait on rare biome rotations"). A few report bugged badges, among them the Bookworm badge, whose journal pages disappear.

Reviews that bring up price mostly call the game a bargain. Players give the full price as $7.99 or $8 and mention sale prices of a few dollars: "Best $8 I've ever spent", "I can't believe this game is 4$." One reviewer measured it "For roughly the price of a couple of drinks", and another said it "has more replayability than a lot of $70 games". Some point out that the new biomes, items and cosmetics came as free updates, with no paid DLC. A few reviews suggest waiting for a sale, and a few negative ones say it was not worth even the low price.

Reviewers call the latest content drop the final update, and some name it the Final Ascent. By their account it added the Gloom and Citadel biomes, a secret area and a true ending in which the scouts free the Scoutmaster's soul. Most reviews that discuss it praise it, including some from players who had drifted away and came back for it: "The citadel is the apotheosis of the game", and "The final ascent brought a tear to my eye". Some call it a fitting send-off.

Its difficulty draws opinions both ways. "They made the last update way too hard", wrote one negative reviewer, while a player who had finished it thought "the update made the game too easy" because the new glider and the rescue claw make many climbs trivial, and another found "Citadel and Secret level to ez". A small group says the updates in general made the game harder or worse, among them the blunt "Horrible final update. should have left it at 1.0." The Gloom's frogs, the part of the update players complain about most, are covered under biome hazards below.

Hunger, injuries, poison, cold, drowsiness and carried weight all eat into the same bar that powers climbing, so every item, snack and route is a trade-off. "Your health and stamina being the same bar is an incredibly creative mechanic and really adds to the puzzle", wrote one player, and another said "Most of the fun from the gameplay comes from finding a route." The ascents, harder runs with stacking modifiers that unlock as you beat the game, get credit for keeping that puzzle fresh: "Ascents give a unique and clearly defined challenge for you to beat".

Physics and controls draw some of the anger. Reviews describe a character that grabs a wall over and over and burns its stamina ("Grabbing walls will sometimes spam grab all your stamina away") or slides off flat ground while standing still.

Voices fade with distance, echo in caves and trail off when a friend falls: "A friend above you falling and screaming will have a doppler effect as they fall past you and grow distant with echoes." A few reviews report microphone trouble, from buzzing to a friend's mic that only works in Discord, and some groups fall back to Discord for voice.

Some reviews point to mods, including ones that lift the four-player limit, such as the advice to "get the PEAK unlimited mod from the thunderstore mod manager for more than 4 players". A few ask for official Steam Workshop support.