PEAK

Few games arrive at NZ$11.99 and go on to become a genuine cultural phenomenon, but PEAK, released 16 June 2025 by a small independent team affiliated with Landfall, did exactly that. A co-op climbing game where a mountain regenerates every day and the slightest mistake can send a friend tumbling off a cliff, it sits at Very Positive across more than 276,000 Steam reviews — a sample filled with the kind of specific, personal stories that make clear this became more than just another indie hit. Understanding both why that devotion runs so deep, and being honest about a real EULA controversy the developers had to walk back, and precisely how thoroughly a remarkable year of patches has addressed the sample's real complaints, is what this review sets out to do.

A genuine, specific source of joy

The review sample is unusually full of reviewers describing PEAK as more than entertainment. "I once nearly fell off a tall mountain during a trip, and my friend pulled me back at the very last second. Ever since that day, seeing a hand reaching out from above fills me with a strange mix of trust, fear, and adrenaline," one review states, describing a real personal memory the game's core mechanic evoked unexpectedly. Another, more simply: "I love playing with my dad, especially when I die, I can guide my dad where to go and find our way up." A self-described introvert describes a genuinely meaningful outcome: "I bought this game for no real reason. After joining Discord, I started playing with other people, even though I'm not a very communicative person. After just a few days, I found a couple of friends who enjoy playing with me." That specific pattern — reviewers crediting the game with real social connection rather than simply praising its mechanics — recurs constantly enough across the sample to treat as the game's defining, load-bearing achievement.

Value draws equally consistent, specific credit: "Definitely has plenty of replayability for a little $8 game," one review notes, referencing the game's original launch price, while others consistently frame the roughly $12 asking price as remarkable given the hours of chaotic, memorable play it delivers.

A real EULA controversy, resolved quickly

What briefly complicated that overwhelmingly positive story was a genuine, independently documented controversy. Weeks after launch, the developers added a new End User License Agreement containing terms multiple reviewers found seriously objectionable: a broad claim over user-created content, a limited license to play the game revocable "at any time... for any reason" without obligation to keep it playable, and a forced arbitration clause restricting players' ability to pursue disputes through normal legal channels. "Games shouldn't be allowed to update or add EULA after you purchased the game and you're past the return period," one review states, a sentiment echoed by others who specifically cited quoted clause text from the agreement itself.

To the developers' real credit, independent press coverage confirms this dispute was resolved quickly and transparently rather than left to fester. The studio acknowledged some provisions had been included in error, removed the offending EULA entirely within days, and returned with a properly scoped version — one that explicitly allows players to opt out of the arbitration clause, confirmed no anti-cheat DRM would be added, and reassured players directly that sharing video content, including modded footage, was welcome rather than restricted. "The EULA requirement has been removed. If it isn't reinstated, I can recommend this game," one review states, capturing exactly the kind of conditional trust that fast, genuine developer accountability can rebuild. This review treats the episode as real and worth knowing about directly, while crediting the response as a genuinely fast, substantive correction rather than empty damage control.

The two complaints the sample repeated most — both directly addressed

Separate from the EULA episode, two specific, mechanical complaints recur constantly across the review sample. The first concerns the total absence of a mid-run save: "it doesn't support saves, which is a deal breaker for me. I rarely have more than an hour to play at a time," one review states, a frustration echoed by dozens of others describing the game's typical run length as incompatible with limited real-world play sessions. The second concerns a later biome, Roots, widely described as a punishing, unwelcome difficulty spike: "This new biome ruins the game. Why is absolutely everything trying to kill you even in tenderfoot?" one review asks, listing specific new hazards — spiders, exploding plants, poison gas, constant wind — that many reviewers felt fundamentally changed the game's earlier, more measured pace.

Checking the developer's own patch history directly confirms both complaints were met with real, specific, dateable solutions rather than silence. "THE PLAY IT YOUR WAY UPDATE," released 30 March 2026, introduced Campfire Autosaves — "you can now leave an expedition and continue it later," the patch notes state directly, resolving the sample's most consistently repeated complaint by name. The same update introduced Custom Runs, letting players individually adjust difficulty settings and "the presence of certain gameplay hazards," directly giving players the tools to soften or remove the specific Roots-biome difficulty spike that had frustrated so much of the sample. The update even added a "Zombie Phobia Mode" offering an alternate, less unsettling aesthetic for one specific enemy type players found especially distressing — a small but telling sign of how closely this team appears to track and respond to its own community's specific feedback.

A remaining, real gap

What hasn't been resolved is the lack of public matchmaking. "It's a multiplayer focused game. And yet there's no option to search for a public lobby, or even a server list," one review states, noting that players without an existing friend group must rely on external Discord communities to find co-op partners — a real, still-current limitation rather than something addressed by the March 2026 update. Frequent disconnections and lobby-stability issues draw their own separate, real complaints from a share of the sample as well, particularly from the game's especially high-traffic early months.

Where this leaves a buyer

At NZ$11.99, PEAK delivers extraordinary value and a genuinely rare kind of social, chaotic joy that its own review sample describes in unusually personal terms. The honest, necessary context includes a real EULA controversy the developers handled with fast, substantive accountability rather than silence, and two of the sample's most consistently repeated complaints — no save option, an unwelcome difficulty spike — that a genuinely attentive year of post-launch support has now directly, specifically addressed. The one real, still-open gap is public matchmaking, worth knowing about if you don't already have a group of friends to climb with. For nearly everyone else, this is one of the best, most purely fun co-op experiences available at any price.