Every now and again, a small independent game will burst onto the scene right out of nowhere and capture the attention of gamers. PEAK is the latest to earn its place on that list—a cooperative climbing game that has already been making waves on Steam for its brutal gameplay mechanics and shifting environments.
Unbeknownst on a hidden island, PEAK dares you and your friends to ascend an enormous mountain in the middle of the map. It’s your task to ascend to the summit as a team, without falling into the lethal drops, malfunctioning floor, and draining stamina. Unlike all the other games, however, PEAK is neither saved nor even locked.
So what if you do fall? Are you able to go back to where you were when you stopped playing? Let’s take a look at everything you want to know regarding checkpoints and saving in PEAK.
Can You Save in PEAK?
The quick and easy answer is: no, there is no saving in PEAK.
Each time you play PEAK, it resets. Whether you play solo or with a group of friends, the game challenges you to overcome the mountain on a single, unbroken run. When you lose, you don’t begin anew from a checkpoint—you resume where you stopped. And when you stop your run, you forfeit your run completely.
There’s a design decision there which is deliberate. Like in Getting Over It or Jump King, PEAK is intentional about pushing you both skillfully and patience-wise. Its “no saves” is what gives extra context to every jump, every grab, and every risky maneuver.
Why the Game Doesn’t Let You Save?
This punishing system is infuriating if you’re used to autosaves or save slots, but it’s also what makes PEAK so wonderful. Every run’s an emotional rollercoaster—your wins are that much more thrilling, and your losses sting a little more.
All of which aside, it makes time commitment a problem. Since there is no pause and continue later, you will have to sacrifice some time if you are to achieve any meaningful progress. The game requires you to spend the whole climb in one sitting or be prepared to restart whenever you stop.
What If You Quit Mid-Run?
If you quit the game mid-run, bad luck. There is no reloading from where you quit, and there is no autosave in the background. As soon as the game is closed down, everything resets—where you are, what items you’ve discovered, even what the mountain looks like.”.
And just to make it even harder, PEAK also has a rotating map system. The landscape shifts every 24 hours, relocating item placement, routes, and landmarks. So no two ascents are ever identical. So even if you can memorize a route one day, it may be completely different another day.
As it is currently, PEAK is a game of endurance and cooperation, and risk analysis. If you do choose to climb the mountain, be prepared to view whatever you’ve undertaken to the finish—or start all over again from scratch. next time, that is, from the ground up.
No matter if you’re climbing with pals or looking to beat your solo climbing ability, there’s one thing you can be sure of: PEAK does not hand progress over on a silver spoon. And maybe, just maybe, that’s half the fun.
