Peaks of Yore Review

Thanks to denial, I'm immortal

Peaks of Yore is a cosy little rock climbing simulator themed around the 1800s. With a super simple first person gameplay system of reaching out in the direction you're looking, grabbing rocks from any angle with the same strength every time, and stamina isn't an issue unless you're on a specific hold that includes it as a mechanic. You slowly but surely work your way up increasingly difficult cliffs and spires, eventually reaching amazing 2 kilometer tall mountains. All the while knowing one bad fall without a rope securing you means resetting from zero. It's simple, it's thrilling... And it managed to become an instant favourite of mine.

This is going to be a short review, the simple thing I can say about the gameplay is that if you go look at the steam page, think "that looks neat, I'd try it." I highly recommend it. The game has a perfect difficulty curve and tutorializes you well along the way. Doing the Portal thing where every level is a secret tutorial for a new idea. The controls are simple and effective and you get a multitude of tools and skills that make the climbs engaging and fun even as they start to extend in length.

The real thing I want to say, is that this game entirely understands what Getting Over It was about. Not just in the climbing a mountain thing, but in the idea of failure and loss of progress being an important piece of the puzzle. It has all the same tricks as GOI does. The more costly failure is, the easier the jump will be, but then sometimes that's turned on it's head for the sake of tension and excitement. Yet never so much that it becomes tedious. Overhangs with guaranteed resets for failure are equally accompanied by walls of holds and ice that you can catch yourself on if you fall. Most importantly, the mountains are always easier to climb the more you go up. You will feel the improvement when you fall, and that's so important. It's why I never picked up things like Only Up, they seemed too clumsy and slapdash. More about the streamer bait than the intricate design.

And most importantly, when you make a leap with no rope, knowing it's so easy you can do it in your sleep, but the price of failure is losing an hours work. It gives you a thrill that's unmatched in all but the most well-designed of difficult games. Because this isn't about kaizo mastery of mechanics, it's about the journey from "one rock is kind of hard" to "yeah, I'll climb everest." And I love it for that.

Also speedrunners climb entire mountains in like 5 minutes by abusing momentum but that's normal tbh

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trails in the Sky FC Review

Trails in the Sky FC complete. An Interesting little JRPG, relatively small scale and character focused. With Combat that's a mixture of grid based tactics and FFX's turn order system. Solid combat, a great cast and well paced story beats definitely give it a lot of strengths. Though it's nothing spectacular. The game is not done great favours by time, as I think it's initial english release platform, PSP, would have been the most impressive platform to experience it on. As the state of portability at the time dramatically changes one attitude to several aspects. (Like, for example, the fact I played basically the entire game on fast forward) If you're a fan of Falcom games, I think you'll find a lot to like. It very much feels on par with Ys, being nothing spectacular but still nonetheless very good at what it's setting out to do. Just be careful, cause spoilers galore for the series if you start to google anything.
Read more

Madou Monogatari Mega Drive Review

I did it, I graduated from Magic Kindergarten! The originator of the popular Puyo Puyo puzzle games. Madou Monogatari on Mega Drive is a remake of the original Madou Monogatari 1. The various ports are different in both design and execution, so I'm going  to be avoiding direct comparisons in this review and grading the (recently translated) Mega Drive version on it's own merits. The game plays like a sort of JRPG fighting game, you cast spells by holding the A button and entering a button sequence before releasing, use items, and can block, dodge, or jump to avoid incoming attacks. As well as that, the spells have some interaction and level of randomness. Meaning it's often worthwhile to charge up a powerful attack against a deadly foe. Basics attacks cost no mana, but anything beyond that drains a relatively limited pool. Healing and Mana items are plentiful however, so for the most part, combat is a fun, "practicing DP inputs" sort of affair where you're try...
Read more

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Review

  Interesting is better than boring Perhaps a prime example of why remasters don't need to be limited to critical darlings or cult classics. Star Wars Bounty Hunter is a PS2 era action platformer in such a stereotypical mold that I'm going to cover much of the nuts and bolts of the gameplay by repeating the phrase "PS2 era action platformer" while nodding knowingly. If you don't get it, go play Ratchet & Clank. The core selling point of the game is, of course, playing as the titular bounty hunter Jango Fett. Crossing the galaxy seeking your next payday via the seedy underbelly and scum of the land. While the story is no epic nor any kind of true crime drama. I will say it does a good job with it's use of the star wars IP and setting to create a very convincing aesthetic. It says something that I encountered a few genuine mandalorian fans in my streams of the game. I would very easily recommend it to anyone with a fondness for the grander star wars setting....
Read more