Peak, an unforgiving multiplayer climbing sim that doubles as a friendly hangout, has become a massively successful little indie gem after a short development period measured almost in weeks.
You know what that means: ripoffs.
Hits beget imitators, and a Roblox creator has wasted no time churning out a worse version of Peak called Cliff – "microtransaction-riddled slop" so bad that you're better off just pirating the $8 original, as the Peak devs put it.
Peak co-developer Aggro Crab, previously known for the delightful underwater Soulslike Another Crab's Treasure, flagged the existence of Cliff, which has seen over 163,000 visits according to one Roblox page (another page says 4.9 million). "Tbh would rather you pirate our game than play this microtransaction-riddled Roblox slop ripoff," the studio wrote.
Aggro Crab made Peak with Landfall, the studio behind previous multiplayer hit Content Warning, as well as excellent single-player games like Haste. Landfall shared Aggro Crab's tweet ripping into Cliff, simply adding: "Cosigned".
Cliff, by PewStudio, is not shy about its plan here. It's described on the Roblox games list as "a challenging climbing game where even the smallest mistake can be your downfall. Trapped on a mysterious island, your only way to escape is to reach the top of the towering cliff. Do you have the skill and courage to make it to the summit?"
Peak certainly wasn't the first climbing game ever made, but it was the first one that looked and played quite like this, and from name to art to game flow, it couldn't be more obvious what Cliff is copying. The worst part, as Aggro Crab said, is its in-game store. With Robux, the premium currency worth about $1 USD per 100, you can buy your way to a victory in Cliff.
A $2 climbing pickaxe halves your stamina usage, and a $1.60 starter pack gives you a heap of supplies for every run. There are other buyables, like a $1.29 golden apple with no description, but they don't seem to have the same gameplay effects. But the fact stands: for a few bucks, you can buy out the difficulty. In total, the Robux items cost just under $6. Peak is $8 on Steam. Don't waste your money.
This really hammers home how these fast-follows operate, it's a blatant example of how microtransactions can compromise a game, and it underscores the predatory practices commonly seen in Roblox games. Selling these sorts of bonuses puts pressure on players (in Roblox, mostly incredibly young people), undermines any sense of achievement, immiserates any sense of failure, and encourages designers to make the default experience unfair to incentivize purchasing. Just play Peak instead.
Echoing Nier's Yoko Taro, Peak devs blast "puritan" group behind recent Steam and Itch game takedowns: "It'd be foolish to assume that any game is safe."
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