A fragmentary world more alive than any Bethesda RPG
Most video games are too big.
Their lands are too expansive, their histories over-explained, their playtimes too long.
feeling of discovering a world often fades to leave the “What task must I complete now?”
drudgery of playing a video game.
Off-Peak City is a New York-ish place with a skyline worthy of Joel Schumacher’s Gotham City.
Skyscrapers tangle and cluster and slowly congeal into a single vast spire.
Bridges span buildings, roads strung between the legs of giant statues.
Giant stone heads decorate many buildings, and some residents are themselves sentient buildings with giant brick faces.
Many areas are flooded and even when trainlines are up, you might be safer travelling by boat.
And pizza is a cornerstone of culture.
1, and infiltrated a nightclub in a former coffin factory inBetrayal At Club Low.
If you joined these spaces together, you could walk across the series in five minutes.
These games are neither wacky nor zany.
They are so wholly themselves that they drag you in and don’t offer any opportunity for doubt.
It’s not whimsical, mind.
The fantastical look is always cut through and by menace, counterbalancing it with a delightful tension.
Off-Peak City is not a gentle place.
It’s not entirely clear what the shadowy counter-conspiracy we fall into is planning either.
Come to Off-Peak City to marvel at the otherworldly sights, but always watch your back.
If menace and conspiracy counterbalance the striking style of Off-Peak City, the human stories ground them both.
These employees are sick of a crappy manager exploiting them.
This crappy manager wants you to dob in dissenting employees.
Music is more than a subject of interest, it’s a huge part of Off-Peak City’s identity.
It’s quite good, quite striking, and very ununusual for adventure games and RPGs.
It demands attention, refusing to fade into the background like oh so many orchestral scores.
is “Busywork.”
Wherever Cosmo D chooses to continue the conspiracy of Off-Peak City, I want to see it.
Imagine how exciting a bodega must be in Off-Peak City!
I note with great interest that Cosmo D has started posting screenshotsofasubwaystationon his blog.
Next time you hold a hot slice of pizza, close your eyes and listen for distant cello.
It’s calling to you.
