Just like Off-Peak before it, I'm so impressed by how much this game pulls art into the experience of playing the game. It confronts the player directly and unavoidably with the fact that all the architecture in the game, all the models and paintings, were made by a person with artistic intent. This is of course the case in all games, but Cosmo D's games foreground that fact, and they always leave me with a deeper appreciation of the latent art in other games when I play them afterwards.

This also has a pretty strong story, short and sweet but still filled with twists, turns, and shocking reveals. Because of this, it holds together as a singular work a bit more than Off-Peak does. This definitely makes me want to finish out the series, and explore the creator's other works as well.

A reoccuring narrative device in the Off-Peak series is this notion that your character is a spy, a serious political agent on a covert mission in an otherwise absurd world.

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Tales From Off-Peak City (vol 1) marks a point where the series starts to nail down some defining aspects that make up Off-Peaks unique personality and atmosphere.

One of those things Ive described as “clown politics”, serious and complex political interests framed by a world that is bizarre and humorous. Something highly typical of Off-Peak City might be a pair of tenants discussing composting strategies while one of them cradles a comically sized basketball meant for playing comically sized games on the sloping, sinking streets of their neighborhood.

Ostensibly, Cosmo D’s favorite narrative device that allows the player to inject themselves right in the middle of these absurd scenarios, is that of casting the player as someone tasked with a secret mission. The player is dropped off somewhere, given a set of spoofed documents, and asked to infiltrate the location to perform a clandestine task, a task like…. steal a saxophone from a legendary musician that now runs a pizza shop.

Why? Well, if only you had the full picture buddy. Things are brewing in the city of Off-Peak. Maybe youll catch a glimpse behind the curtain….

It is this ambience of conspiracy that adds a sense of gravity to a world where “the Circus” is a calculated philanthropic entity trying to subvert the schemes of ridiculous-sounding corporate interests. Every silly thing takes on a duality - yes, youre serving pizza with slices of “synthetic brain” and “flamingo meat” and bundles of “gummy worms” that are apparently real worms, but everyone around you treats it as real and nuanced.

What happens is: you start to treat it as real too. Caetano trusts me, I gotta make these pizzas - but Ive been given a serious mission to steal his saxophone, my benefactors need it for something important. Big Mo is hot on my trail, and the Human Resource Horizon factory looms large over the intersection of June and Yam St. Something is going on here.

A saxophone is a fitting instrument to focus on, cuz the tone that starts to emerge is like a jazzy surreal-noir, a manic sense of intrigue where the game lays out its absurd rules and parameters and you find yourself buying into it. And I think the secret is Trust - the game is baffling but its trusting you with this sensitive mission that carries with it a feeling of impact.

The bizarre trusts you, and in return, on impulse, you feel like you can trust the bizarre.