Cosmo D's "Tales From Off Peak City" is a brilliant work that plays to the strengths of games as a medium. At it's core Tales is an exercise in creating a world that is as. One could compare it to games like "Thirty Flights of Loving" or "Jazzpunk" which take a similarly absurd approach to their world. While both these games are strong in their own right,
Tales is extremely playful in it's presentation in a way that hasn't been done this successfuly in a videogame. Everything is so bizzare yet relateable from every angle and once you poke it, a strange goo flows out from where you poked it. This goo envelops you and makes you think of eating cotton candy when you were a child.
The streets of New York have been explored to death. Very often cleaned up and made marketable as to make them unrecognizable (Such as the backdrop to "Secret Life of Pets"). There are very few pieces that manage to capture their energy so authentically. One is Ratking's "So It Goes…", one is Tim Sessler's "STREETS - NEW YORK CITY" and one is this game.
___ has written about how Cosmo D's works exist outside of what is considered "good graphics" in marketing terms, but are extremely appropriate in the works they are placed in and
It is absurdism at it's most powerful. Infectiously vibrant and mysterious, while evoking the same feelings of alienation and nostalgic sorrow that existing in the world today does.
