Pit People Review
Well Behemoth, you did it again. You did a game in another genre and pulled it off without a hitch. So that’s 4 out of 4 of good games they made. So how those this one play out?
Story:
In a post-apocalyptic wasteland of raining blood, pixies and Candyland a blueberry farmer named Horitrio tries to protect his son from cannibals when his house is destroyed and son killed. With nothing left, he heads to the city after helping a princess who also lost her home, along with a chill demi-cyclops, a conquistador from Spain, and a cupcake, they go froth to defeat the ones who destroyed the princesses home. And that’s just act 1.
Pit People is probably the best told story the Behemoth have made, which isn’t saying much as their previous stories were no story, visual story telling, and lore dump being told by the silliest voice alive. It has a 3 act structure with actual characters with personalities and goals. And there are lots of smaller stories too like saving a fire town from a penguin or the detective being hunted by his evil brother. There so many silly situations you stumble upon as you explore the game
But if I can say thing that disappointed me, it was the villainous narrator. Not that he was bad, he steals the show whenever he speaks. But after act 1, he almost becomes an non entity until the final battle as he doesn’t comment on any of your fights, or poke fun of what goal you’re doing. Sure we have Jerkimiedes to fill that void of villain for a good chunk of game and he’s also a great baddie to deal with, but he isn’t the same. Give me more evil narrator.
Gameplay:
This is one of those tactical RPGs with a small team of units to battle the enemy. I will admit, I was close to rage quitting in the third and forth battles but that could be because I didn’t fully understand how the combat worked so it will take some time to get use to. Since what everyone does is automated, it’s more about where you’re units are placed than anything else since some ranged moves can only be done at a distance like tossing a net or spider lady web to stun someone or being aware of friendly fire like from grenades or mushrooms. And also making sure you have a good team with you like the robots I fought were pretty weak but can hit multiple people without issue or trolls can toss enemies behind them and are pretty though but take two team slots and are weak to fire. Me, I just stuck with my starting party cause I like the adventure to be about them and filled my final slot with whatever I felt like.
Now this game also has a permadeath option which I didn’t use cause I’m a noob, but to balance that, how do you get new meat-shields. Simple. Buy a cage in town, have a a character with a net like Sofia or a spider lady in your party, fight a battle, and the last enemy on the field is able to be captured. Not only is there a whole mission line about finding certain units and taking them to a shady guy called Mr.Whisper, but you can capture some bosses with this and have them join your team. And this is a legit strategy to end a fight quicker as capturing is a one hit kill.
And like any good strategy game, or a game in general, the missions are varied with their own objectives. Sure, sometimes it’s simply to defeat all the enemies but sometimes you might need to protect some structures or allies from the enemies, or take out a boss enemy or even something odd like finding a wolf among sheep mini game or a stealth mission. I well say that the boss for that stealth mission was such a pain that I needed a walk-through not cause of the boss itself but I didn’t know where the lasers were going to hit, even though other missions I played made clear where the danger areas were. And speaking of danger areas, the mission where I had to help a cult save a town from monsters and I kept losing that mission as the allies I had to protect kept dying and one of them is dragged away if the mission goes on too long.I was doing so bad I let the game do that mission for me.
I do wish we had more BIG boss fights though. We do get the satisfaction of beating up the villains who have been bugging us like a boss who revives their allies when dead or that brutal battle at the Jerkdome that just kept throwing stuff at you as you tore it apart. But for me, the best boss was Uvulor and Chog. It was this grand battle trying to reach this monster and gets more hectic as he starts destroying the battlefield, fights back with his own stage hazard and the Chog cult shows up.
But as I was playing, one thought kept niggling at me. This should also be on Switch and mobile. Controls are minimal and can work with touch controls. You just need to position your units. Daily tasks and Short missions(except for story ones). This is a perfect game for on the go fun. Plus there are no micro-transactions which is always a plus. So as soon as they finished with PC and Xbox, they should get a port for those done.
Presentation:
If you played a Behemoth game, you know how this game looks. While character is as simple but good as usual, I think these are the nicest environments I seen in any of their games. Stand outs being candy land,whenever you’re fighting in a building or just the world maps.
The music is enjoyable and helps makes the fights more boppin, but there are a few songs that either just sound like noise and not in the ambient way or are shuffling too much down your ear. The General Custard theme springs to mind. Also, Stamper returns as the narrator but while every line and scene with him is gold, his lack of presence just makes me want me of him.
Verdict:
Is this my favorite Behemoth game. Probably not. I still enjoy games like BattleBlock Theater and Castle Crashers more. But I can easily see this as someone’s gateway to the Tactical RPG genre.
8/10
