Pit People Review – Insanity most certainly included

It can be difficult for a video game to form its own identity rather than rely on the inspiration from the games that came before it. Although The Behemoth’s latest release, Pit People, is a game unlike anything I’ve seen before. Hell, it’s unlike anything I could have ever imagined.

Pit People is a game that cares more about its own style, its own lunacy, and its own unashamedly quirky and playful nature than any other aspect of the game’s design. The game’s art is done by Dan Paladin, an artist whose work is growing more and more prolific for its off-the-wall style. Combine that with a ridiculously catchy yet silly soundtrack and a world that is simmering in its own bizarre juices and you have a game that just has to be seen to be believed.

Pit People is a squad based strategy game where you take on the world with your highly customisable set of deadly units. Although the words strategy, squad and deadly units need to be read with a certain sarcastic inflection.  The reality of Pit People is that it’s almost mocking the genre of game that it occupies. You’re not forming a perfect squad of highly trained units, you’re not pulling off the perfect synergised plan of attack, and you’re not going to require a tactical mind. Instead you’re going to stumble your awkward team of wacky mascots into an equally wacky battle where they’ll flail about and maybe do what you want them to do.

The combat of the game leaves a bit to be desired, at least for my tastes. Pit People is a tile based strategy game although it’s not going to be like any strategy game you’ve played before.

Your interactions during combat are limited to where you choose to move your character. Move your character next to an enemy and the character will automatically attack for you. Move your character next to two or more enemies and your character will randomly select one of them to attack. Some of your characters will be strong against certain enemies. A mace-wielding character will be good against heavy armour and a shield-wielding character can defend against arrows. Due to these systems the game’s strategy tends to be fairly light. Understand the rock-paper-scissors style weaknesses and strength system and position your squad accordingly. You can also customise your squad fairly comprehensively with varying armour, weapons, and more that will provide different statistics. There’s also a huge range of characters you can put into your squad. Some will be attackers, some will be healers, some will give other passive effects.

My big problem with the game’s combat is just how slow it all plays out. I’m fine with a slower pace of game, in fact I’m use to it when it comes to strategy titles. Although the strategy is so light in Pit People that the slow approach just becomes tiresome. You’re not using the extra time in battles to plot your perfect attack, you’re just waiting around while health bars slowly whittle down on both sides. Combat is a frequent occurrence too and whilst the game does a great job of mixing things up with new enemies, new scenarios, and fun new interactions, it’s not enough to overcome the standard format of battles.

There’s also a fun aspect of the gameplay where you can essentially catch all the enemies as if they were Pokémon. When in a battle you can capture one of your foes if they are the last left alive. Once captured a foe can then be recruited to your team and used within your squad. Capturing enemies definitely appeased my collector spirit and it was awesome to see just how diverse your squad could become with a huge range of quirky enemies joining your force.

Pit People also offers co-op campaign play, rotating side quests, a PvP arena, as well as a solo or co-op horde mode. There’s a surprising amount of content here for those who get hooked by the charming and ridiculous allure of the game.