Pit People

Pit People for PC and XONE is a 2D tactical strategy game with simple mechanics. The player explores a fantasy world filled with absurd humor and fights turn-based skirmishes. Before it received its ultimate title, Pit People for months had been known under the codename Game 4. The PC version was created by The Behemoth – an independent American developer popular mainly for Castle Crashers – a cooperation-based action game.

Plot & Mechanics

The gameplay has two branches in Pit People for PC and XONE. For the most part, the player fights battles on maps covered with hexes, leading a small group of daredevils to victory over enemy groups, one turn after another. Between the encounters on the other hand, the player explores the game world in real time, visiting different places, such as towns, talking to NPCs, taking quests and initiating subsequent battles (including those randomly generated). The experience is diversified by gathering gold and items, developing the skills of the player-controlled characters, modifiying their appearances, etc.

At first glance, the setting may seem fantastic, since there are swords, bows and the like in the game. However, unusual environments such as a spaceship carrying the enemy warriors out of the castle which is being sieged, or a fighter with two submachine guns on the town's arena, soon bring the players to a conclusion that describing this place as a "typical fantasy setting" is not true. Besides, the game's intro alone can make one think that – the planet gets struck by a gigantic bear with six legs, and its green blood falls to the surface as a rain of meteorites, causing great amounts of chaos.

The narrator is the main character in the game – a mysterious being driven by forces of evil (Will Stamper in this role), he is also a pupeteer that influences the events the player takes part in. The basic figure under the player's command here is called Horatio – he is a villager who gradually gets joined by other characters, such as Pipistrella, a princess who wields a powerful mace, or a biscuit-man, who is also a healer by the name of Gluten; Sofia on the other hand, is a specialist on recruiting new warriors – she is also a conquistador serving Spain.

Game modes

In Pit People for PC and XONE, the story campaign constitutes the core of the experience. However, the campaign can also be played in the co-op mode for two players, either connected via the Internet or sitting in front of the same screen. Apart from that, the game comes with a competition-based mode for 4 players – two teams of daredevils face each other here and one such team is controlled by two players.

Technical aspects

Pit People for PC and XONE offers eye-pleasing, cartoonish visuals in 2D. Combined with the absurd the game world is filled with and humor present, the visuals bring the Adventure Time animated series into mind. However, one needs to remember that the game brings a substantially larger portion of brutality than said cartoon.

Last updated on 13 July 2015