[h3] One of the worst games I've ever played [/h3]
I'm very nostalgic about The Behemoth, played their games since I was a teen.
And I've replayed them since then to make sure I wasn't blinded by nostalgia, and they hold up.
Castle Crashers is a fun spin on beat-em-ups, a genre I couldn't care less about, but the game managed to win me over with very simple, free and intuitive controls.
BattleBlock Theater is a platformer easily forgotten among its peers, but manages to stay relevant with some neat ideas, amazing narrator and a super entertaining co-op.
Pit People... is a crime against mankind.
One look at it would make you think it's a strategy or tactics RPG.
That IS the genre this game borrowed most from, but you might notice that they never exactly put "strategy" or "tactics" next to RPG on the store page, because they must know it doesn't meet the definition.
Why?
Because there's absolutely zero strategy involved in this game.
Let's go into how it all falls apart.
[b] The Set-Up [/b]
Before I get into the core combat, let's address what's around it.
Instead of going from mission to mission, the game has a base and an annoying world map.
In the base you can equip your pit people to increase stats you can't fully understand, nor check again in combat, nor know how level ups affect them.
Great start, communication is obviously overrated!
You can also buy other items at the base, as well as select quests to embark on.
The world map is where you travel around, enemies everywhere, where running into them will trigger a battle.
You can also find NPCs who give you even more quests.
Navigating is obnoxious, as your field of view is extremely limited initially, when you still haven't explored an area.
Traveling is just not fun at all, which is impressive when you're able to play "walking simulators", as they're called by detractors.
Maybe it's because this feels like a complete waste of time, as I actually would have just greatly preferred a level select, since this adds nothing.
Not helped by there seemingly being three maps, on which you are placed on during a certain event where your base is transported somewhere else.
A change of scenery is good in theory, but since this gameplay sequence already sucks, this just makes things more frustrating.
Now, onto combat.
[b] No strategy [/b]
You're looking at grid-based maps that you place your units on, and after ending your phase, they will automatically attack.
Sounds like a strategy RPG, right?
Let's just get the most major thing out of the way, you can't actually select your targets.
You heard me.
Your units decide randomly, with any enemy in range being a possible target.
Now, you might say that's not a big deal, just position your guys right!
First of all, don't play defense for a problem that didn't need to exist.
Second of all, in practice this is much harder to do, with how much enemy groups like to form and stick close to each other.
Furthermore, it becomes even more of an issue with ranged attacks.
Bows that should be great, in theory, but suck majorly as a result of random targeting.
It's utterly baffling that such a pointlessly dumb decision made it off the drawing board.
Unfortunately, this is a much bigger deal than you might think.
You can land in absolutely hair-pulling situations where problematic enemies refuse to die with little HP, because no one targets them, and more often than not, this is happening with multiple enemies at the same time, with none of your guys willing to finish one off.
Not being able to select your targets is outrageous enough, but then having the auto-targeting not even be based on some artificial intelligence, but TRULY random... now THAT is something not a single experienced game designer should have ever approved of.
Maybe you wonder why it's such a problem, this is The Behemoth, don't they make fun silly games?
Well, the game is not forgiving enough to allow this nonsense.
[b] Unfairness [/b]
Pit People is hard as hell, but as you can imagine, for none of the good reasons.
There aren't challenges in this game, just unfair ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
Regular encounters are nothing, it's the premade quests where it falls apart.
Many quests are simple enough and don't offer anything more difficult than normal battles.
In others, protecting NPCs and stopping them from dying gets added, and turns out those NPCs prefer to embrace death with open arms.
Throwing even more RNG elements like that in your missions can turn this game into a nightmare, and this only gets worse the more advanced your quests get, as then, guess what, they throw even more random garbage at you!
Get ready for quest objectives to change out of nowhere, get ready for the worst gimmicks imaginable, mainly ones that reposition you and certainly are rarely as predictable as you'd like.
This is where you really start to realize why this isn't described as a strategy game, there's no strategy that can prepare you for anything this game pulls out of its ass.
And it really does that, like cars full of enemies driving onto the map out of nowhere, knocking some of your guys in random places, and then of course those enemies exiting the car as well, surprise, reinforcements.
Frankly, all this needs its own section, hold on.
[b] Everything about this game's design is bad, so help me God [/b]
You like reinforcements?
No?
Well, I wouldn't either if this way my only exposure to them in this sort of environment.
The more you play this game, the more it loves dragging out its harder missions for no reason, which mostly involved an ungodly amount of reinforcements that will sometimes triple or quadruple the amount of enemies you initially thought you'd deal with.
Since healing also isn't so reliable, it's also a battle of attrition that you're always on the losing side of.
Believe it or not, the side quests are a lesser offender than the actual main missions, who you'd think had more time poured into them.
Get ready for the most miserable gaming experiences of your life as you try to make your way through a repetitive mission that goes on forever due to a combination of endless reinforcements and horrible gimmicks, none of which I'm certain were playtested.
Also a random horrible stealth mission towards the end that was just part 1 of a massive quest.
If any of this, especially the car gimmick from earlier, sounds familiar to you... you might have the same realization I had.
All the random awful ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in this game... is exactly the kind of stuff The Behemoth normally does.
Except that usually those are aesthetic, in this game, every dumb idea someone seems to have had was included, often alongside equally ridiculous ones, were all terrible gameplay mechanics.
There wasn't any care of how things would come together or play like, they just threw everything out here, but didn't even see if it sticks.
That's the main problem, it feels like an artist's game, not a game designer's game.
Since the team originated on Newgrounds, I'm pretty sure this is actually the case.
We just got lucky that their previous games were simple and straightforward.
This one had a bigger scope and at least feigned deeper mechanics.
A game that should in theory please neither strategy RPG fans nor casual players who just like The Behemoth.
Somehow it did, maybe this game becomes bearable after grinding, or not trying to engage with as many of the recruitable characters you get, just focusing on a few.
Again, does this game want to be casual or not?
I certainly didn't bother anymore at some point, with 40% of sidequests done and being tired of the core gameplay, I just rushed through all main missions to end it, and that was somehow the worst the game had to offer.
Can't recommend this to ANYONE.
This isn't me hoping The Behemoth will do better next time, but me hoping they will never try something like this again.
Their skills lie elsewhere, not in game design.
Like the music, that was good.
Or the child-eating cannibals, huge fan!
