The video game industry has been turning out a ton of great games in the past few years and 2017 has produced a gem in the PC gaming world– “Pit People.”
“Pit People” is a turn-based action role-playing game made by the company The Behemoth, and was initially released in January on Steam, which is a digital game distribution platform.
The story follows a guy named Horatio, who lives a humble life on his blueberry farm and is defined as “the most boring creature on the face of this planet.” At the beginning of the game, his farm gets attacked by a group of ruffians who are under the command of a giant space bear, the primary villain of the game. The bear (whose name is just “Bear”) wishes to see Horatio and anyone else who is “boring” die. From the initial attack on his blueberry farm, Horatio is thrown into helping others who are the victims of Bear’s wrath, such as a princess named Pipistrella, who lost both her castle and her father (King Papastrella) in a battle with Bear’s toadies.
With their homes lost in battle, our hero and his company band together to get revenge on Bear. The characters make money by fighting other people in “The Pit,” much like the gladiators in our own history, all while working to defeat Bear at the same time and taking on random side quests.
The story doesn’t make a ton of sense and the game doesn’t give any backstory on where Bear came from in the first place, but the gameplay makes up for it.
The best thing about this game is that it’s hilarious. There are jokes literally everywhere. For example, the loading screen is a goofy-looking giraffe that tells you jokes while you’re waiting for the next segment of the game to load. That same giraffe is the steed of one of the enemies that you fight in The Pit. The enemy is announced as the “Speckled Horseman,” before a smiling giraffe with balloons tied around its neck floats down from the sky into the ring, carrying a big guy who wields dual Mini-UZIS. This game’s storyline is a complete joke and it’s absolutely great.
Not to mention the game itself is so fun to play. You constantly build your team throughout the game and upgrade their weapons as you level up and defeat stronger enemies.
The animation style is meant to go along with the overall theme of the game and it’s well executed. The style is very rough and cartoon-like, and the odd-looking characters wield weapons such as flowerpots and giant lollipops.
The music is also pretty catchy. Usually, I tune out game music, but the music from Pit People is so different and catchy that I listen to it while I do homework.
It’s also co-op, so you can play with a friend if you hook up an Xbox controller to your computer, as well as the keyboard.
However, the only downside to this game is that the storyline isn’t complete yet. The game recently updated in June, which added more storyline and more features. According to The Behemoth’s blog, in the update “insane mode is significantly more insane,” and two new story quests and a new Worldmap have been added, among a list of other changes. I haven’t played the update yet but I’m excited to see just how insane the updated insane mode is.
The game is $14.99 during the early access period on Steam. For any avid PC gamer who needs a good laugh, it’s well worth 15 bucks.