The Behemoth, a studio known for its own unique wacky style, has returned for its fourth title – a turn-based strategy game. Pit People has players creating a squad to battle it out on a hexagonal battlefield.
A giant bear has made contact with the Earth’s surface, creating a post-apocalyptic world. You start as a blueberry farmers named Horatio, who’s defending his family from a group of cannibal. Despite his best efforts, his house is crush by the giant bear, thus starting his journey for revenge.
Seems about right for a game from The Behemoth right?
Combat is done through deciding where your team stands on the battlefield. Once placed, each character will auto attack. Each of the different classes have different attacks that need to be set up properly for success. Melee characters have to be directly beside enemies, and ranged characters need to be further away depending on their class. The RTS gameplay is perfectly suited for a controller, and never felt cumbersome like other console RTS games.
One of the biggest elements is capturing enemies in order for them to join your team. Once you have the items needed to capture, the player must leave one enemy behind at the end of the battle. Collecting characters is essential to creating your six character roster. Customizing your lineup depending on the battle ahead is also important to win. Characters can be upgraded though weapons and shield to add to the customization of your roster.
The hub city is where you’ll find the Pit, a coliseum where you can battle AI alone or with a friend, or PVP online. The city is also where you can buy weapons and armor from the marketplace, and change out your current roster. There are also mercenaries you can purchase. Outside of town is where you’ll traverse from mission to mission, both main and side. There are random battles that take place in the over world as well.
Pit People’s combat feels fun and strategic, but also can be a bit of a slog at times. Most enemies feel like they take just a bit too long to kill, and you’ll find yourself repeating a process with your roster in order to win. For the most part though, the AI is smart enough to be a considerable challenge at points. The other frustrating aspect is the fact you can only choose where to move and not where to attack. Not being able to choose where to attack felt like it was extremely limiting the overalls strategy of battles, and could even feel frustrating at points where characters would choose to fight the wrong enemy.
Our recommendation: Pit People is a funny and creative take on the RTS genre with plenty of weird and humorous moments that the studio is known for. Gameplay is well suited for a controller, but feels a bit slow at times and also lacks player choice. Newcomers to the genre won’t feel overwhelmed, but veterans might be frustrated with the lack of control.
This game was provided to the reviewer by the publisher but this fact did not influence the opinion of said reviewer.
Check out our Review Guide to see what we criteria we use to score games.
