The post-apocalypse has never been this weird.

The Behemoth, the studio that never sticks to one genre, continues the tradition with its fourth release, Pit People. In this turn-based strategy game, the player assembles and leads a group of do-gooders through a wacky – very Behemoth – post-apocalypse.

Society’s collapse wasn’t due to boring stuff like a lack of resources or thermonuclear war, it’s the result of a cosmic moon-sized bear that impacted earth’s surface. While the post-apocalypse has made things more violent and factional, some people still lead normal-ish lives. Horatio, a blueberry farmer, is one such person until some thugs show up on his land and drag him into the hero role.

Price: $19.99
Platforms: XB1(reviewed), PC
Price I’d Pay: $9.99

Despite the game’s title, many of the characters that Horatio meets and fights are not people at all. Trolls, unicorns, wraiths, pixies and talking cupcakes, among many other creatures, inhabit this version of earth. These different exotic species have distinct class roles, while humans are more customizable, depending on the player’s collection of acquired weapons and armors.

Hexagon Combat

Pit People’s turn-based combat takes place on a hexagonal grid. Instead of selecting enemies to attack, the player only chooses where they stand and the characters do the rest, depending on where the characters are in relation to their enemies. Melee characters can only do primary attacks on those who are adjacent to them while the various types of ranged classes have their own attack patterns. If a character has multiple options of a target, they will be picked at random – even if there’s an obvious choice, like finishing off a nearly dead enemy, or one that I could see is more susceptible to the type of attack.

Characters level up with use, but no stats or any kind of new things come from it. It’s mostly just a way of showing how much that character has been used. The only other benefit to leveling up during combat is receiving a full health bar.

A few characters will willingly join Horatio on his quest, but the main way to recruit different characters is to capture them. This is accomplished by first buying the necessary consumable item, then leaving one enemy left alive at the end of a battle. Once delivered back to the town, they are now an option for the roster, which maxes out to 6 characters.

The In-between

Speaking of the town, this is where roster changes, item management, and other customization is done. It’s also where the Pit is, which is a coliseum where the player can battle AI (alone or cooperatively) – or – they can battle other players. The last major thing at the town is the marketplace, which cycles 3 weapons and 3 hirable mercenaries. The mercenaries are very expensive and the weapons don’t display any stats, so you have no idea if they are worth the cost.

While outside of town, Horatio and his crew ride a wagon through a pulled-out overworld of sorts. The player controls this wagon and can head toward main missions, side missions, or hidden coin drops, all while avoiding enemies who, if touched, initiate an impromptu battle. The wagon has a cannon that can stun enemies and if an enemy is touched by accident, you can flee most fights right away with not much penalty.

The terrain of this over world view is also made up of hexagons and its look is distinct and creative. It looks really nice and it’s fun to see how they meshed the varied topographies with the hexagon art style.

More highlights

There is a sarcastic antagonist throughout the story and he is also the all-seeing narrator of the game. In the limited time that this villain is given to shine in the cut scenes (literally about 5 minutes in total), it is without a question, some of the best comedic writing and timing I’ve seen in video games. His voice sounds familiar to Will Farrell playing a mustache-twirling villain and his (again, limited) interactions with a certain character are truly priceless.

The music and tone throughout do a good job at maintaining the whimsy in this unique post-apocalypse. There isn’t a better example of this than what you see while standing in the town. An excellent original song plays (YouTube it, it’s called the Town Theme), the buildings are literally bouncing to the different beats of the music, and people are also moving to the beat. Throughout the game, this song is heard over and over and over again, and it never got old.

Where things get real

Pit People is hard to dissect because it impresses in so many ways, yet, lacked in substantive fun in some of its most important areas. The combat (the main course of this package), as well as the systems that feed into combat, have problems.

The main issue with the combat itself is letting the characters choose their moves. It’s something I tried to see the good in, but it became annoying too often. It takes away too much player agency, which ultimately limits strategy. More control would make it easier to pull off combos and it would prevent my team members from doing random things that completely negate what I wanted the other members to do that turn.

Since leveling up doesn’t make characters more powerful, the only way to change a character’s stats is through weapons and shields. This aspect is very half-baked. Remember, only humans can hold weapons and shields and the rest of their attire is cosmetic only. To make matters worse the differences of the weapons are snore-worthy. The best Blunt weapon that I went through the game with did only slightly more damage than the others and had a whopping 12% chance to stun an enemy for a turn. Sure, the weapons look different from each other, but if their stats are all about the same, where’s the drive to get more loot?

Early in the game, I didn’t have a good grasp of what I should be doing, or even what the overall structure was. For some reason, any character can be assigned the “hero” role, which buffs their stats slightly and makes them the character you see in town. This made me wonder if there wasn’t much of a main story or if Horatio could be abandoned altogether. This murky situation and many others like it created unnecessary confusion.

Conclusion

With Pit People, Behemoth tried something new and was only partially successful. It has excellent art design, unique world-building and some truly funny moments, but the problems with its combat and structure hinder what could be a hit. Understandably, the game’s weakest parts are those that the studio doesn’t have much experience with.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Art Design
  • Writing
  • Music
Bad
  • Characters choose their attacks
  • Uninspired loot
  • Structure lacks cohesion and clear direction
  • Lack of team-member customization (non-cosmetic)
6.5
Decent
Written by
Wyatt is a recent college graduate of Ohio University’s Journalism program. He’s an Xbox guy, but loves playing great PlayStation exclusives. Also, he has far too much nostalgia for the old Nintendo.