Pit People REview

Top Tier Turn-Based Strategy
By Lee Marcussen
​Reviewed on Xbox One
​Released on March 2nd, 2018 for Xbox One and PC
​Developer: ​The Behemoth
​Publisher: ​The Behemoth

From the developers over at Behemoth who brought us one of my favorite Xbox 360 arcade games, “Castle Crashers”, brings us a somewhat familiar but very different game called Pit People. Pit People is a turn based strategy title where you play as a character named Horatio, a noble famer, who is attacked by a group of child killers. Horatio fearlessly fights back but a large bear-like god kidnaps Horatio’s son. Your main quest is to get your son back, no matter what lies ahead.

Pit People is a turn-based strategy using hexagon shaped map tiles where you control the movement of your team of six fighters. You highlight the routes the fighters take and which enemies they attack. Combat is started when traveling on the world map (similar to the Pokémon games) or when in a quest. There are several styles of fighters that you can assemble for your squad. Some are ranged fighters that can be equipped with bows or mortars and can fire great distances across the map, while others are normal fighters that can be equipped with one handed or two-handed swords or shields/throwables and have a far range of travel. There are large beast characters that take up 2 of your fighter slots and are limited in their range of travel, representing a “tank” like style of play. Finally, there are cupcake healers that help regenerate your fighter’s health in battle. There are tons of fighters that are available to join your squad. You can add to your locker room of fighters by completing quests, buying them, or capturing them in battle with a net and cage. Each fighter and all the weapons have special traits that can allow for damage against other specific classes of enemies whether it be a fire sword against an ice character or agile characters against big slow characters. As you win more battles your fighters go up in levels and become stronger, gaining more health. Pit people does an excellent job at balancing all of the fighting and allowing you to set up your squad to be prepared against specific enemies.​

Pit People’s world is very large and filled with different areas and environments that have unique enemies. Your crew of fighters moves around the map in a horse carriage with cannons to daze enemies to avoid them while moving throughout the map. The carriage can also take poops while you go, not to sure if this has any benefit or if it’s just a gag Behemoth threw in (reminds me of the pooping deer in castle crashers). You gain loot from exploring and completing quests that you can spend in the main town. Here you can visit various shops, like an armory where you can upgrade your fighters with new weapons, armor, or shields that you acquired through the quests.  A Marquette to buy new fighters or weapons is also available, as well as the Pit where you can take on other players in coop 2 v 2 fighting or go against waves of AI opponents. Before leaving the town you can select a quest, whether it be a side or main quest, or even just to roam around the map. You can also purchase various items like cages for capturing fighters and health potions to aid exploring post battle. The town is constantly moving around the map and never in the same spot for too long because of the evil bear that stole Horatio’s son. He tends to grab it and places in various parts of the world to force you to explore more. ​

The main quest of Pit People is very entertaining, with the character dialog being made up of random noises and yelling with subtitle texts, coming off as quite funny. Hearing the characters argue in made up mumbles gets me every time. The main bad guy, the evil bear, makes sly comments randomly throughout the game such as when you perform a double or multi kill he yells out “OHHHHHH YEAH I LIKE THAT” (he actually narrates, no mumble talk on his end!) or similar remarks which encouraged me to try and set up multi kills for a good laugh. The cut-scenes are the best and literally will have you laughing out loud. The dialog or even some of the crazy quests you have to go on in order to defeat the bear and regain your son back are just so well written and packed with humor.

Overall, I really loved Pit People, and it deserves to be a smash hit game. Everything about it, from the customization and loot system that allows you to upgrade you fighters and easily swapping them with fighters for the right battles makes this a great, easy game to pick up for anyone. The humor in it is golden, from the weird side quests characters that are making you do ridiculous things to the evil mean ass bear that steals your son and makes fun of you the whole time. Unfortunately, I did not get to play any coop multiplayer because I have no friends who own this (although I’m going to tell them this is a must pick up if you’re a fan of the past games from Behemoth or strategy games in general.) It’s a great game where you don’t even need to be a fan of strategy games to enjoy something like this. The controls are not complicated, and they explain how everything works with well laid out guides and helpful menus. I have nothing bad to say about this game and I think its perfect the way it is.

​Note: A copy of this game was provided for the purpose of the review.​

Final Score: 10/10

+Anyone Can Play.
+Great Comedy
+Customization / easy level system
+Tons of fighters / weapons available