Exiled from the Commonwealth a ragtag band of heroes form on the Downside to try and regain their freedom.
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We’ve said it before, but it deserves to be said again. There’s something special about the titles that SuperGiant Games puts out. It’s not just the standout aesthetics, this is a studio that never seems content to tread on previously covered ground, for better and for worse. Most of it a positive, of course. This certainly rings true with Pyre, the third game from the studio following Bastion and Transistor.
Pyre plays out on the Downside, a wretched world where exiles reside having been cast out of the Commonwealth. This is where the player comes to, having been found by a band of wanderers. Turns out you can read a special book and so help these fellow exiles perform rites with the goal of one day winning back their place in the Commonwealth.
The rites are the meat and potatoes of Pyre. Basically, they see two teams of three exiles trying to put out the pyre (goal) of the opposing team using an Orb. It’s a bit like three on three basketball if you will. Each pyre typically starts with 100 points, and different exiles do different amounts of damage to it depending on their glory stat as they score. One of the key aspects here is that only character moves at a team (controlled by the reader, that’s you), when you don’t have the Orb you have an aura that if it touches players on the other team, banishes them from the court for a brief period. If you don’t have the ball most players can shoot their aura to banish players on the team holding the ball. Each of the characters have different twists on this though, so there’s a lot of variation and tactics to employ.
Thus the game revolves a lot around jockeying for an opening by banishing players on the other team to create an opening for one of your players to take the Orb to the pyre. In doing so that player is banished for the next round (so you’re at a 2 on 3 disadvantage), you can also throw the Orb into the pyre, something that requires a bit of skill, but as you do more damage to the pyre the longer you charge your throw, it can pay off. Sort of like going for three pointers in order to catch up. It’s fast-paced and can be utterly confusing at times, but it does work and serves as a very novel way to do away with the usual grinding trek of battles in an action-RPG.
It’s pretty much like any sports season, the teams play eachother and at the end of the season you (cause your team is special and always plays the final, no matter what) face the team with the best record in a liberation rite. The winning team gets to liberate their anointed player and send him or her back to the Commonwealth.
You might think that given the arena sport nature of these rites they’re largely skill-based, but that’s only half the truth. The more skilled players will prevail if all things are equal, but setting up your team to counter the opposition can be half the battle. Most teams you face on the Downside contain one class of enemies, be it nomads or harps, and you can set up your team to counter this both by which characters you use and by what talismans they equip. A talisman can truly make a world of difference in a match. Paying attention to the talismans and skills of the opposing team is also key. Maybe they’ve got perks that make it pointless to try and banish them (as they will return very quickly or even explode and take you out if they are banished), then an offensive and quick team that’s focused on scoring rather than banishing is a wise choice.
We realise we’re using a lot of jargon and terms that you may not be familiar with here. It’s one of those things you’ll quickly grasp while playing, whereas explaining the ins and outs of the rites in writing is more difficult. These rites can be over pretty quickly, or they can last a bit longer if it turns into a more tactical affair. You can also play these versus another player locally or against the CPU honing your skills. Succeeding in rites with most or all Titans activated (basically these are perks for the other team) is a true test of skill.
In between rites you’ll travel the Downside, much like you would in say The Banner Saga, stumbling over events that either benefit or burden your team. During the first half of the game, you’ll also add more exiles to your Nightwings team, filling their ranks. Afterall, given that you aim to liberate them you’ll need more players. The pacing here between rites can be a bit slow, particularly in the first half of the game, and it can also be a bit annoying that you’re sometimes making blind choices not knowing what influences success and failure (this is not the case later on in the game).
As we alluded to early on, SuperGiant tends to deliver on the aesthetics and Pyre is no exception. From the beautiful Downside map to the character art and the visual effects, it’s a joy to behold. However, it’s the soundscape that truly sets it apart. Darren Korb’s soundtrack and melodies truly elevate the experience.
One of the most beautiful things about the design of Pyre is that you can prevail or fail in the rites and the game continues on. You won’t gain as much experience from losing (making things harder, obviously), but the story adapts and ultimately the endgame also adapts. Your path towards freedom is going to be different to that of your friends. Whether you free your teammates in the liberation rites or not, the cycle continues.
At its core Pyre tells a memorable story about freedom, justice, second chances, friendship, and betrayal. The characters are memorable for the most part and the way you interact with them will set them on different paths. We particularly enjoyed Sir Gilman and his feud, Rukey, and Volfred. But perhaps we were most endeared to Ti’zo, the lovable imp. There is a ton of narrative to plough through in the 12-15 hours or so the campaign lasts. And this is where we feel SuperGiant Games may be a little guilty of not having killed enough darlings. The concept of the Book of Rites where you unlock pages in a book to learn more of the backstory and the world isn’t that engaging and you’ll more than likely skim this content and in doing so lose part of the nuance of the main narrative. Perhaps the game would have benefitted from trimming away part of the narrative to keep the player more immersed. It’s a minor issue though as we truly enjoyed this journey of redemption and vengeance from start to finish.
Our journeys on the Downside were not without peril even if the game is devoid of fail states. Playing the PS4 version (on a PS4 Pro) we ran into a number of small problems that each on their own wouldn’t have much impact on our experience, but taken together indicated that perhaps the game could have done with a bit more testing prior to release. A couple of times the game crashed. We also experienced the game freezing on one occasion (this happened twice under the same circumstances). We also experienced occasional graphical glitches on the world map. One time the Orb wound up outside of the court in a Rite, forcing us to restart said rite as it was in limbo. Another time during one of the character tests (you face a team of three alone), the Orb got into a position where the opposing team just grouped around it preventing us from doing anything meaningful (as we were Sir Gilman and couldn’t banish them from afar), again we had to restart the rite. Finally, after finishing the game and watching the credits roll we were told to press “options” to exit. However, we didn’t exit instead we were treated to a menu screen where we could load the last savepoint instead of starting a new game. These issues didn’t ruin our experience with the game, we didn’t lose any progress, but still, you may want to wait for a patch or two to be deployed post launch.
Overall, Pyre is another strong game from the creative minds at SuperGiant Games. It’s a unique experience and while it may at times feel a bit overburdened with text and the nature of the rites may not appeal to all RPG players, Pyre manages to stand out as a game we’ll remember for a long time.
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Keyword: Pyre