Fantasy, RPG and sports go hand in hand in the best game of SuperGiant (Bastion, Transistor) to date. An experience that can not leave anyone indifferent.
Pyre, the jewel of SuperGiant
Pyre is a huge surprise. And to say this coming from SuperGiant, one of the indies companies that excelled with note years ago with Bastion and that was consolidated with Transistor , is no small thing. At a time when there are hundreds of companies looking for their place in the industry, it is not at all easy to stand out. There are many genres that have multiple author versions on the part of small developers. The platforms, the RPGs, the walking simulator ... But Supergiant is different this time. The role, the sports competition and a unique development, of macabre outcome, make Pyre its best game and one of the most outstanding titles of 2017. And to say this in a year like the one we are in, is no small thing.
Founded in 2009 by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon , they were quickly put on the map thanks to their first work. Bastion was not at all a revolutionary title: it was an Action RPG with action mechanics quite common and simple but had in its favor something that in the indie world is trying to enhance to differentiate: the author's touch at the audiovisual level. both the fantastic finish and the narrator who followed our steps brought a different point of view to a well-known game mechanics. The great merit of the game was to tell us a video game as if we were in a story. Transistor was different. It changed the fantasy world for a cyberpunk universe, technology as the main theme and a perfect fit between characters, narrative and gameplay: action and turns were held hand in hand. Also, in a different format than the previous one. Here, to finish the four-five first hours was really to start the game, because the second round made you face from the beginning harder enemies where the use of all the skills learned was obligatory. Who has not given more than one turn to Transistor, does not know what the game is.
In Pyre the authentic revolution of SuperGiantIt is complete. When one begins to play the third title of the North American company, he does not know how to translate what is found. A game of cutting RPG in which advance, improvement of personages and management of group talks about ... But a sport title in which pure and hard gameplay concerns us. It is a surprising mixture, that if someone has not followed at all what the game is going to be able to crash, but that it starts to fit right from the start and ends up becoming one of the best experiences that are remembered in a long time. Once you finish it (about 10-12 hours depending on what you have entertained in extra tests and reading the extensive narrative and context content), you do not know what has amazed you the most. Whether the competition itself, the unique connection with the characters or the disturbing development of the plot.
The reader, purgatory and freedom
It all starts when the Reader , that is us, awakens in an unknown world near a caravan. That's when three characters come to us: Hedwyn, Rukey and Jodariel . A human, a kind of talkative wolf and a demonic woman with enormous horns and wingspan. This supposed fortuitous encounter that as we move forward in the adventure does not seem so much has a reason to be. They are part of the Nightwings, a triumvirate of the many who are scattered around Downside, a kind of purgatory where convicts, enemies and condemned people spend their last days. After engaging in conversation with them they realize our gift as a reader,the one who can elicit the meaning of ancient texts. And together we embark on a journey in which we try to decipher the truth behind the rites that seek freedom: to return to Commonwealth. The purified region, where everyone once lived before falling into Downside.
The first bars of departure are very powerful for several reasons. The first because the protagonist, us, does not appear on the screen. All the characters question us as if they were looking outside the television or the monitor. The second, because the profile of the members of the Nightwings is tremendously powerful. Hedwyn is posited as the noble and close human, but Rukey has shrillness and a wild attitude and JodarielIt is simply disturbing. His design imposes, his speech also and is totally intransigent. As we get to know them, the game takes care of each one of them, to show us their strengths and weaknesses, their doubts ... And you end up connecting in an extreme way with the characters. Not only with these three, but with the others you are getting to know. A score of exiles pass before us: some are playable and part of the Nightwings team. Others are enemies or rivals of other triumviratesspread around the world. Others, simply, are part of the plot and come and go. But Pyre stops at each and every one of them. They present them with details, they offer us lines and lines of dialogues and, unless we skip the conversations - a huge mistake for a game like this - the player can not look the other way. He knows exactly what happens to each one of them. And you even end up connecting with the enemies of the rites because, in reality, they are not enemies but other teams that yearn for the same thing that we do: freedom.
For the team that we will end up spending a dozen exiles with their varied reasons to join us. From which he fights with his team and prefers to sign up for the Nightwings to which, directly, he betrays his family because he sees more options for success. The background of each of them is different, but the ultimate goal is to return to Commonwealth .
By reading the book of rites, we start a journey that the player does not know exactly where he is going. On the way we will meet with The Lone Minstrel, a traveling musician who encourages us to contact one of their clients and who will also become a counselor. This is Volfred, which in turn is a mysterious contact of the trio of characters we met at the beginning of the game. With them we understand that the rites are a kind of competition between teams: win or lose allows you to face new challenges, as a final rite at the gates of freedom. On the one hand, we struggle to get to this final competition and free the members of our team. On the other, Volfred has a planto free Commonwealth from the tyranny that lives. On the second we will not go into more details to avoid incurring spoilers. On the first, comes into play one of the great dichotomies of the game that makes the user doubt for several reasons.
The Scribes , eight gods that govern the world, have created these rites to allow the purging of crimes ... But only one of the team. That's where the player is strongly challenged: When you reach the final rite for the first time - it's a repeating cycle - you discover that winning that match allows one of the characters to return to Commonwealth . Doubts assail you as Reader:On the one hand, you have connected with the characters in such a way that you want to reward them because you know their history and their desires. On the other, that means that maybe the exile you want to save is your best player on the battlefield. In our case, the first time we saved who we believed in the plot, no matter what came next. But that's just the beginning of the game. Then it really starts.
So he survives in Pyre
The first part of the game is guided and serves to take everything offered by the title. We have conversations with the characters, we will visit the different worlds of purgatory and there, as if we were on a board of a board game, we went through different boxes until we reached the rite. The previous boxes serve, according to the determined path, to obtain resources, improve relations with the characters or discover more narrative elements. Once we reach the rite, the competition begins.
The field or track consists of two bonfires on each side of the stage, as if it were a basket, and an orb that appears in the middle of the screen. The teams are of three teams but the player can only control one at a time. The objective: to take the orb and put it inside the opposite pyre to detract from it. As a rule each pyramid has 100 points that are subtracted, and when one of the two reaches zero, the game is considered finished. Simple to describe but full of options to carry out thanks to the characteristics of the controls and also to certain elements of context that is important to consider.
The characters have a sprint button, another to jump and a third to attack. The first two consume stamina , making it important to manage the character's resistance at every moment. With X we can pass the orb to another member of our team and, in defense, with one of the triggers we change the control of the characters. When we do not control an exile, he stays still where we left him. Although the control is individual and there is no AI to accompany us with the characters that we do not have under our guardianship at any given moment, the game is responsible - and rightly so - for reminding us that they are teams of three, but that they have to empathize as if they were a single player. And so it is.
Each character has an aura - a kind of action field that surrounds the exile, which serves to make the enemy disappear. We explain: If the line of the aura surrounding the character touches the body of a rival, it ends up eliminated and can not return until after a few seconds. The grace of this is in the fact that when a character takes the orb, has no aura and therefore is vulnerable to enemies, that just approaching with that radius of action have enough to eliminate us. This adds to the attacks of each character: the fliers make attacks, Tizo -which is a small-sized creature- extends the radius of action of his aura before self-immolation, others launch attacks in one direction and a range of range that depends of each case, etc.
Strategy is the key to success. Sometimes it is better to eliminate the enemies before going for the orb of turn. In other occasions, it is necessary to take the orb with a speedy character, mislead the enemies going to a part of the field and pass the sphere to another partner to have free field. Certain characters, like Tizo himself or Jodariel, for their attacks, it is better to leave them defending their own pyre; and balance the team according to each moment. That is why the first section of the game is important, because it presents you with the teams you face and their particularities. Pamitha is the only character that joins the Nightwings that can fly thanks to its wings, and it is essential before the Essence triumvirate ,formed precisely by flying characters to whom it is much easier to stop with it. On the other hand, it is a suicide not to play with fast characters ( Sir Gilman , Rukey) before the Pyrehearts, a mixture of one-eyed snakes with pirate clothes, since they are very fast and with slow characters it is a torture to stop them.
Knowing how to balance the team and take advantage of its potential is key. The game, after a few courtesy games, makes it clear that the strategy of playing with a single exile individually does not have much travel, and as we add members to the template we understand that everyone has their moment. Bertrude , for example, is a monstrous character who moves slowly, but his attack has a huge long and wide range, and is perfect for clearing the enemy team and taking advantage of his disappearances for another member to make a point.
The game system is balanced and with a strategic component that mixes with the restless rhythm of a match in real time. In this the enemy AI has a lot to do , that after a few simple rites sticks an important rush. It is with the defeats when we see how Pyre is really played: teams that leave the orb because they go directly to eliminate you and then score calmly; exiles who point and use their attacks at a distance with extreme precision; and the use of skills - active and passive - that can change the game. Because Pyre is not only skill, but also RPG.
Each character has four statistics that vary as we go up the level. And he gains level by gaining experience playing games (also outside the rituals chatting with them, doing extra tasks, etc.). They are those of Glory (the points that we subtract to a pyre when we place the orb), Quickness (the speed at which the character moves), Presence (the radius of his aura) and Hope(what takes to reappear when it is removed). The statistics can be adjusted and modified, too, thanks to materials and resources that we found during the game. During the trips to the rites of each star within the world of purgatory we can choose ways to find new objects. Some can be sold in a store to get coins with which to buy talismans (statistical enhancers, skills upgrades, etc.) with which to better balance characters. Some like Rukey do not have too much Glory, but with a certain talisman they become a devastating character: fast, difficult to stop ... and also when he scores he subtracts many points from the opponent's pyre.
All this is completed with the character tree of each character. We can choose between two of them and start unlocking improvements of all kinds. Some are individual , how to make a character faster, have more stamina or his momentum when jumping to run faster. Others are passive and are what really make a difference. Example: Tizohas one that makes that if we eliminate all the equipment, the character returns to the battlefield automatically. There are others, such as having 50% of options to return in a second when they eliminate you, that our pyre automatically recovers 10 points when they put the orb with all the equipment extinguished ... In short, choosing the skill tree to follow is not only an individual decision for each character, but it has to be considered as a team.
Without Game Over: a journey with beginning and end
The title has a cycle that starts and closes always with the same number of clashes. There is no Game Over, so losing a rite implies two things: gain less experience, have the statistics with more defeats and cause that revolutionary plan has fewer success options. As the cycle is clearly marked, the allocation of points, distribution of games to play and characters that we choose to send to Commonwealth implies a challenging bobbin lace. Especially because after the first definitive rite, the game hits a high of major difficulty. At that time we can move with complete freedom to go to the stars we want to compete against the rivals we want. But always knowing that the cycle of the rite of the stars is getting shorter, and that we can not 'farmear' in an infinite way. In return we have two extras:
Keep in mind that the game changes radically when you finish the first third. It is impossible to raise the five levels to all the characters, but it is very unwise to focus only on three characters because with the saved exiles, you may end up facing the end of the game with an unprepared team. To compensate for this there is another element that must be taken into account: the titans. Constellations of these mythical figures will begin to appear around the menu of the rites. If we activate them, we raise the difficulty and challenge of the games: more recovery speed for the enemies, a pyre with extra points, faster enemies, with more options to use their special attacks ... They are boostsof difficulty that we can activate them in exchange for getting more experience. If we win, we will upload the characters in a flash. But having two or three titans (I no longer say the twelve) activated becomes hell.
In Pyre everything is perfectly embedded. Something that is complemented as we said with an argument that is shaped as we have -or not- successful enough and the interlocutor between the gods and us, who is known as 'Voice' because we only hear his voice, begins to understand that What we are doing is not simply saving our partners. The end, in fact, is quite a declaration of intentions and leaves the player with many doubts about what to decide.
The title has a versus mode to fight against the CPU or in local mode with another partner. Full of options: we can play with enemies and allies not available in the campaign, act the titans we want, decide levels of difficulty -the lovers of the challenge have with the titans and the Master level of the CPU challenge for hours- and other options of personalization: level of the pyres, talismans, if we have activated the mastery of the characters, etc. Unfortunately, this mode does not have online functions, something that would fit perfectly for just one reason: the system of rites is fun, adjusted and thought to the millimeter; being able to play with players from all over the world would have been the perfect way to give continuity to a bombproof gameplay.
The game has a majestic artistic direction. The characters overflow with personality and originality in equal parts, recreating all kinds of different species that know how to perfectly transmit their personality. From the confidence that Hedwyn gives you to the tension that it generates to see Jodariel on screen, how nice Sir Gilman is - like a tadpole with a single giant eye and crazy knight helmet - or the aforementioned Tizo, the mystery that revolves around of Lone Ministrel and its musical instrument or the religious reminiscences that evoke from the stage of the final rite, the image of the voice that speaks to us or the fluidity of the animations in combat. Very SuperGiant, but changing registration once again (and there are three). The soundtrack, simply, it returns to marvel highlighting especially in the decisive combats with melodies that penetrate in the ears of the player and stay forever. Special mention to the voice of Logan Cunningham, who after being the narrator of Bastion, the voice of the sword of Transistor, looks like "voice" in Pyre, with a tone and a rhythm that reminds many of the speeches of theSupreme Sparrow in the series Game of Thrones. Generating between condescension and restlessness. It should be noted that the title is entirely in English, an important barrier especially for the density of certain dialogues, although SuperGiant works to offer a translation into Spanish among other languages.
conclusion
Pyre is without a doubt the best work of SuperGiant , and to say that of a study that left us two jewels like Bastion or Transistorthey are big words. A title that breaks conventions and presents a mix of unique, original and perfectly fitted proposals. A narrative that captures from the first moment and a surprising connection with the characters that entails, in addition, hard decisions to make. All this, seasoned with an RPG structure in which we have to think carefully about all the steps and improvements we choose ... To apply it to a sports-type competition system. The balance between the different 'faces' offered by the game is part of its success, to which it is necessary to add its spectacular audiovisual finish, the growing challenge it poses at a playable level and the impact generated by many of its moments, including a final that tenses the rope with the player unexpectedly.
The best
- A mix of narrative, RPG and sport that fits in a surprising way
- The close connection with simply memorable characters
- The impressive argument and the decisions to be made, which also affect the playable level
- Compete in the rites: strategic, challenging, full of options and deep as few
- There is no going back: the successes and mistakes shape the type of end that we will have
- An enemy AI that constantly grows in demand
- Audiovisual level is a jewel
Worst
- Fully in English (at the moment)
- The mode versus cries for functions online
- The first third of the game pales before what comes next
1-6 IMAGECREDIT
THANKS FOR READING, ALSO CHECK OUT MY PREVIOUS REVIEW ON SNIPER: GHOST WARRIOR 3 (PC)
