In the Commonwealth everyone live happily together. Different races, but no hate and no discrimination. Or at least it sounds like that, but if so why people are send to the Downside into an exile? This and many other question appear during the game and some are even answered, others not and the answers of third create even more questions.
The
Story, The World, The Characters
You awake in a dessert like area and hear voices around you. Other
exiles. Your first companions. But who are you? Why you are the soon to become
Reader or the Reader of this band of exiles. Readers are people who, despite of
it being forbidden, learn to read. Not clear does they learn to read in
general or read only special books, but as a Reader you are the one who will command
the team during the Rites. You have no other name than Reader and you have no
face. Everything is shown like you are seeing it first person through your own
eyes. Which is great touch, because Pyre in many ways is a personal experience.
For both you as a Reader and for your companions.
After you have enough strength your companions explain to you who
they are (The Nightwings), where are you and ask you to become their Reader.
Becoming part of the Nightwings is the first step toward regaining your freedom.
Or what you thought is freedom. This is a spoiler to some degree, but may be
one of the most precious things about Pyre is its musing about freedom and what
it is, and how the player sees it. But that I will leave to you, to discover in
more details. Back to your objective in the
game. To have the chance to return to the Commonwealth you have to take part in
Rites and defeat the opposing teams. Do this enough times and you will return
to civilization. Before speaking about the Rites though I like to mention few
things about the world and the characters you meet.
In Pyre you will move between nodes in the area you currently are.
Usually you will have a choice which way you to go and there are slight
differences between what will happen and what you will find there. You might
want to choose carefully though as you will not be able to come back soon and
visit the places you missed. The way traveling happens is one of my biggest
problems I had with the game. Nothing happens while you travel. You just travel from point A to
point B and that is. Truly the surrounding world is beautifully drawn with
great amount of detail, bright colors and imagination, but the pure
uneventfulness of traveling make it tedious and boring. It felt like a missed opportunity.
To me the only good thing which came from those travels (other than the
beautiful world and amazing, amazing music!!!) are the dialogues with the other
characters. These are one of the two sources of lore and information about
the world. And as someone who loves delving into game lore those were great.
Speaking about the characters...
Because all the characters you meet are part of the story and I
hold pride in my fairly spoilerless ( it is a word now) reviews let me tell you how
the creatures you meet fit in the world. The world of Pyre is colorful and a
bit quirky, but at the same time serious and a bit gloomy. Its residents are
the same. You will meet speaking dogs, sentient trees and demons as well as
many others weird creatures, but all of them have their own tragedy, their
personal story and reason why they should be the ones who are going back to the
Commonwealth. Each character is distinctive and well-built with their own
specific temper and drives. But other than lore source and something to talk
with, the characters you meet will also be your adversaries or your teammates
in the Rites. And this brings us to the most controversial part of the game -
The Rites.
It is
ceremonial basketball
The Rites are the action part of Pyre. They are your objective and
your sole purpose. They are the way to return to the Commonwealth. But only if
you win enough of them. During a Rite two teams of three characters meet
in an arena. Each team has a pyre at certain health. In the middle is dropped a
fallen star which you should bring into the pyre of your opponents effectively
quenching their pyre until you extinguish it. Your adversaries are trying to do
the same.
All the characters you have managed to convince to come with you
will form your rooster and after you have more than three, before each match
you will have to pick a team. Each character has a special ability and is
useful in a team. Some are small and fast and hard to intercept, others fly,
some are big and stompy, but slow, etc. There is something for each style of
play and each is viable. Aside from special abilities each character can jump,
dash (in some form) and release his aura (in some form again) to damage
enemies. Each character, depending on their size, deal different amount of
damage to the enemy pyre.
Now I said this is the most controversial part of the game. What I
mean? The Rites are interesting to play especially against some harder opponents
and it is satisfying when you win or when you turn around a Rite, but...it
did not feel ceremonial to me. It did not feel like a Rite. It felt like a
sport match. Fun, but not in the right game...
Conclusion
Pyre bears many of the Supergiant's typical characteristics. Great
music, good atmosphere, interesting story (reminded me a bit of “Fahrenheit 451”),
looks gorgeous and alive. At the same time it is not on par with Transistor or
with Bastion. It felt a bit repetitive and on rails. True, the world opens up a
little after certain point, bit it turns into a grind basically which is bearable
only because more lore is revealed during this part. On another hand it is a
short game with its 12-15 hours length.
The strangest part? I loved it. I did not like some things, but
the more I played Pyre the more I liked it and I do not know why or how it
happened. I guess Supergiant is Supergiant after all.
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