Pyre

Last year the folks behind Bastion & Transistor — Supergiant Games — released a new game called Pyre.

People looking at the Supergiant titles in the past looked forward to a similar game. Good writing, decent story tying everything together but the cream that rises to the top is the audio, music and visuals. The mechanical & emotional draws in Bastion & Transistor were never at the same level as the dream visual & audio components on show.

Pyre is set in a mystical world, as other Supergiant games are. But instead of relying on turn-by-turn combat, it has a really interesting sporty twist that apes some sort of Basketball/football type of game. Each round moves the story forward, is set in a beautiful looking world and allows you enough freedom to choose your ever-expanding cast to change the matches you part-take in.

The narrative involves an ever expanding cast of antihero, exiled characters that part-take in a league against various adversaries in this basketball type game.

I tended to pick each character based on how affable they were for me, rather than their skills. It didn’t really matter, but the fact that you can change the game based on your preference is new to this type of game. Moreover, Supergiant’s past has always involved a fairly apathetic view of their characters. In Pyre, everyone is really likable. And they all have their own twists that have something culturally additive to the story.

As expected in these types of games, there is a point-and-click area that allows you to dig into the lore of the story as well as the background of the characters. It ties things together nicely, but as the player you need to actually want to dig in.

Overall, this game is hugely satisfying. Yes, the music & visual cues are stunning — especially on a 4K screen. But this is a whole new area for Supergiant Games. It must have been a risk for them to take such a departure from their prior catalogue. A real-time sports game in their style is fantastic. It’s not without flaw, but it is a brilliant game and I found myself enamoured with it when I spent time with it.

Yes, this has been out for a year now. But if you’ve not already given it a chance, please do. This is a stunner that’s worth a few hours investment of your time.