I always love the booth set up by The Behemoth at PAX West. It’s always a great visual landmark, since the giant ceiling-strung mobile is eye catching, as are the vending machines, merch booth, custom arcade cabinets and more. You just can’t miss them, and that’s a good thing, since they make pretty fun games. This year, as in previous PAX adventures, I got to get my hands on Game 4, now called Pit People. This represents Behemoth’s first foray into the realm of tactical adventure. But you know all that already, and probably want to know what’s new. Well, the easy answer is the co-op aspect of the game!
While you would be understandably confused about how a tactics game could be played with local co-op, rest assured it works pretty damn well. Basically one player drives, choosing where you go on the map and engaging foes in battle. The second player can work to distract or stun foes on the map, and once you start a fight, both players control their teams independently, while also working together. See, the enemy AI doesn’t care who they kill, but they will actively work to murder both teams at once. So it will take good strategy to keep your teams of misfits alive.
Speaking of misfits, I got to try out a couple of new classes this time around. Besides the supporting cast of characters, you can also recruit random critters. While some, such as the delightfully morose looking Cupcakes, we already knew about, it’s still a joy to see them hurling sweets at your team to heal you every round. Some of the newer ones I encountered were the Mascot, which are all adorable looking units that buff nearby party members; the Cyclops, a unit so massive they take up two spots on your team, and can dish out a ton of damage; and last but not least the Pixie, whom float about and deal ranged damage.
Every unit essentially plays the same, but I was happy to see they have improved the UI to better communicate attack range and other necessities. To be honest, I was more than a little rusty this time around, and kind of struggled to play deep strategy, but that was on me, and not the game itself.
I’m pleased to see that Pit People is shaping up to be a worthy successor to the previous Behemoth games, and look forward to when it eventually releases on Steam. In the meantime, you can check it out on XBox One Beta now, with Steam not too far behind. It should be great for my insane tactical strategy fix.
