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Pyre

Pyre - Hands-on Impressions

We recently played Supergiant Games' Pyre and had a chat with studio director Amir Rao.

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Pyre is the third game from Supergiant Games, a studio that's given us Bastion and Transistor in the past, and this new game feels unique and different, yet familiar at the same time - a testament to Supergiant's skill when it comes to world building and narrative. Perhaps the narrator and the audio track are what really makes Pyre unmistakable as a Supergiant production. There's just a particular atmosphere and mood to the game that is quite unique to this developer. All in all it's very inviting and the beginnings of the game certainly fill us with curiosity. This unknown purgatory is a place that's shrouded in mystery, so much so that the characters, or exiles as they're called, that make up your group are wearing masks when you first meet them.

"We always want to make these rich game worlds that are filled with mystery and with questions and our creative director Greg [Kasavin] who works on this game I think has done an amazing job at creating a new world here," says studio director Amir Rao. "[The world] has a lot of lore you can dive into if you if you're interested in figuring out more about this world and the characters in it."

Clearly Pyre offers a unique world, a feel, and a look unlike anything else you've played, with the exception of maybe Bastion and Transistor, but Supergiant Games aren't content with that. They also want the mechanics to stand out, and while it would make a ton of sense with a turn-based combat system or perhaps a real-time one featuring ability cooldowns, Pyre offers something completely different, with combat taking the shape of a sport, a miniature version of American football if you will, where the objective is to move an orb into the opposing team's goal zone (or pyre as it is called).

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There are various map layouts with obstacles that will both be hindrance and that will aid you as you'll want to target and take out opponents (hitting a player that carries the ball with an attack, temporarilly removes them from the court), and avoid them doing the same to you. You can only move one player at a time during this, though, so it's very tactical affair where you position your players for offensive and defensive tasks.

"People say it has some sports elements, but we really look at it like our battle system," says Rao. "It's how do you resolve these mystical competitions by positioning your guys right and using skill-based shots, and casting, and throwing to finally extinguish the rival pyre."

Your team of characters has various abilities and traits, and this also reflects in how many points you get by scoring with them. The fastest player on your team may be the easiest to score with, but you won't get as many points as you would were you to score with your larger, slower, tank-like character. You also have the tactical choice of trying to throw the orb into the goal zone or to play it safe and run into it. The 'matches' are played three on three and there's the twist that the player that scores is banished for the next round, meaning there's a built-in rubberband effect that player skill can easily overcome.

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There's nothing to say you can't score with just two players on your team as you only move one player at a time, but obviously you're more vulnerable. It's difficult to explain the sport fully with written words, but once you sit down for a few minutes with the game it quickly becomes very intuitive. It's a system that relies heavily on risk and reward; overextend yourself and you'll be harshly penalised, but at the same time pulling off a risky move can make all the difference in the tug-of-war these rites typically end up as.

"It's an ancient competition where these two teams of three face off and the more that you prevail, the closer you get to a chance to actually liberate one of these exiles," explains Rao.

There's certainly a great sense of a massive skill gap between a player who really uses all the systems and plays tactically as opposed to someone who just tries to get the ball and score as soon as possible, and so it's only natural that there will be a versus mode for players who want to test their skills against human opposition.

These rites are what forms the main gameplay as you travel through the Downside in the hopes of earning redemption for one of your teammates. It's a risky move as it requires a very different mindset than what you'd normally need for a combat system in an RPG, nevertheless, it does come with the sort of depth needed to satisfy those who enjoy min/maxing, and character progression will certainly have tremendous impact on your tactics.

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"One of the most flattering things that people say is that they can still tell it's us, even though we're trying something new and different with this game," says Rao. "It's a party-based RPG so it has a larger cast of characters that you can get closer to and that even translates into the gameplay where you control multiple characters in these mystical competitions. Still, with all that change and it's not another isometric action-RPG, people are still sort of allowing us to do this and are excited about it."

We started this preview by mentioning how much the game comes across as the work of Supergiant Games, and a large part of that is the audio landscape that composer Darren Korb brings. The relaxed and dream-like atmosphere from both Bastion and Transistor really comes across in the soundtrack here. It adds a dimension of mistrust to the narrative, and to the sense that you're not being told the whole truth by anyone you run into. Perhaps that will also play into the decisions you make as you traverse this world - who of the fellow exiles deserve a second chance? It's an interesting question to be faced with, as for the most part RPGs revolve around saving the world and everyone in it.

Ever since Bastion, Supergiant Games has distinguished themselves as an independent developer that delivers fresh ideas, with audio-visual flair, not to mention narratives that create food for thought. There's no reason to expect anything less from Pyre.

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