After the story of a boy in a disintegrating world and an equally exciting adventure with a girl and a sword that tells me, or to me one of the best games in the last few years, I did not expect the Supergiant Development Team to surprise me again as the first two times. About how I was wrong, since I was literally shocked when I heard that their upcoming project is a kind of hybrid sports betting with the ball, similar basketball, and action RPG!

I have to admit that I was beginning to feel uncomfortable at first, because I was not an overwhelming fan of sports titles, but I was afraid that the story would be thrown into the second plan for a new approach. However, once I sat down and played the first few hours of Pyre, I saw a clear handwriting of Bastion and Transistor creators, and all of my fears just disappeared, replaced with the sense of excitement in the tense sports fighting called Rites or translated rituals.

The story between rituals plays an important role, since each fight can be overcome or lost, which will later have a clear impact on the development of the act and the relationship between the characters and the enemies. Complete action occurs in some kind of cleansing called Downside, and full of characters that have somehow sagged in the upper world and are thrown down because of their part. But what would this be a purgation if there was no way out of it?

Rites are the way to go back to the ordinary world, and your main character, known only as a Reader whose role to play, and his Nightwing comrades are just one of the teams fighting for this goal. The team members are truly diverse and unforgettable, from the eccentric serpent knight Sir Gilmana who will laugh you again with his knights, submerged the inhabitants of the swamp Bertrude to the supersympathic impa called Ti’zo who communicates with sweet shouts from which you can know his or her perceptions about the situation .

Once acquainted with them, as well as the surrounding locations and its rich history, you will want to explore all the countless curiosities of this world. Unfortunately, it is fairly straightforward to navigate through, choosing one of the offered ways that can affect the characters and the next fight. You will feel the constant desire to drive and explore the complete Downside, which Pyre does not really allow us to.

And enough to put a couple of views on our picture gallery to let you know why I want it because the world of Downside is one of the most beautiful graphic art pieces I’ve ever seen. There is a lot of detail, the color and the shadowing shades that make each folder as something that would have liked to go to the wall of your living room.

I played Pyre on the PS4 Pro and did not have absolutely no performance issues, the only objection could go to the controls that are more suited to the mouse and keyboard than the controller. It is a bit unusual to use the cursor with the help of the mushroom on the console, especially on the menus where it would be much more logical to use the up and down keys.

One thing that provokes me again and again, so positive, is the soundtrack from Supergiant Games. I know the segment of music does not matter to anyone, but it’s very important to me, so much so that even today, my favorite music playlists have things from Transistor. Music in Pyre is excellent again and if you already have it, you must buy a soundtrack edition because you will not make a mistake. The amount of great songs is really amazing, I have a couple of colleagues who have bought a game for the soundtrack so they can not boast a lot of titles. I still have to make them play and fight.

Each fight consists of a fight between three and three, aiming at the ball or throwing it into an opponent’s fracture by taking them away, while keeping the same enemies doing the same on the other side. To win, it is necessary to reduce the opponent’s flip to zero, where you can use various special characters, from acceleration, different types of jumps and special powers.

It is also interesting that at the same time you can only use one fighter, and the same is true of an opponent, regardless of whether they were in attack or defense. When defending, it is necessary to touch the ball opponent by temporarily throwing it out of the arena and the ball falls to the field and is ready to be attacked by your opponents or opponents.

Once you’re in the fight, you can countless possibilities and tactics, from the crazy combinations of fast and slow characters, a clever setting of defense to a quick balloon addition to protect the fighters from rolling out the map. Pyre is not trying once when you get in, but there is an option to add different handicaps that make it harder for you to fight, but bring better rewards as well.
In addition to the story mode, Pyre also offers a local multiplayer for up to two players or an AI fighter that can help you train your skills. I believe that fighting actual fighters is probably more challenging, but unfortunately I did not have the chance to try it locally, which is why I’m most sorry for the lack of online matches I’m confident to come up with as an excellent addition.

Pyre ultimately brings a lot of things to the table, from truly beautiful locations complemented by even better music support, crazy fighting that will put you on another party and a lot of good stories already standard for the Supergiant Development Studio. If you add this to the ability to switch over to additional elements, a different story and a higher weight, and a local multiplayer, it’s not a big problem to recommend it, especially at an affordable starting price of 20 euros.