$19.99Pit People® Turn-based tactics with a funny bone
Fight hex-grid battles in a hand-drawn post-apocalypse, recruit the enemies you beat, and drag a friend through the chaos in co-op.
Is Pit People® worth it?
Pit People® is worth it if…
- you want turn-based tactics that stay light and move fast
- you like recruiting the weird creatures you just defeated
- you want a story campaign you can play with one friend
- you enjoy a narrator with a dry joke for every disaster
- you would rather position six fighters than scroll through six menus
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Battles decided by where you stand
Combat runs on a hex grid, and the whole game hangs on positioning. Your fighters attack automatically when next to an enemy, so there are no long menus to wade through: the thinking goes into placement instead. Ranged units need clear lines of fire or they hit their own friends, and support characters open chances with buffs and healing. You decide where everyone moves and what they carry, and the fight plays out from there. One wrong step and your archer is stabbing a teammate instead of the vampire in front of them. Battles stay quick because you plan between turns, not during them.
Recruit the enemy, loot everything
Beat a foe down and leave the last one standing long enough, and you can capture it and add it to your party. The strange species you fight become the strange species you command, which keeps your roster growing in directions no class list could. On top of that come loot and customization: weapons, armor and shields with their own effects, elemental damage and resistances, so balancing a team is a puzzle in itself. With over 1,500 unlocks and more than 100 quests and missions across an open world, there is always another oddity to chase. Some players hunt specific named recruits for hours just to have them.
Bring a friend to the pit
The whole story works as two-player co-op, locally or online, and it is built for it: one player's characters can cover for the other's, and a friend can join your game to keep a story going even if they hold a character you need. When you would rather face each other, there is a local 2v2 arena, and four players can take it online for 2v2 in the pit. Sessions stay easy to set up and easy to drop into, and the chaos of two people arguing over who moves where is half the fun. It suits an evening of shared turns, shared loot and shared blame.
What about permadeath?
Can you play it solo?
Yes. There is a full single-player story mode, and it works well on its own. The co-op is a bonus, not a requirement: you can invite a second player into your game at any point, and carry on alone if they leave. If a story character is missing, another player who has them can join and fill the gap.
Is it hard to learn?
No. The combat is deliberately simple at the surface: move your fighters, and they attack on their own when adjacent to an enemy. That makes it an easy entry into tactics games, while the deeper layer of team builds, elemental effects and positioning gives you plenty to chew on as enemy formations get trickier.
What is the permadeath option?
An optional mode you can turn on for extra stakes. Dead characters stay dead for good, even story-critical ones, your save is destroyed if your whole house of characters runs out, and each fallen hero gets an obituary listing their name, level and kill count. The game presents it with a straight face and a wink. It only kicks in after the intro, so you can learn the ropes first.
How long does it take?
The story campaign is a solid stretch on its own, and the side quests pile on far more, with loot as ridiculous as they are. Finishing absolutely everything takes a very long time, so most people play it in chunks: a few quests here, an arena match there, and back whenever the mood strikes.
