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Into the Pit is a fast-paced boomer-shooter (DOOM style) roguelite about saving villagers from a downtrodden city in need of serious help due to an overwhelming evil. With it being reministact of old-school shooters, each player from that time or someone who has an interest with them will feel right at home. Fast moving and hard-hitting enemies which demand some serious back-peddling and side-strafing are at the fore-front of those shooters, as is in Into the Pit. Those said enemies could have been more aggressive and or annoying, rather than just waiting for you to kill them. Gameplay bordering on the grindy with (surprisingly) little variation in terms of weapons do set it back quite a bit. Story is placeholder at best, implemented to make you do the same repetitive dungeons over and over. However, the soundtrack is great and perfectly matched each atmosphere. In addition, we have difficulty which shouldn’t be this easy at all, no game should strive to be as hard as possible, as to not feel cheap, but each player should be encouraged to die in a roguelite. That is the magic of roguelike/roguelite style games is that you die constantly, and by dying you are learning more and more, which in the end, after you defeat the treacherous boss, that earned feeling cannot be beat. I failed to die in Into the Pit (these are words which shouldn’t be stated for any roguelite).
Gameplay:
Being a roguelite adventure, Into the Pit is doing the same few dungeon runs with different variations in terms of enemies, weapons, buffs/debuffs ,locations, hazards, and much more. Let's get into how gameplay feels first and that would be floaty, due to heavy restrictions of weapons, and enemies starting to aggravate when you are way too close, most of the game is just a breeze. There are only about 5-8 different dungeon room layouts and those hinder the game in a big way. Down in the ‘Music and soundtrack’ category you will see me nagging about how the enemies will give out their position constantly. Here in the gameplay section we will be talking about behaviour and overall AI. Let's start off with behaviour, enemies are normally spawned in when you reach a certain position in said route and on the way to that said position, there are between 2-3 and none enemies there to offer a challenge. Now, I don’t know if it's to save on resources or something else, but normally Unity doesn’t suffer that much when it tries to render more than what is present in Into the Pit. Onto the second point and that would be AI, and how needlessly careful it is. Down in the Music section I stated that they give out their position thanks to them making constant sounds, so in that logic there is no reason to put them behind corridors as they wouldn’t scare anyone or move fast enough to end you (if you have more than 1 HP present). Since turret/flying type enemies can shoot you use them to create considerable tension, make the flying ones move faster but deal less damage (just to balance things out), in a way make them annoying and not just stronger. The other archetypes I would make them more aggressive, add an option to make them roam around and when they see you, and if they are ranged, stay where they are and just shoot, rather than moving in a straight line just asking to be shot.
You are tasked to travel to a few different dimensions each with their own biome and enemies, these dungeons are divided into 5 floors with the fifth being the boss room. Each floor has 8 doors each with a different sign above them to signal what kind of room it is, with differences in terms of what resources you get from them that all come to what you need for upgrades. When a door is chosen and (hopefully) completed, you are brought back into the lobby area where you pick another upgrade to make upcoming challenges easier. It all comes down to what you need at this particular time, as when a door is finished, the door next to it becomes unavailable, sort of a small minigame in between all the action.
Read a book, learn some spells, enter literal hell and destroy demons. The normal way to any reader's heart.
Story:
An overarching villain is at the forefront here with, he is there after every successful dungeon run to taunt you into going back and to stop your good deeds because they are futile. You get little tidbits of lore mostly through banter between each character in the village, where each does want to work with you and help you, but first you need to get enough villagers back before they can open.
Graphics:
Old timey but respectable, as previously mentioned, Into the Pit is mainly focused around fast-paced movement and killing enemies in a few hits. Since that is the case, graphics are only needed as a framework so that other mechanics can shine. Each dungeon has an unique biome and with that different terrain (at least those 5-8 different variations), unique enemies, colours changing depending on which upgrades you pick and much more. Furthermore, the area between picking different dimensions is where it’s unique, and that would be the village area.That said area is deeply set in fog (in a reddish colour), tight roads, broken and or darkened windows, barricaded and or locked doors, you can’t see anything or anyone, but those villagers can see you perfectly, a rather unnerving feeling to be honest.
Music and soundtrack:
In terms of overall soundtrack Into the Pit offers a mix of heavy-hitting but fast paced to slow and methodical pieces with deep seated dread. Each dimension has its own ‘feel’ thanks to the level design, but to an extent even the soundtrack. The arcane bolts depending on which variation you choose have a pretty accurate sound mix to elaborate with how much force the enemies are being struck. And now we get to another sour point and that is enemies grunts and roars, I can hear them from the other side of the dungeon and I can pinpoint from where they are going to come from. Rather than them giving out their position even before you lay your eyes upon them, it would have been better for some to sneak up and startle you.
You're a mage set out to kill enemies in a bottomless pit, but that doesn't mean you don't have a killer taste in music.
Characters:
Into the Pit is about a few people around the village and your playable character, however only your character is actually 3D and present, all the villagers are just doors with which you can interact and you get static 2D pictures with some accompanied text. With the game being as short as it is, we didn’t really need more in this aspect to be honest.
Weapon variety:
In the world of Into the Pit you are playing a mage to an extent, who has very few options in terms of what actual magic that can be cast. Here we have a few different arcane bolts, normal (1 click 1 bolt), burst (3 quick succession bolts), sniper (long range with high damage), explosion (1 explosive AoE (area of effect) but small range). Each of these does change up your approach to combat and with the addition of having different stats attached to it, be it faster shooting speed, bleeding or fire damage, slow down enemies, enrage after being hit and more. These additional stats can be gathered after finishing each subsequent run, however, since we are doing almost the same dungeons, in the same rooms, with the same enemies and weapons, it still isn’t enough. In my opinion it would have been better to have more of a balance between weapons and stats, reduce possible affliction to each weapon and add more variations of arcane bolts.
Difficulty:
If I failed to die in a roguelike then something is seriously wrong, there were times where it got seriously close, but those were far in between. Implementing those stated above changes in the Gameplay section would do wonders.
Into the Pit is a cute little indie game with simple mechanics, an element of nostalgia, limited variation in terms of dungeons and weapons, but made with passion from the fellas over at Nullpointer Games, and this being their first game is promising for sure.
You can find Into the Pit on Windows (Steam, GOG.com, Humble Bundle, Green Man Gaming, Xbox App) and on Xbox One.
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