Pyre

Amazing art, fantastic music, pretty good story and super repetitive gameplay which has almost zero depth and appeal. I really want to like this game, because it has so many original concepts. The story design and narrative choices are really intersting: - the whole concept of letting go of the characters you care about the most feels really fresh. - how the story and the characters are reflected by the soundtrack, it feels almost like a musical at times. - the lore of the game is fun to learn about. But the "game" part is just mediocre at best. It is so very limited and the the most effective tactic, which is wiping enemy team with aura blasts and then dousing the pyre, feels almost like not playing the "correct" way. When I was done with around the half of the game I lowered the difficulty settings to easiest to be able to quicker finish the chore of the liberation rites and to get the rest of the story. I think I would prefer if Pyre would be just a visual novel, without the forced (mini)game. This is really great story to watch and to talk about but very sadly, as a game it is not much fun to play. I skimmed through the reviews of Pyre here on GOG, and it seems a lot of people call the gameplay "interesting sports game", "replayable" or even "incredibly fun". To each his own I guess... I strongly recommend to check how the gameplay actually looks on youtube before buing this, the marketing of this game is pretty misleading.

It's good to see this finally on GOG. I enjoyed the Steam version when it first came out. The story is mostly told through almost a visual novel setup broken up by some interesting single-player co-operative sports game. You have to swap between your selected party members to try to put out your enemy's pyre. Be careful, though, as the members you aren't controlling at the time are vulnerable. You have to lean to control a team a single party member at a time in real time. The graphics are beautifully done and the music memorable. It's Supergiant, what more do you want? The Steam Linux port ran great (tested with Ubuntu 16.04) with gamepad (xpad and xboxdrv) support. I assume the GOG version is the same as the Steam version as it didn't require Steam DRM to run.

The music in Pyre is great, and the visuals and artwork is really pretty, but that's pretty much it. In the beginning of the game I found the characters and story interested, and the rites gameplay felt fresh. I still think the rites is a cool concept gameplaywise, but it falls short. For one I don't think the gameplay matched the theme of the game. The theme is that 3 characters have to work together and act as 1, but in reality I'd always end up only controlling one character per round. Morover there's this kind of inputlag or delay which is very frustrating. But most of all it got old really fast. Which could be said about the game in it's entirety in my opinion. When I'd been playing for a while it felt like a chore to read the book of rites or talking to your, rather predictable, companions. The worst thing is the cycles. I understand that it make sense storywise, and that it's supposed to help you feel for the characters but it didn't do it for me at all. I didn't find traversing the downside fun. There was no reason to go out of your way to explore, which felt like a waste of the beautiful scenery. I kept playing, partly 'cause I'd put a good ammount of time into the game and partly because I wanted the game to be "saved" by the story. For me it wasn't. Everytime I'd finnish a liberation rite I'd hope it'd be the last. I really wanted to write this since none of the other reviews are close to reflecting my experience. Sadly the game left me with feelings of disappointed. This type of game should be right up my alley, but were it not for the music and the art I wouldn't have finnished it.

When I started it I felt that the creators went for a kind of 'banner saga' feel but fel short. By the end, I can say, it's something completely different than Banner saga. I really enjoy the Rites. One thing that in my opinion might, well.... I would have liked to see it differenty is the scenery. They look a bit childish. I hoped for something more, i don't know..... reffined, mature. The ones in Bastion were a lot better. By the end of the game I ended up attached to everyone of the team. Overall - Wonderfull experience, would buy it again!