In the few hours I was able to get some friends together to play this mode, it only made me all the more saddened that there wasn’t the ability to play the game online. However, there is a local multiplayer mode, which also allows you to play one-off matches against the computer. I would love to have spent evenings engaged in the multiplayer of Pyre the same way you can with games like Rocket League or Blood Bowl, but Pyre doesn’t have online multiplayer. The only problem is that the title is in no way equipped to fully explore the competitive multiplayer experience that is begging to be had. Supergiant seems to have almost accidentally created a strategy sports game that is like a more intensely focused version of real-time Blood Bowl. Whether I was playing against the computer or friends, strategies would always naturally differ as one team tried to outsmart the other. The best thing about Pyre is that all of these strategies are valid and all of them have their merits. Or you could try to use one of the faster characters, get the orb before anyone else has a chance and sneak through their defenses, aggressively playing for quick points. Maybe you’ll attempt to banish the entire other team before trying to possess the ball. The celestial orb drops into the center of the field at the beginning of each round, so maybe you’ll try to move your team up, one at a time, without picking up the orb to try and secure some ground. The act of doing this all feels great, avoiding enemies is a thrill and banishing them is satisfying - though jumping in the pyre can be difficult due to the camera angle.īut there are deeper strategies that quickly become apparent.
You can try to get close to the ball-carrier and banish them by hitting them with the aura surrounding you, or you can try to shoot your aura at them and banish them that way. Ostensibly, it is a game of cat and mouse, one team has the ball and the other team is trying to banish the player with the ball by hitting them with their aura. Hopefully all of these rules haven’t overwhelmed you and you can kind of see how strategies might work. If they toss the ball in, they may remain on the field.
#Pyre switch full#
Lastly, after running or slamming the ball into your opponent’s pyre that player is banished for a full round. Different types of players each have their own special aura attacks that they can use to banish opposing players. Auras can be shot at players in a straight line, detonated like an exploding bomb, or dragged behind the player leaving a trail. The player carrying the ball doesn’t have an aura and cannot shoot their aura. Each player has an aura around them that cannot be touched, if a player crosses into another player’s aura they are banished from the field of play for a few seconds. Only one player on each team of three can move at a time, and if your team has the ball only the player carrying the ball can move. Of course there are additional rules, which are worth listing. Depending on how you put the ball in your opponent’s pyre a certain amount of points are deducted (usually both teams start with 100 points) - once one team’s pyre reaches “0”, the match is ended and that team loses. To do this, one team must carry the Celestial Orb (a ball) and toss it, slam it, or carry it into the opposing team’s pyre (a large, ceremonial fire). In a match, two teams of three compete to extinguish each other’s pyre.
But Pyre is an invented sport, like Blood Bowl or Quidditch - something riffing on familiar sports motifs, but new nonetheless. Even something like Supergiant’s previous effort Transistor felt somewhat familiar in terms of its mechanics. Usually the mechanics and systems are easily described by a tradition of what came before them. While the words “unique gameplay” are thrown around a lot, it’s rare that developers are actually inventing a new type of game.
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