December 4th, 2012 | By Tom Christiansen
Tagged in: might and delight | pid | Platformer | puzzler | review
(Editor’s Note: Just hours after my review was posted, Might & Delight announced they have re-edited all of the levels in the game to make way for a new casual mode. My review of Pid is based on my experiences before the difficulty adjustments. I will spend a few hours playing with the new update, and if I feel that the changes alter my opinion enough to warrant a score change, it will be reflected in another update. Please keep that in mind as you read. Thanks. -Tom)
Pid is an interesting game. Stylistically, Pid is one of the best games I’ve seen come out this year, everything about the game’s visual style is beautiful. Unfortunately, that glamor can only pull so much of the dead weight that comes with the frustration that the gameplay brings.
Might & Delight developed and released Pid, their first game, a little over a month ago. Might & Delight is a development team, founded in 2010, composed of both industry veterans and independent developers. The team developed Pid for the Xbox 360, PC, and Mac. A PlayStation 3 version is planned, but no official release date has been announced yet.
Pid puts players in the shoes of schoolboy, Kurt. On his way home from school, Kurt finds himself teleported to another planet. Everything seems very Earth-like, until Kurt approaches the first town, and finds robots sitting on the bus bench. They are all bearded (robots on this planet sport hair) and weary, having sat there for decades, waiting for the next bus to show up. At once, it becomes immediately apparent that Kurt won’t be able to simply catch a ride back to earth. So, ever the optimist, Kurt sets off to figure out how to get home, and thus the story begins.
Shortly after encountering the bearded robots, Kurt comes into possession of a special gem that allows him to lay down a gravity-beam that levitates most anything, including Kurt. Pid holds your hand for awhile, as you get used to how you can use the gem to levitate yourself up into the air, and propel yourself sideways from walls when you throw the gem at a vertical structure.
Floating around is fun for a few minutes, but the novelty quickly wears off, as the first portion of the game seems to drag on. I was getting bored with the game, literally fifteen minutes into it. I gave the game the benefit of the doubt though, figuring it was catering to players who may not play that many games. Which is perfectly fine, and in fact, I encourage things like that.
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Tom Christiansen (241 posts)
The Editor in Chief of IGM, Tom is essentially a nerdy Viking. He has a near constant craving for burgers and beer, and satisfies his instinct to pillage and plunder through video games. Tom stands tall, bearded, and doesn't care much for small talk. He loves talking about indie games though, so never hesitate to tweet him: @TomScott90 or email him: tom@indiegamemag(dot)com.