Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Pid Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Pid Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Meet You At The Bus Stop

Pid is a fascinating little gem of a game that I first got my hands on back at E3. During my (far too short) play session, I chatted with the booth reps about Pid’s hodgepodge of influences, and we chuckled that I was quick to point out some Mega Man influence, even though it was fairly hard to discern. You can’t fool a true Mega Man fan, though.

You see, there is a key game mechanic that Pid shares with my most beloved of all retro game series: the way you learn the game as you play. Just like in the Blue Bomber’s classic adventures, Pid features enemy movements that are very simple. For example, some enemies will move back and forth, turning around once they hit a ledge or a wall. Others will fly in a straight line, but they’ll only move when you get to close to them. And so on. After seeing an enemy type for the first time, you’ll quickly figure out what it’s going to do.

Pid Screenshot

That makes mastery of the game based on memorizing patterns and adapting to them on the fly. For example, you’ll see a little guy on wheels that shoots missiles on flat ground, so you can quickly learn his movement pattern. Later, you’ll see the same enemy type, only it will be up on a ledge above you. You’ll already know which direction you can expect it to move, but now that it’s above you, you’ll have to gage your jumps differently in order to hop over it without getting hit in the face by a missile. This, in my opinion, has always been a hallmark of the early Mega Man games, and Pid has picked up on it. I love that.

Now, while I could gush about design philosophy all day, I must digress and get into the real meat of the game. See, the full game is out now, and I finally got to fully explore the odd little world of Pid.

Pid tells the story of Kurt, a boy who finds himself trapped on a strange planet. There’s a bus that will take him home, but the old fogeys at the bus stop warn him that a bus hasn’t been seen in these parts for quite some time. Rather than wait, like all these other old codgers seem perfectly fine doing, Kurt decides to take action. He’s going to get to the bottom of this curious bus disappearance.

Pid Screenshot

Thus you embark on a whimsical adventure that takes you through several strangely designed environments and a global conspiracy. In fact, I would say that the entire layout of Pid’s world feels dreamlike. It wouldn’t make sense in real life if, say, the dining hall can only be reached by travelling through the attic, but in Pid’s world, that sort of nonsensical architecture is commonplace. When you couple this with the charming visual design, Pid has this overall feel that’s a bit hard to describe. It’s charming and whimsical and slightly offbeat, but it all comes together in a way that serves the game quite well.

You are aided in your explorations by several special items, the most important of which being an antigravity beam that you can place at will. If you’re confused by that statement, just think the Excursion Funnels from Portal 2 and you’ll have a pretty good idea of how these work. Using these beams, Kurt can move items, redirect projectiles, disrupt enemy patterns, and even ride to otherwise unreachable areas of the map. This is where Pid’s puzzle elements come in. You’ll spend a lot of your time trying to figure out the best strategy for moving things around with these beams so you can progress further into the game.

Pid Screenshot

Don’t expect a walk in the park, though. Sure, it starts out simple enough, but as you progress deeper into the game, you’ll find yourself having to retry several areas over and over again to get them down. I wouldn’t say I ever found myself stuck on a puzzle that I simply couldn’t figure out, but a lot of these puzzles require you to exercise dexterity and precision in order to avoid the obstacles in your path. In fact, there are some boss fights in this game that are downright brutal, especially considering Pid’s one-hit deaths. (You can offset this by acquiring upgradeable vests that will protect you to some extent, but there’s one boss in particular that will sap you of all your items before the fight starts.)

The controls here are a bit looser than I would have preferred. They’re not as “floaty” as something like, say, LittleBigPlanet, but don’t expect an über-refined Super Meat Boy-like control experience. At the same time, though, the controls work well enough that they shouldn’t hinder your progression all that much.

Now, I often feel like indie development studios have a much deeper understanding of sound than a lot of mid-level developers do, and Pid stands as a great example of why I feel this way. Pid just sounds great. It’s not an incredibly complex palette of sound effects or anything, but it’s how sound is used throughout the game that reveals just how passionate Might and Delight is when it comes to audio.

Pid Screenshot

For example, there’s one part where you must explore a gigantic, mazelike cavern. There’s this lonely saxophone melody playing the entire time, and as you move closer to the source of the sound, it becomes clearer; as you move further away from it, it becomes more echoed. Not only is this a neat effect, but it gives you an audio cue that helps you get your bearing in an area that could otherwise become frustrating. And once you reach the source of the sound, you meet a lonely saxophonist who’s trapped in the maze; what you thought was just background noise ends up being a diegetic audio element.

Also, the sound of Kurt walking on the clay tiles of the rooftops is my new favorite footstep sound effect in gaming.

Pid is a clever little indie title that looks great, sounds great, and provides a decent challenge. Sure, there’s currently an almost overwhelming deluge of triple-A blockbusters due to the holiday gaming season, but don’t let that distract you from the indie goodness that is Pid.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.5 Graphics
Pid has a great aesthetic; it’s lighthearted and dreamlike. 3.8 Control
Not as precise as I would have liked, but they work well enough. 4.8 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Might and Delight, along with Retro Family, truly understands what game audio should be. 4.0 Play Value
Multiple ways to use your gravity beam to explore the game’s stages and a wealth of well-hidden secrets just might make this worth a replay or two. 4.3 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Pid is a platform adventure game in which the player is given a rich set of features that he must use and combine to survive in the world. A wide variety of fast paced action, puzzles and precision platforming forces the player to creatively master the tools at hand. Gameplay situations can always be solved in tons of alternative ways and the rich contrast between the different locations challenges the player to adapt to enemies that demands new strategies and methods.
  • The core feature in Pid allows players to manipulate a powerful force that can be used to maneuver around the levels in thousands of unique ways. To top it off, it completely changes the way you maneuver within a 2d world. It’s also used to move enemies and objects, deflect bullets, activate machinery and change level layouts. Mastering the use of this core feature will turn everything you know about platforming upside down.
  • In Pid, two players can experience the adventure together. In coop-mode, players are expected to truly cooperate in order to safely advance through the levels. Both are highly dependent on the other, and even if friendly cooperation is a must, there is plenty of room to wildly compete and test your retro skills against your friends.
  • During the course of the game, players will experience a lovely and very special soundtrack composed and recorded by Retro Family – a small group of studio musicians that focuses on tailored music for games, films, dance and theater.

  • To top