If you've played at least one of developer Supergiant Games' previous titles (2011's Bastion or 2014's Transistor), then you probably wouldn't expect them to be making a sports RPG for their third game.
Pyre promises plenty of story (presented in text boxes), some voiced-over cutscenes, and lots of Dead Can Dance-inspired music. But instead of the genre's usual fight-'til-death battles, enemy encounters involve squads of three casting spells and firing energy beams while trying to gain control of a glowing orb that you then try to transport to the opposing team's pyre.
The PAX East demo allows only one character per side to move at any given time, with the other teammates standing in a defensive position waiting for the player to press a button and switch onto them. Supergiant's creative director Greg Kasavin says that multiplayer action scenes are something they're "looking into," even though single-player is "very much [their] focus."
Pyre challenges your party to escape purgatory by rolling a wagon across its dangerous, detour-filled overworld, while defeating any competing exiles who cross your path. Basically, it's a mystical, supernatural Oregon Trail with a much bigger backstory and Quidditch competitions replacing the buffalo hunts.
Supergiant's team of 12 people has been working on Pyre since July 2014, and they plan to release the title on PC and PlayStation 4 sometime in 2017.
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