While I found gameplay itself weaker than in "Bastion" or "Transistor" (the other two big hits from developer Supergiant Games), Pyre is the most unusual, most "experimental", and for me personally the most outstanding of the three. Pyre is an amazing visual novel with fantastic sound, music and visual style. The core gameplay could be described as a "fantasy sports game", in which two teams usually consisting of three characters each try to score points by carrying an orb into the opponent's "end zone". Gameplay itself is serviceable and fun but becomes a bit repetitive towards later stages of the game; the AI is decent but not exceptional. What really made Pyre my favorite Supergiant game is the writing. The story, the characters and the world are fascinating. The game manages to make you feel like you interact with all these elements in a meaningful way, making significant choices that directly effect both the progression of the story as well as gameplay itself. Some of the consequences of your actions (including failures) are so grave I wish the game would allow to save progression at various points so you could reload and try different approaches. Unfortunately replay value is a bit diminished since during the first two hours of the game there are not really any significant decisions to take. Also, unfortunately at the time of this review, the game lacks an online multiplayer mode; player vs player is local coop only.
