Into the Pit

 PC
Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Hardcore Gamer
    Oct 18, 2021
    80
    While the start of Into the Pit is unquestionably rocky, the follow-through is a blast, with fast action and serious pyrokinetics as monsters turn into blood splats decorating the walls. While the overall theme could have been dark and gloomy, everything lights up and the darkness becomes the backdrop for the neon-magical lightshow to illuminate. The variety of enemies and level types helps each run stay engaging, and while fifteen sets of levels plus the final area can feel like a bit much, there’s no need to try to blow through it all in a couple of days. Into the Pit is about action, after all, with only just enough story to get things moving. There’s a village in trouble and a ton of monsters to destroy by way of magical annihilation, and if it takes a bit to rescue everyone they’ll be fine waiting for a combat mage to do a run or two a day until the evil is finally dispelled.
  2. The Indie Game Website
    Oct 18, 2021
    70
    I like Into the Pit a fair bit. The graphical style is nice, the combat is incredibly fluid, and the mechanics there are easy to understand, but also have a noticeable effect when spawning new dungeons. However, I also found it to be a little bit too easy for the most part. The game requires a lot of runs in order to rescue more villagers and max out your character, and it doesn’t do quite enough to keep you drawn in versus other similar games.
  3. Multiplayer.it
    Oct 31, 2021
    68
    Into the Pit is a good roguelite, with some interesting elements added to the pot. A poor polishing and the repetitive nature of its gameplay prevent the game to shine nor impress has it could have.
  5. COGconnected
    Nov 1, 2021
    67
    It’s a fast paced shooter, that feels really tight as a first person shooter. It’s meant to be played in fast bursts, so maybe it’s the perfect exciting thing to get you pumped while commuting on the bus. Or the kind of game where you breeze through the dialogue, turn off the sound and play while listening to a 25 hour audiobook. Into the Pit is a well-constructed roguelike shooting game and if you’re the kind of person who hears those words and yells, “I’m sold!” then you will probably have a lot of fun. But it’s not going to make believers out of genre-skeptics.
  6. GameCritics
    Dec 14, 2021
    65
    I have a great fondness for roguelikes, but this one puts me in a weird place. Mechanically, Into The Pit is a welcome throwback to classic FPS games with the added twist of randomized elements to keep things interesting. However, the pool of random elements is too shallow and there are not enough interesting combinations to keep all but the most dedicated players interested.
  7. Noisy Pixel
    Oct 18, 2021
    65
    It’s no doubt that Into the Pit draws heavy influence from the Doom franchise, with its old-school graphics, fast-paced shooting, and rock and roll heavy background music, but the core gameplay loop makes it hard to recommend as a rogue-like. It’s fully functional and fluid with snippets of fun thanks to its brief runs, but its lack of variation for dungeons, weapons, and bosses makes it difficult to stand out from others in the genre.
  8. PC Invasion
    Oct 18, 2021
    65
    Although it shows promise early on, Into the Pit runs out of new tricks astoundingly quickly, leading to endless repetition and a total lack of challenge.
  9. GameSkinny
    Nov 11, 2021
    60
    Into the Pit is a retro FPS/roguelike that's far less than the sum of its parts. It's got great action, but everything that surrounds it is questionable.
  10. Screen Rant
    Oct 18, 2021
    60
    Into The Pit rolls out new content far too slowly. With player upgrades that are mostly changing numbers around and rooms that aren't hard to puzzle out, playing becomes an exercise in enduring repeated content before finally stumbling onto something that makes things feel fresh. Even then, what does unlock often isn't enough to truly fuel more runs. At the end of the day, Into The Pit is too repetitive to truly succeed as a roguelike and too skim on content to survive as an FPS without those trappings.
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  1. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    Oct 18, 2021
    It’s a shame to end on such a sour note, because those earlier moments where the Pit shines are positively radiant. Battles in Into The Pit never get as intricate as a meaty fight in Doom Eternal, nor as suspenseful as the single, exquisitely choreographed encounter you’ll find in Devil Daggers, but I’d say they came close enough to make me giddy if only they came more consistently. Instead, Into The Pit descends into comfortable familiarity, and all the scuttling in the world can’t save the back half from feeling like a slog.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
4.5

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 8
  3. Negative: 3 out of 8
  1. hamik17594
    Nov 9, 2021
    0
    There might be something fun somewhere in Into The Pit, but after several hours in the game, I sure haven't found it. It's been a long timeThere might be something fun somewhere in Into The Pit, but after several hours in the game, I sure haven't found it. It's been a long time since I experienced combat this unimaginative. I've maybe never seen upgrades this worthless. All wrapped up in a world where nothing is readable and it wouldn't look good even if it was. Into The Pit can go Into The Bin.… Full Review »
  2. bobby_heat
    Oct 27, 2021
    5
    I'm not a tryhard at all... but this was by far the easiest roguelike I have ever played. I think I died 7-8 times throughout the entire game,I'm not a tryhard at all... but this was by far the easiest roguelike I have ever played. I think I died 7-8 times throughout the entire game, until the true credits rolled. If you have any ability to understand combo potential and stacking upgrades, the combat becomes essentially meaningless because of the unbalanced power - but still fun (think Quake or Doom). I played the entire game with a single-shot sniper spell in my left hand, and a spray/shotgun spell in my right. I just stacked damage and DOT upgrades on top of those every time, and upgraded all the health support runes.

    The game is also unfortunately very shallow in how it approaches randomization: you have a crystal for each zone (a zone is just a series of five layers of four rooms, then a boss - a.k.a. "a run") and you can mix two crystals together to make another zone that is just a mishmash of enemy types and textures from the two you used to make the new one.

    Each zone has 3 villagers in it. You save all 3 by completing the zone. There are 45(ish) villagers in the game, but you only need to save 30 to unlock the crystal for the final zone and boss. That's the entire game.

    I'm glad I got this on gamepass, and the only reason I kept playing until the end was because it felt like playing Quake or Doom. My total playtime was around 10-11 hours to see the credits. Most of my deaths were caused by things outside of my control, like getting caught on wall textures or being overwhelmed as soon as I spawn by what felt like an enemy spawn glitch.

    Only purchase this if you are an FPS junkie and have absolutely nothing else to do with a weekend. Even then, just get gamepass, try the game a bit, and then play one of the better games on there for the rest of the weekend.    … Full Review »
  3. hosolah302
    Oct 21, 2021
    2
    Into The Pit stumbles in two major areas: gameplay and progression. Fundamentally, it's "Quake but with bad visual design and worse levelInto The Pit stumbles in two major areas: gameplay and progression. Fundamentally, it's "Quake but with bad visual design and worse level design?" and the progression is such a convoluted, grinding, unrewarding waste of time that the game seems to WANT you to stop playing it. We're immediately grinding for 'motes' which serve a variety of unclear functions, none of which improve the gameplay to the point of tolerability. You know those games that give you upgrade options like "Your projectiles move %1 faster" when projectile speed is functionally irrelevant? This is that.… Full Review »
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