Sword of the Stars: The Pit

 PC
Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. RPG Fan
    Apr 10, 2019
    81
    Whether played with DLC or not, The Pit is one of the more solid roguelike titles on Steam, especially in a relatively flooded market. It is challenging but generally fair and allows the player a lot of choices in character development while providing a good atmosphere for dungeon delving. While its graphics and sound may not impress, The Pit's gameplay will keep players unafraid of long streaks of failure and ensure they come back to challenge it "just one more time."
  2. NZGamer
    Apr 24, 2013
    75
    If you’re really into the roguelike genre, you’ll enjoy this game. I can’t claim to have been blown away by it, but there were certainly some very cool moments during my playthrough and as this game won’t set you back a huge amount on Steam anyway, if you’re craving some retro, sci-fi action, you could do worse than Sword of the Stars: The Pit.
  3. Destructoid
    Apr 1, 2013
    75
    While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with Sword of the Stars: The Pit, there just isn't anything that is really mind-blowing. It is a well-polished roguelike that doesn't stray far from expectations, but instead stays in a rather comfortable zone from a game design perspective.
  5. PC Gamer
    Apr 24, 2013
    73
    While its RPG aspirations may be overshadowed by your need to constantly source the basics like ammo and health, The Pit--with its random elements and permadeath--is justified in its boast of replayability, even if it is only out of necessity. [May 2013, p.61]
    All this publication's reviews
  6. GameStar
    Apr 9, 2013
    67
    Quotation forthcoming.
  7. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Sep 19, 2013
    60
    An interesting choice if you long for a proper challenge, and you don't mind there's no feast to your eyes. However, if rogue genre says nothing to you, take a different road. [Issue#232]
    All this publication's reviews
  8. IGN Italia
    Mar 9, 2013
    55
    The latest entry in the Sword of the Stars series is a flawed dungeon-crawler, with uninspiring 16 bit style graphics and questionable game-design choices. Kerberos' challenge is not fair, even for the die hard fans of the genre: if you want to have some fun, play FTL: Faster Than Light instead.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 97 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 64 out of 97
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 97
  3. Negative: 13 out of 97
  1. suneater
    Jun 23, 2013
    2
    Shallow, repetitive, rogue-like in space with overly strong randomization. There's too many enemies and not enough armor, weapons, or ammo toShallow, repetitive, rogue-like in space with overly strong randomization. There's too many enemies and not enough armor, weapons, or ammo to deal with them all. If you somehow manage to get to lower floors, there's also the problem of disease (snowballing DoT and stat debuff that is extremely hard to remove), starvation, and enemies that level up faster than your weapons. It is not uncommon to reach floor 10 and find no new weapons, or even worse, find weapons but no ammo for them (or visa versa).

    All of the randomization is too strong, stat and skill systems are shallow, combat is tedious and repetitive, and the overall difficulty is unrealistic. Be prepared to die to lockers setting off alarms, ammo boxes exploding, and randomized traps randomly disintegrating your main weapon. There are better rogue-likes available (most of them free), better sci-fi games, and better $10 games on Steam.    … Full Review »
  2. Koo
    Mar 11, 2013
    10
    Sword of the Stars: The Pit is a modern day classic. The game's premise as simple: Playing as one of three characters in a futuristic sci-fiSword of the Stars: The Pit is a modern day classic. The game's premise as simple: Playing as one of three characters in a futuristic sci-fi setting, you set out to explore "The Pit", scavenging for supplies, and defeating enemies as you go. However, behind this simple premise lies a mixture of strategy and tactics the player must use to survive. Each class has its pros and cons, and none of the three classes supplied makes this game a walk in the park. The Pit can be frustrating at times un-successful item crafting, not having the skills to use the itemse collected, and dying from wounds or poison. But that's part of the fun. If you are looking for a challenging game (even on Normal difficulty) that evokes memories of classic RPGs from days gone by, I highly recommend The Pit. The only downside to this game is the chiptune music, which can be easily disabled in the Options menu. If you are looking for a really fun single player RPG with crafting elements and permanent death, then check out The Pit. Recommended.… Full Review »
  3. Galwail
    Mar 9, 2013
    9
    The Pit is a new sci-fi rogue-like RPG game set on a distant planet, which was stricken by a terrible disaster. You take the role of a loneThe Pit is a new sci-fi rogue-like RPG game set on a distant planet, which was stricken by a terrible disaster. You take the role of a lone hero and descent into the ancient alien research facility to try to save the world. The facility of course turns out to be a giant deathtrap filled with deadly monsters that try to kill you in many horrible ways. To survive you have to use every bit of skill in weapons, looting a crafting you have. The game has four difficulty levels. The easiest one is still very challenging and finishing the game on any harder difficulty is incredibly difficult. All in all the game is a blast and has everything a good rogue-like should have plus very nice polished graphics and lots of lore and back-story that you can piece together during multiple playthroughs. There are just two UI issues that lessen the overall game experience. There is no zoom level that allows you to see as far as your character sees. That means you will sometimes get gunned down by enemies that hides outside of your screen. The second one is the inability to aim your gun with mouse. The entire game interface is mouse friendly and clickable, but you have to aim with arrow keys. That is something you would expect from a bad console port, but in this case the game controls have been dumbed down on purpose to allow easier porting to consoles in the future. That is something I don’t like at all.… Full Review »
See all user reviews »