BALL x PIT is the newest offering from publisher Devolver and developer Kenny Sun. As you journey into the ruins of the town of Ballbylon (Which is basically a big ol’ hole in the ground) and dredge through the hordes of undead and monsters in search of treasure, survivors, materials and glory through a roguelite adventure like no other.
The story of BALL x PIT is a simple one, you are tasked with going through rounds and rounds of brick breaking mayhem to rebuild a new Ballbylon which is 100% going to be bigger and better than that old boring one, and you’ll do it one run at a time.
You must venture into the depths through sun, sand, crypts and much more in search of rare schematics and blueprints to help build new buildings, material points and much more which in turn gives you new characters, abilities, permanent levels and anything that can really be offered to you to improve your future delves.
There are a number of different mechanics in play when you do decide to venture into one of the many runs on offer. First of all you can catch your balls when they have hit a target and are returning to you, with some of the more fast firing characters this can be great for getting close and personal and really blasting them into enemies.
You can also combine the various balls that you get to create some truly amazing combinations. It is very similar to what people might identify as Vampire Survivors — chaotic mutator gore — with the evolutions of two combined weapons, but the fun doesn’t stop there because not only can you evolve two weapons to make a stronger one you can then combine it with yet another ball (although this is not an evolution) to add even more chaos to your combinations.
There are also a number of supporting items to help change mechanics or offer support in different ways that you can unlock as you progress although I was wondering if there would be power ups as you progress through the levels like something that lets you pick up all the XP and money on the floor but nothing popped up which was surprising.
When doing the various runs you can choose one of many unlockable characters, my personal favourite has to be the Achey Finger Sheriff who just blasts his balls into oncoming enemies as soon as he gets them back making his attacks incredibly rapid and unrelenting leaving most enemies destroyed before they’ve even had a chance to attack.
Every character you unlock has its own ball of choice as well as an ability that may or may not help you depending on the RNG of the run. Some can be used to make incredibly devastating attacks and some are slow burners that ramp up over time but require more curated choices with the items you select.
As with a lot of Devolver published games the music is pretty good but when you do end up replaying the same level over and over again it can get a bit repetitive — so I do wish that it had a few different tracks for each of its levels. It’s pretty cool to see the enemies get involved with the music as well, with the on screen hordes bouncing along and even singing — if you can call it that — to the music.
The world seems to be crafted in a very similar way to Cult of the Lamb in a sort of 2D/MD mix with most of the monsters and attacks literally jumping at you as the environment trails by. With this sort of environment it’s very easy to hyper focus and become completely absorbed with everything going on, which is a great way of keeping your attention as you will be required to grind a few of the same levels out with different characters.
Speaking of the grind in BALL x PIT, it is a game that you are going to have to play time and time again to really get anywhere with it. Whether the RNG just doesn’t work out, you slip up and take just one too many hits or you just aren’t strong enough you will be replaying levels to progress and make each character stronger.
BALL x PIT is filled with opportunities to grow, build and break a lot of brick shaped enemies and will most certainly be one to lookout for on release.
BALL x PIT is available now on PC and Mac.
