Nothing brings people together in uncertain times quite like food. Get to talking and laughing and reminiscing over a meal, and suddenly things don’t seem so bleak anymore, even if only temporarily. A Pizza Delivery is all about rediscovering the spark through these little moments of human connection — just strangers bonding over a slice of pizza, and regaining a bit of hope in the process. It’s wistful and heartfelt in a kind of vague, nonspecific way, with some beautiful scenery and an atmospheric soundtrack to really hammer home the vibes.
Still, while A Pizza Delivery feels close to achieving its goals, it could use more polishing to fully get there. It’s not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a cozy evening in, but you’ll have to look past the parts where it’s a little broken.
A Pizza Delivery begins with its main character, B, delivering a pizza to an apartment in a strange building in the middle of nowhere. Then a pay phone outside rings, and B’s boss tells her there’s just one last delivery she has to make. But, there’s a spare pizza pie in her scooter’s cargo box too, to share slices with anyone else she comes across during the journey.
The place B has found herself in is not normal reality, but “a space where people go when they are stuck in life, feeling empty and unfulfilled.” Each area seems its own wholly distinct little world: an empty city, a broken down factory that sits beneath dancing auroras, a prairie where a sole cottage stands among a smattering of sunflowers. You must explore the ins and outs of each area to help get B to her final destination and piece together her story, collecting items and solving some light puzzles to unlock whatever comes next.
What this game really has going for it is the mood. There’s a kind of Wristcutters: A Love Story feeling to the whole thing that I couldn’t help but latch onto. The offbeat, crestfallen characters you encounter each have their own sad story to tell, but after a bit of conversation and a slice of pizza, they’re off to (hopefully) make a fresh start and reclaim their lives. The general sense is that B will have the same opportunity if she can push through and complete her mission.
And we did get there in the end, but there were some serious hiccups along the way. Controlling B’s scooter is a somewhat clunky experience, and if you make the mistake of dismounting while it’s still moving, B will end up stuck in a cursed, floating arabesque that won’t let up for an indeterminable amount of time. I found myself repeatedly trapped in this broken position when trying to switch from riding the scooter to walking. The alternative is to come to a full stop and wait out the subsequent animation, which involves B very slowly parking and engaging the kickstand.
Most of the puzzles were fairly easy to figure out, but one in which B has to trudge through a blizzard seemed to have no rhyme or reason behind it and almost made me rage-quit the game. Instead, I stepped away for a few hours and came back to it later, and only made it out after an extremely frustrating 45 minutes or so of wandering aimlessly, repeatedly going out of bounds and getting kicked back to the start of the area. Early in the game, you pick up a compass that would seem to be the solution to this puzzle, as the instructions are all direction-based. But, you can’t actually use the compass, and trying to navigate based on the way it’s oriented in your inventory doesn’t help.
B’s story didn’t entirely come together for me like I hoped either. Even after collecting all of the memory items, her background felt incomplete. I found myself wishing I knew more about her and what got her to this place once she was finally on her way to leaving it. But I don’t regret sticking it out. The ending was ultimately a touching reward and pretty darn uplifting.
A Pizza Delivery is available now for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-pizza-delivery-is-a-dreamy-indie-adventure-that-tests-your-will-to-press-on-130000842.html?src=rss
