Most of the exposition comes from character dialogue that’s hyperlinked to expose you to even more of the history of the world, a form of purgatory called the Downside where teams of players compete to reach salvation and rejoin the world they were banished from. The studio’s focus on story is present here, too, although Pyre is much more text-heavy than previous games, and that makes it a little slower.

In fact, Pyre cemented it: do something twice and it’s a trend, but three times and it’s a calling card. Its central gameplay mechanic-basketball, if basketball became a way of escaping purgatory-was viewed as a radical departure from the structure of preceding games, which each included a customizable suite of weapons, upgrades, and challenges that allowed for wildly different gameplay experiences each time you played. Even before Hades turned the San Francisco based studio from an indie darling into a phenomenon, their third game was viewed as a turn away from the style of their first two, both more straightforward RPGs in more recognizable genre packages. Pyre has become the odd middle child of Supergiant’s oeuvre.

Download pyre game switch