It starts simply with the opening of a garage door or moving an elevator but eventually progresses into driving a train and moving pieces of machinery. Soon after starting, there will connections between switches on the signs and parts of the environment. It doesn’t take long for the puzzle-solving to expand beyond the boundaries of the signs alone. It may have just been a serviceable puzzle game focused only on the signs, but the environments add a layer to the aesthetic and even the gameplay. The juxtaposition of playing the game on simplistic 2D signs with rich detailed 3D backgrounds and foregrounds moving around you makes the whole game seem more alive. That’s a strange thing to say, but after just watching the trailer, it was quickly apparent how spectacular they were. The most compelling parts of The Pedestrian are the backgrounds. It’s also often possible to move signs to both allow these connections and make use of other puzzle elements. You transition between them using cables that you connect via an overview perspective – connecting doors and ladders that you can enter when in the ‘platforming’ view. You’ll be working on cork boards and whiteboards in offices, street signs along the roads, chalkboards outside restaurants, and so on. The signage you’ll be traversing is spread across numerous environments and is reflective of each location. This simple protagonist was chosen because the puzzles you’ll be solving are on various types of signs. The same guy you see break dancing on the “wet floor” signs. Your character is the generic blocky-limbed round-headed human-proxy that is used in signs around the world. What makes The Pedestrian so interesting is how it all goes together. While this expands a bit in the latter half, I don’t think anyone will be too overwhelmed by the methods and tools you use throughout the game. What you solve usually involves the typical affair of moving the stick figure protagonist to areas using bouncing platforms, switches, and engaging doorways. After you complete a world you go on a train or elevator that sends you to another level, so you expect a change in scenery but not always as much.The Pedestrian, at its core, isn’t a particularly crazy puzzle game when considering the puzzles alone.
Every level has its own style and place in the worlds and they transition perfectly into each other, while at the same time not at all, but the way they did blend it makes if feel really satisfying. You walk between areas and you can see some truly beautiful outside areas. The visuals are also really special because you are a stick figure you would think there is not much to it but it is so much more than that. But, the boards you interact with, change the world and bridges across rooftops, you can pick up and place keys and boxes on different places so they also change on the board to a place that is easier to reach for your stick figure. In the 1st person part of the game, it totally flips the mechanics of the game on its head and instead of the stick figure running from board to board, you need to bring the stick figure to the boards. You need to collect boxes, wires you need to change the tiles and reconnect them so when you have 0 ideas what to do on a puzzle it can become a real mess to figure out.Įvery world introduces a new mechanic, this can be lasers, paints that lets you save a tile, jump pads, and the most surprising one, a 1st person interactive puzzle that just adds a whole new element to the game and makes the game that much more of a mind turner. The puzzles are most of the time very simple but at the same time, you really need to think about some of them.
The game really shines in the gameplay, you are basically a stick figure that needs to solve puzzles. I got so much to say about this game but at the same time so little, and that’s because almost everything about this game is perfect.