Pih 2 Review (PC)

Pih 2 immediately made a bold statement, claiming that it was to be more ambitious, more refined, and more ground-breaking than Grand Theft Auto VI. Looking at it, I couldn’t believe that it would make such a smug comment and squalor in its own pigsty, given that it had little more to show for its inflated god complex than a troupe of pigs, a hot air balloon, and a sniper rifle. Seeing that, and realizing that it was just a fever dream wrapped in the skin of a shoddy first-person shooter, I figured I’d tuck in, if only to see whether or not it lived up to its promise. Weirdly, it did.

When it boils down to it, Pih isn’t really a game that you can define. While it bathes in its own filth as a “meticulously crafted” first-person shooter, the fact is, it isn’t quite as traditional as your average bullet-addled flick. Don’t get me wrong, it shares a lot of the same basic ingredients—the weapon wheels, the bullet sponges, and the light Doom-like platforming jank. But, it also opts to sever the cord that connects it to a conventional project. The enemies are absurdly and unapologetically powerful, and the world design is anything other than ordinary. It’s an odd game, and it knows it all too well. But then, strangely, that works in its favor.

There’s a tremendous amount of weirdness about a game like Pih. On paper, it sounds like an interesting, albeit unorthodox first-person shooter about a sty of ruthless pigs and a network of seemingly inhabitable dioramas that bear no relation to a farmyard setting whatsoever. But, as you remove its layers, it becomes a little weirder. The portly bullet sponges adopt new skins, and the general flow of the game transitions into a bizarre journey of bashful bullet sprees and peculiar obstacle courses. It never tells you why you are doing what you’re doing, nor does it flesh out the details with any plot points of character development arcs. Rather, it hands you a weapon, and it tells you to start spraying bullets at overpowered pigs.

It doesn’t take all that long for Pih to spring out from beneath the woodwork and take a huge bite out of your backside. Like the previous chapter, it hands you a simple mantra: to kill or be killed. One shot — that’s all it takes to repel your efforts. If you take a bullet to the knee (or any limb, for that matter), then you must begin your perilous pursuit from scratch. It’s awfully unforgiving, and it doesn’t exactly hold your hand as you learn how to send the pigs out to pasture. In fact, it’s about as bloody-knuckled as first-person shooters get. Don’t let the wholesome farmyard aesthetic fool you, basically; the pigs are a lie, and the air balloon is a nightmare to operate.

Each stage in Pih 2 sees you scrambling far and wide across treacherous and seemingly endless paths, some of which can only be accessed via a hot air balloon—a vessel that, true to the barbaric nature of the game, is about as easy to handle as a cinder block on a blanket of ice. During these reckless moments, the game tasks you with learning enemy tactics, adapting to their habitat, and figuring out how to pierce the veil before a bullet ridicules you and hands you that ever-famous climax. It’s all incredibly chaotic, yet, believe it or not, stupendously addictive.

As I said, there isn’t much point in explaining Pih 2, because it isn’t the kind of game that idolizes context. Naturally, you’ll have questions, but at no point will the game ever feed you the answers. In one moment, you could be aimlessly soaring through the clouds and landing lucky headshots with a sniper rifle, whereas in another you could be going toe to toe with a stupidly overpowered meat sponge that has no place in a world where portly pigs run rampant. But of course, it isn’t your job to ask questions. The world serves you a proposition on a silver platter, and you happily oblige.

If you can afford to lose a slither of your sanity and see beyond the stupidity of it all, then you should, with any luck, be able to entertain the idea of slipping into Pih with an open mind. It isn’t a beautiful game by any means, and it definitely isn’t an advocate for perfectionism. It’s sloppy — but in the best sense of the word. As nonsensical and as brash as it is, it offers a ridiculously entertaining experience that’s both brutally invigorating and horrifically depressing. And that says a lot about a game that is, quite literally, about pigs.

Provided you don’t waltz into the farmyard with high expectations and an undying desire for a game that can single-handedly obliterate the likes of Doom, the odds of you enjoying the whole disaster will remain high. Again, it’s a ridiculous game, and it embraces that kookiness like a long-lost child. Of course, if you can appreciate that connection, then you should be able to bond with its world and find something that is worth writing home about.

Verdict

Pih 2 embraces its own kookiness with an unorthodox first-person shooter that, while lacking in sense and meticulous detail, offers a stupendously entertaining, albeit unnecessarily difficult experience that can (and probably will) put you on a downward trajectory and make you loathe farmyard animals. While it is a little far-fetched and graphically absurd, the fact remains: Pih 2 is a surprisingly good game. Is it a brilliant game that ticks all of the right boxes? No. Is it a game that you’ll mindlessly hack at regardless? Absolutely.

If you did happen to miss out on the original chapter in the series, then consider this as an opportunity to experience the barbarity of Pih firsthand. It might not ignite your enthusiasm for the pigsty, but it ought to give you something to smile about for a handful of hours — for whatever that’s worth.