The Pedestrian embodies almost all that I like about indie puzzle titles; inventive twists on standard mechanics wrapped up in a unique and gloriously designed aesthetic. 2D puzzle platformers are hardly rare, but when they’re to the standard of The Pedestrian you know we’re in for a treat. It can feel a bit overbearing at times, and it could have been a tad shorter if anything, but overall I rounded off the campaign with a smile on my face.
The best kind of puzzle titles are the ones that make clear what we’re to do without explicitly saying a word, and that’s exactly what we get here. From the simple implication of an exit door to an obvious need to move a block or key from one place to another, The Pedestrian does a great job of using the levels and items to let players fill in the blanks with what we’re supposed to be doing. Later on we get mild hints in the form a post-it notes pointing towards the area we need to look for the items but once we’re there it’s all back on us.
As you can tell from the screenshots about this page, this puzzling gameplay takes place across several street and warning signs dotted around a real world environment. Aside from looking lovely and giving the puzzles a unique backdrop, this is also intrinsic to the gameplay concept. You see, we move our character between these signs to progress. In between sections simply lead us around the environments as we flit from road to street to information signage in an area, getting us used to the idea of doorways, platforms, ladders and more before lumping a collection of these and more into the actual puzzles. Once we’re in a puzzle area, things start to become far more complicated – and not always for the better, but we’ll get to that.
Early examples take the concept of fliting between signage and implement the challenge in really rather clever ways. A press of the Y button zooms our view out a little, allowing us to both move signs around as needed and also create pathways between them by linking up the black exit points. There is usually a key item in one sign, and the exit to the puzzle in another, with our objective to figure out how to move through all signs presented to us in one motion successfully. When we travel through a created pathway the black line becomes chequered; trying to then change this route will reset the puzzle, forcing us back to the start. It’s a clever way to prevent cheesing routes but also means if we don’t get it exactly right at the start we’ll need to go through any correct motions already done again. In the first half of the game, The Pedestrian nails making us feel smart for solving the puzzle with just the right amount of challenge that we’re always making progress. Even some of the more involved routes soon become clear with just a little bit of logical thinking, and between this and the set dressing it makes for a rewarding gameplay experience.
Around the half way mark though I began to sour a little on the experience. Each new area adds a new mechanic to learn and uses them in addition to those we’ve previously used, but whereas I found the lack of instruction until now enjoyable, at this point a few of the introduced ideas didn’t quite feel as intuitive or clear to use. It took too long – and too much trial and error – to get to grips with the functions, and just as I did we moved on to learn yet something else. I also feel The Pedestrian outstays its welcome just a bit. I would have been quite happy for it to have skipped the two chapters before the final one as not only are these the main ones I found too obtuse (partly thanks to them seemingly breaking the very logic we’ve been getting used to up until this point), but getting to the main part of the area and seeing that I needed to collect yet more of the same I’ve already done half a dozen times filled me more with a sense of frustration than excitement. The core concept is solid but if anything The Pedestrian proves you can have too much of a good thing. I specified those chapters before the end though as the last area mixes up the formula in a way I didn’t see coming at all (and won’t spoil here of course). If anything, I’d have liked to see a couple of levels with this set up than the overly complicated prior few levels we did get.
Conclusion
Even so, despite my qualms with the final few areas and the overall length of the experience, as I said at the top I came away from The Pedestrian with a smile on my face. The core concept is very clever, making use of the visuals and presentation within the puzzles as well as using it to fill in the background with more interesting fare. Puzzle platformers a hardly rare, but if you’re looking for a unique and challenging entry The Pedestrian is well worth a look.
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This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox Series S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
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