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Castle Crashers dev's outlandish turn-based strategy Pit People leaves Early Access next week

Hair trolls, killer cupcakes coming to PC and Xbox.

Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater developer The Behemoth has announced that its outlandish turn-based strategy game Pit People will leave Early Access on March 2nd.

Pit People, which entered early access on Steam and Xbox One last January, is described as a fast-paced, turn-based co-op adventure, starring a cast of "tragically unique heroes". It features a single-player story mode, a two-player co-op story mode supporting both local and online play, and a 2v2 Arena mode for four players.

Cover image for YouTube videoPit People - Release Date Announcement

On a very basic level, Pit People plays out pretty the same as any hex-based strategy game. You take control of differing units (and, let it be said, some extremely weird units), and attempt to battle your way to victory through strategic placement of your characters, paying mind to their rock-paper-scissors-style strengths and weaknesses.

Less typical is the way that, once you end your turn, combat unfolds both simultaneously and automatically, with your specific attacks determined by a character's position in relation to enemies. It's pure chaos - albeit satisfyingly so.

Cover image for YouTube videoPit People Trailer 2

There are quests to embark on, an overworld map to explore outside of your home city, endless quantities of gold, and increasingly preposterous loot for your units to adorn themselves with. You can even expand your team of heroes by capturing enemies (think sinister robots, vampires, hair trolls, murderous cupcakes) that you meet during battle.

Pit People's real selling points though are the reckless inventiveness and gleeful lunacy that bind the whole delightfully wayward thing together. It's smartly, generously designed, and - if you like this kind of thing - very, very funny.

When Pit People leaves Early Access next week, the currently available build will gain full cinematics for story mode, a whole new world map with 15 additional bonus missions, plus a host of balance and polish improvements. There's no word on price yet, but the game's Steam Early Access page suggests that it will be more than the current £10.99.