A Pizza Delivery Review

A Pizza Delivery is a short narrative adventure game where you take the role of B, a pizza delivery person who is, unsurprisingly, tasked with delivering a pizza. It’s not quite as simple a task as it sounds, though; the world isn’t as it seems, and the road forward is never quite clear.

At its core, it’s not a complex game by any stretch of the imagination; the main gameplay loop consists of you solving small puzzles to proceed through the world, more often requiring you to collect keys or find a path to certain NPCs who’ll help you proceed. What makes A Pizza Delivery interesting are the moments between the gameplay: there are parts where you’re left with yourself to simply just drive through the area on your scooter, with quite relaxing music and visuals. It’s surprisingly pleasant despite being so simple.

These lengthy stretches of downtime tie in really well with the game’s story and thematic elements; the world you’re exploring feels fragmented, as if you’re exploring someone’s memory, rather than a functional world. Talking to the few NPCs and finding items scattered around this lonely world really opens up what this game wants you to think about. There are some surprisingly poignant conversations regarding the human condition, including memories, the meaning of life, and feelings of being trapped. It’s impressive, especially considering the limited time we spend with each individual. The ideas are touched on in a short and sweet manner, opening up avenues for thought from the player, and then giving the player the aforementioned downtime to really let it marinate.

Between these more introspective moments, though, is where a lot of the main gameplay lies, and unfortunately, it’s where my core issues with the game exist. The main puzzles are fundamentally not that interesting or difficult, and there are some optional ones too, but they didn’t seem much more interesting, simply requiring different items or information, but never to a higher level of challenge. Some of these can lend to a very stop-and-start pace too: you’ll solve one puzzle and begin to progress, only to be walled mere minutes later with more puzzles.

The visuals are also something of a mixed bag: when they work, they really lend to the atmosphere alongside the themes of the game and the music, but some of the areas just look a little messy and uninspired. I also can’t say I was particularly fond of the character designs. They’re not offensively bad… I just found them a tad uninteresting.

I also noticed some minor issues on a technical level, with some controls not being the most responsive, primarily involving the scooter, which caused some weird stuttering whenever I was driving it. The game hard-crashed during the ending sequence, too, which put a dampener on a solid ending.

A Pizza Delivery is an interesting, but notably flawed title. The core gameplay isn’t fantastic, and it has some technical issues, but it makes up for a lot of that with heart. From an artistic point of view, it has a lot going for it, and its short runtime helps the gameplay issues from getting too egregious.