From houses with no visible door numbers to blocks of flats with busted elevators, being a pizza delivery driver is likely arduous at times. Nothing can compare to the hardship this narrative adventure’s star delivery girl has to endure, however, with the last order of the day requiring a jaunt across steep hilled countryside, a dimly lit city, and even a blustery graveyard. All in the name of delivering one last pizza before calling it a night. Now that’s dedication.
Employed by a mild mannered manager named Earl, who occasionally checks in via payphone, our dedicated delivery girl is known simply as “B” and drives a moped. Earl has kindly provided two pizzas – one to deliver; the other to share with anyone along the way who appears in need of a fresh slice and a meaningful one-to-one. A surreal world provides the backdrop, featuring tall buildings randomly placed in sparce environments, along with otherworldly structures. It’s the kind of world that could only exist in a video game.
After travelling through a picturesque rolling meadow, B finds herself unable to continue her journey due to a flooded plain. Setting the tone for what’s to come, this is the first of a few puzzle sections that require B to travel on foot while searching for switches and their accompanying levers, shimmying through gaps and crawling under fences. Arbitrary collectable items can also be found, usually hidden in small kitted out rooms that call for exploration to find.
From thereon, B travels across a handful of different locations, stopping to open gates and solve a puzzle or two to progress. You’ll also come across the aforementioned lonely souls, all of which you can choose to hand a slice of pizza while you listen to their struggles. During rainfall it’s essential to keep the pizza dry, forcing B to run for cover while carrying her cheese coated cargo. One person also suggests seeing who can skip stones the furthest, resulting in a brief timing based mini game while taking in the sights of a tranquil lake.
A Pizza Delivery is intended to be a contemplative experience, achieved mostly by its attractive backdrops and moments of serenity as you merely head towards structures barely visible in the distance. While this may suggest a world that’s open, it’s linear for the most part, although you may need to occasionally backtrack to find a gap in a fence or a lever for a switch.
Rush to your destination, and A Pizza Delivery will be over in less than three hours. While the puzzles aren’t too challenging, trying to find every collectable does call for thoroughness. There’s potential for a second playthrough as well, with achievements to gain for ignoring phone calls and refusing to share your second pizza with anyone. Relatable.
Despite being appropriately surreal, A Pizza Delivery isn’t the most technically advanced of adventures, suffering from stilted animation and a few graphical glitches (during my playthrough, the final area was spoiled by flickering water textures) but still manages to achieve what it sets out to do, providing an eerily calm world to explore. The mystery of the final destination is a great motivator too, helping spur you on.
It would have benefitted from additional development time, just to give it that extra layer of polish its sorely lacking, but none of its flaws spoil its air of mystique. At a time where there are plenty of sources of entertainment vying for your attention, A Pizza Delivery provides something reasonably fresh and satisfying to snack on until the next main course arrives.
Eric Osuna’s A Pizza Delivery is out now on PS5, Xbox Series and PC. Published by Dolores Entertainment.