LogFAQs > #966034450

#43: The Pedestrian

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/8/6/AAA-H0AADX12.jpg

Believe it or not, The Pedestrian is actually the game that inspired me to make this list in the first place. Back in late 2019, I saw a trailer for this game that was gonna come out in early 2020, and I fell in love with the look of the game right away. You play as a little stick figure man or woman who can move around inside of street signs, exploring this urban landscape by moving from sign to sign and solving puzzles along the way. In addition to giving me good puzzle game vibes, it reminded me of being a kid - when I was bored and riding in the car, watching scenery zoom by me outside, I'd always imagine some kind of platformer character running around and jumping off of things that I could see out the window. This has a similar vibe to that. Sold! I'm in.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/8/7/AAA-H0AADX13.jpg

At the time, I was gearing up to really get working on my game of the decade list, and I thought - wouldn't it just be *crazy* if I actually, you know, bought games that came out in 2020, actually stayed ahead of the times and played the games that I wanted to play that were coming out? Damn that'd be nuts. So The Pedestrian is kind of where my plans started forming in my head - I was going to try to actually take notes of the games I wanted to play and play them. I'd have a good 2020 goty list.

2020 ended up being a slow year for gaming in my opinion, perhaps partially due to the fact that 2019 was like the best year ever and partially due to, uh, world events. And for whatever reason, my plan to play a ton of games never really materialized. I did put The Pedestrian on a wishlist though, and eventually snagged it when it went on sale. It wasn't the first 2020 game I played, but it was the first one I made plans to play.

I played it for like 30 minutes and then bounced off of it at first. I don't know why, really - it wasn't that I wasn't enjoying it, but my poor attention span (ADHD?) has always made it difficult for me to focus on new games, and without the immediate urgency of REALLY WANTING TO MAKE THIS LIST, which I had lost by that point, I just didn't stay on top of it. I ended up leaving it unfinished, maybe only 10% complete, for two years.

Coming back to it and picking it up again took some real effort on my part - when you have something you've been meaning to do for two years, at least for me, it becomes strangely hard to actually work myself up to actually getting back to it. But I did, finally, because goddamnit, I was going to have as many games played as possible. So I sat down, and played it, and I beat it, and it was actually the *last* game I beat on this list (although there are a few I did not complete for reasons I'll get to). Really kind of came full circle there.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/8/8/AAA-H0AADX14.jpg

The Pedestrian, as I expected, did win me over with its cool urban settings - moving through each new street sign is kind of a reward of its own as you get these beautiful sweeping camera angles showing you more of the city and giving you new environments to look at. As a puzzle game, though, it's also really solid. The puzzles are mostly simple platformer-puzzle fare; pick up a key, take it to a door, push a block around to stand on and block lasers, etc. The gimmick is that you can move around the signs that you're standing in and put them in different places, and then connect them via doors and ladders, and you have to rearrange them in such a way that you can actually navigate through them in the right order to reach the goal.

It's a pretty simple premise that perfectly slots into a sort of easy-medium level of puzzle difficulty; hard enough to make you think and maybe stump you once or twice but never so bad that you don't progress. It's very reminiscent of Portal in that the puzzles are about creating connecting points between two places, the puzzles are thinkers but not brain-melters, it's all linear and takes place over about 5 hours or so. It's not as good as Portal, of course - basically nothing is - but it's a nice little jog of a puzzle game with a very pleasant atmosphere and vibe which brought me back to this game by itself. And it's got a fun little twist at the end, too, which felt like an appropriate reward for me coming back and finishing it after all this time.

Next up: The only reason I played this infini-death platformer is because it was in the Ukraine bundle. Out of all the games on the list it probably has the least business being here.