A Pizza Delivery Review: A Bumpy Ride (PC)

My latest game I’m reviewing is A Pizza Delivery, a short narrative exploration puzzle game. It seems like a promising-looking game, and for most people, it probably is. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the best time playing this game. Not necessarily the fact that it was bad, but I didn’t seem to be having much luck. The gameplay itself is okay, but I encountered a few buggy issues that left a sour taste in my mouth, as well as feeling like the game needed a little more polish. It could just be me, or is it really the fact that this game doesn’t deliver? We’ll look into this in more detail.

A Pizza Delivery will be available on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S from November 7th.

Story – The Strangest Pizza Delivery Journey

Given that A Pizza Delivery is a narrative exploration game, it does have a story. Think of it almost as a walking simulator with a few puzzles thrown in, as well as some social interaction.

You assume the role of a young pizza deliverer called B. You are on call with your final delivery of the day – but this is no ordinary delivery. It’s a journey. You embark on a strange, dreamlike adventure spanning across various settings, whether it’s a city at night, sprawling fields, or driving under a night sky with aurora lights.

Along the way, you meet different people on your travels. People with different motives and backstories. Some may have a puzzle for you to solve, or a mini game to play. You also have the option of giving them a pizza, because why not? Pizza makes everyone happy! 

Gameplay – Exploring, Solving Puzzles, and Delivering Pizza

If I had to describe A Pizza Delivery, it has vibes of Studio Ghibli and Season: A Letter to the Future. You ride a scooter to different places, do a little exploring on foot, solve some puzzles, and hand out the odd free pizza to someone.

Just Scooting Along

In A Pizza Delivery, one of the key gameplay mechanics is a scooter you ride along on, which you need as the world is so vast. This is a cool concept, and fitting for a pizza deliverer. However, the execution is so-so, mainly because of the controls.

Controlling the scooter isn’t too hard; it’s nippy enough and turning it is fine. It’s not an out-of-control nightmare. What doesn’t help is the camera. It doesn’t follow behind the scooter. I guess this makes sense in the context of the game, so you can look around the environment as you ride along. It just makes it more difficult to control the bike, making it more likely you’ll crash.

Another annoying thing is getting on and off the scooter. You have to wait for the animation to finish, which gets a tad tedious. Fortunately, it’s not too long, but I can’t help wishing it was simplified. I don’t want to wait for B to get off her bike and pull down the stabilizer before I can start exploring, especially if you’re hopping on and off quite frequently.

Riding along on your scooter gives you some genuinely breathtaking moments.

Want a Free Pizza, Friend?

As B is a pizza deliverer, not only do you have to make your big delivery, but whenever you meet someone new, you have the opportunity to give them a free pizza, which is very generous of you. However, this does have a few flaws. Sometimes, you come across a person, realize you can give them a pizza, but then have to run all the way back to your scooter to fetch the pizza.

Okay, fair enough, but what about if you can’t physically get the pizza to them? This is what’s the most annoying. If it rains in the game, the pizza gets wet (naturally), and if it gets too wet, the scene reloads and you have to try again. Also, you can’t be holding the pizza and squeezing through gaps to reach someone. 

The good news is that giving free pizzas out is totally optional, so you won’t get stuck if you can’t do it for some reason and can just move on. However, it’s a shame to miss out on the opportunity, and you have to do it if you want to be a completionist and get all those achievements.

There’s nothing like sharing a free pizza with a friendly stranger.

What Do I Do Now?

Another aspect of A Pizza Delivery is that it’s partially a puzzle game. What it does do well is that the puzzles themselves are clever. You may have to find levers to unlock doors, or work through an area to reach a certain place. This is all fine and dandy – most of the time. The other times often leave you feeling lost, confused, frustrated, or all three. Normally, I’m not bad with puzzle games and can usually enjoy them. Sadly, A Pizza Delivery just left me feeling very annoyed. 

Getting Lost

This is where I got stuck. I found myself riding along a train track set along water. This was very cool, but then for some reason it started raining train carriages (no, seriously!) You then have to weave between the falling carriages to not get hit or stuck before a great bubble of light catches up to you. If this happens, there is some good news. You load at a place where you can either try  again, or just skip it and continue with your journey. A Pizza Delivery did well to include this.

Where it went wrong was in the next section. I found myself for some reason trapped in a plain surrounded by a blizzard. I had no idea where I was or what I was meant to do (probably as I’d skipped the train section). I found the phone box, which gives you instructions on what to do next. It told me to go south, so I did, using a new compass on screen. I came across another phone, but when I answered, it just said there was no one at the other end. That was it. Now I had no clue what I was supposed to do. I kept heading south, but the scene reloaded, taking me back to the first phone. Where did I go wrong?

Here I got very confused. I tried again, same thing. I tried exploring the area, but it wasn’t obvious at all what I was meant to be looking for. Frustrated, I reloaded my game, but because the checkpoints are bad, I ended up back to a much earlier section. I had to speed run through it all again just to get back to the blizzard, only to get absolutely nowhere. Feeling lost and annoyed, I just gave up.

This blizzard scene is as far as I got before I got stuck.

Promising, but Not Perfect

It was a real shame. I was starting to get into this game, only to be hit with a brick wall. But why did I get stuck? Was it just me? Probably, but it would have been nice to have had some extra hints on hand for when I got really stuck, like this, instead of blundering around with absolutely no idea of what I was meant to be doing. Until someone else figures it out, I guess I’m stuck and can’t progress further. It’s honestly too bad because I was looking forward to seeing what else this game brought, but oh well.

It doesn’t end there. When I tried to start a new game to give it another go, figuring I was just having an off-day and not fully focused, I ended up warping to a completely different part of the game, which got me stuck, and then when I tried reloading the checkpoint, it jumped ahead even further. I even tried starting another new game, only to get the same results. I’m sorry, but this game just seems broken to me.

This game has some promise. I just didn’t get the best experience for whatever reason.

Is It the Game… or Me?

I should note that I have seen other reviews for A Pizza Delivery, and they have been much more positive than mine, so don’t write off this game solely based on my review alone. I honestly don’t know why this didn’t work out for me. I truly don’t think this is a bad game. I’ve just not had the greatest luck playing it. I’m not sure why.

It might be just the PC version that’s got these problems. Those playing on Xbox or PlayStation might have a better experience. Or maybe my game or save file got corrupted, prompting these issues? In any case, if other reviewers are telling a different story, then maybe it’s just me and I’ve just had an unfortunate run of bad luck.

Is the game not great, or did I just get unlucky? I think it’s me!

Graphics and Audio – Not Half Bad

I’ll admit, I haven’t had that much good to say so far. However, there is a saving grace in the form of the graphics and music. The world is just stunning. It really does have a beautiful dreamlike quality about it. It’s beautifully animated as well, with rippling tall grass and gorgeous glowing aurora lights. The characters don’t look bad either, having a cartoonish look but being wonderfully animated and expressive. A Pizza Delivery delivered there.

The music isn’t anything to sneer at either. It complements the dreamy environment well. It’s very soothing and hypnotic to listen to, providing some nice background ambiance to absorb you into the world.

A Pizza Delivery was reviewed on PC with a key provided by Jesus Fabre.