Dolores Entertainment, a Spanish studio active since 2010, presents a curious narrative exploration product in third-person: A Pizza Delivery is a journey steeped in metaphor, in which delivering a pizza becomes the tool for meeting realities and characters who share experiences, problems and reflections on the difficulties life serves to our table.
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A delivery towards the subconscious
The protagonist, known as 'B', begins her adventure in any apartment block; after delivering the pizza box to the designated apartment, she abandons the building to discover that there will be little left of reason in what follows: we receive instructions from our boss Earl, who communicates with us solely through telephone booths (carefully positioned at key points in the locations we’ll visit) and are guided to the geography of our physical and spiritual destinations; we have a pizza to deliver and another to share, slice by slice, with those we meet along the way. Our loyal motorcycle will take us miles toward the destination.
The game's aim is to allow the young postwoman (and the player) to experience a stream of consciousness and empathy that evolves into a bizarre adventure in a surreal and ever-changing world. The challenge lies in our minds, as depicted in the game, which often materialise the prisons of thought that bind us to weaknesses we cannot overcome.The insecurity of our inner self is the true enemy to face on this playful journey composed of simple puzzles, encounters with underdeveloped characters, and a technical sense of incompleteness that fails to fully immerse the player in the subtle philosophical and artistic messages the game seeks to bring into our perception. The insecurity of our inner self is the true enemy to face on this playful journey composed of simple puzzles, encounters with underdeveloped characters, and a technical sense of incompleteness that fails to fully immerse the player in the subtle philosophical and artistic messages the game seeks to bring into our perception. The insecurity of our inner self is the true enemy
Suggestive but empty
Although the intent is noble, A Pizza Delivery struggles to create an engaging and mature atmosphere at the right level.The strengths that could have justified a more positive review are repeatedly trampled by crude and poorly designed gameplay mechanics; the feeling is that you're dealing with a title that, in large part, resembles those mini-games I used to find bundled with cereal boxes on CD-ROMs: despite trying to be friendly and unpretentious, it fails to demonstrate sufficient character.
In its simplicity, the game immediately highlights the limits of a sterile gameplay that fails to deliver noteworthy peaks. It’s a matter of wandering until we’re suddenly confronted by the character or location we were expecting. Conversations with the characters we encounter should represent the peak of the narrative, yet the time we can spend with them is too brief to allow meaningful immersion into anything as profound as the core concepts of this experience. Even our movement through the game world doesn’t convince: we’ll be equipped with a two-wheeled vehicle for most of our exploratory endeavours, and, honestly, I must admit I found its handling unsmooth and awkward. The third-person camera likewise doesn’t behave fluidly.
It is these details that undermine the visual pleasure moments that could have developed even in such a basic aesthetic context. The visual design itself appears deliberately minimalist, even if in many respects it seems simply superficial; a more distinctive aesthetic approach would have certainly helped the overall assessment. I would have expected more from a team that chooses to emphasize various moments dedicated to contemplating light, shadow, and landscapes.
In conclusion
In conclusion, A Pizza Delivery leaves a feeling of inconsistency. The opinion is that of a pleasant and thoughtful idea that failed to find the right form to express itself. Citing the game itself: "Pizza is always good, even when cold".
That served by A Pizza Delivery, alas, seems to be entirely uncooked.
