A Pizza Delivery served up on PC and consoles

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Surreal "meditative" narrative adventure available now for Windows, PS5 and Xbox Series

There's nothing like relaxing from a hard day at work with a game about... working another job? Okay, on the surface that's not so enticing, but you'll surely think differently when the job in question puts you in charge of A Pizza Delivery, the newly released narrative adventure from solo Spanish developer Eric Osuna.

This is no DoorDash food service sim, mind you. You play as B, who dozes off in an apartment elevator during her last round of deliveries for the day. Once awake and back outside, B is called by her boss at a nearby phone booth with instructions for her next stop. There's just one problem: she doesn't know where she is anymore. B recognizes nothing around her in this "mental space, a liminal realm shared by individuals trapped in a state of limbo." It's not even so much a place as a "non-place ... where people go when they are stuck in life, feeling empty and unfulfilled." As B sets out to complete her final assignment on her trusty Vespa, she must "connect with its eccentric inhabitants, explore [her own] passions and regrets, and discover the shared threads that bind her to this surreal, shifting reality." 

Inspired by Studio Ghibli films such as Spirited Away, A Pizza Delivery is a "meditative" free-roaming third-person narrative adventure that sends players through a variety of dream-like environments filled with secrets, presented in a lovely 3D art style. As you traverse this "enigmatic world" on both foot and scooter, you will find not only lots of emotional symbolism but also physical obstructions for someone with a pizza box in hand, such as "rain, narrow spaces, [or a] blocked door." These will require you to manipulate "levers, clay stars, or conveyor belts" in order to solve light puzzles and continue on your way. The real crux of the game, however, lies in the strange objects (or "memories") you discover, the "quirky characters" you meet, and their "stories of unease, instability, and longing." Each has their own reasons for being here and experiences personal "dreams, regrets and aspirations." As you form relationships with them over a slice, you will get to know them better and help them "return to the real world." In the process of "sharing pizza and listening to their stories," B will gradually come to understand herself better too. 

To play A Pizza Delivery you'll have to pick it up for yourself, but doing so is as simple as ordering from Steam for Windows PC, or on consoles for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series platforms.