There are plenty of games that cast players as mighty heroes, destined to save the world, defeat ancient evils and emerge covered in glory. PIT OF GOBLIN has considerably less ambitious plans for you. Here, you are a miserable little goblin, sent into dark, dangerous underground places to collect food for an increasingly demanding King Queen. Your reward for surviving? The privilege of doing it all again, only with an even bigger appetite waiting back at the surface. It is a wonderfully unpleasant proposition, and one that gives developer and publisher Friendly Foe plenty of room to have fun with fantasy horror, slapstick comedy and the occasional act of goblin treachery.
At its heart, PIT OF GOBLIN is a cooperative survival extraction game built around scavenging, exploration and getting out alive. You descend into crumbling crypts, haunted ruins, mines and other subterranean locations, searching for food and valuable loot while trying to avoid the various nasties that would quite happily make a meal of you. The catch is that carrying your discoveries back to safety is only half the battle. You also have to satisfy the King Queen’s seemingly bottomless hunger, which means deciding what to keep, what to eat and what you are prepared to risk on each expedition.
It is a simple premise, but one with a deliciously wicked sense of humour. Rather than presenting goblins as fearsome dungeon dwellers, the game makes them feel like an unfortunate collection of expendable idiots who have been given a terrible job and very little choice in the matter. That contrast between the dangers of the Pit and the ridiculousness of the characters is where much of its personality comes from.
A Goblin’s Work Is Never Done
The main gameplay loop revolves around descending into the Pit, gathering whatever food and valuables you can find, and attempting to make it back out again. You can play alone, but the experience is designed around cooperation, with online support for between two and six players. Whether you are teaming up with friends or relying on random teammates through matchmaking, the basic objective remains the same: survive the expedition and bring back enough food to keep your monstrous employer satisfied.
There is a pleasing tension to the scavenging because every item you discover presents a decision. Food can be handed over to the King Queen, consumed to restore stamina, or potentially saved for another purpose. Other valuables can be sold in the goblin village, providing the coins needed to prepare for future descents. The problem is that your pockets are limited, so you cannot simply collect everything you encounter and worry about the consequences later. Larger objects may require both hands, leaving you less prepared to defend yourself if something unpleasant suddenly appears.
That physical approach to carrying loot is a particularly fitting mechanic for a game about clumsy little creatures exploring dangerous underground environments. There is a constant balancing act between grabbing something valuable and making sure you can still get yourself out alive. It also creates opportunities for those wonderfully chaotic moments when somebody is carrying something far too large, another player is shouting about an approaching monster, and nobody seems entirely sure which way the exit is. The game understands that cooperation is often at its funniest when everything starts going wrong.
Feeding the King Queen
The King Queen is arguably the most entertaining part of the game’s central premise. Your goblin existence revolves around satisfying this enormous appetite, and the amount of food required increases as you progress deeper into the Pit. Successfully delivering enough supplies lets you return to your miserable little profession, but the demands grow steadily. This creates an effective risk-and-reward structure, as deeper expeditions promise better rewards while making survival increasingly difficult.
There is something rather amusing about being sent into terrifying underground locations not to save the kingdom or retrieve some legendary artefact, but simply to bring back dinner. The King Queen’s appetite gives every expedition a clear purpose, while the escalating requirements make it harder to become complacent. You cannot spend every run playing it safe, particularly when the amount of food needed to satisfy your employer keeps increasing. Eventually, you have to decide whether the prospect of a bigger haul is worth putting your goblin’s miserable little life on the line.
The food economy also encourages a little selfishness. Eating something yourself might help you survive, but handing it over could be the difference between meeting your quota and facing the consequences of disappointing the King Queen. Selling other loot can provide useful equipment, but that means choosing carefully what to keep. It is a simple system that gives scavenging more purpose than merely collecting objects, and it helps create the sort of disagreements that cooperative games thrive on.
Friends, Friendly Fire and Goblin Mischief
Although PIT OF GOBLIN can be played solo, its strongest appeal lies in playing with others. The ability to team up with up to five other players gives the expeditions a social dimension, and proximity voice chat is particularly well suited to an experience where players can become separated in dark corridors. Being able to hear teammates nearby, rather than simply relying on a constant stream of distant conversation, adds to the atmosphere and makes getting lost considerably more entertaining.
Of course, not every goblin is necessarily interested in being a model team player. The game actively embraces the possibility of mischief, allowing players to cooperate or cause trouble for one another. Friendly fire adds another layer of unpredictability, especially when fire and thrown objects are involved. A badly aimed torch can be just as dangerous to a teammate as whatever horror is lurking around the next corner, and that is before you consider the possibility of somebody deliberately making life difficult for the rest of the group.
This is where the game’s sense of humour should really come into its own. A successful expedition is satisfying, but a disastrous one can be just as memorable when everyone involved has contributed to the catastrophe. Proximity chat provides an ideal setting for panic, accusations and desperate attempts to find the way out. The mixture of genuine danger and ridiculous goblin behaviour gives the multiplayer experience a personality that is difficult to manufacture through mechanics alone.
Traps, Monsters and the Dangers Below
The Pit is not somewhere you can casually wander around with your eyes closed. Its different environments are filled with traps, monsters and other hazards designed to punish careless exploration. You will need to run, hide and pay attention to your surroundings, because losing your life can mean losing the valuable supplies you have spent the expedition collecting. Even when there is no immediate monster threatening you, a poorly judged step could leave you in serious trouble.
Your goblin has a few useful movement options, including sprinting and jumping, which become important when navigating dangerous areas. Traps can injure or kill, so keeping an eye on the environment is essential. The threat is not limited to being chased by something horrible, either. Enemies can also steal food you have successfully found, which adds another layer of frustration when you are already struggling to meet the King Queen’s demands.
The different locations help give the expeditions an appropriately spooky backdrop. Castles, crypts, mines and ghost-infested ruins provide the sort of environments you would expect from a fantasy horror adventure, while the creatures lurking within them ensure that there is always a reason to be cautious. The supplied game information also points towards secrets waiting to be discovered, giving curious players another incentive to explore rather than simply rushing towards the nearest pile of food.
Making the Most of Your Loot
Surviving a descent is only part of the progression system. Once you return to the goblin village, you can sell valuable finds to the merchant and exchange your hard-earned coins for equipment that might make the next expedition a little less miserable. Torches and magical lanterns help you navigate dark environments, while armour is another useful addition to your preparations. Special communication stones are also available through the curio shop, giving players another reason to investigate what the village has to offer.
This creates a satisfying cycle of exploration, survival and preparation. Each successful trip gives you the chance to improve your chances on the next, while deeper areas offer the promise of greater rewards. Deciding how to spend your coins is important, because you are never quite sure what the next expedition will throw at you. Better equipment might make a dangerous journey more manageable, but it cannot guarantee that you and your fellow goblins will make it home in one piece.
The progression also provides a useful counterbalance to the King Queen’s escalating demands. As the amount of food required increases, you have opportunities to improve your equipment and become better prepared for the challenges ahead. It is a straightforward structure, but one that works naturally with the extraction format. There is always another reason to venture back underground, even if the last trip ended with somebody screaming, dropping their loot and disappearing into the darkness.
Spooky Atmosphere Meets Slapstick Comedy
Visually, PIT OF GOBLIN appears to understand that horror and comedy can work extremely well together. Its environments lean into the gloomy atmosphere of underground crypts and ghost-infested ruins, while the goblins themselves bring a much more ridiculous energy to proceedings. That contrast is important because the game needs its environments to feel threatening without losing the humour that defines its identity. The idea of a clumsy goblin stumbling through a terrifying dungeon is inherently funny, particularly as the situation becomes increasingly desperate.
The audio is equally important, especially in a cooperative game built around proximity voice chat. Hearing teammates panic as they become separated, or trying to work out where a distant threat is coming from, can make the underground environments feel considerably more alive. Environmental sounds such as distant growls and creaking surfaces help build tension, while the opportunity for players to shout warnings at one another gives the experience an unpredictable social dimension. It is easy to see how a seemingly straightforward food collection expedition could turn into a memorable multiplayer disaster.
The overall tone is perhaps the game’s greatest strength. There is genuine danger beneath the comedy, but the developers clearly want players to enjoy the absurdity of their situation. You are not a legendary warrior or a noble adventurer. You are a goblin with limited pockets, a questionable employer and a job that seems to involve an unreasonable amount of running away.
A Few Goblin-Sized Problems
The main consideration is how much enjoyment you are likely to get from playing alone. Although solo play is possible, the game is clearly designed around having other goblins alongside you. Without friends or reliable matchmaking partners, some of the social chaos and teamwork that make the concept appealing will inevitably be lost. The dangers of the Pit also become more intimidating when there is nobody around to help, distract enemies or share the burden of collecting enough food.
There is also the potential for early progression to feel repetitive. The central loop of descending, scavenging, returning and satisfying the King Queen is deliberately straightforward, and the increasing food quotas provide a reason to keep pushing further. However, players who do not enjoy repeating extraction runs may find the early stages less exciting until they reach deeper areas and encounter greater challenges. The appeal depends heavily on enjoying the process of gradually improving your equipment and taking increasingly dangerous risks.
That said, repetition is not necessarily a problem when the multiplayer experience creates enough unpredictable moments. A familiar dungeon can feel entirely different when your teammates are making questionable decisions, somebody has wandered off with the food, or a perfectly reasonable expedition has descended into chaos. The game has a strong foundation for those spontaneous stories, although its long-term appeal will depend on how much variety players find in the different expeditions.
Verdict
PIT OF GOBLIN is a wonderfully daft cooperative extraction adventure that knows exactly how to make miserable little goblins entertaining. Its central premise of risking your life to feed an increasingly greedy King Queen is funny from the outset, but the surrounding mechanics give the concept enough substance to support more than a few amusing expeditions. Limited carrying capacity, stamina management, dangerous traps, hostile creatures and the constant pressure to meet escalating food quotas combine to create a rewarding balance between greed and survival.
The multiplayer experience is where everything has the potential to shine. Proximity voice chat, friendly fire and the freedom to cooperate or cause trouble should provide plenty of memorable moments, particularly when a group of friends starts making increasingly questionable decisions. The village economy and equipment upgrades also give successful expeditions a satisfying sense of progress, while the promise of greater rewards deeper underground encourages players to take risks.
It is not without limitations. Solo players may struggle to experience the game at its best, and the early extraction loop could become repetitive for anyone who does not enjoy gradually working towards better equipment and tougher challenges. Nevertheless, there is a lot to like about its combination of spooky exploration and slapstick multiplayer chaos. Friendly Foe has taken a familiar survival extraction formula and given it a distinctly goblin-shaped personality.
Ultimately, PIT OF GOBLIN looks like the sort of game that is best enjoyed with a group of friends who are perfectly happy to laugh at one another’s misfortune. You might arrive with a sensible plan, but there is every chance you will leave with fewer supplies, considerably more arguments and one very unhappy King Queen. Somehow, despite everything, you will probably be tempted to go back down again.
