Developer: EON46
Publisher: Ritual Interactive
Platform: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
Pest Control – Review
Pest Control is a combination of a simulator and turn-based strategy game, where the main task of the player is to get rid of all kinds of pests. Every assignment you get is a war, and you’ll have to use your wit to come out on top. The job of an exterminator isn’t easy. Can you come out of a contract unscathed or will you have to use the big guns to survive?
Story
The game starts off with a cutscene from your grandpa’s last job: exterminating pests in a laboratory. It turns out, it would be his last job ever. Without any more explanation of what happened there, we jump right into the tutorial. Here, we get to see a contract from grandpa where we discover how he is doing after the first cutscene. The contract tells us that an incident has happened. Grandpa got badly injured in a huge explosion, almost losing his life even, and he became more sensitive to the welfare of animals. He also has to mind his own health more carefully, so he has decided to retire from the pest control business. It still leaves the player with several questions. What set off the lab explosion? How did grandpa survive? He claims that two rats saved him from the blast. How is that even possible?
The story is about grandpa, but you’re playing as his grandson Lenny, who’s taking over the business. The more Lenny accepts contracts and grows the business, the more you unveil the mystery behind the lab’s explosion and grandpa’s story through cutscenes. The story itself is quite intriguing, but the combination of that first contract and the vague cutscenes make the story very confusing in the beginning.
Graphics
The visuals for Pest Control are high quality and quite pleasant to look at. Most of the gameplay is in 3D, and the map can be looked at from all angles. So it’s a huge plus that the camera is very easy to navigate. You can even choose if you combine your mouse with keyboard controls (WASD) or only use your mouse to control your view. The only thing that could have been better – in our opinion – is the UI during battles. The font is nice and clear on other screens, but it gets much smaller during the turn-based battles, and thus harder to read e.g. numbers in the health bar, battle log, and actions.
Sound
There’s nothing better than having a jazzy soundtrack while you exterminate some nasty pests. Sometimes the soundtrack is upbeat and funky. At other times, it’s just chill with good relaxing vibes. You’d almost forget that you’re surrounded by creatures who are out to get you. The music kind of helps to reduce the stress when you’re planning your next steps. We also definitely noticed the music matching the atmosphere when you visit the store (elevator music) or gym (upbeat). It’s a nice little touch.
Gameplay
Pest Control is mainly a combination of a simulator and a turn-based strategy game, in which you play the role of a pest exterminator. It is, however, much more than your usual turn-based game. Here, you have to use specialized equipment, choose the right traps, and get rid of unwanted guests by carefully strategizing every step. Being tactical is key! This means you have to buy/gather the necessary tools and scraps, train yourself, do research, upgrade your base, and earn more experience to become the best in the business.
The game has a total of 87 missions in the Story Mode with various types of tasks (neutralize, capture, chase, clean traces, etc.) in multiple locations (villas, ruined apartments, camping sites, warehouses), filled with all different kinds of pests. This alone can keep you entertained for a while without making the gameplay in this one mode feel repetitive.
To be able to grow your company’s headquarters and buy the much-needed supplies for contracts, you’ll be needing money. You can also earn it through selling stuff you found on the job at the Black Market, but you still have to grind if you want to earn a heck more. You’ll have to play quite a bit to see some decent progress.
Besides the usual Story Mode with turn-based gameplay (main and side contracts), you can also choose to play a shorter, tactical game mode which is called Adventure Mode. You’ll earn less money and XP than usual, but things do go a lot faster. Here, you choose your team, place them in the appropriate slots, or equip them with weapons, and you just watch how your plan works out – for better or worse. You can even speed up the gig by skipping the battle and get the results straight away!
As you can see, there’s a lot to do in this game. There’s no mindlessly clicking around in Pest Control. You have to use tactics, strategy, and do some leveling up to get ahead of the game. The more you grind, the more you unlock districts, equipment, etc. So, it’s understandable that the game seems overwhelming at first. Luckily, you’ll get the hang of it after a while. That’s why we recommend that you go through the – painfully long – tutorials first, because it explains everything you need to know. After that, the gameplay is just obvious. You don’t even need to worry about the controls either. The controls are mainly with your mouse, but you can choose to combine your gameplay with keyboard (hotkeys) if you’d like. So, it’s not that complicated at all.
Conclusion
Pest Control is fun, keeps you busy, and gives you so much content that the game shouldn’t bore you immediately (if you can get through the tutorials). The game even gives you so much to do that it can get overwhelming at the start. Yes, there are a lot of tutorials, but they do actually help. If you skip them and get confused along the road, that’s on you. The game also has commendable visuals and a fun soundtrack, which makes Pest Control much more enjoyable. Is it the best simulation game out there? No. But it is still a fun entry in the genre.
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