The Polynomial - Space of the music

The idea behind [i]The Polynomial[/i] is pretty cool in theory. With the game being described as a musically-driven space shooter, I was expecting the game to be something like [i]Rez[/i], with the added perks of exploring an open world, listening to music of my own choosing, and watching as the visuals of that world synergize with the rhythms of my selected music. Unfortunately, the game just wasn't that fun to play and I can't really recommend it to anyone. The ship's controls are clunky and a chore to learn, and it's not very obvious what you're supposed to do gameplay-wise. Even the game's main selling point, the visuals, aren't as interesting to look at as they could be.

Takes a second to figure this one out. Ultimately you fly around and shoot the evil Pac Man monsters of the universe, you collect powerups, and you can fly into your allies to regain health. If you know what you're doing, it's probably a little fun, if you don't know what you're doing, it's just frustrating. The gameplay is fairly basic and you're constantly flipping and reorientating yourself in zero gravity. Music integration verdict, meh. The intensity gradually increases as the song continues and the visuals flash a bit based on your music audio. Your music is mainly background noise to the space shooting chaos. You can essentially drag and drop audio files into the game, but if you wanna get fancy and string tracks together, you have to make custom playlist files. Ever heard of an M3U file before? Rev up that notepad!

Unfortunately I really can't recommend this one, the controls are more slippery than a greased up fat man wrestling butter in an oil spill, the in-game camera probably has ADHD, and the enemies can be sneaky bastards who kill you from behind. Just get Beat Hazard instead. And even if you don't care about the gameplay... Well, I'm gonna say it--Winamp's visualizer looks waaaay better. And it's free!

I can't believe how many hours I played this game while high

This is a first impression, having played for around an hour: This game is... an experience. In a word, "trippy". You fly around and kill nazi pacman robots who are trying to eat your ghost allies while flying through a cycle of shifting lightshows. As others have said, it's basically flying through a WinAmp visualizer, and if that sounds appealing, absolutely give it a try. I was surprised to find it paired well with a variety of different kinds of music and the tone of my experience shifted seamlessly from slow and somber while playing to a moody atmospheric track to a bouncy neon zero-G dance club in space while the particles of light around me pulsed to upbeat 80s or grungy punk music. Arranging the playlists is kind of a pain, relying on the OS's file navigation system rather than offering its own. Still, for me, this one was worth buying just for the grand sweeps through shining particle vortex streams, once I got comfortable with the flight controls. The game is also weirdly indie including a bizarre tutorial in the form of a stage made of text and poor quality voice acting.

REVIEW #25 The Polynomial ---------- Years ago, when I first noticed this game on Steam, the idea of a first-person shooter in space, decorated with fractal-based visuals based off of my own music, drew me in quickly. The game certainly matches that description, but what's kept me from fully enjoying this experience is the game itself... or to be more specific, the lack of game. The premise is simple: fly around an area, shoot bad guys, protect good guys, then go to another area. One major issue with this is the method of area selection: 2 wormholes are present in every map, and flying through one of them takes you to the next area or the previous one, depending on which wormhole you choose. There's no goal to reach in order to unlock these wormholes. They're ready to use right away. You simply go somewhere else when you choose to, and all that changes in most cases is the visuals. This wouldn't be so bad if there were other changes, like different enemies or new weapons, but there isn't. It's the same thing with a different background every time. Additionally, if you decide to stay in one area for a while, enemies will continuously spawn with (seemingly) no limit, which can make an area overwhelmingly crowded over time. As stated above, there's no goals, and there's also no leaderboards and no limit on lives. You simply fly around and shoot the same enemies with the same weapon until you're bored and decide to quit. There's no challenge to meet here at all. Also, while we're talking about missing features, if you're planning on adding your own music to the game's playlist, be aware that you cannot add files in groups or batches; files can only be added individually. Try as I might, the game would not let me add a folder of music files at once. On the flipside, even despite the game's age at this point, many of the special effects are very attractive, such as shooting stars in the background and the explosions of defeated enemies. The fractal-based backgrounds, however, are a mixed bag. The best way that I can synopsize how I feel about this title is that it feels like a game that was developed only 80% of the way. Had this game been polished up and worked on a little longer, it might've been a really fun title.

Ce jeu a été mis sur le marché 40 ans trop tôt. Doté de graphismes 16k, d'une jouabilité infinie, d'une story telling digne d'une saga d'Asimov, ce jeu saura vous faire échapper à la réalité et oublier que vous n'êtes qu'une fourmi sur cette planète et non le capitaine d'un navire à potentiel quantique. Bref, ce jeu a révolutionné ma vie, je ressens aujourd'hui l'envie d'adopter un chat et de lui faire plein de calins.

Eğer oynamayı başarabilirsem güzel bir oyun mu anlatabileceğim ama henüz ne olduğunu hala anlayabilmiş değilim. Oyun kolumu henüz tanıtamadım, klavye ile de kontrol etmeyi başaramadım, sürekli sağa sola kaçıyor odak noktası, ekranın ortasında kocaman bir yazı var kaldırmayı başaramadım ve üst ve alt komutlar ters orantılı hareket ediyor, bu insanlar hayatlarında hiç oyun oynamamış veya görmemişler belli ki. Kendi kafalarına göre bir oyun yapmışlar ama nasıl çalıştırılabildiği veya oynanacağı konusunda zerre fikir sahibi değiller. Geçiniz. Bedava iken alın deneyim o kadar.

То, что это очень-очень красиво, но отменяет факт, что геймплейно - полная чушь. Если вам просто хочется медитативного настроения - самое оно. Если вы пришли поиграть - эмм...

What the f*ck is this??