Polylithic
- November 9, 2023
- polyperfect
- 131h median play time
Get on Steam"Polylithic is a single-player adventure game set in the Paleolithic/Neolithic era with vibrant low-poly graphics and a sci-fi twist. Gather resources, craft items, and hunt animals to grow your tribe and build a settlement, with over 10 hours of playtime filled with grinding and resource management. Manage your tribe members, assign them tasks, and ensure their needs are met to strengthen your tribe and unlock new technologies."
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features beautiful graphics and a unique art style that enhances the prehistoric setting.
- There is a solid foundation for gameplay with interesting quest lines, resource gathering, and settlement building mechanics.
- The developers are responsive to feedback and actively working on updates, showing promise for future improvements.
- The game suffers from clunky controls and a frustrating camera system that makes navigation and combat difficult.
- Many players find the tutorial overly long and restrictive, limiting the ability to explore and play freely.
- AI behavior for both allies and enemies is often criticized as being dull and unresponsive, impacting the overall gameplay experience.
- story19 mentions
- 16 % positive mentions
- 68 % neutral mentions
- 16 % negative mentions
The story mode of the game has received mixed reviews, with players noting frustrating mechanics such as unclear quest instructions, a lengthy tutorial, and issues with migration that detract from the building experience. Many users expressed dissatisfaction with the quest structure, including time constraints and the need for trial and error to progress, which can lead to repetitive grinding. While the graphics and quest lines are praised, the overall execution of the story elements appears to hinder the gameplay experience.
“This game has good graphics, interesting quest lines, and lots of things to build and research.”
“Last week, the sandbox mode was released, which adds a whole other dimension to the game. In story mode, you kind of start out with a house already established, allowing you to recruit additional tribe members; with sandbox mode, you have to make a whole bunch of stuff before you can even build a house and grow your tribe.”
“Some quests have very little instruction, and you have to just figure it out by trial and error.”
“Some quests have very little instruction and you have to just figure it out by trial and error.”
“Tutorial is painfully long - obviously intended to be over 2 hours, game is locked behind 'story mode' which is literally a forced tutorial.”
“I spent three quarters of an hour trying to find stalks for javelins and axes in this silly grindy migration quest that comes with a blinding bloody winter where you cannot save and out of nowhere a bull massacres me and my tribesman, setting me back to a vast wilderness quest so now I have to grind for another three quarters of an hour for these seldom stalks.”
- graphics13 mentions
- 46 % positive mentions
- 31 % neutral mentions
- 23 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received praise for their unique art style, beautiful colors, and engaging environments, contributing to a visually appealing experience. However, some players have noted performance issues and a disconnect between the ambitious visuals and gameplay, which can hinder the overall experience. Despite these concerns, the game's aesthetic elements are often highlighted as a standout feature, making it visually distinctive.
“I love the art style, I love the environments, and I love the potential that the game has.”
“The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is challenging enough to be interesting without being frustrating.”
“Love the art style and color palette.”
“I was already going to hang it up just from the performance issues alone, which persist through all graphics settings. But when the dude told me 'twigs were everywhere' and it took me half an hour to find 10 twigs in the intro, that was about enough.”
“Visuals may be overly ambitious for what they can actually achieve.”
“I really like the art style, the overall scene, and the campaign it offers sounds so interesting, but for me, the game seems to try to hinder me from playing it, maybe because of lacking meaningful content?”
- gameplay12 mentions
- 42 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by unique colony simulation mechanics and beautiful visuals, though some players find the mechanics clunky and the learning curve steep. While the game offers interesting challenges, particularly in hunting, it has been criticized for requiring excessive grinding for resources, detracting from the exploration experience. Overall, players appreciate the absence of microtransactions, making the gameplay feel more rewarding despite its flaws.
“Beautiful game with unique colony sim mechanics unlike any other.”
“Learning curve is somehow steep but in a few hours, you'll get the hang of most mechanics and your tribe will start to flourish.”
“The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is challenging enough to be interesting without being frustrating.”
“Game mechanics are clunky.”
“I'm so tired of developers not understanding what is fun and just doing stupid things to basically force you to 'understand' their game mechanics.”
“Learning curve is somehow steep, but in a few hours, you'll get the hang of most mechanics and your tribe will start to flourish.”
- grinding9 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding mechanics in the game tedious and frustrating, often feeling that the focus on resource gathering and quest completion detracts from the enjoyment of exploration and settlement building. Many express a desire for alternative gameplay options that reduce the emphasis on grinding, particularly in the context of survival and technology progression. Overall, the grinding aspect is seen as a barrier to fully enjoying the game's potential for creativity and exploration.
“I don't find endless grinding mechanics to be fun; this world is colored and beautiful, and I want to explore it, not always be on the run to bring enormous food quantities to my tribe.”
“I spent three quarters of an hour trying to find stalks for javelins and axes in this silly, grindy migration quest that comes with a blinding winter where you cannot save, and out of nowhere a bull massacres me and my tribesman, setting me back to a vast wilderness quest. Now I have to grind for another three quarters of an hour for these seldom stalks.”
“The game forces you to play through and earn the technology to build 'bases' through solo achievement grinding.”
- optimization6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with players experiencing significant performance drops across all graphics settings, even on lower configurations. Despite the visually appealing graphics, users report lag and low frame rates, particularly on high-end hardware like the GTX 1080, leading to frustration and a diminished gameplay experience.
“Performance-wise, the game doesn't stutter, yet the FPS count doesn't reach that high - and to be fair, it's not that needed either way, I'm surprised how the player just doesn't feel it.”
“Another negative sight was the somehow laggy performance of the game on max settings.”
“Have a GTX 1080, getting major performance issues even on low with a 60 FPS cap.”
“It's pretty, but you pay the cost in massive performance drops.”
“I was already going to hang it up just from the performance issues alone, which persist through all graphics settings. But when the dude told me 'twigs were everywhere' and it took me half an hour to find 10 twigs in the intro, that was about enough.”
“Another negative aspect was the somehow laggy performance of the game on max settings.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability has been noted to be somewhat inconsistent, with users experiencing semi-regular visual glitches and artifacting, which may vary based on hardware. While the overall setup is considered impressive, it still exhibits some bugs that affect the experience.
“Semi-regular artifacting and visual glitches (probably hardware dependent).”
“Pretty cool setup, but still a little buggy.”
- music1 mentions
- 200 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music and sound effects in the game are highly praised, with reviewers noting their quality and effectiveness, especially considering the game was developed by a small team.
“The music and sound effects are really great, especially considering that this game was made by just a few people.”
“The low poly graphics are an interesting idea, and the colors are nice too, but the standout feature is definitely the music.”
