Written By: Patrick Orquia
Title: Polygod
Developer: Krafted Games
Publisher: Krafted Games
Genre: Rouguelike, FPS, Action, Adventure
Number of Players: 1 player
Release Date: 17 Aug 2018
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Price: $14.99
Also Available On: Steam, XB1
We got another rogue-like game, this time, it’s Polygod from Krafted Games. It’s an indie game with old-school, minimalist aesthetics and mechanics, and also with old-school brutal difficulty. Yep, this is one hard game to play, and will definitely test your patience, hand-and-eye coordination, aiming, and your determination to not cry in frustration.
There is really not much story to tell about this game, other than you are a nameless, one-armed protagonist equipped with a gun and the ability to run and jump. You are tasked by the gods to survive seven realms with mind-numbingly hard challenges with enemies that will try to kill you at first sight. These enemies vary from stationary ones that will shoot at you if you get close enough to those that mercilessly seek you out no matter where you go and you better kill it first before it kills you. You don’t get to play coop with others. These enemies drop a little ball of health, so if you are low in HP, you better kill enemies for you to stay alive. You can shoot these balls from a distance to get the extra health, so that makes it a bit easier especially if there still many enemies in the vicinity.
You’re on your own in this game, with nothing but your sheer determination and cat-like reflexes, if you have some, to save you. Luckily, scattered across the stages are altars that grant blessings, like powerful weapons, higher jumping ability, multiple bullets in one shot, faster movement, etc. to be exchanged with souls that you acquire from slayed foes. These blessings can stack with one another, making tougher and more deadly, thus giving you a better chance in surviving. Other blessings would also give you an advantage while also giving you some disadvantages, like a better gun but it makes your movement a bit slower. It’s up to you to mix and match and to take a blessing or not, depending on your play style.
The main objective of every realm is to find a purple or red door that warps you to an area where you get to fight a god that serves as the boss for a particular realm. A purple door warps you to the area where the big boss is at normal difficulty while the red one makes it more challenging. It’s up to you what you want to fight. Also, when you see the door, you don’t have to go through it yet. Try to explore the map some more and get all the blessings that you need until you feel that you are already prepared to face your destiny. Or your death, if you’re not good enough.
After beating a god, the door to the next realm opens up. You don’t get to stack up on potions or buy better gears in between stages. You just find yourself in some this quiet area and get to chitchat with some NPCs that give ambiguous statements, and when you get bored enough, it’s time for another round of violence!
This game will really put your skills to the ultimate test. It’s not for everyone due to its difficulty, but if ever you want to try it and give it a chance, you will definitely find some immense fun in this FPS. Each run is procedurally-generated, making each run unique, so you get a different experience each time you play it. However, each run is also designated with a unique seed that you can save and play again and again (like in The Binding of Isaac). You can even share it with others. This seed system makes the game ideal for speedrunning. I have seen a player beat the entire game in 10 minutes. That’s how good he got. I wonder how many hours he spent in memorizing each enemy position and attack patterns. How many deaths did he endure? Regardless of the numbers, I’m pretty sure he had a hell of a time playing the game.
Wanna try it yourself? Your destiny awaits in these hellish trials. Remember, get really good, and enjoy the glory of being the ultimate champion of the gods! Or die multiple times in succession in the process. But just keep trying and maybe, you’ll be that champion soon enough.
REPLAY VALUE: Very High
PROS
- Minimalist cel-shaded art style and aesthetics
- Good, varied soundtrack
- Very high degree of customization in weapons and upgrades
- A very steep difficulty curve that would be ideal to those who really want to experience a good, old-school challenging game
- Each run is randomized, but each one is also assigned a unique seed that can be saved and can be used to practice over and over, hence, making the game also very ideal to speedrunners
- Also ideal for playing in short bursts and on the go, making this version on the Switch arguably the definitive version of the game
- Unlocks different types of characters with varied upgrades as you progress
CONS
- Gyro-aiming is still not as good as in Splatoon 2 even when set at the highest settings
- The brutal difficulty is not for everyone and could potentially dissuade new players from playing the game
- The character and enemy animation and movement are not very fluid
- No in-game map
RATING: 4/5 gods and monsters
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