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  • Summary: POLYBIUS is a fast, trippy tunnel shooter playable on a normal screen or in VR. 50 levels of blissful trance shooting action are set to a blistering soundtrack.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Jan 2, 2019
    90
    The legend of Polybius is about a mysterious game that breaks the mind of those who play it, but Llamasoft’s version is somehow exciting and relaxing at the same time, and the result is a shooter that leaves the player in a better mental space than when they began.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Apr 8, 2019
    10
    I love this! Such simple and compulsive gameplay. Totally immersive in 2D - I haven't got an Oculus headset - its a finely tuned audiovisualI love this! Such simple and compulsive gameplay. Totally immersive in 2D - I haven't got an Oculus headset - its a finely tuned audiovisual experience that tugs at your senses, while also lulling you into a trance like uber-state of feeling the force. Rushing you headlong into bizarre abstract environments that seem to stretch endlessly before you.
    I love the way it gently slips you in at the shallow end encouraging exploration of each level and its diverse elements. You soon discover what makes good things happen and what does not.
    After loading this up in Steam for the first time I played for about three hours, with a few short breaks, and it felt like no time at all - so beware!
    I don't know why more people aren't into this. Maybe its an age thing, I must be about the same age as Jeff Minter and for some reason I want to have the game experiences he wants to have.
    I have thought for a long time that the game reality of abstract games like this and Tempest and other old school genres that cannot attempt real world realism, is far more real than the game reality of those that do. The reality of this game is unfiltered. At no point do you notice flaws in realism because there isn't any.
    What I want to say is that when you play Polybius you are really there in the game. It overwhelms you because you are concentrating so hard. It seems to flood into your peripheral vision as well, like living in a wide angle lens - play it on a big screen with the sound cranked up!
    If this does not sound like your cup of tea then you'll probably enjoy something else better. If on the other hand you love hanging over an abyss or lying on your back staring into the galaxy then this game is the best.
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  2. Mar 5, 2021
    10
    This game like finest psychedelic Trip! Love it!
    Polybius - Hard and Funny Adventure
  3. Jan 6, 2019
    10
    Don't judge this game from 2D videos, it has to be experienced in VR - and the game was made especially for VR, not for 2D (although it worksDon't judge this game from 2D videos, it has to be experienced in VR - and the game was made especially for VR, not for 2D (although it works in 2D too). Note that the PS4 VR (PSVR) version of Polybius is performing at 120 fps - that means you can easily crank up super sampling to for example 2.0 using Oculus Tray Tool, because Polybius still performs at 90 fps on the Rift (at least on my GTX 1080, but I think same thing should work flawlessly on a GTX 1060). High levels of super sampling provide increased sharpness and depth, and advantages of increased depth are not to be underestimated in Polybius due to the game's blazing speed.
    When starting the game in SteamVR you get a warning that this game runs outside of SteamVR and that you're now leaving SteamVR - that was awesome, and therefore you need to use for example Oculus Tray Tool to control super sampling instead of SteamVR.

    Personally I probably wouldn't object if someone argued that Polybius is the Rift Game of the Year 2018. - Polybius is pure VR art.

    The music in Polybius is beyond awesome, easily worth $30 on it's own: let's just pretend you get the game for free while paying for the music ;-)

    Polybius is simply Jeff Minter's masterpiece. I think Polybius and Minotaur Arcade Volume 1 are like having the old ZX Spectrum game developers set completely free. It's nearly 40 years since Minter made his first game, experiencing Polybius and Gridrunner in VR is - perhaps - like seeing dreams come true.
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