Polyball Preview

Polyball is a game about balls and physics, mostly about balls though.The game is currently in Early Access, with new features and content being added regularly. Developed by Studio Monolith using the Unity engine, the game is a throwback to the old marble games of yesteryear. Games like Marble Madness and the many clones it spawned are easily remembered while playing with the balls in Polyball. It takes a simple approach to physics-based platforming, throwing players into levels designed around speed and accuracy, that test both your patience and fortitude.

The game revolves around two objectives on every level: finishing the run as fast as possible and collecting all of the shards. Completing the run usually takes precedence as it is organically fun, with the collectibles feeling a little bit more forced. Some of the levels involve collecting upwards of 60 plus shards, which comes across as a chore rather than a genuine portion of gameplay.

Completing each course in time more than makes up for this, It’s the perfect speed running game, with the developers including leaderboards and ghosts. Repetition is a large part of Polyball- you will find yourself restarting a level often. The reason behind it can vary though: failure is often one of them, but even if you succeed you will likely find yourself trying to improve on your previous time. That’s pretty much what the chunk of the game is about, improving your runs.

Polyball relies on this a little too much at times. The “story mode” involves unlocking chapters, but these are often kept behind a number of medals that players need to unlock; with the numbers being quite high, I found myself constantly going back through levels trying to steal a few extra medals where I could. Repeating levels through choice is permissible, but having to repeat levels because the game says so really started to annoy me after a while. I found my enthusiasm for improvements slowly deteriorating as I got frustrated at the lack of progression I was making.

This game is virtually unplayable on mouse and keyboard so you need a controller to get the most out of the game. The need for accuracy makes WASD utterly useless, I also found controlling the camera with the mouse to be a bit awkward. Dual analogue sticks compliments the game’s control scheme, and I’d honestly recommend always choosing it over a mouse and keyboard. The game even tells you so everytime you boot up, incase you forget or something.

Unity doesn’t produce the most graphically intensive experiences, and Polyball is no exception to this; the art style helps the game’s visuals, making Polyball a pretty experience for an indie title. The collectibles can sometimes be a little hard to spot during all the visual noise, especially when you are rolling along at full speed. Messing around with the camera can often be a little jarring at times as well,with players being able to position the camera beneath the ball, making the floor disappear. It would make more sense to limit the camera to go no lower than the ground, so the view is less harsh.

There are unlockables for players to earn during the game, these change the colour of the balls and even the shape. It helps shake the game up a little and adds a customizable aspect to the gameplay. Ultimately it does little to change the experience though, and seems more of a distraction than anything else.

There is a barebones multiplayer available, which involves players battling their balls against each other in an arena style mode. I tried it on a few different occasions but found there was no one else online, I would have tried the local multiplayer but I have no friends. The developers have promised more multiplayer content in the future, as the game nears towards a full release.

Polyball is a fun and challenging experience that can feel a bit retro at times, especially when you consider the Marble Madness inspirations. Unfortunately, the progression is so frustrating that you will likely find yourself getting bored of repeating the same runs to try and scrape some medals. This is a shame because when you do manage to get a good run with no mistakes, you feel unstoppable. Polyball has a long way to go before it can be considered a complete product, but it currently has a lot of potential.