The Battle of Polytopia Review (Switch)
The Battle of Polytopia (Switch)
Publisher: Midjiwan AB
Developer: Midjiwan AB
Genre:
PEGI: E
Comments:
I remember a while back I picked up The Battle of Polytopia on PC and the reason I got it is because I have been a huge fan of Real-time Strategy (RTS) Games but also love the civilization series with its turn-based concept. When I saw The Battle of Polytopia Developed and published by Midjiwan AB coming to Nintendo Switch, I had to check it out. Here are my thoughts on what I believe is a great game that I enjoyed playing, but before we jump into what I think, here is a trailer for The Battle of Polytopia coming to Nintendo Switch if you haven’t seen it yet.
Gameplay
This game is special in its way, and that is even though it is a strategy game, it feels relaxed in a way. Most strategy games are quite in-depth with the amount of information such as units, technologies, etc. However, in The Battle of Polytopia, all the elements of a strategy game have been simplified in a way that anyone can enjoy playing this game no matter what kind of gamer you are or your age. As you progress through the game, it is not based on real-time but turn-based which means you can take your time and plan your next move before the other computer or player take their turn.
You will have a choice to pick tribes and each tribe has a benefit that allows you to unlock a free technology, on top of that the map you pick is randomly generated so it will not always be the same map you will play before but it might have some similarities.
A few things to know about the game are that Stars are your currency, which allows you to create units, learn technologies and build buildings. Stars are increased as your city gets larger and to increase your city you will have to add population which can be accomplished by building stuff around the city, in reality, you not building much inside the city but more on the outskirts. Using stars will also help you learn new technology which also unlocks more buildings to build and create units, so even though you get a certain amount of stars each time you take a turn, you will have to think accordingly about where to utilize your stars, either to learn technology, create units or build a building because whatever you focus will determine your victory.
One thing you notice is a score that keeps tracking your progress throughout the game, at the end of the game you will get a score result to see how well you performed, and based on that performance you will get a star rating out of 3 stars. Using a scoreboard is also a great way to see how well you are doing against other players because there are different modes you can play from skills mode, domination, and creative mode. So the better your score the higher chance you will win.
When you play the game, the building is important because players will need a strong star economy to build more units and unlock more technologies, but you can only build in certain spots on the map, and not everywhere is buildable. With this in mind players will have to determine what building they want and where they want to place it, and sometimes depending on the map, you will get a lot of space or not enough space due to the huge water mass.
Units are limited as well and there be a time when players can’t build any more units, sometimes the map can get chaotic because there is so much going on, I had a few games where there were so many units because I was attacking two other tribes at the same time that sometime I could find my units. The game focuses a lot on economic and military power, there isn’t much diplomacy going on with other tribes so basically everyone is neutral and there can only be one tribe.
Visual/Audio/Controls
First, we have to talk about the graphic of the game, it looks colorful, even if the character looks like poly figures, I love the way the game looks, it is beautiful, and almost feels like a Minecraft world. Besides the units looking like poly figures, one thing that looks great is the building concept of the game, I love how some of the building looks especially the lumber mills, these small little things always catch my eye.
The Audio quality is pretty simple, there is music from the main menu and during the game, which also is quite pleasant, however, don’t expect anything too special but enough to not distract your mind while you build and fight. Simple sound effects come into play whenever you act either from building to creating units.
I was surprised that the controls were well done, especially in a game where I thought I would have a hard time using a controller because I am more used to playing keyboard and mouse for these types of game genres. I didn’t have any problems at all with building units, switching, or attacking and the cursor performed great going from one point to another.
Conclusion
Furthermore, this game is great to play either alone or with friends via couch co-op, I enjoyed the whole strategy part of the game and building a civilization. I love the civilization series and sometimes when I played those games it can take a couple of days or so, but playing The Battle of Polytopia I can say I can finish a couple of maps within a night depending on how many opponents I will be playing, the map size adjust based on the number of players or computers. And if you are skeptical about picking this really fun game, you can download a demo right now on the Nintendo shop and give it a try to see if this is a game that you can enjoy.
A review key was provided by the Publisher