The Polynomial: Space of the Music - Review

The Polynomial: Space of the Music for the PC
A lukewarm kaleidoscope of sound and color.

The Polynomial: Space of the Music is an intriguingly named game developed by an independent Russian game designer. Distributed through Steam, Polynomial is a mesmerizing spaceship shooter for PC and Mac. In an independent spirit, you can download a demo version of Polynomial that includes all of the features of the full game minus a few of the arenas. The arenas seem to be entirely cosmetic, however, so if you're interested in the game, the demo will probably give you a pretty good idea of what the game will be like.

That look may not be pretty, though. Don't get me wrong, the visuals look beautiful: the game is full of psychedelic explosions and cosmic scenery. The problem comes when all the lovely looking sparkles and flashy nebula are crawling by at five frames a second. The game has a painfully slow frame-rate, and even when I lowered the settings down to less than ten percent of the default, the game chugged at an unacceptably slow speed. It's not like I'm trying to run this on a ten-year-old computer either, if the game won't run on my fairly computer that exceeds both the necessary and recommended system requirements in every regard, I doubt that it will work very well for most other mid-range PCs.

(NOTE: After additional research into the framerate issues, I discovered that the problem lay in the fact that the game does not apparently fully support Intel GMA or HD graphics cards.  So, be forewarned that if you're trying to run Polynomial on a system with one of those models, you will not be able to play a functional game.)

When the game catches up to itself, the gameplay isn't anything to write home about either. Polynomial plays like any other in-cockpit perspective flight combat game. Granted, the market isn't that large, but the game doesn't offer any innovation of the format, sticking to an arcade style format. The collision detection for projectiles is a little off and it can be hard to target the stylistic enemies when the screen is full of particle effects and explosions, but these don't significantly detract from the experience. Fundamentally, the game is fun, but the gameplay does nothing to separate itself from other titles.



One area in which the game does stand out, however, is its excellent soundtrack. Unlike a lot of soundtracks that are only there because the game needs one, the music in Polynomial is one of the best parts of the game, and I believe would be strong enough to stand on its own. Taking cues from the colorful visuals, the music is electronic and trippy with suitable aspects of the avant-garde. The music does occasionally lag with the gameplay, but can manage to keep up to speed even when the game is moving at a snail's pace. The music has good variety too, meaning that you probably won't be quickly worn out on the songs. If you do get tired of the music, however, the game sounds great alongside a Flaming Lips record. What you may not enjoy is the annoying female announcer who will be constantly reminding you to switch to the hardest difficulty and of the simplest parts of the control scheme. Really, after thirty minutes, I haven't already forgotten how to turn the ship.

Polynomial is a very mixed bag, and your opinion of it is going to depend on what sort of computer you're using, what kind of technical issues you're willing to put up with, and what level of realism you prefer. Despite the issues that I experienced, I had a pretty good time with the game, and I'll probably pick it up again when I've got a little time to spare. There's something hypnotically wonderful about this game, and I probably want to enjoy this game more than I actually do. Still, you should certainly download the demo before you buy, but I would definitely recommend that you try it out if you like arcade-style games. It's hard to argue with free.

Click here to download the demo of The Polynomial: Space of the Music from Steam.

--Tom