Polybius is an excellent shooter that takes inspiration from the 80s arcade scene in the best of ways. It is a finely crafted experience that only benefits from being on the PlayStation VR. It can be an intense experience, however, and one best left to relatively short gameplay sessions lest the visual overload become too much. Owners of PlayStation VR should definitely look to add this to their library, as it is one of the best VR titles on the PlayStation at present. Jeff Minter and Llamasoft have got another winner.
Polybius is a profoundly consuming and transportive experience of eye-watering intensity that'll leave you dazed and bewildered in the best possible way. [Aug 2017, p.118]
So, the year is now 2023 and I only just discovered this game for PSVR. I seen it for sale a few times but didn't think it looked like anything special. I was finally bored one day and decided to give it a try. My mind was blown from just playing for the first 5 minutes. This is a truly amazing experience and a great shooter game. The sense of speed is incredible and the intense action and explosions and lights are very well done. I experienced no VR sickness while playing this and that is amazing considering everything going on in the game and the speed.
The soundtrack is equally amazing and I found myself enjoying the music as much as i was enjoying the game. The music is perfect for the game and honestly this is a near perfect game as far as I am concerned.
The devs also filled the game with general weirdness such as flying cows and other wonderful nonsense. The devs apparently loosely based this game on the legendary Polybius game that may or may not have actually existed back in the 80s and as you play it, it certainly feels like you could be playing that game.
In conclusion, if you own PSVR, this game is definitely worth the price as it is relatively cheap even at full price.
The only thing that hurts more than my eyes after playing this is the overwhelming emotional pain that some people don't support our troops. 10/10, God bless our government!
If you have PlayStation VR then this is a must-have title, but even if you don’t it’s still one of the best arcade games we’ve ever played. It may seem off-puttingly weird to some but ignore all the florescent cows and 8-bit sound effects and you have one of the purest action experiences of the modern age. Or don’t ignore them, and revel in one of the most gloriously strange, constantly inventive, shooters available on any platform.
Fasten your seat belts, because you're about to go for an authentic Jeff-Minter-trance-lysergic-VR ride. Polybius offers pretty simple yet robust gameplay basics, and a good punishment-reward balance that requires a little bit of strategy. Protip: take a breath, once in a while, or you may send your brain in overdrive.
Polybius' tempestuous pace and kaleidoscopic assault indulge its urban legend while its principled operation betrays its sinister infamy. It's a spiraling supersonic tunnel shooter that only seems like it's bulldozing cognitive ability, and parsing its putative chaos tips its scale from pandemonium to precision. By allowing fury to give way to Zen, Polybius lives up to its legend.
I’m fully prepared to accept that this may well be another gamer’s classic. Sure, I’m underwhelmed and would much rather Atari stopped being pricks and would just let Minter unleash TxK onto PSVR but Polybius is currently doing very well in the reviews. So, maybe it’s just me and this game might end up being the classic you’re hoping it is. But from where I’m sitting this is a bit of a mess and just too simplistic compared to my favourite Llamasoft games.
This game pushed me over the edge to buy a PSVR after playing it for a while in 2D. I would have rated it a 9 or 10 before playing it in VR. I really liked it but the one aspect that was most challenging was lining up boost gates. In VR this is much easier and the game displays an entirely new degree of perfection. Playing this for the first time in VR I was honestly shocked that such an incredible experience is now possible. I would rate the game 11 if I could. At its price of under $16 it is highly worth getting whether you have VR or not if you like shooting games or easy to learn hard to master types of gameplay loops.
Love this!
Definitely Llamasoft's best game ever!
Note: Some mentions on here about the game being "too fast".
You mainly increase speed by going through the horn-shaped gates. If you don't like going fast, don't go through so many. ;-)
Also, another review saying that “by level 5 you’ve seen everything there is to see in the game” obviously didn’t get much further, as there are new enemy/level/gameplay changes all the way through the game.
While by no means a bad game, once you have played through the first 3-4 levels, you have basically seen the entire game. If you are a fan of trippy stick shooters or enjoy grinding for high score, you will definitely enjoy this, but if you are only interested in this because of the VR aspect, but it isn't a game you would typically enjoy, this won't change your mind (it didn't change mine and I was pretty bored by the 5th level). As a VR experience, VR really doesn't add much to it. There is little sense of immersion when you are looking nowhere but straight ahead the entire game (similar to Thumper).
So if you enjoy these types of games, I'm sure you will love it. If you are only buying it for VR, wait for a sale or save your money.
This game keeps crashing my PS4 PRO and can't even play it even after deleting it and downloading it again. In the setup after the initial install I chose to play in 3D since I do have a 3D 4K TV. I wasted $16 for something that will not even work. Avoid this game if you have a 3D TV.