The Battle of Polytopia review

Looking to occupy an entire landmass on your lunch break? The Battle of Polytopia provides many of the essentials of a 4X strategy game, while eschewing some of the time-consuming nuances.

Civilization VI is a lot like Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. Both are best when enjoyed in uninterrupted form. But let’s face it, having a few hours of recreation time is often a tragically rare commodity. The Battle of Polytopia was first released as a mobile title, which is usually the interactive equivalent of a 77-minute, direct-to-video dud. Although Stockholm-based Midjiwan’s effort isn’t an abysmal failure, there is too much streamlining to consider it a classic.

The concept of Polytopia is commendable: cleave away at many of the complexities of the 4X (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) genre, and allow players to relish the fundamentals of developing an empire. The first time you play the game, you’ll be guided through an interactive tutorial that explains most of the basics. Lingering questions, like what the game’s ambiguous stars represent or where you can find town populations, eventually get indirectly answered across subsequent play sessions.

After completing the game’s lessons, you’ll be able to select from three different types of game modes. Perfection tasks you with earning a high score across a thirty-turn game, while the goal of Domination is to conquer every city on the map. Finally, Creative mode permits players to create their own custom matches, adjusting the goal, number of opponents, map type, and size. Multiplayer is offered through a local, pass-and-play feature. Regretfully, there are no online competitions at present, which are offered in the Steam iteration.

Like Civilization you’ll also select a nationality, which begins the game with a characteristic unlocked technology. Although Polytopia doesn’t always refer to each culture by name, you’ll likely notice that the Imperius stand in for the Romans, the Quetzali represent the Aztecs, and Xin-xi reflect ancient Chinese. There’s are also a quartet of DLC factions, which offer more fantastical approaches to the game. At present, these supplemental societies cost more than the base game.

Each game starts off rather leisurely as you generate explorers to take over any nearby villages. Conquering these settlements claims them as part of your empire. Eventually, they’ll turn into cities that grow in population as you lay down roads, farms, mines, foundations, and other facilities in their general vicinity.

Nearly every type of construction or civic improvement costs stars, the game’s default currency. Since there are generated by the number and advancement of your cities, stars trickle in at first. After about 20 turns, you’ll be earning a tidy payout every turn and probably have a small militia spread out across your kingdom. You’ll also earn perks like explorers who bounce around the map, revealing undiscovered areas, city upgrades, and additional resources.

Stars are also used to unlock technological advancements on the game’s tech tree. And here’s one of the underlying drawbacks with Polytopia: every culture shares the same technology. So, while there’s a bit visual distinction between the Vikings and the English units, enriching each culture feels almost identical. Combat is also quite simplistic. While there are different strengths, weaknesses, and attack ranges associates with each unit type, there’s not much strategy beyond have a bigger, more evolved army. While you can also play as a diplomat, forging treaties with your neighbors, Polytopia lacks the lingering suspicion of titles like Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Civilization. Sure, other cultures might distressingly stockpile troops inside your borders, but they rarely seize the opportunity to suddenly takeover your empire.

Beyond oversimplification, the game’s voxel-style visuals present another issue. They offer a distinct visual style, but after about 15 turns, maps become cluttered and hard to read. It also doesn’t help that you can’t rotate or zoom in the map. As such, it’s easy to lose track on your units among your sprawling cities outfitted with structures, which can mean squandered opportunities or points. While Polytopia attempts to assist you with a flashing icon, you’ll still have to face maps that gradually devolve into a muddle.

These issues aside, The Battle of Polytopia isn’t without merit. If you’re a fan of the 4X genre but just don’t have the patience to complete a campaign, this is a simplified alternative. Although the streamlining means that subsequent games play quite similarly, there’s gratification rooted in an approachable pathway to control. Polytopia makes foreign and domestic undertakings simple enough for anyone to enjoy.

The Battle of Polytopia was played on Switch
with review code provided by the publisher.