Polygon Storm – War Never Changes

Operation: Polygon Storm review for Xbox Series X. An RTS that tests us as generals of our own army.

Toxic Studio is one of those small independent developers trying to make their way in the video game industry from entertaining proposals. Located in Ukraine and with 4 people working, Toxic Studio pursues the dream of growing enough to open their own studio. After about 4 years without publishing anything, they have now joined the publisher Unpublished tales to bring us Operation: Polygonal Storm. A real-time strategy game in which we will have to form and command our own army in difficult pitched battles.

Oh my God, this is hell!

As I said, the premise of Operation: Polygon Storm is simple. We will have to guide our units in the war against the enemy camp. The objective will be to obtain their base by capturing their flag. But be careful, because we will also have to defend our own if we do not want to lose.

It all sounds easy, but in reality Toxic Studio’s title is one of those games that is easy to understand but difficult to master.. Even at its low difficulty level.

At your service my commander

Operation: Polygon Storm features a tutorial and two game modes: Campaign and Infinite WarThe second being a survival mode against waves (similar to a tower defense).

In the first mode, We will fight through a catalog of 10 battlefields. Before a game, we will choose our combat units. These vary between ordinary soldiers, elite troops, armored soldiers, snipers, etc. But as we overcome the maps, we will gain military power, unlocking vehicles such as cars, tanks, helicopters or planes. It should be noted that resources such as mortar shots or equipment can also be used to build barricades.

However, still cost will have to be taken into account to deploy each unit or use each resource. If we are short of funds, we will have to wait a little until we have more, which the enemy will take advantage of to gain ground. It will also be necessary to choose the units well in advance of each battle, since We have a limited number of slots for each type.

Everyone to your battle stations!

Even though our army can advance, attack and take cover by itself, it we can give you orders at specific times. During battles, money packs will sometimes fall, which will give us a slight increase to deploy new units. To achieve these improvements, we must select with the pointer controlled by the stick to the soldier(s) we want and send it to the package location.

Also We can withdraw our troops, have them arrested or attack by simply choosing one of the three options with the LB or RB buttons on the Xbox controller. The problem is that your troops often don’t listen to your orders. Also, while it’s difficult for us to increase our resources and unlock new weapons, the enemy seems to have access to all of this from the start. Something that can become very frustrating, even on easy mode.

Better to leave the war for the PC

The controls don’t help either. How it works: Polygon Storm seems to be designed more to be played on a computer with a keyboard and mouse than on a console.. Moving the pointer and selecting troops with the joystick is very slow. In addition, choosing and deploying units requires pressing multiple buttons on the controller, which costs valuable time that the enemy AI does not hesitate to take advantage of to advance. This would not happen on a PC, since each unit would be assigned a key and the pointer would be managed much faster.

Another bug that pissed me off a bit was the one related to menus. When you complete a level in Campaign mode, The game offers us the option to repeat it or move on to the next one. By choosing this second option, the game takes us back to the main menu and we have to choose the mode and the new level again, instead of automatically jumping. In total 3 interactions that may seem few, but can be very tiring.

Some merits in the technical section

On a technical level, Operation: Polygon Storm offers a aesthetic graphic section low poly and physical rag doll. We will find explosion effects and see bullets flying all the time. In addition, the scenes are destructiblesomething that will change the terrain and force us to build cover to defend ourselves and gain positions.

Regarding the soundtrack, we find rock songs with lots of electric guitar that work pretty well for the game. But in the long run they prove overwhelmingespecially in confrontations that last too long.

Eventually

Operation: Polygon Storm is an entertaining title for its first few hours, but it becomes boring due to the simplicity and lack of variety of its game modes.. In addition, the difficulty of its controls is frustrating against an AI that clearly has an advantage over the player at any level. Graphically, this is where it stands out the most, with a low poly style that attracts the eye and well-worked destruction effects. I can’t say the same about the soundtrack or the Spanish translation, which leaves a lot to be desired.