Polynomial 2 - Universe of the Music

Gameplay is very okay, no QOL - abandonware, but it looks very pretty if you stretch it across 3 monitors, best music visualiser I've seen.

[edit] I am so enthusiastic about this Visualizer I got in contact with the developer who had to move on from this project to find a job which pays the bills. I expressed my enthusiasm for the game and my joy of the experience I have had so far and a few small qol things that I'd like to see in the game and some problems I had encountered but couldn't solve.

He so thoughtfully and considerately replied to my email with fixes to my problems and solutions to the qol I was missing, what an absolute legend. <3

Don't buy if you are trying to add your own music in 2024.
This app ix longer supported by devs. This game is (almost) pointless without the functionality to add your own music.

Both a beautiful visualizer and a fun, simple, and intense space shooter.

Looks amazing and runs very smoothly in VR.

Psychedelic. ;)

I found it odd that is has been in early access for over 6 years. The game play is pretty, yet confusing. I imported my own music, yet the game did not seem to change visuals to show that.

Cool game idea, but not a good execution of it. I'm requesting a refund.

The controls don't do a whole lot. In fact, you have to turn the Index controllers on from the menu with your keyboard. After that, I still couldn't figure out how to get the game started or what the point was. I know it was old and cheap, but I wanted it to work. I returned it for a refund.

This has so many particles it's impossible to view a video of it, and in VR it even pushes the limit of the bandwidth of the link cable... experiences like this is why we play VR

A great way to relax and just enjoy some excellent visuals and of course your favourite music as well. I wish there was an active desktop version of this as I sometimes rush to my games library and overlook this as a way to relax. I don't really play the game just enjoy the screensavers and free roam. Excellent program <3

Sadly this is a short linear experience that's only related tot he original in visual style. I really wish the procedurally generated levels and exploration was still there. This feels like it should have been DLC for the original game to add a linear story.

In VR, this game is amazing; I would even go so far as to say that it by itself is sufficient to justify the cost of a high-end VR headset. It's really hard to explain, but it's basically non-stop interactive eye candy, where you get to decide how you interact - you can fight the enemies (and the pretty is them blowing up), or you can just run away and watch the glowing fractals instead, or chase meteors etc. The "screensavers" - which don't have any fighting, but many of which are still interactive wrt flying around - are also great.

Despite abstract particle graphics, it does benefit from higher resolution. I've played it on HP Reverb G2 (2160x2160 per eye), and dialing the rendering resolution up and down has a noticeable effect. It might not be as good on Quest etc.

Released six years after the original game I was pretty excited to see how Polynomial 2 had changed from the original.

The first game, The Polynomial, I initially found quite confusing and unintuitive, but after a little while of trying to get used to it I found that there was some fun to be had. There was a lot of personalization when it came to what arenas you could play in (and therefore what aesthetic you had), what animator type you used (which could change the tone a fair bit) and what sound visualizer settings you had. It wasn’t something I was particularly drawn in by, and didn’t put much time into but it was a unique game, which was nice to look at and something fairly chill to play.

So how does Polynomial 2 compare?

Well, first of all the second game seems to be set up a bit differently to the first. The first had a wide range of arenas to play it, but was nothing but an arcade game. As far as I remember you were just there to rack up points. The second game is similar in this regard except that there is a little more structure to it to begin with.
When you first begin you are put into a tutorial section and taught how to play the game. This was already a step up from the first game as there wasn’t much of a tutorial in The Polynomial.
After being taught the controls/basics of the gameplay you then go into a level by level structure. Each level has different enemies or objectives. At points I wandered if what I was playing was some kind of campaign, and at some point I would reach an end. To an extent you do, but not really. You essentially complete a load of levels and then are automatically dropped into an arcade mode of the game where the aim is just to survive as long as possible.

In a way I quite liked that there was more structure to this game, although I couldn’t find any option to play the arcade mode in a vast variety of arenas like you could in the first one. When I searched for it, I actually couldn’t find anywhere near the level of personalization that gave the first game its appeal. I would be open to be corrected if I am wrong, but as far as I could find there is no big catalogue of arenas (The Polynomial had around 40), no animator types to choose from, or option to play around with the sound visualizer.

This was a bit disappointing, but in the first game this personalization was the redeeming feature. Polynomial 2 definitely steps up the game in others ways.

The shooter element to this game is a lot better. I found this game a lot easier to control and get used to, there are a lot more enemy types and it’s much clearer what is going on/what you are supposed to be doing.

The second game is a lot more polished and when it comes to music driven games, the more recently released games are trying to provide some sort of alternative to using local music files. Some tried to integrate YouTube/Spotify and got licensing issues, but a few others, Polynomial 2 included, have instead opted for the option of having the game react to music that is already playing on your device.
When in the music selection screen, if you pause or clear the default playlist, the game will instead use external audio. Tab out of the game, get a YouTube playlist going and you are away.
I think this is a great alternative to needing MP3 files on your computer and it works perfectly fine.

The music integration was a big part for me with these games, and another big part was the visuals. Amid gameplay in 2 I didn’t find the visuals as aesthetic as I remember finding them in the first game. I think the majority of the aesthetic in this game is now within the screensaver options. Acting as levels of their own that you can still move around in, the screensavers give you different levels to admire. There isn’t too many of them, but they can be quite nice to look at and would make decent visualizer screensavers for when you want chill and have some music playing in the background.

This game can apparently be played in VR, which may be more immersive and impressive, but that is not something I will be able to comment on as I don’t have VR at the moment.

The achievements in this game are also fairly easy. I have played it for around 3 hours at the moment and have already gotten 85% of the achievements. There is only one achievement on this that seems like it would be a challenge to get.

I personally find these games a bit meh, as mentioned before I didn’t put much time into the first one and I doubt I will put much more time into this one to be honest. If I play this game it will be for a funky screensaver whilst I listen to music more so than to play a game.
For me the pacing didn’t suit me, a slow paced shooter feels a bit out of place for me, and there were points as I was playing it which felt a tad boring. I contemplated just closing the game a few times as I kept thinking “can I be bothered”?
Nonetheless, I could see how other people may find this fun, as perhaps I am just a bit impatient.

Overall, right now Polynomial 2 is alright. I would say it is better than its predecessor, but the lack of personalization in this game makes it so that it maybe isn’t as good as it could’ve been. It isn’t as much of a definitively better game than the first one was as both have their merits, but they are both still quite unique games to have in the collection.

With all this said, this game is still in early access, so still has the potential to change. I will likely revisit this game after it is fully released to re-write my review.

For now, If you are a fan of the music driven genre I would say it's worth a go, and if you want something pretty laid back then I think it is a decent candidate. If you want something a bit racier or enjoyed the personalization of the first one you may be a bit disappointed.

[quote]Controller support: Included
Local music files: Included
Online streaming: Included (as external audio capture)[/quote]
[quote] For anyone interested, here is my review for The Polynomial [/quote]
[quote]For more reviews of this genre, check out my curator page The Best: Music Driven Games ♫
Where we review games able to be driven by your own music. [/quote]

Is trippy man...

This game has scenes/levels you can play to shoot at enemies and gain points and stuff. Just ignore all that stuff.

Instead, enable the latest beta release: Steam Library > Right-Click Polynomial 2 > Properties > Betas tab > select the most recent beta. This will add better VR controls.

Put on your headset and make sure to enable the VR controls as you see fit. Or just use a non-VR controller. Disable the sound effects and either load up your own music or set it to react to what you're hearing. Set the HUD elements to 0 too, no need for that.

Head back to menu, ignore the actual game and head to "Screensavers" instead. Start up a scene and float around in hyperspace to enjoy an amazing psychedelic visualizer experience in VR with no enemies to deal with. Drugs optional.

This game's development doesn't appear to be getting any traction and the controls are a bit tricky to get used to. But once you get it set up right it's cool as shit. Just don't play the actual game that's included lol.

Let me start by talking about Polynomial II's predecessor. I really enjoyed the first Polynomial, but not because it was a shooter. Awesome psychedelic graphics aside, what really drew me to the game was the nuanced movement system which demanded you "surf" along streams of particles to achieve boost, along with the bizarre relationship between passive and hostile space-creatures, some of which seemed to heal you or protect you. This, in concert with the interesting levels and unusual enemies (my favorite resembling the Chain Chomp from Super Mario), made for a fairly dynamic-feeling combat, even with just a single weapon for the player.

Seeing Polynomial II, I was expecting all of that in VR, and nothing more. I was a bit disappointed to find somewhat less than I expected; My beloved particle surfing movement system had been removed, your only way of boosting now being to slowly saunter over to a flower (which seem to appear/disappear depending on the stage of a level and can be extremely frustrating to find). The map geometry felt a little less inspired than the last, although it was clearly still a magical place. The allied space creatures are gone, making it feel like the whole world is out to get you, which is of course significantly less calming. The targeting assistance reticles dance around madly with any movement keypress, making it frustratingly difficult to learn how to aim while moving, even for very large enemies. This was not the case with Polynomial, which had eye-popping explosions when a projectile hit the target instead of a large reticle telling you where to shoot. Your craft feels a lot slower than the first game, perhaps for the sake of VR, but it makes it a lot harder to enjoy the groove of the music and much harder to consistently dodge shots. This, combined with the difficulty of reaching flowers in combat, made for what felt like playing against a stacked deck. All you really can rely on is your ability to aim and kill enemies, and you don't get much choice because there's usually an obvious best order of elimination: Shoot the scatter laser enemies as they deal consistent damage, shoot the unmoving turrets, then shoot the dogfighters, keeping an eye out for missiles the entire time.

I did, however, have a blast for about 5 minutes after I died and the game gave me near-infinite ammo and turned on Insane mode (huge armies with tons of enemies), until I realized that it was going to stay that way until I started a new game. I kind of wish there was a bit more feedback on where the player is in the game, Polynomial communicated this by bringing you to a new region and having a very slow buildup to let you get your bearings, but Polynomial II seems to have much tighter scripting so you usually get assaulted right away.

Long story short, it feels a little formulaic and what made Polynomial really unique seems to be missing from Polynomial II. The tone of the game has changed and it is a little desynchronous from the amazing visuals. My wishlist for this game would be to speed up the player craft by bringing back the previous boost system, bring back the strange AI creatures, and give the hostile enemies goals that is not "always shoot at the player". The benefits of additional weapon types, new levels, revamped UI, and I'm sure other new features I missed does not feel like it measures up to these missing features. As such, I unfortunately cannot recommend this game simply because the predecessor feels more successful.

This game got me intereted in uploading my favorite music to my computer. The biggest complaint I have is that is how short the game is. The higher levels are impossibly difficult. Work by developers on it is very slow as well. This really really really needs a workshop opening the game up to development by other people.

For this reason, although I give the game a thumbs up, I do so with a little reluctance.

Wow, Oculus with hand controllers and recreational weed, very loud music, I haven't found a better gaming experience yet. I don't know if achieving expert level is notable or not but I have, can't WAIT for Polynomial 3!

I wish I could use a button on the hand controller to switch weapons, my only real feedback, can't switch weapons.

I have not put a lot of time into Polynomial 2, and honestly I do not know how much more I am willing to commit. The game is pretty, there is no doubt about that, and being able to include your own music is nice but the space shooter aspect has really started to turn me off. I have several problems with it....first while you can go up and down and roll (no idea why you need to do that in this title) I find it very difficult to tell if I am flying up into a steam of fire, flying above the incoming fire, traveling below it, or am moving down into it. There are built in indicators for the enemy ships to help with spatial awareness but not so with the stationary enemies. The next problem I have is enemy range. Some of the enemies; the fixed 'emplacements', have an insane range and are able to hit you when you cannot even see them. They just toss fire out into the void like a fish spawning and it seems to go on forever. Then there is a problem with balance, at least as far as I am concerned. Get close to the teleporter and there is a generous supply of enemies but when a healing/speed boost flower would be very useful there are none to be found. It doesn't seem to be possible to go on an attack run, fly back out, and find a place to heal then do it all over again to try and clear out some of the opposing forces. I am not saying this is a bad game. I am trying to play this with the mouse and keyboard, find it aggravating, and liked the first version much more. Your mileage may vary but this is one title I am not going to keep going back to and for me this is not a title I recommend.

EDIT concerns have been met, and review has changed**
OLD POST**
I have never reviewed a game publicly like this negatively, but this game is even worse than the first release of Polynomial. My favorite part of the original was being able to plug in my guitar and use the input and customization of effects to visualize my music. This version currently contains very near no customization or ability to rig up my guitar sounds for the visualizations. The gameplay is nothing similar to the first, but I was hoping and willing to contribute in hopes that it would be something better in terms of visualizations but it is actually worse than the first one in my opinion.
OLD POST**
;;
Edit:
After talking with one of the developers I was too quick to jump to conclusions and was not aware of the customizable options available explained in the response to this comment. Also due to being in early access I would recommend disregarding the negative connotation of my review above and giving this a chance as it is still a work in progress, and does have capabilities now that I had overlooked. The change in visualization is more complex than i had imagined, and there are great things to come!
Still my favorite visualizations; the most dynamic and interesting i have found on the net!

Im going to get lost for hours and hours within these mesmerizing music visualizations, A lot of cool music is included with the experience, and i love the ability to add my own music.

The game/shooter levels did not catch my interest at all, but the music visualizers, especially the "Hex" was impressive. Is wonderful floating around to the music. I tried to use it along with brainwave entraining meditation music and found this to be a fantastic meditative experience. Polynomal was working somewhat like a light machine hand in hand with the brainwave entrainment music.

PS. HTC Vive tracked controllers are supported. Its an "experimental" feature, but it works great. Need to enabled the controllers in options.

This game is amazing in VR.
Played through what I guess is the tutorial (Launch?), and then fought a boss (very cool), was given a fourth weapon, and then was thrown into what I guess was survival mode? I ended up flying around while enemies spawned continuously, eventually the fourth weapon's ammo went from XXX/250 to XXX/750 to just showing 900,000-something ammo remaining. Just being able to spam bullets like that feels a little overpowered, but definately fun.
The controls felt a little stiff at first, but then when I discovered that holding L2 lets you aim/fly wherever you point your head, things got really fun. I ended up spinning and rolling around in my desk chair in my room-scale play area, very fun.
Near the end I felt like I couldn't die, I was killing things so fast and accurately, and moving so intuitively, but I eventually died and had to quit because the battery on my controller died, lol.
The one critical thing I have to add is that it was never very clear what was going on or what I was doing. I'm assuming that the level I first started on was the tutorial since it told me the basic controls, but in VR, the notification text that popped up was not easy to notice, and I'm sure a few lines went by that I just didn't see.

Overall, this game is lots of fun. The in-game music is pleasant and engaging, and the ability to use your own music files is a plus, and even though I didn't try it out, being able to use music from other apps on your computer (Spotify and the like I assume) is a great addition as well.

I loved the original Polynomial game for its customization menus for visuals, audio, gameplay, etc. I did not play the original for the space shooter game, but rather for the trippy visuals and "watching" my music react with the stars while i explored the arenas. I purchased this expecting that same layout like the "arenas" and animators(relativistic was INSANE!). However this is 100% focused on the space shooter and also seems to be a rail shooter. I'd like to say that the shooter itself is way better than it was on the original Polynomial, however I was hoping for the in-depth customization menus and just exploring the massive clusters of stars in a relaxed environment. Another reviewer said that the developer is working on this and I think that's great!

Now about the VR: I absolutely LOVE playing this on the Oculus Rift. Its incredible watching the stars go past you and going through the huge colorful clusters. Perfect listening to your favorite music. The aiming system is incredibly well done using the headset, as you can use the left trigger and then aim by looking in the direction of the enemy, or by using the analog stick if you prefer that. I was hoping for Oculus Rift support on the original Polynomial but I'm glad its been implemented on here. I just hope that all of the cool settings like super waves, lasers, and relativistic animators are brought back as well as being able to choose one of many arenas and just explore it.

Lastly I'd like to mention scale. These "maps" are HUGE compared to those in the original Polynomial game. You could get from one end to the other pretty quickly in that game. It felt like it took forever to get through some of the regions in this game, but thats not necessarily a bad thing!

Overall its a great game and I'd recommend buying this for the shooter in its present state, but definitely buy The Polynomial as well. You can't go wrong with either one of these games!

So far, I have to say I'm really digging this game. I was one of the first people to try out the VR implementation with my Vive. The game's psychedelic visuals are absolutely amazing in 3d with it wrapped around your head. Lasers from enemies coming flying out of the void growing as they fly towards your face. Even though its not cockpit based it controls and feels very similar to cockpit in other space games, just the way movement is set up and feels. This was a plus for me because it mean no VR sickness and I felt fine while playing it. This is a small dev that puts a lot of time and efforts into thier works, and it shows, as this is probably the trippiest space flyer I've played yet.

I developed a little pre-bed-time ritual the week after buying Polynomial 2. Putting on my VR headset, I'd fire up the game and continue the survival mode. After clearing out all but one of the slower enemies in the first wave I'd pick a direction with an interesting swirl of glittering spiral clouds pulsing in time to the music and accelerate towards it. The stardust flew by and blue comets blazed to life then fractured into fading pieces before disappearing from sight. The universe of The Polynomial 2 stretches around me and it's a peaceful, relaxing, and very pretty way to wrap up the day.

Then I'd reload and blast through as many waves as possible amidst a storm of lasers and the geometrically-exploding particle remains of enemy ship-creatures, because who can resist one last torrent of neon lightshow streaming directly through the eyeballs before calling it a day?

(First off, Completely disregarding the space shooter aspect, The Polynomial is the best music visualizer ever. Hands down.)

The FIrst Polynomial was a visual treat, and the Polynomial 2 does not disappoint. Waves of color burst and pulse to the beat and melody of your music and it is incredible. I got lost in the first game for hours and hours just floating around to my music.

I didn't play the first Polynomial as advertised... I played the shooter aspect of it for a while (I liked it a lot, and I'm sure for a lot of people that will be their main drive for playing it).

But one day I realized that in all these levels there was all this cool stuff going on around me and I felt like I really wasn't a part of it. I wasn't really taking in everything that was going on around me. So I turned off the enemies and the HUD and BOOM... Now I realized why I decided to purchase the game.

There are a lot of games on Steam where you look at the pictures of the game provided to you and you think "This looks really cool!" but then you play it and you're like "ehh, his isn't as cool as I though it would be". The Polynomial is literally the exact opposite of that when you take in what's going on around you and put your attention on it.

The Polynomial 2 boasts improved visuals on every front and I'm very excited to see where it goes from here. I will say that I cannot currently fly around and enjoy the visuals like I used to since I am forced to have enemies currently... However, (and this is a very important "however") I have been in touch with the games creators and they have been very active in responding to my concerns to assure me that it is a top priority to make free roaming to your music a main feature in the game. Because of this, it gets my 110% approval.

If you love listening to music, and/or love visualizers, you are King Silly of Sillyville to not have this game.

And to whom it may concern, the space shooter portion of this game is great too in my opinion. But that's not what I play the game for so if you are looking for a review based on those merits look elsewhere.