Games worth discovering

Polygon Arena is like a much less serious Call of Duty... and that rules!

3K View2023-10-18

SHOULD I PLAY POLYGON ARENA?

Play it if you’re looking for a fun and whimsical first-person shooter you can easily pick up. In a time where most shooters focus on hyper-realism or deadly serious military themes, Polygon Arena reminded me that shooters can also be funny, easygoing, and simple to grasp.

TIME PLAYED

I played about three hours of Polygon Arena, which gave me time to play over a dozen team deathmatches across four of the game’s small handful of levels, while testing eight of twenty available weapons. I also got to earn a few collectibles, like trophies, and increased my league level to three.

WHAT'S AWESOME IN POLYGON ARENA?

• Cartoon graphics. Right off the bat, Polygon Arena sets the tone with its cartoon-style visuals. It may not be cutting-edge, but throwing a grenade and seeing my enemies fly from the explosion felt like watching Looney Tunes. It was great! And due to the lower-detail graphics, Polygon Arena runs effortlessly on older devices. My Samsung A03s (which is far from state-of-the-art) ran the game as smooth as silk.

• Simple controls. Polygon Arena was something I could pick up within five minutes of playing. Although I couldn’t adjust the controls on my phone, the basic mechanics of shooting and switching weapons were really easy to pull off, which meant I could hop right into matches without having to spend a lot of time fussing or figuring things out. There might not be many fancy tricks to pull off, but in this game, simplicity brought me more satisfaction.

• A wide variety of boom sticks. From shotguns to assault rifles to sniper rifles to handguns, Polygon Arena features twenty unlockable weapons that are a blast to play around with. I had a blast pressing the big button and raining hellfire from the sky in a Call of Duty-style air strike. Weapons were also upgradeable, so I could focus on powering up my favorite weapons for a more tailored combat experience.

• A colorful cast of characters. Currently, ten characters are available to play in Polygon Arena, each with unique abilities. As Gus, I could set up gas mines that released toxic poison, but there were also other special abilities from characters like Javier, the DEA agent, who could deploy a clone to fight alongside him. Unique abilities like this added to the excitement of combat, and made the character selection much more than simply choosing a useless skin.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVING IN POLYGON ARENA?

• Repetitiveness. Polygon Arena is only in open beta right now, but that means there are only a few stages to play in. What’s here is fun enough, but after a while I started to feel like I had seen everything these maps have to offer. Here’s hoping that more are available by the time the game launches properly.

• Revenge of the bots. I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure the team matches I played were filled with bots. I have faith in my skills, but there’s no way I should be racking up ten-plus kills in a row without someone taking me down. Some of my teammates and opponents would just stand out in the open and shoot rather than hiding or playing tactically. Maybe everyone else who’s online right now just sucks, but I’m skeptical.

💬 Are you planning on trying Polygon Arena? Let me know in the comments section!