The Battle of Polytopia is a pocket-sized Civilization for Android

Old-timers who played their way through the Civilization saga felt the mystical time traveling properties this game can have. One minute it’s early morning–you’re sleepy-eyed from the late night before patiently waiting for it to boot–then suddenly it’s 11PM and your girlfriend’s already packed her bags and done move out. Now, imagine that someone came along to pick up where that game left off; only this time compressing and condensing all of its virtues into a complete experience that’s possibly the best 4x strategy game–and it’s also an adorable mobile app. That is The Battle of Polytopia. After a stint on iOS and further name changes–used to be called Super Tribes, it’s now emerged on Android. Much to the delight of well-seasoned gamers, this isn’t your average mobile game, not in terms of its business model or restrictions–trust.

The fact that this game is NOT a free-to-play title is as suggestive as it is sad. While the free-to-play revenue model makes up 90% of today’s mobile gaming production, this title is a bit of a renegade given that any purchases made won’t be interfering with your ability to win or not. You won’t have to wait for hours til you can complete a task. Straight-forward, pure, offline, ad-free gaming is what it’s all about here. No time limits or shopping for improvements–the idea behind Polytopia is to harvest resources by completing repetitive tasks. Truth be told, the only things you’ll want to purchase are new civilizations to expand with. Initially there are four available, but there are another five optional pay-for expansion packs that allow you to feed your empire. But, as was stated earlier, these purchases are truly optional, and won’t be affecting your gameplay in the slightest.

Explaining Civilization in a single paragraph is quite a feat that if successfully accomplished should immediately be loaded onto your resume. Here’s our shot. Polytopia is to all practical ends, a Civilization spin-off. The aim of the game is to discover new lands and expand your domain. This can be done either by exploiting natural resources or annihilating all of the enemies that occupy this territory. Game development is turn-based, so you’ll have a max number of actions to choose from that are limited only by the number of stars for each building. Gradually, your city’s overall stability will improve earning more stars as you increase your power. In the long run heightening your skills will pay off through new unlocks and abilities. The larger your city becomes, the more stars you’ll receive in each turn. Meanwhile, as your troops explore their surroundings, they’ll encounter and possibly clash with neighboring squads thereby allowing you to conquer new cities.

With two game modes to choose from, one of them consists in acquiring the highest possible score in thirty minutes. In free style mode, with no time limits, you’ll finish when you’ve managed to defeat every last enemy in that scene. Randomly generated and fully customizable, you’ll get to choose difficulty level as well as the number of rivals in each match. This experience is fully offline and the AI factors involved are polished enough as to keep you on your toes even during lower levels. As was stated by the creators:“The multiplayer feature in Polytopia is estimated to be released on June 9th, 2021.”  We can’t wait.

The game was recently published in beta version with a limited number of installs on Google Play (which are now finished), but it is possible to download the game without any limitations and play from its original APK file, now available on Uptodown–of course.