I just want to run it as a screen saver while my music is playing ...

Trash.

I don't really get this game.

I don't get what the name means. The music barely has presence, and doesn't impact the gameplay, so something like Beat Saber would be more engaging. The only points of reference are some dots and spheres so I don't get much of a sense of speed or leading targets as you slide around, and with no wingmen (and apparently no way to dodge incoming shots) the dogfighting experience is rubbish. The map doesn't help, as it's slanted - making it useless.

Sometimes you seem to inexplicably die. Your score on one run might be 30, and then 3,000 on another, and then 30,000 on another. The highscores all maxed out at 2.1B. The menu is a little box in the top left. The game feels like an awkward and pointless gimmick. I played it back in 2011 and probably went that whole decade without thinking about it again. At 73% positive ratings for £4.99 it's overrated. I wouldn't even recommend it with a large discount.

No

REVIEW #25
The Polynomial
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Years ago, when I first noticed this game on Steam, the idea of a first-person shooter in space, decorated with fractal-based visuals based off of my own music, drew me in quickly. The game certainly matches that description, but what's kept me from fully enjoying this experience is the game itself... or to be more specific, the lack of game.

The premise is simple: fly around an area, shoot bad guys, protect good guys, then go to another area. One major issue with this is the method of area selection: 2 wormholes are present in every map, and flying through one of them takes you to the next area or the previous one, depending on which wormhole you choose. There's no goal to reach in order to unlock these wormholes. They're ready to use right away. You simply go somewhere else when you choose to, and all that changes in most cases is the visuals. This wouldn't be so bad if there were other changes, like different enemies or new weapons, but there isn't. It's the same thing with a different background every time. Additionally, if you decide to stay in one area for a while, enemies will continuously spawn with (seemingly) no limit, which can make an area overwhelmingly crowded over time.

As stated above, there's no goals, and there's also no leaderboards and no limit on lives. You simply fly around and shoot the same enemies with the same weapon until you're bored and decide to quit. There's no challenge to meet here at all.

Also, while we're talking about missing features, if you're planning on adding your own music to the game's playlist, be aware that you cannot add files in groups or batches; files can only be added individually. Try as I might, the game would not let me add a folder of music files at once.

On the flipside, even despite the games age at this point, many of the special effects are very attractive, such as shooting stars in the background and the explosions of defeated enemies. The fractal-based backgrounds, however, are a mixed bag.

The best way that I can synopsize how I feel about this title is that it feels like a game that was developed only 80% of the way. Had this game been polished up and worked on a little longer, it might've been a really fun title.

Game was sort of like the old Descent, but with somewhat more slippery controls, and you could use your own music as the background. Ever since the middle of 2021 the game refuses to launch, even after uninstall, reinstall, and file verify. Sadly can no longer recommend this game.

The idea behind The Polynomial is pretty cool in theory.

With the game being described as a musically-driven space shooter, I was expecting the game to be something like Rez, with the added perks of exploring an open world, listening to music of my own choosing, and watching as the visuals of that world synergize with the rhythms of my selected music.

Unfortunately, the game just wasn't that fun to play and I can't really recommend it to anyone. The ship's controls are clunky and a chore to learn, and it's not very obvious what you're supposed to do gameplay-wise. Even the game's main selling point, the visuals, aren't as interesting to look at as they could be.

very complicated process to add your own music tired to do the steps in this video .

steam://openurl/https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

did not work for me could not play music from my windows media player. Process was far to complicated found a better program for me project M and its free all you have to do is start the music and it automatically detects it no spaceship or power ups but it did what i wanted to much work when all i want to do is listen to my music and play product refunded after 2 hours trying to figure out how to add my own music . not possible for me

I installed the game and launched it and to my utter surprise, it ran.

The said sequence is the only interesting part of the game. Better pick your high-school mathematics book and solve those annoying polynomial equations than playing this.

Unfortunately I really can't recommend this one, the controls are more slippery than a greased up fat man wrestling butter in an oil spill, the in-game camera probably has ADHD, and the enemies can be sneaky bastards who kill you from behind. Just get Beat Hazard instead.

And even if you don't care about the gameplay... Well, I'm gonna say it--Winamp's visualizer looks waaaay better. And it's free!