The Long Dark
The Long Dark
Game
Game2026Published by indie.io
Polylithic
Developer polyperfect
Polylithic is a survival video game developed by polyperfect. The game is set in prehistoric times and combines survival, base building, crafting and tribe management elements. It entered early access on 9 November 2023, with the full version released on 25 August 2026. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
205 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 6, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
71
Fresh
139 positive · 57 negative
95% range 64–77%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 139 | 57 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
9 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
254 of 364 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Mixed reception: praised for beauty and potential, but criticized for bugs and lack of tutorial.
Many players praise the game's beautiful low-poly art style and engaging Stone Age setting, calling it a labor of love. The crafting and tribe management are often highlighted as fun and intuitive. [1][3][6][10]
However, numerous players report game-breaking bugs, poor tutorials, and frustrating camera angles. Some say the game feels unfinished and unplayable in its current state. [4][13][28][29][35]
Praised art style · crafting · developer responsiveness
Criticised bugs · lack of tutorial · camera angle
Summary drafted by an AI model from the 36 reactions it cites ([n] links open each post), then checked by code: every paragraph cites real posts and every quote is verbatim. Written Oct 7, 2026. Method
Reactions
60 of 205 · most liked firstThe game is beautiful, its fun to play and it has so much potential. However, I understand that the game is in Early Access, and I gave it several hours because I wanted to give it a fair chance and work around the problems. However, I repeatedly encountered issues where objectives and interactions would not respond or progress correctly. This made it difficult to continue the game normally because I could not reliably complete objectives or progress through the gameplay. 1.I have to restart…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't recommend this game at the moment. Writing just that isn't helpful so I've wrote down some of my thoughts below. Hope it helps and keep up the good work. • In story mode, after each migration, I needed to reload because the tasks, the food and happiness meter, (displayed NaN%), broke. • Your buildings are left behind, which I can understand considering you’re migrating, but it would be nice to have the built buildings appear as items in your inventory or in a storage bin inside the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wait to buy. Way too much jank. Here is a couple of examples: Your tribe is crap at defending itself. You can arm them and they will still run from animals, and get chased down. What makes this worse is that you need tribesmen in order to progress, obviously. You migrate a couple of times right away. So you build what they tell you to, only to have to take your tribe to a new location (remember to keep them alive) to essentially restart. Oh, what is this? I need to migrate AGAIN?? I literally…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[Edit 2:] Entwickler auf Steam haben offensichtlich herausgefunden, wie sie unliebsame Kritik an ihren schlechten Spielen eliminieren können: Sie lassen einfach ihre Fanboys Kommentare oder Reviews massenreporten und Steam bückt sich natürlich tief runter, um Zehen zu lutschen. Ich habe aufgehört, Steam auch nur einen einzigen weiteren Cent zu opfern, um damit dann zensiert, mit schädlicher und gefährlicher Ideologie hirngewaschen zu werden und meine eigenen Spiele nicht mal zu besitzen. Wenn…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is ok for what it is, but it's just so damn buggy it's frustrating. In sandbox mode for most of my playtime, my recruited tribesmen don't do half of the jobs I assign them to do, that or get stuck on terrain or buildings. Ranged attacks not hitting, arrows teleporting around the map instead of being on the carcass of the animal you killed. Then there's me, after upgrading the camp totem to level 4 I can not for the life of me move anywhere near my own camp, I get frozen or stuck in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It has too many bugs; you can't play the game for more than a day -in game- because some buttons stop working... I'm not going to redeem it now; I think it has a lot of potential (I hope).
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Polylithic" in Latin means "many stones" but really the developer meant to say "low poly stone age", but I guess Latin is a dead language and the Latin police aren't showing up any time soon. Anyway what this is is a low poly (looks bad on purpose) strategy/city builder/tribe management game akin to Sapiens (which is better than this of course) that's deep, deep in development hell. The developer made a core promise to complete and fully publish the game by November 2024, and broke that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sadly, this will end up as a refund for me I might check on it later, but there are too many core designs that take away all the joy from playing for me First, the UI. Its very annoying to even get to the crafting menu, let alone exit it to another part, cancel a craft etc etc. The talking is also a mess, depending on your mouse sensibility Some things are beyond hard to understand or stupid, for example in my first test I didnt find berries near my camp and couldnt assign my first tribe…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoy the game, and always do my best to support indie developers, especially when I can tell the game is a labor of love. Polylithic is definitely that. It's a very pretty game, and i enjoy being a caveman running across the plains and unga-bungaing anything that gets in my way. The crafting system is intuitive and easy to get the hang of, and quests are pretty easy to understand if you don't require to have your hand held every step of the way. All of this comes with a pretty big caveat,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I made it to Era 11 of the game. It is a good game worth the money I paid, 171 hours of fun. Can be challenging, it test your problem solving skills. I like the use of the tribe members to back you up, have your back, and to take on different tasks. It is not perfect, it is a work in progress.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →UNGA BUNGA BUNGA Thank you so much for sticking with us and supporting the game. Seriously. You’re awesome. The Polylithic is out NOW! store.steampowered.com/app/1839060/... #gamedev #indiedev #steam #lowpoly
unlabelledView post →As of version 0.8.4.0, the game is unplayable. There is a game breaking bug that roughly occurs every hour of gameplay that just makes part of your base disappear. If you're unfortunate enough to have the bug impact your Food Storage or Item Storage, you lose everything inside and cannot rebuild them. I have sent feedback to the developers via their online form, so hopefully fixes will occur and rapidly, because outside of the co-op (which worked for my friend and I), the single-player is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to love this game; I wish I could. But there are considerable issues that prevent me from recommending anyone purchase Polylithic at this point in time. First, the pros: it's a beautiful game. The low-poly models are designed with care and interest, and the environments are gorgeous to explore. The low-poly rendering of the rivers, in particular, I really enjoyed, as the water almost looks like stained glass. The soundtrack is soothing and well-matched to the game, and the gameplay…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →FINALLY! After 6 years, we released our first game, Polylithic! store.steampowered.com/app/1839060/... #gamedev #indiedev #steam
unlabelledView post →I recommend the game, but the lack of a proper tutorial is definitely going to turn some players off (hopefully the devs see this!). My husband and I managed to figure things out without too much trouble, but onboarding could be much smoother. For example, I spent about 20 minutes searching the ground for flint before realizing you actually craft it directly in your personal inventory. I’m also still trying to wrap my head around the village-building mechanics. That said, the game is absolutely…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Polylithic ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was a tiny bit hesitant to purchase after reading the reviews but I'm having the best time playing. Either a fair amount of bugs have been resolved or I'm extremely lucky as I've had an almost completely smooth experience! Would 100% recommend this game and am excited for what's to come. The gameplay loop feels like if Medieval Dynasty and Valheim were wonderfully smushed together. Would love very much if some form of social system was eventually implemented - partners, kids etc, similar to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Polylithic polyperfect, indieio. Steam disclosure -y
unlabelledView post →i get this is early access, but the amount of bugs and constant objectives not responding or working in any way makes this game unplayable. --Updating my review after full release: I do not understand why so many early access game creators are releasing bugged messes of "1.0" games asking people to pay real money while promising to make the game functional. My first playthrough in ea was met by progression-locking bugs reported by other players (build a monument over the valley or something…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very poorly optimized! Even with a 5080 and the game video settings on "Performance" (the only other option other than Ultra) there are constant stutters. Vsync on/off doesn't make a difference either.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am writing this review in good faith that you shall one day add mammoth breeding (yes, mammoth breeding, dear reader - an aspiration of such grandeur that I can scarcely contain my excitement at the mere thought of it). The prospect of nurturing a noble, shaggy behemoth from calf to colossus - of leading my herd of trumpeting, prehistoric marvels across the frozen plains - fills me with a sort of primal yearning that only your game could have awakened. It is my sincerest hope that the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm constantly fighting the camera and having to move it. This feels like a walking simulator. I'm slowly walking through the forest waiting for something to flash yellow so i can pick it up. I see lots of stones outside my town but guess what? you cant pick them up. Well unless you go far away and come back. Then you can pick up 1 or 2. It's so frustrating to try to find resources. Takes all the fun out of this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I recommend Polylithic to any of those who are interested in a look into the Neolithic era. There are not many games that focus on this time period faithfully. The art and colors are beautiful, and it's a real labor of love by the developers. The game has its fair share of bugs in its early access, but the Devs quickly respond to your feedback on their Discord Server. Really excited to see where this game goes and hope the community grows with it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun concept but still TONS of bugs and janky mechanics. The AI is terrible, which is unfortunate in a game that's foundation is dynamic NPCs. If someone dies in deep enough water you can kiss that villager slot goodbye forever. You can't deconstruct certain buildings, namely the storage stations. So once it's up if yo want to relocate it you gotta uproot the entire base. Feels way more like an open beta than a 1.0 release. A very early open beta.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The premise is cool, artstyle is neat. Has a bit of a Valheim feel to it all. The execution is god-awful. Reading through the discussions in the forums, a lot of similar complaints through the last several years, with no appreciable fixes that I can since the comments were made even with devs commenting on the threads. If there's some drastic fixes to gameplay I'll pick it up again later. Controls and UI are just awful. Controls feel like I'm playing an N64 game - pre-dualshock dual stick…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's pretty but you pay the cost in massive performance drops. Controls are janky. Quests are tedious. I was already gonna hang it up just form the performance issues alone which persist through all graphics settings but when the dude told me "twigs were everywhere" and it took me half an hour to find 10 twigs in the intro that was about enough. Long way to go. Visuals may be overly ambitious for what they can actually achieve.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was still in the tutorial or the first tasks I got on how to collect 10 twigs while my character started with his starving sound and the screen was flickering red as if Im close to death. actually its everytime like that once the healthbar goes slowly down, quite annoying. and it made me realize that some of the reviews were accurate. youre constantly hungry, you have to feed tribmates that dont think youre doing a good job and your 40 collected nuts wont satisfy them. killing rabbits with a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Been playing this game for over a week now. I realize it's still in early release, but great game over all! I like the quest based game progression, building and technology advancement!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After bashing my head against the game for an hour I cant say Im too motivated to play it. The resource gathering is really unsatisfying. Very much suffers from "oh thats not a thing I can pickup its just part of the background." The controls feel very janky. Especially the camera, sprinting and jumping. Overall it didnt really have anything that catches my eye. It has some good bones, but defiantly still has a long way to go.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Love the game as a whole, few things though. The camera is hard to get used to because you aren't able to look up so it gets hard to navigate terrain when you are going up hills. other than that the game is smooth and fun to play
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I recently got into this game just before the 1.0 launch and played early access briefly and had no issues. Going into 1.0 (I have only played multiplayer exclusively so I cannot comment on singleplayer tutorial since multi is pure sandbox) I had an issue where the other player couldn't attack or cut down trees. A post was made on the discussions and within 45 minutes the dev had not only responded but pushed a hotfix. I have to commend that level of dedication to making sure people enjoy their…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Get early Access to the 1.0 build for Polylithic! Polylithic is a survival game unlike any other, set in the most pivotal moment in mankind's history: the Stone Age.... 🔑 Key requests on #PressEngine 🔗 https://pressengine.games/polylithic #gamedev #indiegames #games
unlabelledView post →Wow..... just wow.... Never have I ever had a worse intro/tutorial experience down to the "lore" behind it. I found sticks to make a fire, cooked meat, clicked a Mammoth until I ran out of arrows, clicked the "Father" Mammoth with my Club until it died (no health bar), and press "E" to "Wake Up" from a stupid "dream sequence" and then you are in a one hut village with things you didn't learn about in the tutorial and no direction on what to do next and NO CLUE why you even spend that 30 mins…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Dev is still putting in lots of work for this game, I absolutely love it, it feels pretty quick to get to that point where youve done most everything. I TRULY felt like a prehistoric tribe leader smashing my head into a rock, struggling with fauna and game bugs alike, and my own tribe having some questionable behaviors. Where I personally wish this game would eventually go, its more centered on a colony survival almost in stages like spore, it would be so cool to see my tribe aging,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Needs more content needs rival tribes needs more immersive crafting 0.9 ?!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Polylithic is a fun and unique Stone Age survival game. The low-poly art style is charming, and crafting, hunting, and exploring with friends are all enjoyable. The devs are super nice and active in improving the game. Pros: - Colorful low-poly Stone Age world - Fun crafting, hunting, and exploration - Nice soundtrack - Active and engaged developers Cons: - Some bugs and performance hiccups (It's Early Access) - Certain systems still feel incomplete Really looking forward to the future…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Understandably an early access game. I am a survival-craft connoisseur, so I am adept to what makes me feel good in these types of games. Could improve: Game needs a GPS system. Tutorial is lacking (even trying to stumble upon crafting is difficult right now). Feels like I am being gate kept in the crafting menu. I would prefer to have a jumping ability Would love to see a skills tree of some sort Excels in: Love the graphics, makes the game very unique Feels very ancestral and basic I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I’ve been following Polylithic progress since the EA release, and it’s been great to see how much the team genuinely cares about the game and how many good updates they’ve delivered along the way. Looking forward to the 1.0 release!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The preface for the game is great and is something I haven't seen done right often, yet obviously due to it being in pre-release it has many bugs which i hope will be fixed in the full release. Along with this the game has some flaws in its item collection such as the lack of easy way to get items such as stalk and rocks (with it not respawning) and the fellow villagers not actually collecting what they are tasked to collect. The game has massive potential and i get that there is a small team…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There's no speed difference between sprinting and running, missing control features, couldn't aim and move camera at the same time, npc animations missing, body vanished after dying and many, many more issues.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a good concept of a game. Very relaxing, good sound design, very simple combat system. I liked it, but the game does not feel 0.9 - it feels more like 0.1.9. Exploration feels boring, codex is half complete, no tutorial or tips how to do half of the things - you just have to guess and try. Also sprint speed is too slow that it's basically a power walking. Animation bugs, snap point bugs, no deconstruction for some unknown reason, projectiles getting lost if animal lays on them, weapon…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i dont recommend this game just yet. i think they have to fix the controls alot more. i found it difficult to play and control my character even after changing it up. its just so hard to hit a locked on target. opening up your inventory or crafting menu is also annoying there are no double clicks for different actions so every actions has a different key to press. overall the game play is nice and the graphics are pretty good.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →IDK why but I bought it cuz I saw Release 1.0 I hate Early access, nothing works. And like I mention, it doesn't work properly. tribe don't gather, they just wonder. They get stuck in the campfire...with a stone. they are very sensitive. ATM. is a work in progress..It has a LOT potential. but I would say wait for now
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's very good, I like every part of it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After over two years of waiting, being told there would be deck support, it’s still unsupported.the game still has very poor performance. I can’t recommend this developer.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great Concept, Mediocre Execution Riddled with bugs I was initially excited after watching the trailer and reading the concept. Survival Crafting game with colony sim style management. That's pretty much what it is but the game is like a shallow pool. The survival/crafting/combat is functionable, but not particularly interesting. The Colony management is just assign one task to a tribe member and as far as I could tell that was pretty much it. Make sure they have food and a bed and your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't normally give reviews, so I hope that speaks to how much this game deserves a positive review. TL/DR: It's jank, but its beautiful! give it time! FIrst off, I think the concept delivery of the aesthetic is immaculate. I really enjoy the graphic style, and I often like to just stand and observe the sunset and the rest of the vista around me. It has such a charm to it. Cutting to the chase, as all the review says, it is *extremely* buggy. But they're working harder than dev teams that…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm not great at written review, but this game is such a diamond that it glued me and I didnt even played SM(Story Mode) apart for some help to the community. I'm playing mostly on SB(sandbox) where you are not hand held and nothing is explained and you have to learn all game mechanics by yourself. This game is amazing and I bought it few days before 1.0, even though that you might notice some bugs Devs are fixing those and improving game constantly and listen community and read everything on…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I never thought that low poly synty looking assets could look so gorgeous. This game has created such beauty with the atmosphere and the color theme they chose. Aside from that the game is fun, they are working towards what i believe will be a great game when it is finished. So far the only problem I have is that a settler died and i tried to revive him but it didn't work. So now i am down a member and if this keeps happening I don't know how to replace them so that is going to suck when i…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Polylithic (as an early access game) is a work in progress, but the parts that are complete are really well done. Multiplayer sandbox play is a blast and you really get a feel for how much *work* survival as a hunter/gatherer is. Big game will absolutely flatten you unless you use your big ape brain to set yourself up for success (i.e. attacking from a cliff, using the terrain in other clever ways, etc...) The developers are also really responsive and take feedback seriously, so I'm super…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game mechanics are clunky. After gathering items from a kill you will often find that you just yeeted your javelin off into space and will have to make another. There is a bug where if you die will in the selection or crafting screen your camera will be locked and after respawn you will not be able to open any menus requiring you to force close the game. Some quests have very little instruction and you have to just figure it out by trial and error.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Incredibly enjoyable, offering a thrilling gaming experience. I'm eagerly looking forward to the upcoming update for even more excitement!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →SO MANY BUGS! Ive managed to get soft locked on 3 separate missions now, having to reload saves losing hours of playtime. The tribe npcs are constantly getting stuck around the map, and your wolf companion will just run circles around you while you're getting mauled, never actually attacking. Needs work
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Saw this hit 1.0 and hoped it wouldn't be too bad. Combat feels bad. Tried the clubs, have to be hugging the enemy to hit it. Tried the spear, it felt like the range of a punch. Even the enemies seem to miss a lot. Collecting items requires a press and hold of like a half a second of the pickup button. Can't just rapidly pick up sticks, stones, berries, etc. have to press and hold for each one. It feels tedious. Right click changes camera between always following behind the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly, the game was fine upon release until 3 bears spawned in my literal camp and just wouldn't go away. This is early in the game and I don't have a single tribe member. I can't even get past the part where I'm supposed to give Boulder a task, because the bears just KILL him and I'm soft-locked out of making any progress. A survival game shouldn't be capable of soft-locking you out of basic steps to progress. The hostile animals in your camp should despawn once they kill you. Otherwise,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It has potential, but still as quite a few annoyances, especially for controllers. For example, disappearing tribe members. I watched a tribe member walking and just suddenly disappeared (the names at the camp were also wrong). When you load a save, it sometimes clears your party, so your party suddenly goes rushing off to the distance; this can also happen after a revive. Or you load a save and it autosaved in a bad spot. You were able to deal with it before the save, but due to the wake up…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →35 FPS on 4070 card... really? Game intro is so boring I ran somewhere, died, then resurrected and the FPS killed me.... It's not interesting, I don't want to run for 10 minutes through some desert crap at the start of the game. Give me a weapon, have me slay some wolves and die in action at least. Not interesting and not optimized. raw crap right now
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Polylithic seems to be progressing well with regular updates at the time of this review. I find the game a refreshing take on survival without fantasy creatures, monsters and zombies! I hope the sandbox continues develop as the campaign feels a bit too limiting. The view angle in both modes is a bit too tight especially when trying to look up hills. Despite the current flaws I had well over a dozen hours of fun so far and will recommend this game on that alone. Just know that it is far…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →F u c k i n mess, I don't recommend this to anyone
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ok, I had issues with certain parts of the game, mostly figuring out how to be effective in this game. The tutorial is either lackluster on purpose to push to to read the docs(controls) or because they are busy deving(most likely). Super easy; to lock on - middle click run - shift toggles running on/off people management - press esc - see tasks - see the unlock requirements to unlock autonomy of task For the game unlocks, its a bit slow and frustrating that you have to complete each arc?…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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