Polylithic caught my eye for a variety of reasons, from its vibrant color scheme to its unique premise. The indie game looks to be bringing a lot to the crafting-survival table with its Paleolithic Age setting. After thrusting you into the role of a tribal leader, Polylithic has you fight through a mysterious epidemic to help your people not only survive but also thrive. The strange sickness is not your only obstacle though, as the environment can be harsh and you’ll need to work to keep your tribe fed, happy, and growing.
Polylithic is a third-person game, so you’ll be looking at everything from a top-down view of sorts. While it is set within the Paleolithic period, the developers have said that it features “a dash of sci-fi plot,” which sounds interesting. Your gameplay will start off slowly as is the case with most survival games, when you’ll focus primarily on crafting items, discovering areas, gathering resources, and unlocking new technology.
While you juggle all of these essential survival tasks, you’ll also build bases so as to expand your tribe and better command the settlement. Your people will need you to provide for them, too, which means hunting everything from small rabbits to massive mammoths inhabiting the prehistoric wilderness. You’ll also need to assign tasks to your tribe members so that they can grow and eventually become elders.
There are some story elements in Polylithic as well, with developers writing that you can find secrets and “stories to piece together, starting with discovering the roots of the disease that plagues your people and ending with your tribe’s history.” You’ll also play through not just one, but two historical periods as you advance from the Paleolithic Age into the subsequent Neolithic Age.
You can find out more information about Polylithic and wishlist the game here on Steam. While there is no concrete release date set just yet, the developers expect to have Polylithic release in an early access state sometime within the third quarter of 2023.
If Polylithic seems like your kind of game, then you may want to check out some of these other great crafting games. Alternatively, you can browse through a few of the best survival games out there right now if you appreciate the more brutal side of Polylithic’s gameplay.