A Simplistic-ish Arcadelike Survival Game

Review by nitrogendioxide on Sunday, January 3rd 2016

So this game has 'hard', in full caps, in its title. Perhaps it's just my incompetence, but this claim is shockingly truthful; in fact, Pentagon is certainly not easy despite it consisting only of one level, and, for all intents and purposes, four objects.

The player, a large (unfortunately) ringed green sphere, is faced against two glaringly red pentagons with a white circle in the centre. You must survive for fifteen seconds.

Firstly, the aesthetic of the game. Whilst clearly very simplistic, it leaves no space for confusion.

You are green, red is bad, white doesn't do anything; short, simple, sweet. And if you didn't get it, it only takes a few seconds of gameplay to realise as the red pentagons will murder you ruthlessly and without hesitation.

The enemies have a very interesting behaviour that is surprisingly complex to go up against. They aren't simply mindless zombies - the little devils will charge at you and flank you unpredictably; that is, until you figure out how to out-manoeuvre them.

This; this was surprisingly difficult to do.

Especially considering the timer for this game is only 15 seconds - surviving for only that long seems like a breeze. I mean seriously, only 15 seconds? You kidding?

Nope.

You will die over, and over, and over, and over again. It's quite incredible how tricky those little guys are and how tight the mechanics of the game are; even a moment's slack, even the slightest slip- it will get you killed. This is another strong point of Pentagon - it's pace is quite exhilarating.

But, despite this, the game isn't just blind luck.

Even though the enemies' movements are fast and at times seemingly random, every time I died I felt as if it was my fault - it was clear there was something I could have done to avoid my death. Maybe I just wasn't fast enough; the game, as previously mentioned, has a cracking pace. Maybe I was actually too fast, too impatient - whatever I was, whatever I did; I lost fairly. The controls are fair, the enemies are fair, the arena is fair, the game; Pentagon is fair.

And that fairness is very important for a game such as this - it's what I think is a major part in the difference between a player being irritated, or being compelled.

And such fairness combined with deceptively simple aesthetics, a rapid pulse and a tauntingly short survival time is what makes Pentagon one of those compelling experiences.

It will thrash you yet make you think you can beat it. All whilst making you respect it.

Yeah, Pentagon is HARD.

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A short but finely executed game by gooey. Perhaps spare a couple of minutes for it, I reckon it's pretty good.

Edit: Spacing modifications.