In a world of so many games and so many musical genre’s there’s pretty much a game for everyone when it comes to music in the form of Beat Hazard, where the music is the game.
Now there have been musical games before it and there will be musical games after it but that does not and will never stop this game from being some of the best fun you can have filling up the screen with bullets in accordance to your music.
Beat Hazard is a shooter…theres not much to say about it, yet theres so much to say about it…yes i know that made no sense but those who have played this game know what i mean, this game is only limited by your musical taste. This is the best way to listen to music.
Gameplay
Beat Hazard’s game play is simply something to behold, as the title image suggest the game play is powered by your music, and it really is. You start by selecting a song that is on your computer, then you are away, its simple and easy to use.
When you get in game, the music will start up and you are away, based on the speed and volume of the music your shots will be stronger and more plentiful, as will enemies and bosses.
The basic game play is really about lasting through the entirety of the song, surviving enemies,bosses and debris to rack up the points and just generally have a damn good time rocking to your music.
A pretty nifty thing you can do with Beat Hazard is to plug in an Xbox 360 controller and play it with a game pad instead of the keyboard and mouse, it allows more fluent movement and aiming with the unison of thumb movement, as of yet there is no integrated PS3 dual shock support but with a simple software download you can get that running easily
This said the game can get very VERY hectic at time, if you listen to the sort of music that allows it the game will be merciless and you will die and die and die until you get good, then you’ll die again…and you’ll love every pulse pounding second
The game uses points on a level based system, the more you level up the better your starting upgrades and powers will be and as you go on you will unlock 2 new difficulty modes that really pile on the death.
There are a number of different game modes to this game, but most revolve around the same principle but they each have levels of incresing difficulty. the first is pretty simple, its just play, you pick a song and play it.
The next is survival, where you chose a playlist or album and try and see how long you can last, survival has its own difficulty, not surprisingly called survival, its damn hard and a lot of fun, its all really about seeing how long you can last and having fun to music
(I’d like to claim this was me…but it wasn’t)
Presentation
Beat Hazards visuals are probably the closest thing to LSD you can get to without taking the drug, it can turn any song into a mad rave and it works well, even on the lower down computers of the world you can have the best of eye pain.
The game generates an incredible colour and light show that changes much like any visualizer, its really impressive and is a sight to behold, as long as it doesn’t make your eyes bleed. There’s not much to say of visuals, its just a truly good looking thing
(I must point out there is a warning for people who suffer from Epilepsy brought on by flashing lights then i must advise you take heed before purchasing this game)
Story
In space…your music is so loud people become violent…not really, but that’s what i like to go by
Conclusion
When I first saw this game I will admit I was skeptical, it looked like any other shooter out there, hell i thought asteroids was on par with this game. Then i saw my friend playing it and i was really hooked, not because what he was playing was particularly to my liking, but that it could be. I could load my music up and really have fun with a game i other wouldn’t if i were playing his music, that’s why it works so well. Its your music you play, so you know you will like it.
I will admit that while it is very addicting it soon can feel slightly bare, but all is not lost, in June (scheduled) comes a DLC package that will cost $5 or about £2.99, it will add many, many things, one of the most notable things is online co-op, but also new enemy and boss types and new power ups
So for these final words i will say again this game is not for all…well, yes it is, but only for you…what i mean to say is, you’ll like this game if you have music. Its really one of the best indie buys I have taken my time to play recently, its fun and enjoyable and i recommend it.
((all screen shots were taken by a good friend, none of which i take credit for))
