I usually gauge a game’s success based on how quickly and easily it sucks me in and makes me forget how long I have been playing it. Beat Hazard is just a game that has made me burn countless hours. Single player games have to combine the right elements to keep the modern video gamers attention span and this game does that well by combining the familiar elements of Asteroid and Geometry Wars with an awesome twist.
What makes this game unique is the inclusion of your music library and increasing the difficulty and number of enemies based on the beats in the song you are playing. The power of your ship’s weapons also increases as the difficulty and number of enemies increase.Visually this game is stunning as the song progresses and if you are one suspect to epileptic seizures, you might want to dumb down the visuals or avoid the game totally. Bear in mind that reducing the visuals also reduces the score you could get for the song.
The game gives you the option to play single songs or a survival mode where you play as long as you have are alive. Since you can only purchase the game via Steam, the various Steam achievements are fun to get and will keep you playing this game for at least 10 hours if not more. As you accumulate scores by playing individual or survival mode, they get added to your overall total which in turn contribute towards attaining the ‘Elite‘ level. Each milestone in level gives you additional bonuses which help you when you increase the difficulty of the play mode for each song.
While the music you are playing has a heavy bearing on how the game plays out, you also receive various upgrades while destroying asteroids and enemy ships. The upgrades you get are –
Volume
Power
1 x Multipliers
Super Bombs
The volume and power upgrades affect your ship’s weapon strength while the multipliers help you rack up big scores. Any time you die and respawn, your volume, power and multipliers decrease by a certain amount. The goal is to keep your volume and power at maximum so that the Beat Hazard weapon is kept active. If you get surrounded and need a quick way out, the bombs are useful in taking out multiple enemies and making you invulnerable for a few seconds. Another way to rack up your multiplier is to not shoot at enemies and keep dodging them till such time you need to start clearing up the screen to give yourself some breathing room. The best time to do this is usually during the beginning of the song as the initial set of enemies do not shoot at you.
A few things that are missing from this game are a co-op/online mode, the ability to create music play lists for yourself without sorting songs into folders and support for iTunes songs. But the developer is aware of these and we can hope for these improvements in a future release.
Even though I have gotten all the Steam achievements, the leader boards keep pulling me back to play this game to score high for the various categories –
Highest Total Score
Survival Best Score
Survival Best Time
Tracks Under 3 Minutes
Tracks Under 4 Minutes
Tracks Under 5 Minutes
Tracks Over 5 Minutes
For $9.99, it is a must buy as the overall fun factor, incorporation of your music and individual competitiveness makes the game a hit! You can also download the demo and give it a whirl to see if it suits your taste.
