Best Music Game ever?
The premise of Amplitude hasn't changed much since Frequency. Take your ship along tracks inside the music. You can blast to the left, center or right. Hit all the notes in a bar and move on to the next. Each bar activates a different part of the music, for example, you may be playing the drum track therefore you will only hear drums, that is until you turn on another track. Once you clear a track, it stays cleared for a certain amount of time. Move on to the next track and clear that to mix the music together. The main goal of the game is to complete as many bars as you can and keep the music alive. It's not so simple though when notes begin coming in 1/4 second bursts.
So what exactly is your reward for completing these tracks? Well, if you can complete track after track in rapid succession, you will build up a multiplier meaning mega points. The more you complete, the better your score. This is important in the single player mode if you want to unlock the bonus tracks.
Chains aren't the only way to keep your score alive though. There are various items to help you out such as the freestyler that lets you fly above the track and drop the beat in your own way, which results in some serious scoring opportunities when mixed with a huge multiplier. Other items include Slo-mo, which causes the song to slow down considerably aiding you in completing those extremely complicated bars. Other items include the score doubler (yes it does what the name implies), and the blaster which takes out a full bar and will save your chain in the process. I guess a big question here is how do you lose the game? You have a health bar that continuously goes down while there are active bars to be completed and you aren’t completing them. Complete a bar and you'll regain a small amount of health. Also throughout the levels there are 3 checkpoints which will give you an energy boost. Make it to the end of the level with any health whatsoever, and you win.
So now that you've got a grasp of the premise of Amplitude let's take a gander at the actual modes of play. The single player mode consists of an in depth tutorial (which you are forced to play) and 5 worlds. Each of these worlds consists of 3 songs, a boss song which becomes unlocked after completing the 3 songs, and a bonus song, which is unlocked by attaining a score total between the 3 songs and boss songs. Earlier difficulties will lose one or two songs on the last world, but that's the penalty for taking the easy way out. Speaking of difficulty levels, there are 4. Easy, Normal, Brutal, and Insane. These names may seem a tad ridiculous, but trust me, playing! on insane is literally, insane.
When playing the single player mode, you get to create a Freq, which is a character that will appear in the top right while you play the game. Beating the boss song will unlock more parts you can use to create your Freq. Even more parts will be unlocked when you complete the bonus songs. This can make for some pretty interesting Freqs in the end, with alien like heads, bionic arms and baggy pants. The presets can all be selected in the multiplayer modes. It's unlockables like these that make you keep coming back to play Amplitude.
Well, there is always the in depth multiplayer that will keep you coming back for more too. Multiplayer supports up to 4 players in various modes to compete in. First up is the regular game mode. Within this mode, the song is played with each player trying to complete their own bars, on the same playing field. If someone is already in a bar, you can't use it, find another one and try and build up some points. Now here's where it gets interesting. What happens when all the bars have been taken out except one? A mad rush for that bar is what happens. Oh yah, I forgot to mention! , there are two new items in the multiplayer modes. One is the bumper which will toss an opponents ship to the next bar and allow you to take over that bar. The second is called the crippler which causes their controller to rumble, and the bar to shake and contort. As you can see, the level of strategy increases with these two items as they can be the difference between winning and losing. The next multiplayer mode is the duel mode. Within this mode, one player creates a pattern that the other player will then have to mimic and vice versa. If you complete the bar correctly, you get a letter, if you don’t, your opponent earns a letter. First to spell Amplitude wins.! This mode is available i n two modes of play, free for all, where you create beats any way you want, and pattern play, where a certain pattern must be used when creating your opponents bar.
As if all those modes weren't enough for you, there is one more mode. The remix mode. This mode allows you to customly create bars to the songs in the game and save them to memory card. Create a song and let your friend try it out. See who can make the best songs and the hardest. This game is definitely a great party game, even if you are only playing 2 players, since songs don’t take that long to complete.
The graphics in this game are a vast improvement over the graphics in Frequency. The textures are all much crisper, colours more vibrant, and the lighting is a big change of pace from Frequency. Overall, this game doesn't have what it takes graphically to make your friends go OOH! and AHH!!! but it gets the job done, especially for a rhythm game, which have never been well known for their graphics. Basically, Amplitudes graphics get the job done. Never will you be saying, these graphics suck, mainly because you'll be so absorbed in the frantic gameplay to notice, but also because the graphics are decent. As I said though, with all the gameplay, you'll barely notice the buildings and lights flash by as you pl! ay this game.
The control in this game is somewhat strange. There are two control setups which you can use. You can use the D-pad or left analog for either style, and you can use either at any time without having to change the options. One set of controls uses the Square for left, Triangle for middle, and Circle for right. This works at first but as the songs get faster, you'll notice that one thumb isn't going to get you very far. The second control scheme is a much more intuitive one, although it is awkward to become accustomed to at first. It uses L1 for left, R1 for middle, and R2 for right. The face buttons are arranged in a muc! h more convenient manner to play the game, but because you only get one finger, you can't play many of the later songs. With the shoulder button control setup, you have 3 fingers at your disposal. If you intend to go far in this game, I recommend starting with this style because you'll need it later and you may find it hard to grasp after using the face buttons for so long. Overall, Harmonix was able to create a very intuitive control scheme for their game, allowing you to hit three directions with instant speed. Just be prepared to learn the setup.
The sound in this game is obviously the most important thing. The game features fully licensed songs from various groups. No matter what your musical preference is, you'll find something in here for you. Whether it be Run DMC, Pink or David Bowie...They've even got Slipknot in this game! As I said, there is music for everyone. Likewise, you won't like every song in the game, but you will look past that just because the game is so addictive and fun to play. The sound quality is excellent, all the songs are there in full for you, there is even a soundtrack mode that you can unlock to listen to the songs in the game. As fo! r sound effects, they are mediocre. There’s nothing terrible, but nothing to write home about either. Missing a beat will make a small error sound, picking up powerups makes a typical powerup noise. Within the game there is also an announcer which can get quite annoying at times. The announcer tells you when you pick up a powerup, when you are low on health, when you reach a check point, and in multiplayer when either player takes the lead. Needless to say, his voice becomes irritating quickly. The music in this game quickly overcomes that small fault though.
Amplitude is the perfect sequel to Frequency. It expanded upon Frequency in every way possible. Graphics are better, there are more songs, more variety within the songs, and a bundle more modes to play with friends. Any rhythm fan should pick up this game, because it's a good one. If your not one with the DDR, or other rhythm games, you may want to just give this game a rental, but you may find yourself quickly addicted.