[Review] - Beat Hazard Ultra

[Kevnvek]

Developed by: Cold Beam Games

Published by: Cold Beam Games

Platforms: PC, PS3

Players: 1-2, online and offline

Rated E for Everyone by the ESRB

Beat Hazard in itself was an extremely fun music visualizer slash space shooter often compared to Geometry Wars. Rightly so, as the basic gameplay is much the same, with the onslaughts of enemies coming at your omnidirectionally firing ship, equipped with devastating, screen clearing bombs. The twist is that the gameplay is powered by your music. Your firepower is immediately influenced by the intensity of a song, while enemy and boss spawn patterns are determined by various factors throughout the entire song. Every song generates a different level, but the same song file will always generate the same level.

It all comes together in a very slick, flashy, space shooter powered by your own music. Beat Hazard was a very fun game when it was released back in early 2010. Fast forward back to today and now we have a new DLC that adds many new features to an already awesome game. But are the new additions worthwhile?

Let me put it this way: I've been playing the original on and off for almost a year and had about 9 hours of in game time in it (time spent actually in a song, so it's more than it sounds like). In just two days I added another 4 hours to that time. Those evil geniuses over at Cold Beam Games knew just what needed to be added to bring an already addictive game to a whole new level of addictiveness. Whereas in the original you would max out after a certain point, and everything after that was just another number added to your rank every 10 million points, Ultra adds more addictive elements like a currency system (via pickups) and perks. Also added were new enemy types, a new mode, and multiplayer.

The perk system adds things like new weapons, increased chances for multiplier drops, abilities that enhance the new weapons, and several other enhancements to help you survive and get higher scores. Every time you rank up you get to choose a new perk, then must buy it, as well as any upgrades you want for it, in the main menu. The new weapons you can get can really change up the gameplay. The missiles were my least favorite of the three new weapons, but they had their usefulness. You fire out a barrage of missiles that individually target the biggest threats to you and try to destroy them. The ultra beam essentially emulates the effect of the most intense sections of a song, making your beam intensely powerful for a brief moment. It's perfect for taking out those turrets on a boss that happens to be harassing you, as well as quickly blasting a pair of particularly annoying new enemies that can draw you in or push you away, limiting your movement. My personal favorite new "weapon" however is the shield. For a short while you gain a barrier around you that renders you completely invincible. While in this state, not only do reflected projectiles go back and target enemies, but you can use the shield as a battering ram, clearing out lines of weaker enemies and clusters of asteroids.

The difficulty has also been slightly rebalanced in Ultra. A very nice new feature I noticed was that the slow parts of the songs where your firepower is drastically reduced are made significantly less painful by the fact that everything around you, enemies, projectiles, etc., slows down to match your weakened firepower.

The new mode added is called Boss Rush. In it you face waves of bosses that come one after another over time. The spawns are time based, so the next boss will come regardless of whether you're still sparring with the last. The time between spawns becomes increasingly shorter, until later on you can have several on screen at once. It can get pretty hectic, but it's a nice change of pace from the standard mode, as most of the time you don't have to worry about that one little asteroid or ship that sneaks up behind you for you to crash into it (the exception being that some bosses can now fire small waves of ships).

Last but not least, Beat Hazard Ultra introduces multiplayer to the game. This comes in the form of co-op and head to head modes which can be played online or offline with two controllers, or a controller and a keyboard. Did I mention that the game is much better on a game pad? The controls are good on a keyboard and mouse, but it's actually possible to lose your aiming reticule amongst all of the enemies, projectiles, and general flashiness. With a controller you don't have that problem, and are able to move and aim without worry (though to be fair the mouse is easier to aim more precisely at far off targets).

As I was saying, there are two modes that can be played in multiplayer. In co-op mode two players share pretty much everything, score, lives, multiplier, bombs, etc. They work together to get the highest score they can. It's nice to be able to have another player to cover the opposite side of the screen for you, letting you mostly focus on the enemies nearest to you. Head to head I found more entertaining than co-op. Two players play essentially as if they were in single player mode, where nothing is shared (though stealing the pickups that another player drops on death is an option). The nice thing about it is that both players have infinite lives, so neither has to worry about failing or being let down when one of them dies too many times and the song ends abruptly. The players can't do anything to each other directly, so they simply compete to try to get the highest score.

Winning

Beat Hazard Ultra comes with over 20 new indie songs. These can be played in single player, but their main purpose seems to be to provide some consistency in what can be played in multiplayer. If two players have the exact same song, they can play it together, otherwise the included tracks are the only option. The most I've ever been able to play with anyone from my actual library was Stricken by Disturbed. It's not all that bad though, as the included tracks are mostly cool techno music perfect for generating challenging levels.

Beat Hazard in itself was great fun, and the new Ultra DLC adds a lot to it. It feels like a whole new game. So much so that some might even miss the "simplicity" of the original. Fortunately, when launching the game you are given the option to choose between original and Ultra modes. There is a very noticeable difference when you go back and play in "classic" mode.

With so much added, this is one very worthwhile DLC for those who already have Beat Hazard. For those who have not played the original, now is the perfect time to try it out. You can purchase the full game bundled with Ultra through Steam, and later on as DLC through the PSN store on the Playstation 3. The gameplay is incredibly smooth, and only made more awesome by the fact that you can play it to your favorite music. I fully recommend this game to anyone with a passing interest in music and simple yet addictive Geometry Wars style gameplay. It's everything you could want from a game short of a moving, cinematic experience. It's just plain damn fun.

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