Beat Hazard is one of my favorite games on Steam. I've always been interested in the idea of music modifying a game to produce a game where you feel like you play your music.

And honestly... Beat Hazard isn't that game. It suffer the same fate as all these procedurally generated music games, like Audiosurf, where the music doesn't have a strong connection to the game you're playing. When you play Beat Hazard, there is limited connectability to the the music.

The Music in Beat Hazard pretty much affects the "intensity" of the game. If you play some music with a high BPM enemies will move at a faster rate than a low BPM. But even playing Happy Hardcore and other fast BPM music, the game doesn't appear broken, which is a good thing. A VERY good thing, as I'd hate to see the game limit what types of music it can play.

In addition, the game comes with a built in soundtrack, something Audiosurf doesn't really do, so at least you can play exactly what song the developer was thinking of when you play the game, and the fact is... it works and by that I mean very well. There a variety of songs chosen but slow songs have a different feel from fast songs. That's good.

But you'll play through the 20 songs or so and then you'll have to play your music? Right? Well... not unless you want to, though you can. There's also internet radio! At least my copy (which is from the original launch) came with a few stations already set up and adding more is relatively easy, EXCEPT it requires editing a file, so steam boxes and anyone playing in a big picture mode has to go through a few hoops to make it work. It's not awful, but it's an annoying few steps that I wish wasn't required.

However the build in internet radio works, and works well, rather than "play a song" you instead play a time battle, 4 minutes up to 20 minutes I believe (and a survival mode for when you want to see how far you can go). And again, it's YOUR choice. I chose an electronica station, so I was loving the music and the game, and it worked... really well. Well except for the fact there's a little disconnect between the game and the song, but you can use internet radio, and listen to great music as you play.

So what's the game like? It's a bit like Geometry wars. Rather than fighting geometry shapes, you're instead blasting ships and flying dodging their attacks. It's quite similar to bullet hell games, but there's a few major changes. First the game isn't that brutally hard, and gives you multiple difficulty options (including a few you can only unlock through a perk system). Second, there's power ups. Enemy ships when destroyed can drop different items, some of them are for points, some of them are weapons you can trigger, and finally there's "volume" and "power". Power does exactly what you think, it makes your ship strong, however Volume is different. It increases the sound of the song you're listening to. At the beginning your music is quite, but as you volume up the sound increases so you can hear your song at full volume. This also affects the power of your ship (I think defensively) and when you max both you get a special mode, so both of these power ups are important.

While that disconnect from the music for the game doesn't make this the game I dream of, the fact is the gameplay of the game is fun, and there's a decent connection when you're listening to music and what's happening in the game. If a song goes from slow to fast and back, you'll notice enemies speeding up and slowing down. The connection could be better, if you play a song two or three times, it's random how enemies will appear and attack. However the gameplay itself is solid, and you are able to listen to music you like and have it make a minor effect on the game you're playing.

But the game underneath is just a fun game. I love geometry wars, and Beat Hazard I think might actually beat Geometry wars for replayability. I recommend this game not because it's a stunning success in the world of music games, but because it's a fantastic twin stick shooter with a lot of depth. The two DLCs (Shadow Operations Unit and Ultra) are both excellent add ons, and being able to get the whole set for under 20 bucks is a good value.

Beat Hazard is one of my favorite games on Steam. I've always been interested in the idea of music modifying a game to produce a game where you feel like you play your music. And honestly... Beat Hazard isn't that game. It suffer the same fate as all these procedurally generated music games, like Audiosurf, where the music doesn't have a strong connection to the game you're playing. When you play Beat Hazard, there is limited connectability to the the music. The Music in Beat Hazard pretty much affects the "intensity" of the game. If you play some music with a high BPM enemies will move at a faster rate than a low BPM. But even playing Happy Hardcore and other fast BPM music, the game doesn't appear broken, which is a good thing. A VERY good thing, as I'd hate to see the game limit what types of music it can play. In addition, the game comes with a built in soundtrack, something Audiosurf doesn't really do, so at least you can play exactly what song the developer was thinking of when you play the game, and the fact is... it works and by that I mean very well. There a variety of songs chosen but slow songs have a different feel from fast songs. That's good. But you'll play through the 20 songs or so and then you'll have to play your music? Right? Well... not unless you want to, though you can. There's also internet radio! At least my copy (which is from the original launch) came with a few stations already set up and adding more is relatively easy, EXCEPT it requires editing a file, so steam boxes and anyone playing in a big picture mode has to go through a few hoops to make it work. It's not awful, but it's an annoying few steps that I wish wasn't required. However the build in internet radio works, and works well, rather than "play a song" you instead play a time battle, 4 minutes up to 20 minutes I believe (and a survival mode for when you want to see how far you can go). And again, it's YOUR choice. I chose an electronica station, so I was loving the music and the game, and it worked... really well. Well except for the fact there's a little disconnect between the game and the song, but you can use internet radio, and listen to great music as you play. So what's the game like? It's a bit like Geometry wars. Rather than fighting geometry shapes, you're instead blasting ships and flying dodging their attacks. It's quite similar to bullet hell games, but there's a few major changes. First the game isn't that brutally hard, and gives you multiple difficulty options (including a few you can only unlock through a perk system). Second, there's power ups. Enemy ships when destroyed can drop different items, some of them are for points, some of them are weapons you can trigger, and finally there's "volume" and "power". Power does exactly what you think, it makes your ship strong, however Volume is different. It increases the sound of the song you're listening to. At the beginning your music is quite, but as you volume up the sound increases so you can hear your song at full volume. This also affects the power of your ship (I think defensively) and when you max both you get a special mode, so both of these power ups are important. While that disconnect from the music for the game doesn't make this the game I dream of, the fact is the gameplay of the game is fun, and there's a decent connection when you're listening to music and what's happening in the game. If a song goes from slow to fast and back, you'll notice enemies speeding up and slowing down. The connection could be better, if you play a song two or three times, it's random how enemies will appear and attack. However the gameplay itself is solid, and you are able to listen to music you like and have it make a minor effect on the game you're playing. But the game underneath is just a fun game. I love geometry wars, and Beat Hazard I think might actually beat Geometry wars for replayability. I recommend this game not because it's a stunning success in the world of music games, but because it's a fantastic twin stick shooter with a lot of depth. The two DLCs (Shadow Operations Unit and Ultra) are both excellent add ons, and being able to get the whole set for under 20 bucks is a good value.