Super addictive simplicity at its finest
Beat Hazard is part Geomtry Wars and part Audiosurf and although it is a relatively simple game if you like listening to music while potentially giving yourself a seizure in a glowing bullet hell then this is the game for you.
Admittedly I took a gamble when I bought this game, a journalist who I like said I should buy it and so I did. I had no idea if I would like it or hate it but for only seven bucks I figured it wasn't going to be a big loss even if I didn't take interest. To my delighted surprise I ended up spending a solid two hours with the game and am still compelled to continue playing it.
I assume this is due mostly to the fact I have an enormous collection of awesome music and have a thing for games that feature alot of stuff going on at any given time. So yes their is a point in every game of Beat Hazard where the game turns in to bullet hell, similar to old top down Japanese shooters of years past and it is awesome.
The particle effects in particular are what this game is all about, the primary gameplay centers around your never ending spray of bullets that get bigger and crazier the more powerful you become and the louder the music gets.
Targeting and shooting is done with the mouse, movement with W,A,S,D or the arrow keys.
Gaining power is done by picking up POW power ups while Volume initially starts quite low and builds the more VOL power ups you grab. On the harder difficulties this becomes quite challenging as the screen is almost always filled with ships, debree and bosses spawn constantly.
The only real downside to Beat Hazard is when it gets a little too crazy and you inevitably lose track of where your aiming cursor or your ship is on the screen. Perhaps some minor visual tweaks to either would have helped but I found myself working around this eventually.
All in all a fun addictive little game that will keep you entertained much longer than you'd think.