The first game I am
going to review is Audiosurf. It is an indie game released in 2008 that has
gained a fair amount of attention since its release. It’s a music game similar
to Guitar Hero but with no buttons, and instead of hitting buttons on time,
you're matching colors by moving along the bottom of the screen. You have three
rows that can hold seven blocks, and the goal is to match three blocks of a
kind together, touching in any way. If you overflow a row with more than seven
blocks, you are penalized. It is a score based game with online leaderboards
for those looking to compete. The music however is whatever music you so choose
to play. It can play any audio file, as far as I can tell.
For controls you can use
keyboard arrow keys, a mouse, or a gamepad. Of the control types, I found that
a laptop's mouse pad worked the best for me because the way the mouse moves is
the most fluid and controlled of them all. There is a bonus to using my finger
movement as opposed to wrist movement. I'd have to say the gamepad came second,
only because the strange setup. When using a gamepad, you use the joystick to
move left or right just like a mouse, but it re-centers in the middle row every
time your hand is off the joystick. Third is a regular mouse, just because I'm
faster with finger movement than wrist movement. The arrow buttons however are
very hard to adjust to unless you are a fast clicker. Otherwise you have to
click to move a row every time which can get frustrating. Overall, a gamepad or
the laptop mouse pad are your best bets, especially while under the influence.
My first time playing I
was stoned off my ass. When I'm stoned I love music. I also enjoy video games
when I'm stoned. This game delivered both in a package that was intense as
hell. My mind was blown by the colors and the music syncing up. However if you
aren't great with fast reflexes or with fast thinking while under the
influence, I recommend only playing this game on its mono setting (one color
changing block and grey blocks which reset the multiplier on your score).
Personally I think the mono setting is better for being stoned because the
blocks still change color in sync with the tracks speed color. The calm purples
and blues during the slow, more peaceful parts really made it feel quite
calming. Then during the red, faster parts my brain would almost snap into
hyper-focus because the warm, bright red seemed alarming. The track moving
along in beat, such as stopping for a moment on the beat of slower parts, made
me feel like I was a part of my music. Any type of music you like you can
play and it will be amazing stoned. The visuals are also trippy. Random objects
are in the background, such as a random spinning top. They add an effect of
trippy-ness but don't steal focus from the road. Also if you so desire you can
add visual effects (such as negative, rusting, and even changing the color of
the blocks to fit your style) and audio effects (for when you hit the blocks)
in the menu, and you can change these settings during the game if you want to
mess with it for a more trippy experience.
Playing sober is a
slightly different experience. There is more depth and challenge to the game.
The other modes involve the blocks being multiple colors, and each color has
more value than the others (purple being the least while red is the most). Each
mode has slightly different abilities, such as eraser mode which can erase
blocks you have while vegas mode can shuffle them around. For more of a
challenge there is an extra mode called iron mode. With this checked if you
overflow a row it ends the game, as opposed to the regular consequences. There
are also extra bonuses at the intervals of 7, 11, and 21 block combos. The game
does a good job of adding bonuses here and there to make playing more
interesting. Each mode contains different options, but they are all pretty much
the same, except for mono and the multiplayer mode.
Multiplayer in this game
is shit. There’s no way other way to put it. For starters its local, which on a
pc is never easy and with a laptop pretty much impossible. One player uses a
mouse, while the other uses the arrow keys to navigate through 2 rows instead
of three, and the rows are linked between characters. A multiplayer, it just
does not function well. However, as an extra challenge for one person, it is a
great challenge to take on.
The graphics on this
game are not so great. It can run on my laptop, which can't run games released
before Audiosurf. Games like this don't rely on graphics that much as a selling
point, and, for what the game is, the graphics are perfectly adequate. The road
shows what it needs to; the hover-car-thing is on par with some of the F-zero’s
cars. The trippy objects floating in the background look almost better at the
last game generation's graphic quality.
The sound on this game
is great. Of course, it is your own music, but the quality is still there.
Unfortunately, that means if you have shitty audio on the files to start, it
will stay shitty. Also, m4a files need something specific done with them to
make them work, but other than that the sound quality is up to your music and
music choice. The Orange Box game soundtrack comes with the game too, for those
of you who do not own music. If you do not own music though, why are you
thinking of buying/buying this music game anyway? It seems rather...strange.
One cool thing The Orange Box has is that on the Portal soundtrack, the car
becomes a portal gun, and there are only orange and blue blocks regardless of
mode.
Overall if you are a
stoner or into rhythm games (seriously stoners, this game was made for you) I
highly suggest buying this game. You can play it for hours and still not be
bored. I find it particularity productive for listening to new albums I've
acquired. However, if you are big on your games having a story line or plot,
this might not be the best game for you. Over all I give it a 9/10 for a rhythm
game.
Pros:
- your own music
- no game-breaking bugs or any bugs that will effect
enjoyment of the game.
- easy to learn, hard to master
- game-play is solid
- simple, but not too simple
- can add visual and audio effects
Cons:
- graphics sub-par
- gets boring unless your stoned or really into music
*Video coming soon
