Frequency

"Get ready..."

Games such as this don’t come around all that often. Games in which you have to use your hands and your eyes as well as your ears in order to make something work. Frequency allows you to do that in more ways than one, with the addition of several different bands that cover genre of music from heavy metal {Fear Factory} to the crisp sounds of techno music {Juno Reactor}. What you get when you combine this type of game play is something that is both addicting and exceptionally entertaining all in one shot.

There is no story behind the game and what you’re playing is literally a game that allows you to take selected tracks from different bands and remix them to the point of creating customized tracks much like you would expect from a nightclub DJ. Through several stages, you’ll be able to unlock other songs and test your ability to keep up with not only the beat of the music but the sheer overall speed that the game has to offer you at every turn. Now, this game isn’t for everyone and if you’re looking for a game that features action and suspense, then you need to stop reading right now.

The Game Play –

What you’ll find here in Frequency is that it is simply a game that allows you to create different styles of music from existing tracks that have been created by different genre’s of music. You may come across music selected from one of the more heavy metal bands such as Fear Factory, or even go into the strange trance world of Paul Oakenfold {Swordfish} to create some haunting tracks. Overall, it’s a game that features three different difficulties and a couple of interesting remix features for not only two players, but up to four!

When you get into the game itself, you run across several different bars of music that represent different types of elements within a musical track. Where one might be a drum line, the next would be vocals or sound effects that fit in where the song is supposed to go. Now, when you’re playing through, the point of the game is to link as many of the bars as you possibly can together in order to get the entire line to run so you can move onto the next element. This is not an easy feat, as some of these tracks have finger twisting and eye spinning combinations that force you to play through more than once!

The multi-player game is pretty fun with two people, but for the most part, you may have a hard time with playing three or more people at once. The reason for this is that you and your friend(s) are all working off of the same song and track, which makes it somewhat confusing and can screw up the way that the music sounds in the end. Sure, it sounds like no big deal, but the amount of confusion that you find here is great enough to completely throw you off track if you’re not paying attention.

The Control –

Control that you find here in Frequency takes a little getting used to at first. Like with most games, you can customize it to your liking and get the buttons where they need to go. Generally, the game is much easier played when you use the shoulder buttons, so you may have to take some time to get used to the way they are set up and just when you have to hit them! Once you’ve gotten that down {and there is a tutorial}, then the game is simply being able to keep your timing and the beat long enough to get through to the end.

The Sound –

The sound quality that you hear is first rate, and all of the bands that you mess with in the game are true to the original form of music that you may find out on the Net or even at the local music store. However, there are some small problems that come with some of the tracks in which the beats and the way that the combinations are set up seem to detract from the way that the overall selection sounds. Confusing to say the least, it’s a pain in the ass when you are running a line that requires nearly thirty-three button presses, but miss the last one because the beat skips out on you!

The Visuals –

All I can say is that this game looks a lot like the old Tempest 2000 game for the Play Station. The way that the game is set up is that you’re on a transparent track {6 in all} with each of the tracks having small nodes that you have to hit in order to make sounds. This isn’t all that hard to work with when you boil it down, but you may need to play through the game with no arena in the background in order to keep your eyes focused on what is ahead of you! As bare bones as it sounds, there are plenty of flashing lights and effects to startle the eyes, so you’ll have to focus more on what’s ahead of you than around you.

The Verdict –

Although I haven’t come across a game like this on the Play Station 2 yet and for that matter any other system {barring the Arcade}, I’d have to say that this is one of the funniest music program games that I’ve seen in a long time. You can mess with the music, get a great remix out of it and then challenge your friends. All in all, you’ve got all the makings of a great party game with potential for sequels galore. If you’re into music games and addictive ones at that, then you may find that Frequency is on the same wavelength!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/08/02, Updated 04/08/02