Amplitude

"Frequency, Eat Your Heart Out."

Welcome to Amplitude, the sequel to Harmonix's first rhythm-based, button-tapping game, Frequency. Before you start, let me just say this: If you enjoyed Frequency, then you will enjoy Amplitude. It takes all the great things about Frequency and turns them up a notch. Aside from two "bad" changed, everything else has improved dramatically. Thank you Harmonix!

Objective Of The Game:
What you do in Amplitude is guide a futuristic space ship across different tracks. Each track represents an instrument for a song. On each track are blue notes; one one the left, middle, and right. Your space ship has three green circles that are respective to the notes. When your green circle lines up with a note, you must press a certain button. If done correctly, a sound of that instrument will be played.

Concept: 8/10
What the people at Harmonix were trying to do was make a game which intensifies your reflexes while you get to make music from some new and old artists. They made Frequency. It was good. They wanted to make another one, but improve it. Out came Amplitude. They did a great job, except for the fact that some people might dislike their music choice. I liked it quite a bit, but who's to say that everyone else will? Besides this, I think this game is really put together well.

Sound: 10/10
A game based on hearing and playing music, the sound must be perfect, and it is. The only minor peeve is that it sounds weird when you have an instrument going and it stops all of a sudden, but that's not enough to drag down the 10 because when they are together, the songs are sweet. Plus, you get to make your own re-mixes!

Graphics: 9/10
Of course, graphics aren't the main concern for this game, but they do matter, and this game has good effects. You interact with things often. You make an avatar (called ''Freq'') who plays whatever instrument you are catching. The backgrounds move with your beats. The lyrics even show up on stages for the chorus. Though these aren't the best, the graphics are great compared to Amplitude's previous game, Frequency.

Control: 10/10
When a note on the left side of the track crosses your left space ship circle (if you will), you press L1. When the middle note and circle line up, R1. And when the ones on the right line up, R2. Easy! Once you capture two "bars" of a track (there are lines on the tracks in the game to determine this length), you hit left or right to move to a new track and do it all over again. When certain notes look like weird objects, it means they are power-ups! Capture all the notes in these phrases and the power-up is yours! Press X to use it at any time! The Multiplier will double your score multiplier for 8 bars, the Auto-Blaster will capture a track automatically for you, Slo-Mo will slow down the game, and the Freestyler will take you away from the tracks into a Freestyle mode where you can hit buttons to make your own mix!

Replay Value: 7/10
Yes, you can make your own re-mixes and you can try the four different difficulty levels for each of the 25+ songs, but it does get kind of old after a while. Same songs, same re-mixes, same track, same notes... This may be a game where you'd need to be easily amused to be able to play for a long time.

The Two Main "Downgrades" From Frequency To Amplitude:
In Frequency, your Freq was made of goofy shapes, colors, and layers. In Amplitude it's a 3-D guy with pre-selected parts you can pick from. BORING. Frequency's style of Freq-making was way more creative and a lot cooler. 3-D is NOT always better.

Also, in Frequency, the tracks were all connected in a circular fashion, meaning you could hold down "right" and you would go from the first track to the last, and then continue going right back to the first track. In Amplitude, the tracks are straight across, meaning once you get all the way to the right, you must press left 5 or 6 times to get back to the beginning. If you are in a pinch, this makes it impossible to keep a combo going. BAD MOVE.

Overall: 9/10
This game gets a 9/10 for me, but someone else may give it a 3/10. This game really depends on how much you like to press buttons - fast, and how much you enjoy listening to music. I love both, so I rate this game good and find it highly addicting.

If you like music and have great reflexes, Amplitude is the game for you!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/25/03, Updated 01/02/07