Amplitude

"Good job, Harmonix, but try again, and try harder."

When Frequency was released a couple of years ago, it seemed that no one really noticed. It didnt get much attention at all. Amplitude has greatly improved over Frequency, and there are now many more fans (although the game is still ignored and underrated.)

In case you didnt know, Amplitude is the sequel to Frequency. Both games require you to have good rhythm and decent coordination. It is basically made up of songs from popular, unpopular, and underground artists, and the game requires the player to ''play'' these songs by using the face or shoulder buttons. Since this is a review and not a FAQ, i wont get too far into that.

Now, Harmonix has made the songs from Amplitude much more diverse this time, and there are many more popular artists such as Blink 182, P.O.D. Slipknot, etc. This alone will attract a mainstream audience, but IMO, Amplitude is best for hardcore players only. You can either love it or hate it, understand it, or be totally confused. If you love it for what it is though, this game has MAJOR replay value.

Harmonix also replaced the old ''stamp freqs'' with ''avatars'', which are human-like representations of the player. the avatar will play along with you during the song with whatever instrument you are playing. it's a great idea, but when you play this game, you focus only on the notes you play, not the fascinating backgrounds or the crazy Avatars. The old stamp freqs allowed for much more creativity and a seemingly infinite amount of possibilities, so the new FreQ-making system was a great disappointment for me. It seemed that every time i got online with frequency and looked at all the freqs in a chatroom, i was laughing my ass off at someone's freQ. Now, it seems every time i get on Amplitude online, I am seeing the same freQ over and over.

Amplitude Online. I love it AND I hate it. Both Frequency and Amplitude are plagued with horrible lag(i am a modem player), and this ruins most of my online gaming. During a song, I will complete one track and move to another, start playing it, and then another player will move onto my track and take it over, taking my points away. it isnt that player's fault because they probably see a free track when really, i am on it. I dont really get it, but i hate it anyway. There is nothing worse than losing, NOT because you messed up, but because of lag.

Another thing I despise about the online mode is the new option for power-up appearance. i prefer to turn it off, but most of the time when i join a game, the power-up appearance is set to high, and during the entire song, i am being bombarded with cripplers, bumpers, and autocatchers. It's all in good fun, i know, but when there are that many powerups in the game, it becomes much less of a ''skill game.''

Harmonix has also added a new rank system, which i dont fully understand at this point. My rank constantly changes dramatically, sometimes by 100 points at a time. Without going into it too much, i will just say that i dont like the Rank system. It is a great way to keep the player motivated and involved, but if i cant keep a constant rank without falling 50 points after one game, i'm not going to worry about it.

Frequency Online had a TERRIBLE problem with freezing and disconnecting, and it is unfortunate that i still experience these problems with Amplitude Online. It isnt rare either, most of the time when i disconnect from Amplitude, it isnt by my will, it is usually done for me. The game has already froze twice on me. Words cant describe (they can, but they'll be curse words) how aggravating this is.

Remix mode.......It's different, but I'm still not sure if that's a good thing. There are many convenient additions in the new remix mode, like the ability to change the BPM of a song, and delete notes one at a time. When you finish your Remix, you can save it to your memory card and even upload it online so other players can download it.

I took off one point from the score because of the lag, and another point because of random freeze-up and disconnections. That may be alot for those little things, but to me, they arent little, they are very important. The online mode makes up about half of amplitude and half of the online mode is ruined by these mistakes, so my scoring is about right. Good job, Harmonix, but try again, and try harder.

look for me online

FreQ name: Z0MBIE ( ''o'' is a zero)
Amp name: Z0MBIE ( ''o'' is a zero)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/29/03, Updated 03/29/03