Amplitude

"Not Just Another Music Game!"

Frequency, an excellent music/rhythm game was released late 2001. It didn't see a Japanese release, and was overlooked in North America by most people. However, it still built a large, very dedicated fanbase who affectionately called themselves FreQs. Being someone who overlooked Frequency myself, I now feel horrible for it for thinking it was ''just another music game.'' After playing the demo included with the PS2 network adapter, I got a chance to experience the greatness, and finally the sequel to Frequency was released... Amplitude.

I picked up Amplitude the day it came out, but had a killer headache and was unable to play it until the next day. I was incredibly anxious to pop it in, and when I did, I was in for quite the treat. As the Harmonix title screen came up to Crystal Method's remix of POD's ''Boom'', I got my first taste of the great graphics. The intro video is very cool.

Presentation - 10/10

The game is presented very well. The menus are laid out clearly, with very cool graphics in the background. The game menus are in front of an advanced-looking city filled with colours. As you go from menu to menu, the view moves around from place to place. For example, when you select Solo mode, your viewpoint sort of flies inside a building where you select your FreQ. Very cool.

There are tutorials when you select a mode, which are narrated in a clear, easy to understand voice and let you practice as you learn. For example, the narrator will tell you how to blast gems (more on this later), and then he'll give you a try.

I can't really think of any negative when it comes to presentation, so I give great kudos to Harmonix.

Gameplay - 10/10

Amplitude's gameplay adheres perfectly to the old saying ''Easy to learn, hard to master.'' The objective of this game is to capture tracks of a song by pressing one of three buttons to blast a note. The tracks are three columns wide, and gems (notes) will come towards you in various combinations. Each of the three columns produce a separate sound. Once you capture all the gems in a two-measure long portion, that track will auto-blast all the notes thereafter for several measures. Meanwhile, you'll be on another track blasting notes away, eventually building up the entire song, track by track, gaining points from each track. Each track that you blast consecutively without missing any notes adds to your multiplier, which goes up to 8x in Solo, and 4x in Multiplayer/Online.

There are also powerups to pick up by blasting a measure containing them, which include an Autoblaster which blasts 8 or so measures automatically, a Freestyle powerup which allows you to scratch as if on turntables (on some songs there's the axe track), and even a Slo-mo powerup that slows the song down to help you get through some of those tougher tracks. Speaking of tough tracks, their existance isn't a secret. The game can be played on one of four difficulties... Mellow, Normal, Brutal, and Insane. And boy, oh boy, Insane isn't an understatement. Once beating songs on Insane, you'll go back on the lower difficulties and wonder how they were ever hard.

Many people have a problem with the changing of the layout from a tunnel-shaped track formation where you can easily jump from the last track to the first, to a highway-shaped track formation, where they're laid out horizontally making it impossible to jump from last to first, but not me. Personally I love the fact that you now have to plan a route out to be able to keep up your huge multiplier. This skill makes the difference between a beginner FreQ and an veteran FreQ.

Visuals - 9/10

As you go down a track, there are big screens in the background that show the music video (if one exists) of the song, and there's usually stuff flying around. They're pretty hard to describe, since you're usually so involved in blasting that track that you barely look at them. That's my main beef with them... the best part of the visuals in the game are barely involved with you. I'd rather be able to notice the graphics other than on breaks in the song. Although they're beautiful, and anyone who might be watching you play will be in for an incredible treat, I'd love for them to be more involved. Sure, when you blast a note, sometimes the background will flash, which is a very cool effect, but these kind of things are too sparse.

The graphics of the blaster (your ''spaceship'' that you control) are very nice and futuristic looking, and the gems are nice, too. One of the cooler things about the gems are the fact that each gem on a track is connected by lines of electricity. Very neat.

Audio - 10+/10

You can expect a music game to have outstanding musical quality, and there is no doubt that Amplitude does. Although some of the songs are not many people's tastes, and personally I could've gone without the Pink song, the sound is still awesome. Inside the menus, there's a song playing that's very drum-oriented and sounds pleasant to the ears, just like most of the other song. As you move between selections, sounds play, too.

Replay Value

This category breaks up into two categories: Online and Offline.

Online - 10/10

This is where the game, in my opinion, really shines. The online mode is freakin' awesome. Just the opportunity to go online and remix up a song with someone across the country (or even in another country!) makes me grin. The online game has a ranking system which ranks each individual person based on their playing ability, and a counter that counts how many games you've played. It's a nice way to determine how good the person you're playing against is.

The real drive online, depending on what type of person you are, is to make great remixes or to get ranked #1. Remixing online works best with two people, though four people with USB keyboards can make great music too. Communication is important.

Another cool part about the online feature is the fact that Harmonix has a collection of the best remixes online. You can send your remixes along with a description, and their staff will review your remix and see if it makes the cut. Overall, online mode is excellent.

Offline - 8/10

I don't want to burn any bridges here, but if you don't have a Network Adapter, you're going to run out of things to do. After beating the game on Insane mode, there's not much else to do other than unlock a few more songs, play multiplayer mode and remix. But honestly, after you've unlocked those songs, the solo remixing can get kind of stale and sometimes it's hard to get people together to play.

With that said, it will still be a great challenge to conquer Insane mode, and after that you might still like the songs a lot and want to play them over again to get a higher score, which is satisfying. The large difficulty brings Offline's score from a seven to an eight.

Summary

Overall, Amplitude is a very good game, easily being the best I've played in a long while. Sporting a great soundtrack and stunning online capabilities, it could possibly be the best of the year. I highly recommend you pick it up, Network Adapter or not.

Presentation - 10/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Visuals - 9/10
Audio - 10/10
Replay Value - 10/10 (ONLINE) or 8/10 (OFFLINE)
Overall - 9.6/10

Pros & Cons in a Nutshell
+Excellent online gaming
+Cool tutorials
+Herbie Hancock
+Remix Mode
+Remix Repository
+Ear candy!

-Pink
-Not so much replay value without Network Adapter
-Some people encounter freezing problems online
-Multiplayer camera

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/03, Updated 04/09/03