videogamzrulz's Full Review: Amplitude for PlayStation 2
I fell in love with Amplitude the first time I played it at my cousins. I knew I just HAD to get it, but how? I didn't have a PS2. Well, when my birthday came up, I got a whole bunch of money to spend (that's a first) and got the PS2 and the Network Adapter (stinking network adapter's not working, though). Amplitude was the game I was DYING to get, and a big reason I picked up the PS2 over the Xbox (along with the wide selection of games).
Amplitude is the follow-up to a game called Frequency, I'm told. I haven't acually played Frequency, but I played a demo of it on the Network Adapter Start-Up Disc (when I couldn't wait to get Amplitude).
Most people that I know don't give Amplitude a chance to prove itself worthy of being played. They think, "Oh, it is in the music genre of games, it must be crap", but then when I literally force them to play it, their jaw drop open and their eyes light up. So you too should give this game a chance.
Gameplay
addictive- a. causing addiction
You are a DJ, and it is your job to make some music by hitting buttons in time to the beats. There are 3 different beats: left, middle, and right. The defalt controls for nailing those beats are L1, R1, and R2. You must hit a combo of beats in order to clear the track. A group of beats is known as a phrase. There is a thin green line going from beat to beat and it will dissapear if you screw up. Different tracks play different intruments in the song. You usually have your drums, bass, vocals, FX, and of course, guitar. If you don't clear a track while you are doing a song, you won't hear that intrument being played in the song. For example, if you didn't clear the vocals track, then you won't hear the lyrics of the song being sung. Along the way, you will aquire power-ups. One power-up is called the auto-blaster and can be used to blast a track automaticly. Another is the freestyler and that lets you take a break from blasting notes, and score points by going into your guitar solo. You get points for blasting tracks: the harder the track, the more points you will get. You can go on a streak by blasting two or more consecutive tracks, which will times your score by 2-8 depending on how many tracks you blasted in a row. It sounds confusing now, but in the game it is easy as pie. You have a life meter on the left side of your screen. When you aren't clearing tracks or are doing a crappy job at clearing them, your life will go down. If you are jammin' like crazy, your life will go up. There are checkpoints along the way that replenish some of your health. Your progress meter tells you how far along you are in the song. Genrally, I don't even have enough time to glance over there, so I don't use the progress meter that often.
There are 29 songs to jam to, I think. First there are the good: "Boom" by P.O.D., "Cherry Lips" by Garbage (yeah, I know, but this song isn't garbage at all), "Baseline", "Dope Nose", etc. There's a whole slew of good tunes. The only one that I try to completely avoid is Slipknot. But even Slipknot is slightly tolerable (well, maybe not). As long as you like some semi-fast to fast rock/rap music, you should be good. I also was introduced to a new genre of music, "trance" by playing a couple of "trance" songs.
There are four difficulty levels to play these songs to: mellow, normal, brutal, and insane. My mom says, "If you get to be able to beat a song on INSANE, then that's when you'll know you're playing too many video games." Well, my mom's comment was partly true, because you can never spend TOO much time playing video games, but man! Insane is really, really hard. The thing is, you can play a song on mellow, and then when you play it on Insane it is like it is a different song.
You start off with only three songs to play from, then once you beat those, you get the "boss" song, and once you beat the boss you go to the next arena to beat three or four more songs. You have to do this for every difficulty, because you won't have unlocked some songs on brutal when you've unlocked them on normal.
A nice addition is being able to create your DJ, or Freq. You can unlock freqs and freq parts by playing though the main game. Over time, you can make your freq look cooler and cooler. You will see your Freq on the right side of your screen as you play through a song. He/she will have a intrument in hand to play. If you are trying to clear the drum track, for example, your Freq will be playing the drums.
Multiplayer is awesome! There are three modes to play from. One is called duel, and that's where you try to score more points then your opponent(s). Another is whoever dies first loses, and I forget what the third one is. Anyway, in multiplayer, you get 2 new power-ups: one that blasts your opponent off the track they were tying to clear, and one that makes the track all wobbley.
Graphics
The first thing I have to say about the graphics is that they were distracting. For someone who is easily distracted, I was not pleased with all the flashing lights in the backround. It seems that the developers threw whatever the heck they wanted in the backround, because I can't tell you how many signs, videos, and effects have screwed me up. As for the track design, that was well done - the notes were usually green circles, but they had different shapes for when you could aquire a power-up. Your freq looks real good, looks like they spend too much time on him and not enough on the backround!
Menus are easy to understand. I liked how they would give backround info on the artist who made the song, but it was OPTIONAL weather or not you chose to view it. The main menu is going for the "future" kind of look, with all its crome figures of a city in the backround.
Sometimes the game would freeze right before starting a song. That, of course, is VERY annoying, but luckily it only happens occationally.
Sound
Since this is a music game, sound means a lot more than it usually would. Sound is crisp and clean. I didn't notice anything wrong with it and I'm playing on an old TV. I can't say much more except it didn't bother me.
Online
Stupid Broadband Adapter!
Replay Value
Definately. Beating the game on INSANE will take you months, if not years. After that, you can still go online (if you have your stinking Broadband Adapter working) or play with friends. It is always fun to play through a song you already beat in hopes of a higher score.
All in all, Amplitude is a game definately worth picking up and renting. It is rated Teen for mild lyrics, and if you want to go online with it, then people might swear there. I'd say if you are 11-40, and you don't mind some mildly fast rock/rap/trance music, then you'd like this game.
ESRB Rating: Teen Genre: Rhythm Action Mission: Earn points by pressing corresponding buttons on the controller at the right time, Platforms: PlayStat...More at Amazon Marketplace
Become a top-notch DJ in Sony's Amplitude. Developed exclusively for the PlayStation2 by Harmonix Music Systems, Amplitude is a fast-paced rhythm-acti...More at GameQuest Direct. com
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