Introduction

Beat Hazard is an indie shooter game which is Powered by Your Music!  The game is a simple adaption of Space Invaders with a very interesting twist.  It works according to the music you are listening to.  As the beat rises, your weapons gain in strength and your enemies increase.  It is a simple yet addictive game which provides you with an alternative and fun way to listen to your music.  Beat Hazard provides players with a challenge through a gruelling survival mode, Steam Achievements and online leader-boards.  Unfortunately it also suffers from very bad sound effects making explosions seem very unrealistic.  Overall however it is a game worth trying out and even buying considering its extremely cheap price on Steam.

Gameplay

There is absolutely no complexity in the gameplay of Beat Hazard.  It is a simple point and shoot game in which you choose a song and try to last its duration by destroying enemy ships and occasional bosses.  There are two main powerups in a game; Power and Volume.  Power determines the strength of your weapons while Volume increases the pace of the game as well as increase the song volume.  You are also provided with a multiplier which increases your point gain for every kill you make.  When your Power and Volume are both maxed out, you enter Beat Hazard mode, where you are at full strength and can easily destroy anything in your way.  Finally you are provided with superbombs, which clear an entire wave of enemies and deal huge damage to boss ships.

Graphics

You can't expect incredibly amazing graphics when playing this game.  What makes it stand out in this department is the strobe lighting, which synchronises with the music you are playing.  The more intense the music and the harder the difficulty setting, the brighter everything is and the easier it is to lose sight of your ship in the chaos.  It provides a lot of excitement with these graphics and visual since they are directly related to the gameplay.  

Yes the graphics are specifically there to provide chaos and confusion to make the challenge that much harder for the player.

Sound and Music

Beat Hazard provides you with a number of tracks to get you started however what music you play for your games is entirely up to you.  Every song makes for a different experience, making Beat Hazard an immensely diverse game to play.  What it suffers from are the sound effects when a ship is destroyed.  They are not realistic and could have been much better with a little work.  Luckily these are mostly unnoticable thanks to the background music, which mostly covers up the sound effects.

Final Rating

Gameplay = 8/10

Graphics = 7/10

Sound = 5/10

Overall rating = 7/10