Amplitude HD Reviews
The new game is full of fantastic modern electronic tracks. Sadly there are no big licensed artists to be found, but there are plenty of Harmonix favorites like Freezepop and Symbion Project. My favorite tracks include Perfect Brain, Dalatecht, and Crystal.
This is a game clearly made for long-standing fans, and made by a passionate team that strived to recreate the gameplay experience of the original on modern hardware. In that sense, Amplitude is a total success. The way that the game draws you in with its psychedelic visuals, how your brain switches off and your fingers become one with your DualShock, the satisfying way that the tracks disintegrate when you clear them – it's all here. If you can forgive the game's problems, you're left with a very solid rhythm game, and an experience that's as fresh today as it was 13 years ago.
Amplitude hits both highs and lows, but is the kind of score-hunting, high difficulty challenge that rhythm fans will love if they're looking for something fresh. A solid revival for a pillar of the genre.
Controller incongruities aside, Amplitude works as both a look at what rhythm games used to be and as testbed for some interesting new ideas (even if they don't all work). It doesn't offer a new instrument you can pretend to play or change how we think about music games, but it doesn't have to do any of that. It's content to give you a solid, lasting sense of satisfaction from pushing buttons in the right order and hearing some good music.
If you've wanted to play another Amplitude game for the past generation, then this is going to scratch your itch and then some.
As a faithful fan of both FreQuency and Amplitude, I'm satisfied with the reboot Harmonix has so lovingly crafted, but as a much different product than the loud, raucous Amplitude I fell in love with as a teenager. I won't keep returning to this Amplitude like I do the 2004 version despite enjoying the soundtrack because it lacks the same kind of replay value for me, but as its own being it absolutely stands on its own feet as a music title evocative of games like Rez or Child of Eden. If you're looking for the next evolution of classic rhythm gaming, this is it...let's just get some additional tracks added into the fold in the future.
Suffice it to say, Amplitude may not be a perfect game that includes every single thing a fan of the previous games could want, but it certainly met my high overall expectations. It's not often that I find myself "buying in" to a crowdsourced project, and rarer still that I would spend more than the typical cost of a game on one, but I'm definitely pleased with the result of doing so this time around.
Amplitude is a competent rhythm game that should provide lots of fun at parties, but the hamstrung tracklist is a severe detriment to its longevity. Harmonix was able to preserve the classic experience, but may have gone overboard in its effort to do so.
Amplitude brings the series back in a great way, featuring all the arcade rhythm action that players will remember from the 2003 classic. However, the song choices here are woefully inadequate compared to previous offerings, dragging the whole thing down quite a bit.
A thrilling variation on the formula that harkens back to genre roots, even if the song catalog lacks the catchy replayability required