Beat Hazard Demo

Beat Hazard is an arcade shooter powered by music beats, which can be from the music library of the game or the user’s.

Space shooters are a dime a dozen, so it’s difficult to innovate in this genre. For the most part, all the developers are doing the same thing; players get to shoot wave after wave of enemies, levels end with a boss fight. It’s not a terribly complicated recipe, but if you hit all the right notes, then you can get a pretty good game.

The only way that developers can make sure that they are doing something different is by combining various genres, in the hope that they are putting forward a new concept. Beat Hazard is a combination of genres, but their blending is not complete. You can still see the roots of the game, and the Asteroids inspiration is quite clear.

We’ve all seen games that advise people who are about to play it about possible epilepsy attacks. For the most part, that warning is there because the game, at least, one scene with flashing lights and the studio and publishers must be covered.

In Beat Hazard, the ratio is just the other way around. Most of the time the screen is constantly flashing, and it can get much worse during the levels. Since the action is powered by the song that’s playing, the levels can be either very hectic or mellow.

The game has a main campaign that uses the integrated songs, so you don’t need to have you’re own files in order to play the game. On the other hands, don’t expect the music to be incredibly entertaining. Using your own music is actually a great idea.

Players move the ship around the level with the WASD keys and they fire with the mouse. It’s not difficult to master, but there are so many things happening on the screen at one time that it’s impossible not to get hit.

The engine is good enough to keep up, and it’s not half bad. The demo only comes with a few levels, but they should be more than enough to decide if you like the game or if you can stand the lights.