Beat The Game Reviews

Great attempt to make something unique and beautiful, fusing gaming and musical experiences together. BTW game was released on my birthday :D <3

This game is well-made, quirky, and unique. The mechanism of finding and collecting sounds is fun to play, and the world that the developers have created is beautiful and surreal. The obvious caveat with this game is that it is unlikely to take you more than an hour or so to complete. It's clear that the developers meant to make a much longer game; there are characters and objects that tie into future parts of the story that just don't exist. (Despite the 'to be continued', I don't expect the full game ever to see the light of day.) It would be sad, though, to let that put you off completely. What is there of the game is well-realised and complete in itself -- the level that you play does lead you up to a satisfying end point. The mechanisms are fun, and I hugely enjoyed playing it. My only real criticism, beyond the short length, is that there's little help in finding the sounds. They're mostly easy to discover, but I ended up spending the last twenty minutes or so wandering around trying to find the one missing sound. A hint system would have been helpful! So, this is a beautiful, fun, and unique game. It's sad that it was cut short, but I'm happy to have played it and am glad that it was released rather than just dying in obscurity on a developer's hard drive. Don't buy it expecting the full story hinted in the level that you play, but enjoy it for what it is.

This a great concept with a lot of promise. The world is intriguing, it has some cool ideas but the UI elements and unclear goals of the game made me get bored of it after about 20 minutes. I love the art style, the soundtrack, the original idea of the game but really feel like a little more work needs to go into giving the player more to do in the world and have actions build on each other.

This sat in my library for a while. Finally, I have decided to play it, and I did not regret it. Lot of people said this isn't a game, but it's not a music video either - it's a surreal interactive experience. I got to listen to some sick beats I've made, which was a genuinely good experience in the tiny world the game gives you to "explore". Sadly, I wasn't able to find all the tunes - will the stick dummy find the catgirl and beat the game? I don't know, and I am sad, because this is a completely obscure game without any guides or playthroughs. Strangely enough, the developer still seems to be around, so maybe in the future, the game will get an upgrade, which it sorely needs to be more accessible. I would love to see an improvement that will help me locate the missing sounds, because this is a typical adventure game "pixel hunting" issue. Also, what on earth is the point of that laser mark? The game makes a big deal out of it, but it just seems to be a free floating camera and a marker system? Did I miss something?

I would barely call this a game. Everything takes place on a very small map where there is very little to do beyond collect some sounds. Collecting sounds doesn't really involve much beyond either pointing your sound collector at something long enough, or finding some items that let you interact with something. Get all of the sounds (which doesn't take very long at all) and you get to do the final part of the game where it literally highlights everything you have to do, so there is no puzzle or free gameplay unless you feel like prolonging things. So, here is a quick rundown of what you do: [spoiler]Use your sound collector to hover on things for five seconds. Open your mixer for the first time as it makes a random thing show up that doesn't actually have any impact on the game. Mixer appears to serve no purpose after that beyond to hear the sounds you collected until the very end. Pick up some items that let you interact with some other things to get a few more sounds. Trigger a day cycle since some different sounds show up at night. Get all of the sounds and perform a show at night where the game highlights the exact sounds to play to finish it. The end.[/spoiler] There also seemed to be at least three things that served no purpose unless the game has some hidden things in it. [spoiler] One being the cat girl. I don't know what the point of her showing up was for. She showed up twice, ran away twice, seemed to be completely pointless unless I missed something. Two, the laser robot. I'm not sure what it was for unless it was somehow used to make collecting sounds easier, but none of the moving sounds were hard to capture. And three, the weird blinking star by the billboard. I don't know if it served a purpose or not, it just seemed like I was supposed to notice it.[/spoiler] Does the game have an interesting art style? Yes. Does the game have any worthwhile gameplay? Not really.

Emmm, i just can't recommend game at this state to buying. Beat this Game less a hour, and i have a feeling more like a demo play, that a real game. One small level with two state, no story, no "music maker", high pile of unused items, couple of bugs, seems like unfinished EA. All "game" it self it's just collect sounds and in last part press highlighted buttons on mixer. If review this like a demo, it's very promising, nice art and music, but not sure about more content or DLC later. So just wait for discount or some kind of bundle with it. P.S. I hoped for something like Fract OST meets Jazzpunk... This one also not bad at all, but tooo short.

As far as I can tell [b] Beat the game [/b] is not a finished product or at the very least, not a smooth experience. So the unique mechanic in the game is finding sounds for 8 step sequencer (basically you can play the game to your own soundtrack created from those sounds) Was the mechanic utilized intuitively? Not really. It is just kind of there as a sandbox tool and it did not create any worthwhile gameplay elements. Although I really enjoyed the aesthetic there are noticeable issues with camera lag and the flickering world. For $7 I expected a more refined experience considering 60-90 minute length. [b] 8 Step Sequencer & Sound problems [/b] If you ever tried composing music on PC you will find a familiar 8 step sequencer as the focus of this game (like a beat VST) Which is a really cool concept but the game does not incorporate it well into gameplay.For a game that is meant to be all about sound, there are significant audio problems. You can turn your own music on/off but there are other sounds around you. So music ends up overlapping and being annoying as a result. Maybe the music in the world should stop if you using the sequencer? Who listens to 2 songs at the same time. On top of that, some of the loops have a rather irritating sound quality. Also, most of the game has no voice acting except a useless menu announcer that only breaks the immersion of the game. [b] Aeshteics [/b] I really like the design in general. There are some amusing animated moments and the only stage has a very cool surreal environment. Now the problem is that I expected more stages. The game even tells you in the "Help" that completing a DJ part takes you to next stage (it takes you to the credits) Unfortunately, there are some visual glitches and frankly, the movement feels a bit bumpy. You can control the game with Point&Click, WASD or Analog. So at least they provided enough control options. It looks fine but if I was to justify the price based on animation quality alone it would have to be longer. [b] Poorly paced experience & Lack of intuitive puzzles [/b] The game throws you into the level with too much going on at the same time. Things are happening and I am not sure why they are happening. You can find different items that automatically interact with objects around the level ( which is technically not a puzzle at that point ) I am not even sure if every item had a purpose. So I guess this game is closer to the interactive cartoon which would be fine if it was paced better. You meet few characters and there is not much interaction. The game has virtually no dialogue so I had no idea what is going on. [h1] Final Thoughts 5/10 [/h1] [i] Beat the Game [/i] feels like a great game that is half way done. It has enjoyable aesthetic and good ideas that are not very realized. Loose visual narrative and distracting pace did not create a very immersive experience. The anticlimactic ending with the unexplained story was not satisfying. Maybe if they make more levels it could be sufficient game ( if it really took them 3 years to make one level I would not count on it ) Unless they make a patch that adds more levels it is not worth $7. [code]Review By: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

The trailer says: Adventure game meets music making, and neither is really true. Visually, the whole thing isn't bad at all, so the character and the environment look pretty good. The idea of collecting sounds and then mixing them as you like would have had potential if it had been thought through a little more, it almost seems as if the ideas ran out in the middle of development, or there was no more acid, I don't know. Although I really don't like this style of music, I just wanted to check it out, not rant about the music. And I don't have to, because there's far too much to criticize here. Every now and then the collected sound is all over the place and junbled up , like a bad DJ who can't do transitions, and it's annoying. Speaking of annoying, the camera is annoying AF. The movements of the character really don't look nice or smooth and sometimes he can walk through rocks, but then again not over flat cables, or whatever that is. The controls aren't that great either. My Conclusion: Meh!

It's barely over an hour long including a lunch break, and the "gameplay" is just wandering until you can play a very handholding "live show" at the end. The setting looks interesting, but there's nothing behind it. The point of videogames is for things to be interactive, instead of just being looked at. There's no characterization, no story, no real gameplay, nothing. All you get is a mixer with predetermined bits of music, eg drums, hi-hats, droning wails, cowbells and that sort of stuff that you can play on top of each other 6 sounds at a time. Works as an interesting demo for something bigger and complete, but as a standalone it's hardly worth your money.

Beat The Game has a ton of style but is unfortunately incredibly short and somewhat barebones. Upon initially booting up the game I was hoping for a surreal narrative experience, however what came to follow was more of a visualizer and mixer with an accompanying desert area than much else. Yes, only ONE area. Look at the screenshots and trailers for the game, they all take place in one desert locale. That is the game's biggest shortcoming. You pick up a variety of items and have to interact with certain sections of the game's one world, but the fact that you are navigating the same somewhat desolate desert landscape and repeating the same task (point at things in the environment to sample musical clips from..) makes for a pretty short, experimental experience. Beat The Game is by no means unappealing, it has a cool visual style, good animation, and the sound design is well-done, it just feels more like a proof of concept or demo-length ordeal than a fleshed-out game. The ideas in what is on offer are cool and could make for a more captivating experience in a longer endeavor, but I found the game's repetitive nature and mostly bland environment to be a bit meandering.