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Innovative use of music combined with rogue-lite twin-stick gameplay | Full Review - City of Beats
929 View2023-05-03
City of Beats is a twin-stick rogue-lite indie game that immerses players in a futuristic, neon-lit cyberpunk world, where they must battle their way through countless robots to confront a rogue AI that has taken over various cities.
🟩Pros
+Innovative use of music integrated into the gameplay
+Beautiful minimalistic visuals
+Challenging and fluid twin-stick shooter system
🟥Cons
-Too short
-Three weapons only
City of Beats places a strong emphasis on music as a fundamental component of the gameplay, rather than simply serving as background sound. The game utilizes synchronized beats to enhance the player's experience, with even explosions, hazards, and projectiles matching the rhythm to create a harmonious connection between the player's reactions, reflexes, and the music. The game is playable on both keyboard/mouse, and controllers.
As such, players can utilize the music as a gameplay element in addition to relying on their visual perception, resulting in a gameplay experience that is reminiscent of the recent sleeper hit rhythm action game Hi-Fi Rush.
City of Beats puts players in control of a contractor tasked with eliminating a rogue AI that has taken over several cities. Using a futuristic flying car, players travel from rooftop to rooftop, engaging in countless battles against waves of robots. The ultimate goal is to confront and defeat the rogue AI in a climactic showdown. Aside from the overarching premise, the game's story is basically none-existent. The game is wittingly self-aware about this too, and does not take itself seriously.
The game's minimalistic visuals are simply beautiful, featuring clean and pristine graphics that seamlessly blend neon cyberpunk rain-filled rooftops with hi-tech explosions and lasers. The accompanying soundtrack is a standout feature, with electronic techno punk music that is seamlessly integrated into the gameplay experience.
Players assume control of the contractor in a twin-stick shooter style, allowing them to maneuver while seamlessly aiming and shooting at the same time. The game's bullet-hell nature can be challenging, but players can use a dash move that offers brief invincibility frames to evade incoming fire.
As players defeat enemies, they can collect orbs that offer a variety of benefits, such as replenishing health or shields, or providing resources that can be used later on. Overall, the controls are fluid and responsive, and it instills an added sense of control to the player when trying to avoid countless projectiles and explosions.
The entirety of the gameplay experience is all set on various procedural building rooftops, with the player battling all kinds of robotic inceptions with various weapons at their disposal. Lasers, plasma, poison and fire projectiles, explosive mines, bombs, and energy shields.
As players make their way through different rooftops, they are presented with branching paths to choose from, each offering different potential rewards that are previewed beforehand.
These rewards can range from weapon mods and upgrades to opportunities to visit shops for trading or engaging in battles against tougher robots for even greater rewards. At the end of each level, players are given a choice between different rewards, such as two weapon mods offering either an increased range, or perhaps a doubled projectile amount, for example.
These rooftop ‘Expeditions’ culminate in a boss fight at the end, finally meeting the rogue AI for a showdown. This format is cycled multiple times through various cities, culminating at a final rogue AI boss battle to end the whole ‘Expedition’.
In City of Beats, players accumulate three types of resources as they progress through the game: one for trading, one for upgrading skills, and one for purchasing weapons and mods. The trading resource is specific to each ‘Expedition’., and can be used for a variety of purposes, including healing, upgrades, or even trading for the other two resources.
The other two resources are used in a more persistent manner, which reflects the game's Rogue-lite nature. When players die, the entire ‘Expedition’ ends and they must start over from the beginning. However, the ability to increase character attributes, unlock new weapons, and acquire persistent upgrades and mods can make a significant difference in subsequent playthroughs. There are only three different weapons, with the two unlockable later on. It’s too few to provide a varied gameplay experience that can last for lots of hours, so I do hope this can be improved later on.
Unlike many rogue-lite games, City of Beats is not exceedingly hard, and I was able to beat it in a few runs and in a single sitting. However, the fun does not stop there, as the game can be endlessly played for long periods of time, especially with the various weapons and upgrades you haven’t tried yet. Ultimately, it is a short game overall, and you might be done with the game in just a few hours of play.
Conclusion:
City of Beats is an innovative, high-energy game that combines tight gameplay mechanics with a tightly integrated techno-musical experience. It is a small and short game, but still a highly recommended experience for fans of rogue-lites and twin-stick shooters, especially for those who love a good musical experience in their games.
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Sync with the beat, battle robots, try again | First Impressions - City of Beats
City of Beats places a strong emphasis on music as a fundamental component of the gameplay, rather than simply serving as background sound. The game utilizes synchronized beats to enhance the player's experience, with even explosions, hazards, and projectiles matching the rhythm to create a harmonious connection between the player's reactions, reflexes, and the music.
City of Beats puts players in control of a contractor tasked with eliminating a rogue AI that has taken over several cities. Using a futuristic flying car, players travel from rooftop to rooftop, engaging in countless battles against waves of robots. The ultimate goal is to confront and defeat the rogue AI in a climactic showdown.
lyndonguitar2K2023-05-03
Hi-Fi RUSH First Impressions Review
MY OVERALL SCORE 9/10
This game has it all! amazing bright beautiful graphics. Fun gameplay that interacts with the music. Changing gameplay that keeps the game interesting. Must play! not really any negatives I have to say.
feel the beat as wannabe rockstar Chai and his ragtag team of allies rebel against an evil robotics enhancement megacorp with raucous rhythm combat! From Tango Gameworks, the studio that brought you The Evil Within® and Ghostwire®:Tokyo (no, really) comes Hi-Fi RUSH, an all-new action game where the characters, world and combat stylishly sync to the music!Chai Versus the World
The user has deleted the account12K2023-02-10
Hades meets Hi-Fi Rush in an exhilarating rhythm-based roguelite - City of Beats Quick Review
PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?
Play it especially if you like games like Hades or Hi-Fi Rush. City of Beats is an exhilarating, rhythmic looter-shooter roguelite where you beat up robots to the sound of music while dodging barrages of gunfire. If you can get over a few balance issues, it offers an action-packed (if short) experience.
TIME PLAYED
I played City of Beats for four hours. I struggled a lot in the first three hours, but after unlocking an overpowered weapon and changing the difficulty level, I managed to beat the main expedition and all three bosses in thirty minutes. This led me to unlock the challenge mode where I played for another forty-some minutes.
Jay Hunter1K2023-05-01
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