Audiosurf is a game like no other available exclusively for the PC via Steam. It is a game that looks similar to Guitar Hero or Singstar except that it offers lots of different game modes based around collecting blocks or missing them or building bonuses. The best thing about Audiosurf though is its special built in algorithm that allows you to use the game with any piece of music you want. The game builds a track where the beats in the song are converted into bumps in the track and the tempo of the track causes the games speed to increase and the colours become more red and extreme
The effects of the game and whole experience allow you to turn any music track into a funky looking and colourful video with an awesome and addictive game play element too. The minimum hardware specifications of the game can be found below:
- OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista
- Processor: 1.6 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Graphics: 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce® 2 (support for Pixel Shader 3.0 recommended)
- DirectX Version: DirectX® 9.0 or higher
- Sound: DirectX® 9.0c-compatible sound card
You don’t need a particularly powerful computer to play the game, but if you want to experience the game at a high resolution and with great graphics then a higher end system would be more desirable.
The great part about Audiosurf is its ability to never run out of content. Unlike on Singstar or Guitar Hero, when you get bored of all your songs you have to spend money to buy new ones. With Audiosurf the game is as big as your music library! So the content available is endless and the life of the game will last forever. The length of the game is the length of the song, the tempo of the song controls the speed of the pod/ship you control. The tempo changes throughout the song so you really feel the song speed increase visually with the pods acceleration. The game really does express a piece of audio really well, the great thing is that it works for any type of audio track, of course low tempo, slow tracks will be easier than super fast ones. Incidentally, one of the most played tracks is “Dragonforce – Through the fire and the flames”, the final song on the popular Guitar Hero 3 PS2 game, the song is praised for being a song with (allegedly!)the fastest guitar riffs in the world.
You can buy the game via Steam or physically via a retailer. The game has a built in radio feature which is updated weekly with new tracks that you can download for free and play. They are usually funky techno type songs that are different and really cool to play. If you purchase the game via Steam then tracks from Valves popular titles are included. The soundtrack from games included are: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Portal, TeamFortress 2 and more.
There are three different difficulty modes in the game; each difficulty level has a different array of characters which all collect points along the path in different ways so there are many different game modes. The three difficulty levels usually control the speed of the track and how fast bricks appear (speed of song is not increased). In one game mode you simply avoid the grey blocks and collect the coloured ones, this is the simplest game type but still great fun. In another, you must create chains of similarly coloured blocks, the larger the chain the more points you get so there is more thought and planning behind this game mode.
At the end of the song your score is totalled and can be uploaded online where you can see how others performed on the song. The software is very intuitive about realising which song it is that you have played even if the name isn’t in a generic form. A really great feature is the anti-cheat type feature that is implemented. Basically each song you play is converted into a line graph picture which is unique to each and every song, much like a security hash code. This eliminates people simple making a music track with a single tone and naming it “ACDC Back in Black” for example. It’s a great feature which keeps balance in the game and makes it fair.
You can choose from multiple appearance settings to customise the games graphics to your liking, there are lots of combinations to choose from which yields some interesting yet fantastic results
Audiosurf is a absolutely great game that everyone should experience at some point because it is like no other. At just $10 it’s a great price for a game that will last you forever because you can never run out of content for it! It isn’t a game that you’ll play for hours on end likely but it’s a great casual game suitable for literally anyone because it’s your music that you play!