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Here at Avid Gamer we have to be very careful. We’re very proud of our journalistic integrity, as shown by the fact that we don’t run with rumours, leaks or unconfirmed / secondary sourced news. As well as that, we have to be careful not get carried away. Obviously we’re hardcore gamers and enjoy the titles we review as much as we show in our writing, but reviews always come back to the ideas concerning bias. As a result, we try to avoid other reviews written about a game and sit back, subsequently looking hard at the title; avoiding the craze / hype / reception a game receives. That’s why our review of Audiosurf is being published two weeks on from its release. If we’d reviewed it the day it had come out we’d given it a 10, ranking it as the best game we’ve ever had the opportunity to play. Luckily we took our time and let the media-frenzy die down. As a result we don’t need to comment on the resolved server issues, the few bugs or lack of functionality. (Ed – Opps, I just did.) Audiosurf is the first game to utilize Steamworks, Valve’s software package that allows developers to track their game’s sales, reception as well as provide direct updates and achievements. Audiosurf is groundbreaking, yet strangely familiar at the same time and we’ll explain what we mean by that in due course. So does Audiosurf surf the casual gaming highway or does it crash beneath its foamy waves?

First off is clarification and explanation. Audiosurf is a single-handed developed title by an Indy developer who goes by the name of Dylan Fitterer. Your full respect should be sent to him, because he’s done a fantastic job coding the game, designing the game and supporting the game post-release. In Audiosurf you guide your small spaceship along a music-generated track which runs in time with the music. There are three difficulty settings (four if you include the boastful, pretentious Ironman Mode) and various gameplay strategies, three for Casual, six for Pro and five for Elite. Despite which strategy you choose (gameplay style) the track you’ll race along will always be the same. It’ll have the same bumps, twists and turns but just a different aim. The harder modes add more obstacles and increase the tempo / pace of the game but the premise will be the same. If you’re playing the Ninja mode (Ed – my personal favourite) then you’re aim will be to hit the coloured blocks, while avoiding the static grey ones racking up a huge score. The other modes grant you the aim of either collection various colours, or only one colour. You have a pool of twenty-one slots and hitting a block will place it in your pool; match up three or more and they disappear. More blocks means more combos / points and therefore an overall better performance, placing you higher on the high score board. Think Klax with music.

It’s a simple concept which anyone can play, and what’s more, because it uses any track in your music collection (on your PC), of practically any format it removes the boundaries that casual gamers have. Priced at $10 (around a fiver) it’s also cheap enough to invest into. All you need to do is load Steam, load the game and then choose a song. It renders the track in 3D and populates it with traffic (blocks) of varying degrees. It’s dependant on the song; as the bumps (reflective of bass / drumbeat) and gradient (steep, fast downhill parts for intense songs, and the opposite for mellow tunes). Load up Pendulum’s ‘Slam’ and you’ll be treated to a rich, red assault on the senses while you scream down the track. Conversely, choose a Frank Sinatra song and you’ll climb gently up a hill with calm humps that go along with the mild drum beat. It’s a simple concept on paper and luckily it transfers correctly to the game. Songs look and play as they should and each experience is different from the last.

Despite being a ‘casual game’ it’s got enough content to entertain the more committed audience. Everytime you complete a song (and judging it’s tagged correctly) it’ll post your score on an online leaderboard rating you against everyone in the world. It’s got the option to add friends and an easily accessible tab allows you to see if they’ve played the same track and if so, their score. To prevent cheating you can view the overview of an opponent’s track as well as its length to make sure they haven’t tagged a song falsely just to hit the top spot. Emails are sent out when you’re ‘dethroned’ and achievements round off the package. The appearance is customizable, with black, white, negative, bronze etc effects can be chosen and there’s a premium graphics option with optional Anti-Aliasing. It looks the part, sounds the part and (in regular, but constricted doses) plays the part. You’ll find yourself being entertained for a solid week and then it’ll turn into a tool to enjoy your new albums or songs that you purchase.

Alas, no game (no matter its size / audience) is perfect. The biggest gripe is the lack of in-game volume control. Aside from the sound effect volume you can’t adjust the volume of a song. Not everyone has audio-control panels or an easily accessible speaker knob and headset owners will be even more affected. Add its boring and stale music browser, which doesn’t let you search, or sort which often means that you’ll have to remember what a song is exactly called, (Ed – That or tag all 2500 songs correctly as I did.) A custom-playlist option would have been welcome, as would a shuffle mode. At the moment once a song is over, it exits you to choose another. Luckily (and hopefully) the advent of steam and Dylan’s attention to the community will prompt these features to arise. Even in its state, it’s an excellent game and at its price it’s inexcusable not to purchase it. There’s a demo on Steam to try out but this review should be enough. A must have for audiophiles, gamers and the casual market. Buy it.

Score: 8/10

(Audiosurf is out on PC and can be downloaded via Valve’s Steam. Please visit http://www.audio-surf.com/ for more information.)

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