Frequency

Games: Frequency

Release Date: November 22, 2001
Genre: Simulation
Style: Musical Instrument/Band Sim
Similar Games: MTV Music Generator 2 (PlayStation 2), Rez (PlayStation 2)

Game Description

Consisting of little more than an octagonal tunnel, Frequency challenges the player to complete various songs by "playing" the correct instrument at the correct time. Each of the tunnel's surfaces represents a particular aspect of the song, such as vocals or drums. As you move through the tunnel, musical notes (represented by small indicators) appear on the left, middle, and right side of each surface. Pressing the corresponding button on the controller will activate these notes. Once you complete an entire section without making a mistake, it begins to play automatically, allowing you to move onto the next surface. The objective of course, is to complete the entire song.

However, one caveat is that the songs are broken up into sections, and if you do not complete the song before the end of a particular section, everything you've completed will revert back to its original state, forcing you to start all over again. A Remix mode allows players more creative freedom, granting the ability to mix and assemble the songs as desired -- the final mix can even be saved for future use. Both of the game modes support up to four players at once.

The lineup of over 25 tracks comes from well-known artists, such as BT, Powerman 5000, Orbital, and Crystal Method, some of which can only be unlocked by completing the harder difficulty sections.

~ Gavin Frankle, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

Frequency is an entertaining, in-the-moment sort of game that often requires the ability to put yourself in a trancelike state of concentration. With its neon-colored, hypnotic visuals and rhythm-oriented gameplay, it's really easy to get focused in on the action as you attempt to sync yourself with the beat and match the complex onscreen patterns. The game stands out because of its glossy, cohesive sense of style and the quality of its presentation. Every element is unified with a futuristic look and feel that goes a long way toward spicing up the fundamentally simple nature of the gameplay. On a purely visceral level, the game is a blast.

Reminiscent of both Tempest and Konami's Beatmania, Frequency innovates in the rhythm genre by adding the ability to rotate around an octagonal tunnel, which obviously adds a new dimension of complexity. The basic play mechanics are immediately obvious -- the more notes you hit in a row, the higher your score -- but even with a thick instruction manual and an in-game tutorial, the intricacies of the scoring system are unclear. Some completed tracks give higher scores than others, and special power-ups multiply your score, but the details of these elements are never really explained. Learning how to achieve high scores is a process of trial and error, which will be challenging to some and frustrating for others.

The only other design decision that could be interpreted as a flaw is the way the songs themselves are handled. Instead of progressively developing a song layer by layer, the gameplay amounts to a constant process of building and rebuilding instrument tracks. The result is that there isn't linear sense of completion or the feeling that you're creating music; rather, you simply keep playing until time runs out. So while the underlying concept of Frequency is solid and enjoyable, its somewhat unsatisfying execution keeps it from being the genre-defining title it could have been. For some, it might be tough to grasp what the game is really all about or what it ultimately leads to.

In the end, though, Frequency will probably be more accessible to most American gamers than previous beat-oriented games, both literally and stylistically, and it's definitely worth checking out. Those who are already fans of games like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Freaks will be more likely to be in tune with its particular wavelength of gameplay.