Beat Hazard 3

Within the first hour, I'm hooked. Be prepped for an infodump when you hop in for the first time, but really the cycle is straightforward: Find a cool song Hop in one of your ships Jam out in a schmup-style format repeat They were NOT lying about that epilepsy warning. There's settings and such to turn it down (or up, if you're feeling lucky) - but try and keep it @ 100% and you'll have a blast. Being able to play custom songs on desktop (youtube, spotify, etc), have it picked up in game, and matched against others who have played on that track is so cool. Not a fan of custom tracks? There's a TON of pre-loaded songs to rock out to. Players create their own ""playlists"" called galaxies, and you can fly around the galaxy fighting for control of various songs/planets/systems, etc.. Lots of player interactivity in this single player/splitscreen game. Setting up the "open mic" stuff for custom songs is very straightforward too. Literally plug and play, without the plug. Kinda crazy how much is fit into a $20 game. Big fan.

Third iteration of the best shooter ever =3 An absolute blast and an epilepsy inducing fever dream! If you don't have either BH, get this one you'll love it!

I know, this sort of games isn't fitting into a distinct category and there's probably no grey zone between you like it or you hate it. But if you want to play something that's unique, flashy (and I mean really flashy, not just a bit of blink blink here and there) that turns songs into gameplay, provides tons of upgrade options and an immense arsenal of colorful, blasty, brain melding visual overkill weapons in a space environment with a good variety of attacking ships and an almost endlessly scaling difficulty then indeed, this is your game. If it is just a short arcade session, up to days or weeks lasting journey thru your music library, intens online sessions or just the casual 'what's playing on Spotify right now' - the choice is yours. I have enjoyed Beat Hazard Ultra since it was part of a Humble Bundle many years ago and after some time not playing it I thought, let's come back to it and let's go for Beat Hazard 3. And yes, anything you can image will probably be exceeded in terms of colors, flashes, effects, ships, weapons and challenges. You think Beat Hazard on Insane is hard? Well, go and test yourself on difficult settings up to 2000% and we talk again :) Some people complain about the galaxy feature and yes, there might be some room for improvement but I really love to conquer my music collection moon by moon, planet by planet, solar system by solar system and the galaxy is still waiting out there. Maybe as a hint, when creating your own galaxy set the timelimit to endless, that might avoid some disappointment :)

Seezure

I honestly can't believe I'm writing a bad review for this game, but the settings for Beat Hazard 3 are just [b]absolutely atrocious[/b]. There are problems in the earlier Beat Hazard games but they're never as bad as they are here. The main issue is that rebinding controls is the biggest headache in the world and unlike [b]ANY OTHER GAME I'VE EVER PLAYED[/b]. In order to rebind your controls, the game will prompt you to press whatever key you want for each function [b]in succession[/b]. So it'll say like "Up" and you press "W," then it says "Down" and you press "D." Whatever. Then it'll get to like Special Weapon 1, Special Weapon 2, Special Weapon 3 and you just have to hope and pray you'll remember what you set those to. I mean, for ♥♥♥♥'s sake, this is 2026 and we can't just have a [b]LIST[/b] of key binds, like every other game that's ever been made on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ planet? This ♥♥♥♥'s obviously meant to cater to controller users but I can't imagine that it works better for them without a list as well. So why is this a bad thing? Well namely when you're assigning weapons to your ship, it'll ask you to put a weapon in slot 1, slot 2, slot 3, but it won't tell you what key you have bound to those. So when you play the game and you're in a pinch and use Mouse 2 to activate the super bomb....[b]OOOOOOOPS! Mouse 2 doesn't do anything![/b] And you can't just simply rebind [i]one[/i] key, you have to go through the whole rigmarole and do all of them in order, which means you better remember each and every key that you want bound to each function, don't forget a thing or you'll have to do it again once you play the game and see that it's not to you're liking! Now let's talk about the issue when you have a friend playing with you in party mode. So it's just you and one other friend using two different ships, how bad can that be? Well, if your friend has different weapons on his ship than what you have...[b]OOOOOPS! He can't use those weapons![/b] You're restricted to what weapons the host has on his ship, which means if I have bombs, missiles, and the shield on my ship, and he has drones, flamethrower, and sentry turret on his, he literally can't use ANY weapon except the primary fire bullets. There's [u]zero[/u] organization for ships. It lists ships under different brands but I have no idea what differences there are; one brand is like for big ships and one is for small, fast ones, but I have no idea about any others. There's a "favorite" system but during the course of gameplay you'll acquire approximately 70 zillion ships, and you never know what they do or what random weapons they've been assigned that you'll have to alter later. If a friend is playing, how the hell is he going to know what ship he'd like to use? It's complete guesswork. I have like over 200 ships and I only stuck to two that worked for me. New to BH3 are these new features where, unlike the previous games, you have to upgrade your main mothership to expand the hangar to allow for more ships, upgrade warp core drives or whatever to travel to different 'galaxies' I think. This is so that you play on other people's 'galaxies' which are just gigantic playlists of hundreds if not thousands of songs from albums you've never heard and probably couldn't care less about. It's not mandatory to play but you don't get a certain type of upgrade currency if you don't play them (alien blueprints or research points I think), which just means if you want to 100% the game you'll have to play other people's crap music in gigantic galaxies with thousands of songs. What the ♥♥♥♥, I don't want to play other people's music, their tastes aren't my own. And I get that if I don't want to play their music I can just play arcade mode on my own, which is what I do, but I just feel like all that effort was a total waste of time. Gameplay-wise this is essentially the same as the previous BHs except now there's a "dark beam" which is a black laser that's required to break shields. At first I thought it added more strategy and depth to the gameplay but what this really means is that you have to max out your dark beam duration and minimize its recharge time. Especially where for some reason the developer thought it was a good idea to give missiles shields. Imagine being surrounded in a twin-sticks shooter and you have to take out shields of other ships imminently closing in and firing missiles at you that also have shields when you have a limited amount of time to use the dark beam. It sounds like it adds depth to the gameplay but really it just adds frustration. Then there's still the problem with screen shake and just too much visual noise on the screen. This has been prevalent since the first BH and maybe it's just because I'm an old man but there's so much that's visually distracting that it's hard to focus on what's coming right up into your face to kill you. This isn't just limited to the insanely bright lights for no reason, but I'll also include the random background rocks and mechanical debris that isn't actually hazardous yet nonetheless looks like you'll collide with it. Oh yeah and how do you close the game out? By pressing Escape on the main menu, right? Like every other game? Nope! Guess what that does? That resets your game to windowed mode and changes the base resolution, which always ♥♥♥♥♥ up the game for me. Then there's not being able to remove the Beat Hazard 3 soundtrack from your tracklist at all, so every time you scroll to find something new to play you always have to see Comma King, Eric Mclure, Red Shirt Theory, etc. in your list of artists and I'm like "Who tthe hell are these guys? Oh, it's the stupid BH3 artists." This game also just randomly rebinds your controls without asking you and with the above-mentioned problems, it's a real pain in the ass. There are so many easily fixed and yet still unresolved problems that really spoil this game. In basically all aspects apart from the look of the ships and the ability to tweak certain features on your ship, BH3 is a straight downgrade from BH2. I wish the visual fidelity of this game could be transferred over to BH2 (and have those annoying yellow missile spamming ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ removed from BH2) instead of this game. I get that this game is made by essentially one person, but that's why you get QA, you need multiple hands working on a project so it doesn't become this clusterf*ck. And hire people who won't kiss your ass. Or maybe he did get feedback and just didn't listen, I don't know. But I recommend against this unless, after being out for a couple of years the dev randomly decides to improve the aspects that I mention (doubtful).

Game is fun, but the sound effects from the ships are bad ^^

nice upgrade from beat hazard 2. thanx starge!!!!!!!

Este juego es muy divertido y no solo por su jugabilidad, si no porque da la opción de poner tu propia música haciendo que la experiencia sea muy positiva.

Beat Hazard 3, developed and published by Cold Beam Games, takes the series’ signature concept of turning music into gameplay and expands it into a much larger and more ambitious experience. At its heart, it remains a twin-stick space shooter where every song influences enemy behavior, attack intensity, visual effects, and overall pacing. However, this installment goes beyond being a simple music-reactive arcade game by introducing progression systems, galaxy exploration, and deeper customization that make it feel like a complete adventure rather than a collection of isolated stages. The most compelling aspect of the game is how effectively it transforms personal music into meaningful gameplay. Every track becomes a unique battlefield generated from the rhythm, volume, and energy of the song being played. Fast-paced electronic music can create relentless waves of enemies and spectacular explosions, while slower tracks often result in more measured encounters. This dynamic relationship between audio and gameplay ensures that no two sessions feel exactly alike. Players are encouraged to experiment with different genres and playlists, discovering how various musical styles influence the flow of combat. One of the major additions to the formula is the galaxy system. Instead of selecting songs one by one from a menu, players travel through a procedurally generated universe built from their music library. Albums are transformed into star systems while individual songs become destinations to explore and conquer. This feature adds a sense of discovery and progression that was largely absent in earlier entries. It cleverly turns a music collection into a personal map of the galaxy, giving players an incentive to revisit forgotten songs and explore their libraries in a completely new way. Combat itself remains highly satisfying. The controls are responsive, and the screen quickly fills with lasers, enemy ships, projectiles, and massive explosions. New mechanics such as the Fold ability add more tactical options, allowing players to escape dangerous situations or reposition themselves during intense firefights. Combined with a variety of weapons, upgrades, and unlockable equipment, the action offers enough depth to remain engaging over long play sessions. While the game can be enjoyed casually, it also provides plenty of challenge for players who enjoy mastering difficult arcade shooters. Visually, Beat Hazard 3 is an impressive spectacle. The game embraces bright colors, vibrant particle effects, and music-driven visualizers that constantly react to the soundtrack. Battles often resemble a combination of a space shooter and a live music visualization program, creating an atmosphere unlike most games in the genre. The enhanced 3D presentation gives enemy ships and environments greater detail, making the universe feel more alive than in previous installments. Watching the battlefield erupt in synchronization with the music is consistently entertaining and serves as one of the game’s biggest attractions. Another noteworthy improvement is the expanded support for music sources. The game is designed to work not only with local music files but also with audio from various external sources. This flexibility makes the concept much more practical for modern players who primarily use streaming services. The ability to generate gameplay from virtually any music source ensures that the experience remains fresh and adaptable regardless of how players choose to listen to their favorite songs. The progression systems also deserve praise. Exploring the galaxy, collecting resources, improving ships, and unlocking new content gives players long-term goals beyond chasing high scores. These additions provide a satisfying sense of advancement and help distinguish Beat Hazard 3 from more traditional arcade shooters. The game rewards continued exploration and experimentation, making it easy to spend dozens of hours discovering new combinations of music and gameplay. The game is not without some drawbacks. The sheer amount of visual activity can occasionally make it difficult to track enemy attacks, especially during particularly energetic songs. New players may also find the number of systems and progression mechanics somewhat overwhelming compared to the simplicity of earlier entries. Additionally, because gameplay quality can vary depending on the chosen music, some songs naturally produce more exciting encounters than others. Nevertheless, these issues are relatively minor compared to the creativity and replay value the game offers. Beat Hazard 3 succeeds because it takes a unique idea and develops it into something far more substantial than a novelty. By combining music visualization, arcade shooting, exploration, progression, and customization into a cohesive package, it delivers an experience that feels both familiar and refreshingly original. Whether players want to enjoy a few quick battles or invest time exploring an entire music-generated galaxy, the game offers enough content and variety to keep them engaged for a very long time. Beat Hazard 3 is a highly inventive and content-rich evolution of the music-driven shooter formula. Its impressive galaxy system, expanded customization, excellent music integration, and addictive gameplay make it one of the strongest entries in the series and a standout title for fans of rhythm-inspired action games. Rating: 8/10

I got it to work now.. no idea what to do with any of this galaxy stuff update: galaxy is not intuitive Steve knows it he built it, I am lost. i have no clues from a user pov it should be WAY easier