Here’s the deal. I’m not really supposed to be talking about Amplitude. I saw things at a closed doors session at PSX 2015 that I’m not allowed to reveal until we actually review the game.
But if I were to keep quiet, how would I be able to let you know about the awesome soundtrack that was created as a concept album? How would I be able to tell you that the songs in Amplitude actually tell a story across the length of the campaign? I wouldn’t be able to let you know that the songs strike the perfect balance between being catchy, yet still don’t get annoying after repeated plays of the same level.
I couldn’t tell you about the relatively cunning simplicity of the controls, making them easy to grasp at lower difficulties, but tough to keep up with at higher ones. How would I tell you about how I embarrassed myself in front of the Harmonix team by cranking up the difficulty higher than what I could manage, yet felt happy that this was a challenging game that couldn’t be easily mastered within minutes of sitting down with a controller in hand (unless, of course, you are our sister site Game Revolution’s resident ninja, Nick Tan)?
I wouldn’t be able to let you know about the passion of the developers, most of which actually worked on the original Amplitude, and are creating this one as a true evolution of the original product and lessons learned over the years as they’ve developed other games since its release. I couldn’t tell you about how each of them lights up whenever they talk about Amplitude, excited to show off the game and explain its intricacies to just one more person. How could I tell you about how they grooved along with each song that played, never getting sick of the music that they’ve been listening too since it was developed for the game?
How could I purposefully be vague enough to not break any embargoes, yet still let you know just how awesome the return of Amplitude is shaping up to be?
The truth is, I couldn’t, at least not entirely. Maybe this is my non-preview preview, as I dance around the things that I can and can’t talk about in Amplitude. It’s not long now. Backers will shortly have Amplitude codes in their possession (with a general release not long after that) and then the world will know, and I can finally tell you even more about the great things that Hamronix is doing with Amplitude.
But until then? I’m keeping my mouth shut.
