... has secret DRM. It's using SOAP to login a user and has bugs that error out if you disconnect during certain actions in the game.
Either way the developer has turned to scum by putting secret backend monitoring software inside his 'drm free' game.
I tried playing this game, but it wouldn't work at all. It tried to access the Internet (something to do with aws.amazon.com), I saw no reason why this should be necessary and blocked it. The game hung entirely. Which makes it completely useless to me.
I really wish that I payed more attention to the review that said "error out if you disconnect". A complete waste of money.
Before considering buying this, you should realize that this is not a professionally made game that is aimed at a broader audience. It looks more like a hobby project someone made to play with friends and I'm guessing that those friends are behind most of the reviews because this thing is a mess.
For starters, there is no tutorial and when you select "Instructions", a browser with this text opens:
"Beat Hazard 2 - Instructions
It's been a crazy few days getting the game ready for release. I've not had the chance to create the instructions.
I'll be adding the instructions over the coming days.
In the mean time, pop in to the Beat Hazard discord server if you need help. I'm there along with a lot of experienced players."
How is that an acceptable state to launch a game in?!
But alright, so I tried out the Daily Challenge - which was reasonably fun. But anyone who describes this as a bullet hell shooter misleads people, since this is a twin stick shooter.
After the Daily Challenge, sounds only played in the left channel and I was back in the main menu without music.
The UI design is pretty bad and the UX is worse. For instance, it said that I should enter my name. Since I used a gamepad, I couldn't click on the text field. Alright, so I tried to use the digipad to select characters. Nothing. Sticks? No dice. Bumpers? Triggers? What the hell is going on? Giving up on trying to enter my name, I just press "A" when all of a sudden, a bigger text field pops up. I can actually write into this one using my keyboard.
That kind of lack of proper design is all over the place. Another example - when scrolling through a list of perks, you can actually select invisible placeholders BETWEEN sections of perks!
Overall, this would be fine as a proof of concept, a nice project to have made at university. Or to get the funds to develop it into something that people expect to get when they pay for a game.
I really wish I had bought this on Steam, so I could get a refund...
When you pick a nickname, a message "creating account" pops up, only for the game to crash and quit to desktop. No matter what settings i tampered with, no matter i tried installing its Galaxy Version even, ever works. I should have bought it on Steam, instead, since it contains DRM anyway.
I like the first game and even the Ultra addition. I can not even play BH2 because it has some weird login that never completes. Just a spinning circle that says working. I will never buy the third addition. I own more than 220 Gog games and have never been stopped in my tracks like this game. Let me see if I can get my money back for the BH2.....