Cosmophony

I've had this game for several years and I still can't beat the last level

This game is brutally difficult and has a great soundtrack.
At first I thought, only 5 levels? That's a bit lame. But with each level the game gets exponentially more challenging. I recently beat level 4 and am on the final level. When I beat level 4 I felt amazing. Level 5 throws some more tricks at you so be very prepared and alert.

Recommended for those who like a challenge and electronic music.

Quick Score: 4/5

Notes: Short game with only 5 levels. Overall pretty fun, but 95% of your playtime will be spent on the final level because the difficulty curve is actually stupid. And that is my only real complaint. Luckily the final song is pretty good, so that made it slightly less painful to grind out.

The first 4 levels took me 90 minutes combined. The last level, which is only 100 seconds long, took me 6 hours.

In the end this is basically a budget version of Everhood though. So if you are looking for a more fully fleshed out game I would suggest checking that game out. (though it does have some of the worst achievements in the history of the world)

It's a very difficult rhythm-based shooter. It's got very few levels, but it has a steep learning curve, and requires you to memorize the layout and movements of each level. Later levels don't give you a lot of reaction time, so you need to be on the move! And every mistake means death!

If it's your sorta thing, go for it!

A fun but challenging game that's sort of a cross between Lumines and Guitar Hero.
The music and movement/shooting of the ship don't compare to anything else except maybe Galaxy Wars, I'd definitely recommend it.

Great fun!

The levels are really well crafted, the flow of gameplay goes really nicely with the music. Gameplay in general feels amazing. Of all the rythm games I've played (osu!, ddr, cytus, audiosurf to name a few) this captures the feel of the music the absolute best by a LONG way. Being able to move with the music is spectacular.

The last level is a little challenging.
Depending on who you are and how many similar games you've played you may find all of it hard, or all of it easy.

I felt the music was good, it did what it needed to do, but that's a super subjective topic so your mileage may vary.

The models have some room for improvement, I get the devs were going for a minimalist vibe but the "block" asset definitely feels like a "programmer" asset. (Some beveling, normal maps, and shader work would have gone a long way and only takes a little while, many artists would do that for scraps, especially when you have only 1 real 3D asset and it's nearly a cube.)

Finally: the story was somewhat lacking. It's an abstract story about the guardian of the universe...kinda works with the music, but the game is very short and it lacks some fundamental elements like suspense, twists, and (for the most part) character interaction. The reason I'm giving them a pass on this is because the game doesn't focus on the story, and it never claims to. It's about the gameplay, which feels amazing.

909520394% done with messing up level 5 in the last 10 seconds but other than that . . .go ood game .. . frustrate . . . .i cant

If I were to describe this game, it would be the lovechild of Audiosurf and Geometry dash (although I don't own Audiosurf, I've seen gameplay videos of it). I got a coupon for this game and thought I'd try it to see how it was.

It's not often a rhythm game feels as high-intensity as this does. With a spectacular Drum & Bass soundtrack (that's free dlc as of writing this review) and three buttons to control the main gameplay, this game's easy to pick up and enjoy.

The gameplay strongly caters to moving and firing your 'ship' to the rhythm of the song; it's not very apparent in earlier levels, but after level 2, the fact that the levels are based off the rhythm are what make the otherwise impossible levels a playable, enjoyable challenge. One thing to note is that the game gets pretty hard pretty fast; then again, there are only 5 levels, so each level counts for 20% of progress. Of course the first 40% of the game would be easy; at level 4, naturally one would expect a game to become very difficult towards the end of the game. One thing I enjoyed about the game is that during each level, it's easy to ask "How can it get any harder than this?", only for your mind to be obliterated into tiny little bits when you reach the next level, especially after clearing level 4; I personally believe Stage 5 is preparing me for Dark Souls. To get a feel for just how hard the game gets, I looked at the global achievement stats; 7.3% of players have cleared level 4, and 2.9% of players have clared level 5 (as of writing this review).

As stated before, there are 5 levels, and 5 achievements; one achievement for clearing each level. And like Geometry dash, there's a practice mode (complete with checkpoints) so you can practice different sections of each stage to your hearts content before attempting to clear the level in one go.

I paid just shy of $2 with a coupon, and as of right now I feel every penny was worth it. If you like rhythm-based fast-paced gameplay that's easy to pick up yet challenging, look no further than Cosmophony.

I kept going back and forth on this game, even considered giving up on the last level. But I've been enjoying it immensely the whole journey.
Because the video trailer is misleading (in a negative way) and tells you nothing about what Cosmophony feels like, I encourage you to see my gameplay video (no commentary). I hope you can understand how enjoyable it was to play the game in this manner.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=564193901
The first two levels allow you to follow the tune to a great extent and can be perfected by anyone, and the game is totally worth it for that feeling alone. The following levels, though, made me feel confused. At first they just seemed like a bunch of random obstacles. But understanding came with time and practice. A big component in this game is memorization (yes, the levels are not generated; same every time). Usually I'm an opponent of memorization, but here it's very pleasant, because the levels are indeed tuned to the music. Knowing what comes next in the music is vital for knowing when to expect the obstacles. And the so called "muscle memory" helps with the obstacles themselves.

To complete a level (a bit under 2 minutes each) you need to go through it from the beginning to the end without failing. It's a bit annoying that the difficult parts are usually towards the end. But the game can't be blamed, because there is a practice mode with plenty of checkpoints and free traversal between them. For more casual gameplay you don't even have to play outside of the practice mode. Even so, the final levels can be a nightmare to complete if you don't get into the right mindset.

Cosmophony is played mainly with 2 directional buttons which let you switch between the 7 lanes. Then there is the shoot button which you should use whenever there is a special kind of obstacle in front of you. This mechanic is very simple and there is no penalty for spamming the button all the time, or just evading these obstacles. Even so, this mechanic is beneficial to the gameplay. If you want to make the game even more interesting, you can try to shoot to the beat instead of just spamming, like I did in my video. Destroying every destroyable obstacle is the requirement for "perfect" completion of each level, but it's not something that everyone should do (there aren't even achievements for this).

Another thing I would note is that, especially in the later levels, the music's rhythm sometimes corresponds to when the obstacles pass you, and not to when you need to move away, so you need to make a big mental effort to not press the keyboard button when you hear a beat, but instead anticipate it and move before it.

Graphics are nice and clean. Music is made by a great Drum&Bass artist Salaryman.

In conclusion, I really liked the game, but I realize that it may be just because I'm part of the target audience and because I worked around potential annoyances to make it interesting for myself, so can't give it a 10/10.

★★★★★★★★☆☆

There are 5 levels. I seriously doubt that I will ever see level 5 except in the Let's Play videos that others have made. But I will keep trying. Great music, too! 11/10, will die again (endlessly).

Super Dank Tracks. Get the same melting image syndrome that guitar hero gives. Slightly difficult, which just adds to the enjoyment really. Made me giggle with joy.

Overview

The Pros:

• Good Music - The most important aspect of a music based games is, well, the music. It's a collection of five Drum&Bass songs by the same artist. There is sufficient diversity between them to entertain, and the melody is catchy too!
  
  
• Lovely Design - The game adopts a minimalist approach when it comes to graphics and UI, and damn, it looks good and makes it easier for your eyes to notice screen elements more easily. Here your reflexes are really important, and a good plain color contrast between obstacles and the road is welcomed. Minor shading is also present. The menus look very sleek and I like them too.
  
  
• Entangling Challenge - If you could pass each level on the first try, it would only require you 25 minutes of your time to complete the game. However, that can easily turn in quite the few hours because it is very challenging. But it's the good type of challenge - the kind that has you replay the level again and again because surely a stupid game isn't better than you. Come on, you can do it!
  
  
• Free OST - You can get the song files for free as a DLC. Be sure to get it from the app page.
  
  
• Achievements - There are only five: Complete level X. Which is great for achievement hunters... assuming you can complete the game.
  

The Cons:

[*]Insane Difficulty Curve - Level 1 is easy. Level 2 is a bit harder, but manageable. Level 3 requires a couple dozen tries to get accustomed to, Level 4 is... holy $#!^. Level 5... I haven't reached yet.

Conclusion

Nice little game .
Most levels have good music and action sync , but will surprise you when you get into pace ( love it ).
Oddly has Practice mode ... maybe for the better ....

Fun game, not nearly as difficult as Super Hexagon.

Lots of tricks you can abuse to bypass difficult sections due to what must be poor collision detection/hitboxes for obstacles.

Overall enjoyed it, would recommend to Achievement Hunters and those who enjoy arbitrary reaction time based difficulty.

For the price I recommend this game for sure. I'm on level 4 right now and having issues getting past it. Its really fun and the music is pretty great but I must mention a few things for any prospective buyers:
- It's extremely difficult and by that I mean there aren't many stages but you will spend a lot of time repeating the same stage over and over in order to complete it, and the only way you get to the next one is by beating the previous one on normal mode which means beginning to end, no mistakes.
-Some of the timing is extremely close and many of the stages set you up in ways where pure reflex will not get you through it, as you will discover that a certain way was a trap and you have to go a different way instead, or the timing is so extremely close and something is moving at you so fast that the only way you will dodge it is if you know thats it coming already.
-As each level consists of segments of the song (checkpoints) which repeat different patterns you will be hearing the same short part of the song over and over everytime you die which will be alot, so just be warned.

2.5 hours at the time of review. I do not mean to revise this, so expect a messy review.

Cosmophony is, in general, quite a fun rythmic shooter. I actually found myself needing to use the music to manuever throughout the levels! There are 5 levels, split into 10 sections each which you can practice individually in the practice mode.
Graphically, this game at first gave me a bad impression, but then i ignored the graphics and started to see through to the gameplay.
My biggest complaint about this game is that the level can launch things at you so quickly that it almost seems unfair the first few times you play. It could call itself fair by saying that you could get past these obstacles with ninja-like reflexes, but it still is something that will make you rage. There's also quite a difficulty spike once you get to level 4. I found myself beating the first 3 levels in an hour, and then that level took me about 1.5 hours (I still have not beaten level 5).

While I enjoy it, I feel like a lot of the difficulty comes from memorization more than actually being a difficult reaction/precision game. Mechanics change mid level with no time to react, targets are hidden and require specific movement to setup a way to reach them. (Trying not to spoil anything) On the fifth level the timing of the gimmick mechanic seems really dodgy one moment and fine the next. I know where I'm supposed to be positioned at what time, but its hit or miss if the game reacts like I expect it to. Might be better if there wasn't any delay between key presses and lane switching but theres a small delay that is easily noticable when trying to quickly move from one side of the screen to the other. Makes hitting some of the timing goals a lot harder than they need to be.

That being said its cheap, the music is good, and its definitely an interesting game. If it ever goes on sale I couldn't recommend it more. But 5.50 CAD is probably the upper limit on what I'd spend on 5 levels with no level editor. (User generated content would be amazing, and if that ever happens, I'll be buying a copy of this for all my friends :p)

Yeah so this game is really fucking difficult. Some parts of this game go so fast your eyes will unfocus and your brain will "tune out" leaving only your fingers to do the rest. It's honestly a very hypnotizing feeling when you no longer process what's going on but all you can do is react. The backgrounds are trippy as hell. Just imagine Super Hexagon takes LSD is at a Rave and that's this game. The music works beautifully with the level design and really helps the player "flow" better as you practice more and more. The first two levels are easy. The second level shows you how this game truly is and from then on good luck. This game will test your reflexes and muscle memory. Honestly, I love this game. Addicting, fun, challenging, and rewarding once you finally beat that one level you've been stuck on for a while. This game is worth it all the way.

Awesome Game! It's difficult, but not impossible and you know that, and that's what makes you keep going. Drum n Bass is also one of my favourite genres so that helps a lot. If you like Audiosurf and Drum n Bass you'll like this even more!

Cosmophony is a little music/shooter game, and it will test your nerves and reflexes. Beat the tutorial and the first level, but it will become serious from level 2 to the end.

You actually play with your keyboard arrows and space to shoot enemies. The goal is the do a 100% for each level, meaning that you have to shoot every enemies and of course, stay alive.

I played the level 3 a little and just literally crashed into a wall at very high speed.

The sure thing is...

I was not prepared. :(

Daaamn! My fingers ;D This game is really entertaining and when you practice and you survive the whole tune.... nothing feels better. The tracks are awesome too... i just have to find out where to find the music ^^