Bezier Review

Oh, God, you guys, call me an ambulance, stat. I'm not joking, there's too much adrenaline coursing through my veins. My heart is beating so quickly that it's ascending to another plane of existence, and it's all because of this brand-new game from Philip Bak called Bezier. This is a dual-stick space shooter and is packed with more adrenaline than Michael Jackson's medicine cupboard.

Bezier is in many ways a very simple game, but from a small premise comes big rewards. You play as a spaceship, plopped down in the middle of the galaxy, and like the tradition of games like SpaceWar and Asteroids that came before, you must destroy everything in your path. This means a heady dose of explosions, evading bullets, and taking down waves of enemies in a cocktail that has the narcotic properties of crack cocaine: it's incredibly addictive.

This concept ultimately hinges on a number of factors but the game passes with flying colours on account of the controls, which are smoother than a bald man's bonce. The game is controlled using the left and right sticks of a controller; the left to move and the right to fire your weapon. This can be a tricky configuration to master, but is awesome as it provides deep immersion into the gameplay. If you're not very apt at shooting with a stick, you can also auto-fire using the A-button; however, as this makes the game slightly easier, your spacecraft might overheat, so you'll need to keep switching between firing modes, which is a well-implemented idea as auto-aim provides a little extra precision but also gives a chance for you to sharpen your skills with the stick whenever the weapon is cooling. As such, the stellar controls put Bezier head and shoulders above the hoi-polloi of space shooters.

Bezier bleeds cool; indeed, what will strike players first is the absolutely amazing presentation of the game. The graphics are inspired by line vector titles of the 80s and doesn't look dissimilar to Geometry Wars, but while that game looked somewhat muted, Bezier is big and brash like a neon jungle; the bright colours bouncing off the screen. This is aided by the high level of polish given to objects on screen, which have been animated smoother than silk. This can mean that while there are many, many enemies on screen, they all move and cascade beautifully. In many ways, Bezier doesn't look like a game – it more so resembles a synchronised dance routine in terms of visual sharpness.

What takes Bezier from visually pretty to epic is its soundtrack. Orchestral pieces are the time-tested method of adding extra grandeur to your game, but as Snake Eater can attest, blending it with another genre can have even more heightened results. Just as that game mixed classical music with 60s soul, Bezier provides a skin-tingling combination of classical and techno, which serve a dual purpose: techno punctuates the pulse-pounding action of close-quarters dog fights, while the classical strains kick in to emphasise more epic moments, such as evading a mass of enemies. What this means is that the soundtrack takes a very good game and makes it an exhilarating thrill ride.

This game won't give you a nice ride though; offering a surprising level of challenge, Bezier will kick you in the teeth and make you like it. Enemies will swarm and shoot at you like no tomorrow as the difficulty advances, demanding you to have Keanu Reeves-like reflexes as you find a path through the hail of neon bullets raining down upon you. This just makes the game all the more addictive, though: you'll die a lot, but you will only come back begging for more.

Instead of expending its boosters in one go, Bezier has enough fuel in the tank to last you a long while. There is a standard mode with level progression that throws grains of story at you every time you clear a stage – no offence to the hard work of Philip Bak, but any mention of story could have been replaced with a dramatic reading of Apple's Terms and Conditions, as the action is simply so superlative that it doesn't need a story. This mode gets harder as you go along but has a finite end; truer to the style of gameplay that Bezier creates is an endless survival mode: honestly, I think this is how the game was truly meant to be played. No rules, no time-limits, just you, your spaceship, and a horde of enemies; this is Bezier at its purest. There's also a Daily mode that gets updated every 24 hours, so there's always something new and interesting to play – it demonstrates the level of care and attention put in by the creator, who can sometimes be seen on the game's leaderboards; always good to see developers who care.

Call this game Carlos Santana because it is SMOOTH. Smooth gameplay, smooth controls, smooth presentation. This game is so smooth it could talk its way out of a parking ticket. An absolute class act; essential if you like space shooters, heavily recommended if you love games.