The days when rhythm games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band were on top of their height are long gone. The number of plastic peripherals being stashed away and just gathering dust is probably staggering high. Despite the craziness being over, rhythm games are still made although they cater to a more niche market. Fred3ric goes the classical route and focusses on the piano.
Frederic Chopin the third
Fred3ric is already the third instalment in the series. The games revolve around Frederic Chopin being the only one who can save us from the evil powers trying to destroy our world. For those cultural barbaric amongst you, Frederic Chopin is a famous 18th-century composer who is (arguably) considered the best piano piece composer of all time. In Fred3ric, once again, you need to fight multiple opponents in a battle to the death. As you might have guessed, Frederic Chopin isn’t really a brawler. So instead of using his fists, he needs to perform a piano piece to melt the face of his opponents.
Over the top
While Zeitgeist was destroyed in the previous game, he’s once again back and has brought along some new friends. These friends are none other than other renowned composers from the classical era. With Bach, Grieg and Mozart as your opponents, you’re in for some hefty competition. To make things worse, Zeitgeist altered his army with cyber-genetics to make them even tougher. You probably remember Beethoven having a hearing problem. The altered version has been upgraded with cyber hearing turning his main flaw in a big advantage. These over the top shenanigans are all over the place in Fred3ric’s story making this a very quirky experience.
Touchscreen all the way
The battles in Fred3ric are very familiar to those who play games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Notes come flying from above on a guideline. Once the note passes a certain line on the piano keys, you need to press the specific key. There are 4 white keys and 3 black keys available. These are all mapped on buttons on your controller. Although, playing the game with a controller is not recommended. I tried it but immediately was put off by the fact that the middle key is always awkwardly placed. The game itself makes it clear from the start that this game is intended to be played with the touchscreen (and headphones). One tip is to change the piano layout to big to avoid hitting the wrong keys.
Great compositions
Fred3ric looks great and works just fine but rhythm games need good soundtracks to be more than just fine. In this third game, Forever Entertainment went for catchy modern day inspired medleys of famous classical pieces. Hearing these famous fragments surrounded by synths and 808 drum loops is just awesome. The remixes/medleys are really well done and are memorable enough to revisit time and time again. I would’ve loved to be part of the music production for this game because having so much great source material and the liberty to go over the top with it, had to be lots of fun.
Mediocre challenge
Fred3ric looks to have everything going in the right direction until you notice it’s not actually much of a challenge. Don’t get me wrong, the first few times feel hard but once you get a feel for a song you can complete it rather easily. The normal difficulty offered almost no challenge to me. Mind you, I’m an actual musician with 20+ years of experience, so your experience might vary. The harder difficult stetting felt more like my thing but in the end, it wasn’t that hard to conquer. The fact that the new stages aren’t getting gradually harder like many other games of the genre meant I was pretty much done after acing the first stage.
Conclusion
Fred3ric looks and plays good enough to give it a go when you’re still into rhythm games. With only 9 stages (as awesome as they look and sound) the experience will be rather shortlived. Honestly, the price of the game is low enough to justify this. I personally would’ve liked some more music and more challenge.
