A City Sleeps

Harmonix made its name with music-focused games like Rock Band, Dance Central, and Amplitude. That theme returns in A City Sleeps, though not in the way you'd expect. Don’t expect a gem highway or onscreen dancers; it's all hardcore bullet hell action all the time, and it's played (ideally) with a standard controller.

A City Sleeps' high difficulty level is bound to limit the game's appeal to hardcore players. Although I wouldn't go so far as to say that the game is unbeatable, but there were times when I felt hopelessly stuck, and it's probably one of the longest "short" games I've ever played. But I didn't find myself becoming too frustrated despite having more deaths than I can count. This has to do in large part to the game's fantastic soundtrack, which features an experimental electro hip hop score by M-Cue. Even when the game started to feel practically unbeatable, the music kept me coming back for mo...

A City Sleeps feels like a half-made game. Perhaps if they had a little more time or budget to add a few more Dreams, and even out the experience for players of all skill levels, it might have been something special. As it is, A City Sleeps is strictly for hardcore shoot-’em-up fans and people who are intensely curious about the future of rhythm games (an interesting Venn diagram for sure).

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.