”LOUD: My Road to Fame” is an Indie Rhythm Arcade Game developed and published by Hyperstrange that was previously released for Nintendo Switch in July 2022 and is now scheduled to be released for PC on February 23, 2023, and on Xbox and PlayStation in the future.

In “LOUD”, we experience the story of Astrid, who, through what she loves most—music—goes on a journey of self-knowledge, seeking to understand how to face adolescence with the support of her family and trying to fulfill her dream of becoming a rock star.

This whole journey is accompanied by great music and a beautiful visual presentation full of pretty colors and effects.

LOUD is beautifully inspired by a historical Rhythm game

As a Rhythm game, “LOUD” takes great inspiration from “Guitar Hero”, a game in the same genre, which became very famous in the PS2 generation due to its incredible selection of songs and great gameplay.

Fortunately, this inspiration was well realized because, while the gameplay is functionally similar, “LOUD” has its own merits, such as Astrid’s captivating narrative and the game’s 100% original songs, which are very charismatic.

The game consists of two modes: Campaign and Free to Play.

In Free to Play, we can play all the songs we’ve unlocked in Campaign Mode at any time.

In Campaign mode, we follow Astrid from her early teens, in which she imagines herself playing the guitar with her broom in her room, fantasizing about being a rock star (it is in this part that we are introduced to the game’s tutorial).

Her father, seeing that his daughter has a dream, supports her by giving her a guitar and paying for her lessons. And from there, we’ll see where that journey takes Astrid.

Familiar gameplay in three different difficulties

The gameplay consists of what you usually have in games of the Rhythm genre: you’ll see commands that line up with buttons that you need to press at the right time, based on both visual and sound feedback.

During the songs, we have control over six inputs, three on the left side of the screen and three on the right. On the left are the directional controls: up, left, and down. We can also use the analog sticks as auxiliaries, turning them on during certain sessions of holding the buttons down for an extended period of time to cause note distortion and generate extra points.

The songs are divided into three difficulties: Chillin’ (equivalent to easy), Skillin’ (equivalent to medium), and Grindin’ (equivalent to hard). It is necessary to score “S” in “Skillin'” for each song to release its “Grindin'” version.

During the songs, you must make combos by hitting consecutive notes to earn a good score at the end. These scores are necessary to be able to progress in the story by unlocking new songs, as well as unlocking the new extra difficulty for each song.

In terms of gameplay, “LOUD” has a great calibration system, something extremely necessary for games of this genre. I had perfect visual and audio feedback throughout my playthrough due to being able to perform a good calibration.

Good experience for Beginners in the genre, challenging for Veterans

For this review, the PC version was analyzed.

“LOUD” is a low-spec game, making it a very smooth experience to live stream it as it is not hardware-demanding.

The game contains a total of 21 songs: 18 from the Campaign plus 3 extras that can be unlocked to play in Free to Play mode. This means that “LOUD” is not a very extensive game. This is a great feature for live streaming, especially if your audience is not used to the genre.

The initial difficulty (Chillin’) is very pleasant and can give new players the possibility of having a great experience with the game. This adds a lot when added to the fact that Astrid has a very cool feature during the game: She acquires new looks several times during the Campaign, as well as new Guitars, and you can always change these new items at will. As a result, your gameplay is almost incapable of becoming monotonous.

The Skillin’ difficulty already necessitates prior knowledge of the genre. And if you want a challenge, seeking the S rank to unlock Grindin’ mode adds a lot of replayability to the title. And maybe you can challenge the 3 extra Songs as well… Which I will warn you: they are insane.

A downside is that “LOUD” doesn’t have localization for many languages, thus limiting the experience depending on your audience’s language.

LOUD: My Road to Fame

PC (2023)

Performance

Streamability

Audience Engagement

Replayability

Summary

“LOUD: My Road to Fame” is a great indie Rhythm game with a beautiful visual aspect, a 100% original tracklist that is very charismatic, and a good narrative that adds a lot to the Campaign. The gameplay is exemplary and very accessible to new players of the genre, as well as challenging for veterans who face the highest difficulties. A good selection of songs, with the only flaw being the absence of many language options.