It is unlucky however inevitable that reviewing Harmony proper now looks like writing its eulogy. Eight years within the making at a reported growth value of over $100 million, the first-person hero-shooter from Sony’s Firewalk Studios arrived on PlayStation 5 and PC on August 23. Two weeks later, Harmony is lifeless. A live-service title, that was promising a roadmap of post-launch content material updates over a number of seasons, did not even make it previous summer time. After the sport’s calamitous launch, with an estimated 25,000 copies bought throughout PS5 and PC and an all-time peak participant rely of lower than 700 on Steam, Sony appears to have determined to chop its losses and put the sport out of its distress. Firewalk introduced Wednesday that it could take Harmony offline on September 6, stop all gross sales of the sport and refund gamers who’d already bought it.
In its announcement, the developer mentioned it could “discover choices, together with these that may higher attain our gamers,” which suggests Harmony, a multiplayer-only title that launched at a baffling $40 price ticket, may return in a free-to-play kind in some unspecified time in the future. Regardless of the destiny of the sport could also be, Harmony is now one of many greatest flops within the historical past of the medium. And whereas nobody fairly predicted such a untimely demise for the sport, everybody noticed the wreck it was going to be from a mile away.
However is Harmony so unhealthy a sport that it ought to need to pack it up in two weeks, just like the blink-and-miss theatrical run of a movie that ought to have been direct-to-digital? Is it actually so horrible that 33 individuals — thirty-three! — are enjoying it proper now on Steam, only a day earlier than the sport is taken down. No, it definitely will not be. In actual fact, it is a serviceable first-person hero-shooter, very a lot within the vein of Overwatch, despite the fact that it does not distinguish itself in any significant manner. However the blame of its demise does not lie on the ft of builders as a lot because it does with the individuals who mandated the monetary technique of its launch, who presided over its protracted, costly growth and who could not foresee the writing on the wall for a $40 live-service shooter with no Battlepass system in a sea of entrenched free-to-play titles that do every part that Harmony does, however higher.
Sony is Taking Harmony Offline, Issuing Refunds After Poor Gross sales
Harmony is okay. And maybe that is the issue — it is simply fantastic. It’s like Overwatch, besides it is eight years late. No actual story or marketing campaign, not like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League; only a PvP hero-shooter with each atom of its physique — from its artwork model and its gameplay loop to the taking pictures and working and its corridors-and-courtyards model arenas — a barely off-colour and uninspired imitation of belongings you’ve seen in video games earlier than. It’s, nonetheless, removed from being damaged or unplayable. Heck, it may possibly even be enjoyable in the event you leap into matches with your mates. However the worth on provide right here is definitely not definitely worth the asking worth, particularly not in 2024 when gamers have so many free-to-play choices that convey far more to the desk.
Harmony begins with a protracted cutscene that serves as a feeble however customary try to supply some narrative framework to the sport earlier than you drop into on-line matches. The vibe could be very a lot ‘we have now Guardians of the Galaxy at house.’ We’re launched to a bunch of aggressively vibrant characters — Freegunners — on the lookout for their subsequent job within the galaxy. There’s some cringe banter and jokes that fall flat, however that is fantastic. There’s solely a restricted variety of personalities to assign to members of a crew of misfits and all of them have been exhausted in movies and video games which have come earlier than. You’ve gotten the goofy man who can flip up as a frontrunner; you’ve gotten a chilly however with a heart-of-gold kind loner lady; the massive oaf who has everybody’s again; the good and severe one who will get it accomplished, the bot that is surprisingly human — unsurprisingly; you get the drift.
The characters are spinoff, however that is not as essential in a PvP looter-shooter that has no single-player marketing campaign and a narrative to inform. It is the character designs which can be egregious. In first look, lots of them look like the outcomes of an AI picture generator that has crunched the aesthetics of Guardians of the Galaxy, Starfield, Overwatch and some different hero-based shooters right into a single roster of run-of-the-mill heroes. Different designs really feel purely lazy or too near their inspirations. Lennox, for instance, seems to be uncannily like Yondu from Guardians, however he behaves like Star Lord. Then there’s Star Baby, who looks like Drax blended with a number of heavies from Overwatch. 1-0FF is a robotic that appears like Bastion from Overwatch had a baby with a trash can. And Teo jogs my memory of Rick Flag from Suicide Squad.
Remind you of somebody from the Guardians of the Galaxy?
Photograph Credit score: Firewalk Studios/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
To be clear, these aren’t blatant copies with slight modifications that knowingly wink at their inspirations — it is not Palworld and Pokémon. However the character designs are simply not that imaginative. Firewalk may have gone loopy and crafted a inventive roster of heroes that appear and feel novel. As a substitute, Harmony’s characters do not even stand out that a lot from each other. This is what I am speaking about: three out of whole 16 characters within the roster are simply individuals in commonplace NASA-style spacesuits with some variations. Roka wears a body-hugging spacesuit and a spherical helmet with an opaque visor, with the intention to’t see her face. Daveers’ spacesuit has a bit of extra element, with instruments and attachments, and their helmet is boxy with a clear visor. And Emari, a tank class hero, wears an enormous, roomy spacesuit with a backpack and a visor-less helmet. Certainly, Firewalk may have introduced a bit of extra distinct aptitude to the sport’s heroes.
To its credit score, Harmony makes an attempt to construct a story round its PvP playground, very like Overwatch. The sport drops cinematics intermittently to ship a narrative for its Freegunners and supply a framework for his or her actions. As a part of a crew, you journey across the galaxy, taking jobs and challenges and constructing a status for your self. As your status — primarily a stand-in in your degree — grows, you get entry to extra sport modes and crew customisation choices. Harmony drops extra lore by means of a Galactic Information, a visible map of the galaxy your crew operates in. The information options flavour textual content on each planet within the sport, detailing the maps the place you participate in PvP matches on-line. It is a neat option to ship context, but it surely feels a bit of indifferent to precise gameplay. The Galactic Information feels prefer it belongs in a single-player sport like Mass Impact. The narrative setup of travelling to completely different planets to participate in taking pictures matches does not actually work both — in contrast to Helldivers 2, the place the galactic conflict in opposition to the bugs being fought throughout completely different planets is deeply tied to the PvE payoff.
The Galactic Information is a neat option to ship flavour textual content, however feels indifferent from gameplay
Photograph Credit score: Firewalk Studios/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
Harmony, nonetheless, does excel on the foremost factor: its PvP matches. The taking pictures gameplay is enjoyable, partaking and gives loads of distinctive choices. The matches are kinetic and tactical, requiring you to actually work as a staff and play good. Heroes in Harmony often include major and secondary weapons, two distinct skills tied to the 2 bumpers on the controller, a motion talent, a passive capacity and a fight trait. The skills are both on a timer or recharged by means of particular in-game actions.
And numerous the hero skills are fairly distinct and ingenious, even when they remind you of abilities seen in Overwatch and Valorant. For instance, 1-00F’s skills are based mostly on the manipulation of air; the cleansing robotic carries an industrial vacuum as his major weapon, which does not deal injury, however sucks up enemy traps, deployments and projectiles. He also can deploy an air barrier that deflects all projectiles with the faucet of the L1 button on the DualSense controller. Haymar’s abilities, then again, are fire-based; she’s armed with a flameshot bow and may hurl a wall of fireside at enemies. And Kyps is a stealthy operator who carries a silenced pistol and deploys persistent surveillance traps that reveal enemies when triggered. Her motion capacity is a fast dodge that prompts invisibility for a brief period.
Heroes in Harmony are divided amongst six lessons: Anchors are primarily tankier heroes who maintain the fort down; Breachers take the initiative in battle and break into enemy defenses; Haunts are cellular and depend on shocking the enemy; Rangers are the usual do-it-all assault class; Tacticians deploy skills that hand their groups a bonus within the battlefield; and Wardens are snipers that dictate choke factors from lengthy vary. Whereas there are a number of within the roster who’re staples of the hero-shooter style, Harmony principally does an honest job of creating each hero convey one thing distinctive to the battlefield.
Hero skills are distinct, however lack a punch
Photograph Credit score: Firewalk Studios/ Sony
When you can play solo within the follow vary or participate in coaching and time trails, the meat of the motion lies within the 5v5 PvP modes. These are fairly commonplace — staff deathmatch, seize and management, cargo escort and so forth. The PvP modes are unfold throughout three playlists — Brawl, Overrun, and Rivalry. Brawl comes with TDM and Trophy Hunt, which mainly works as Kill Confirmed from Name of Obligation. Overrun consists of Space Management and Sign Chase, the place you seize and defend set or transferring zones. And Rivalry options Cargo Run and Conflict Level, however with no respawns. PvP clashes are fast and slick, gunplay is enjoyable and responsive, and the weapons themselves are uniquely designed. Some hero skills, nonetheless, do really feel underwhelming and the dearth of an Final capacity leaves the fight a bit shallow and lacking a punch.
Discovering matches in Harmony, nonetheless, was understandably tough. There have been barely any gamers within the sport, even within the closing hours earlier than its demise. Lower than 100 individuals have been enjoying it on Steam on its final day. Matchmmaking was particularly tough in Overrun and Rivalry playlists, with most gamers merely flocking to the staff deathmatch mode. And once you did get right into a match in Rivalry, you’d discover gamers leaping off cliffs and killing themselves to farm XP and seize the Platinum trophy earlier than the sport went offline. The entire state of affairs is unlucky and unhappy, even when it is hilarious. Harmony’s predicament solely goes to underline the dysfunctional state of the video video games business and the unsustainable stresses of sport growth.
Harmony comes with a slick graphical presentation, however the visible decisions and the artwork model really feel spinoff — a mix of Overwatch-style cartoon aesthetics with the trademark PlayStation realism. Plenty of color, design and musical cues jogged my memory of Starfield and No Man’s Sky. The sport seems to be good, and most maps are visually placing. Firewalk has tried to infuse every map with distinctive visible components that assist them stand out in their very own proper. However there is a pervading sense of familiarity throughout the arenas. The maps do not actually shock you and are filled with acquainted corridors, choke factors and sight strains you’ve got seen in on-line shooters earlier than. This is not truthful criticism — all on-line shooters are minimize from the identical fabric in some methods. Nevertheless it does not assist Harmony’s trigger both, particularly when the sport was gasping for air in a crowded room. Efficiency on PS5, nonetheless, was stable and constant, as you’d anticipate from a web-based shooter.
Helldivers 2 Evaluate: Democracy Performed Proper
Harmony tries to convey distinctive visible components to its maps
Photograph Credit score: Firewalk Studios/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
All of it put collectively, Harmony is not compelling sufficient to make it shine robust sufficient in a galaxy of PvP shooters — particularly at that $40 worth. Regardless of the core gameplay being enjoyable, it gives little that is not accessible free of charge elsewhere to hook customers. Nevertheless it additionally did not deserve its destiny. It is definitely nowhere close to as unhealthy that it wanted to be euthanised after a two-week run. The duty for its disastrous launch lies not with the builders, however with the company choice makers who ignored all of the warning indicators and despatched the sport out to die. Harmony had a disastrous open beta, with simply over 2,000 gamers attempting it out on Steam. To place that into context, Impasse, Valve’s new hero-shooter, had over 90,000 customers enjoying its invite-only closed beta on Steam! Barely anybody wished to play Harmony when it was free — why did Sony suppose it could get an viewers when it got here with a worth?
And as Sony is studying proper now, the ‘video games as a service’ mannequin is an unpredictable subject. Gamers are embedded deep into their most well-liked on-line video games and it is exhausting to lure them to attempt one thing new. Helldivers 2, Sony’s large dwell service hit that launched on PC and PS5 earlier this yr, is the proper instance. Its PvE playground supplied a wildly enjoyable and ridiculously collaborative expertise you might share with different gamers on-line — all of it delivered in a satiric Starship Troopers-style army propaganda bundle. The PlayStation mother or father’s newest dwell service try, nonetheless, blends with the competitors, with no ace up its sleeve to draw gamers.
Harmony is enjoyable and serviceable and a far cry from damaged, cash-grab titles like The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and The Day Earlier than. Nevertheless it’s asking for an upfront fee for an expertise most individuals paid for, performed and loved eight years in the past when Overwatch launched. Heck, even Overwatch 2 launched as a free-to-play title final yr and nonetheless discovered itself standing on the stage in entrance of a tricky crowd. It is then baffling that Sony thought a hero-shooter in 2024 might be launched with upfront pricing. Harmony ought to have been free-to-play, launched on PS Plus — I hope it does make a comeback in that kind in some unspecified time in the future. Its launch ought to have been pushed again after the dismal open beta. As a substitute, Sony let it stroll out to its grave.
Execs
- Enjoyable, partaking PvP gameplay
- Distinct hero skills
- Visible presentation
Cons
- $40 price ticket
- Uninspired character designs
- Lack of final capacity
- Indifferent narrative
- Too just like different video games within the style
Score (out of 10): 6
Harmony launched on PS5 and PC (by way of Steam and Epic Video games Retailer) on the worth of Rs. 2,499. The sport was taken offline from all storefronts right now (September 6) and is not accessible to buy.
