Harmony is a reliable, well-made recreation. Or fairly it was. I’m going to battle with tense in the case of writing about Harmony, as a result of, as of Sept. 6, the sport has been shut down indefinitely, simply two weeks into its existence. Will it ever come again? Firewalk Studios, which developed the sport for Sony, says it’s taking Harmony offline and refunding patrons whereas it “decide[s] the perfect path forward.” Nevertheless it’s troublesome to examine a more healthy future for a recreation that few folks appeared to vibe with and many individuals actively rooted for to fail.
So many decisions made within the rollout for Harmony, which has reportedly been in improvement for at the very least six years, has felt baffling. Sony and Firewalk first revealed the sport in early 2023, within the type of a retro-futuristic, synth-drenched teaser trailer that conveyed nearly nothing concerning the recreation besides its sense of fashion. We discovered on the time that Harmony could be a “new PvP multiplayer first-person shooter” when it launched in 2024, however no distinctive promoting level was promised.
A full 12 months later, Harmony reemerged. A slick cinematic launched the alien weirdos, foolish robots, and hardened mercenaries of Firewalk’s sci-fi world. It seemed form of enjoyable, if vaguely acquainted. We additionally obtained our first take a look at Harmony’s gameplay shortly after, which conveyed some mixture of Future’s Crucible, Guardians of the Galaxy’s wise-cracking misfits, and Overwatch’s hero-focused mechanics. These are three beloved properties (or they have been as soon as), but Harmony was initially met with a shrug.
Throughout two beta take a look at weekends and at its late-August launch, gamers didn’t present up for Harmony. The sport’s reception made headlines for its low participant counts — the PC model peaked at round 700 concurrent gamers, in accordance with SteamDB, a dying knell for the sport. Nobody appeared to be focused on watching different folks play Harmony both, with solely a small variety of Twitch streamers sticking with the sport post-launch day.
In concept, Harmony ought to have appealed to an viewers that needed one thing unique (learn: not a sequel) and didn’t need the aggressive, battle pass-powered monetization techniques pervasive in lots of fashionable multiplayer video games. Firewalk delivered on some stage — the sport performs properly sufficient — however Harmony’s core concepts merely didn’t align with how folks really play video video games like Harmony.
Firewalk’s most compelling twist on the system is its hero-switching mechanics.In Harmony, gamers are inspired to swap between characters, often known as Freegunners, once they respawn. Doing so grants your complete group a spread of perks. Choosing a personality just like the sniper Vale, for instance, will buff each different group with longer weapon vary. Then choosing a personality like fungal weirdo Lark will enhance everybody’s reload velocity. These crew buffs stack, making your group more practical over the course of a match.
So character switching is inspired, which can also be evident in the truth that sure Freegunners have deployable tech: Lark can drop buffing Spore Seeds, Duchess can construct partitions, and Daw can lay down therapeutic pads. These deployables persist (supplied the enemy group hasn’t destroyed them), even if you’ve switched to a different character. A wise group can rapidly stack an extended checklist of buffs and package out their aspect by tactically selecting and switching between characters, resulting in some intriguing dynamics.
However these dynamics are delicate, and just a bit boring, very like the remainder of Harmony. Worse, this method appeared opposite to how lots of people play character-focused video games, the place they deal with a fundamental or a small handful of characters and attempt to good them. Worst of all, they’re not very properly defined by the sport’s mealy tutorial.
The sport’s mechanics lacked the form of persona which may make up for these shortcomings. Gunplay feels strong, however there aren’t any flashy ultimates or ending strikes to construct thrilling recreation moments round, and matches can finish in unexciting methods. Not often in my time with the sport over the previous two weeks did I expertise the joys of victory in a close-quarters contest. Many video games have been blowouts. Most of those matches didn’t compel me to requeue for an additional spherical of Harmony. The sport’s development system gave me a bunch of alternate coloration outfits and tchotchkes with which I might customise my character as I earned XP, however I discovered little of that beauty stuff compelling sufficient to grind to unlock.
A part of my apathy towards the sport comes from its characters, most of that are fairly bland. Many don’t strongly convey their powers or roles properly past their silhouette or the weapon they’re holding. I typically discovered myself reviewing the character loadouts and skills of its heroes, confused by their incoherent mixtures of weapons and abilities. I by no means actually gravitated towards any of Harmony’s Freegunners: some have boring, unattractive designs, some have turned me off with their samey, smarmy attitudes, and a few simply don’t really feel all that fascinating to really play as. In addition they have unhealthy, forgettable names (Daw, Lennox, 1-OFF, Vale, and so forth.) that don’t provide a clue about their roles or what their talents are.
Firewalk’s artists actually put in nice effort and expense to make the world and characters of Harmony fascinating. The alien planets look lovely. Menus and UI parts are sharply designed. The studio has additionally launched quite a few animated character shorts and the sport has weekly cutscenes that push the story of the misfit Freegunners ahead. There’s a large quantity of written lore baked into the sport too; if you wish to spend time soaking it up, there’s an interactive map of text-based entries that explains the planets, know-how, delivery lanes, and gasoline sources of Harmony’s universe. I by no means discovered any of that extraneous story all that compelling to this point, regardless of there being a lot of it. Sony and Firewalk appeared to take with no consideration that individuals would present up and be focused on its characters and lore, and even within the recreation itself.
The lore, characters, and gameplay of Harmony didn’t resonate with a broad viewers. It’s a bummer to see a stab at one thing unique simply whiff fully, and for its detractors to pile onto it, when folks’s livelihoods are at stake right here. However having performed Harmony from its betas to its present state, I perceive the collective shrug for the sport. It didn’t do sufficient fascinating issues to take me away from Overwatch 2, a recreation I play nearly day by day, nor did it appear to distinguish itself from entrenched multiplayer video games like Valorant, Counter-Strike 2, Apex Legends, and a dozen others. Harmony’s rivals have the benefit of being free to play, which Firewalk’s recreation didn’t. However the recreation’s rivals additionally managed to face out for a lot of different causes: likable characters primarily based on acquainted heroic archetypes, mature and distinct gameplay modes, gunplay and character stability honed over years of testing and suggestions.
Harmony couldn’t compete. It merely didn’t have the charisma or uniqueness of most of the video games that got here earlier than it. It didn’t have a definite sufficient persona, and it’s bewildering to assume that former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan as soon as boasted that it could be “a strong addition to PlayStation Studios’ portfolio.” I’m undecided what it was he noticed within the recreation that satisfied Sony it might escape, or what mismanagement went on behind the scenes that led to the ultimate failed product.
Clearly a whole lot of ardour and energy was put into Harmony in an effort to make one thing new. And hopefully, Firewalk and Sony will discover some strategy to dig the sport out of its early grave. On the very least, Harmony’s higher concepts would possibly encourage different video games to undertake its handful of improvements — and as a lesson for different builders to not repeat the miscalculations that Sony and Firewalk made right here.
