My eyes had been huge and WASD fingers nimble as I booted up Harmony’s closed beta this weekend. I’ve had my eye on Sony’s new hero shooter since its huge reveal final month. Whereas a vocal contingent shortly determined that Harmony is anOverwatch clone carrying Guardians of the Galaxy cosplay, these temporary glimpses of gameplay bought me excited for what seemed like a crisp, arcadey FPS from ex-Future people.
And hey, I wasn’t disenchanted. Harmony may be very enjoyable thus far. I performed seven hours of the beta and was impressed by developer Firewalk Studios’ robust FPS fundamentals—Harmony’s weapons really feel super throughout the board (particularly Lennox’s revolvers), each hero I’ve performed has a enjoyable hook I do not immediately acknowledge from different video games. Perhaps better of all is that the entire roster is simply there from the beginning. The closed beta is over now and I am actually desirous to get again to it when the open beta begins July 18, however I’ve just a few doubts, too. Some takeaways after seven hours with Harmony:
Harmony has extra in frequent with Name of Responsibility than Overwatch
Harmony’s roster of heroes—with their various sizes, species, and backgrounds—may give the preliminary impression of an Overwatch also-ran, however their similarities finish when you get previous the heroes themselves. In actuality, Harmony has extra in frequent with trendy enviornment shooters like Name of Responsibility, XDefiant, Future 2’s Crucible, and even Halo.
That is made clear by the handful of modes playable within the beta—a seize bag of FPS favorites like staff deathmatch (Takedown), Kill Confirmed (Trophy Hunt), Search and Destroy (Cargo Run), and a elimination tackle King of the Hill known as Conflict Level. It is sensible to stay collectively as a lot as doable, however not like Overwatch, you are not inspired to remain in a single large “hero clump” to have any probability of successful fights. You do not at all times spawn close to teammates in Harmony’s multi-laned or bowl-shaped maps, and a few heroes work finest as lone wolves.
Harmony – IT-Z”
Each hero has a distinct segment, however they’re all fairly deadly
Harmony is way more of a “shooter” than a “hero” sport. Aside from just a few tank-shaped heroes who wrestle to compete with out a teammate round, each Harmony character can maintain their very own in a struggle. There is no such thing as a “Mercy” who’s principally ineffective when the remainder of the staff dies—the 2 Harmony heroes with group therapeutic, Daw and Jabali, even have depraved highly effective weapons.
The default PC settings are wack
Harmony is just Sony’s second simultaneous PC/console launch after Helldivers 2, and whereas it performs nicely on PC, it took some tweaking to get there. The entire sport felt off for my first few matches and my framerate was in every single place (RTX 2080 Tremendous, 1080p). Turning off movement blur (curse you!) and setting every little thing to medium cleaned issues up dramatically.
Its mouse and keyboard controls are additionally awkwardly mapped from the PS5 controller scheme by default. One instance: you dodge roll by double-tapping dash (mimicking the double faucet of circle on PS5), regardless of an abundance of unused keys under WASD that might do the job. It is a clumsy command for a maneuver you are meant to drag off within the warmth of a struggle. Fortunately, you’ll be able to shortly remap it to a single faucet of a extra smart button.
Harmony’s hero ‘variants’ are a neat approach to provide completely different builds of a single character
That is kinda cool: You possibly can unlock “variants” of Harmony heroes which have the identical talents, however a novel perk that modifications their playstyle. The one obtainable within the beta for Lennox, the inexperienced man who seems like Cousin Richie from The Bear, swaps his default perk that reloads his weapons after rolling with double the journal measurement for each of his pistols.
Variants are their very own hero slot, which seems bizarre on the roster display, however that performs into Harmony’s “crew builder” system. Extra on that under.
The ‘Crew’ system is de facto complicated and possibly pointless
One of the crucial distinctive features of Harmony can also be its most bewildering. By default, you’ll be able to decide from all 16 heroes in a match, however it’s also possible to construct a customized roster (a “crew”) and use a few of these slots for hero variants and even a number of copies of the identical hero. That may matter in Harmony’s round-based modes as you are locked out of enjoying a hero as soon as you have received a spherical as them. You would select to exclude heroes you do not like and add 5 copies of Lennox to your crew, guaranteeing you’ll be able to play your foremost all through the entire match. That is considerably attention-grabbing, nevertheless it’s under no circumstances intuitive and I query how a lot it will actually play into technique.
Worse is that the crew system makes so much much less sense in a respawn mode like Trophy Hunt or staff deathmatch. There is no level to including a number of copies of a hero to your crew when there is no lockout mechanic, and the sport even suggests that you simply equip a default roster with all heroes when enjoying these modes. If that is the case, then why can you screw your self over within the first place?
Harmony’s weapons are prime notch
I am merely in love with Harmony’s weapons. They appear unimaginable, sound actually cool, and animate superbly. Unsurprising for a staff of Bungie vets, however Harmony is very masterful at reloads—I like the clockwork crank of Haymar’s hand crossbow as she hundreds one other firebomb into its breach, marvel on the approach Duchess replaces the side-fed journal of her futuristic WW2 SMG after which turns it like a key to lock it in place. I additionally can not help however grin each time Emari unexpectedly reloads her minigun by changing your entire entrance barrel meeting of the gun as an alternative of a extra standard drum journal.
Not since my first days with Overwatch in 2016 have I been this impressed by the range and character of weapons in a hero shooter. A few of Harmony’s weapons are actually on the market, like a spore launcher whose pellets aren’t a lot bullets as they’re creatures that fly towards enemies with a thoughts of their very own, or 1-OFF’s vacuum that sucks up bullets and spits them again out for low, constant harm.
A few of my favorites thus far are simply actually well-executed variations of weapons we have all performed with earlier than. Lennox’s two revolvers riff exhausting on Future’s hand cannons and Hunt: Showdown’s classic six shooters. DaVeer’s goopy launcher is just like the TF2 Demoman’s distant mines and grenade launcher in a single gun. The strike of Vale’s sniper rifle will be heard throughout the map, and leaves an intimidating smoke path similar to in Halo or Valorant.
Harmony – KYPS”
Dodging is neat, however is third-person actually essential?
Harmony has a dodge button that is genuinely helpful, however I do not like that utilizing it zooms the digital camera out to third-person. I do know that occasional perspective shifts are a Future/Bungie staple at this level, however I might love the choice to remain in first-person always in Harmony.Â
The respawn modes rock, however Harmony’s round-based modes are tremendous sluggish proper now
I ended up sticking largely to Harmony’s respawn modes this weekend, and that is as a result of its elimination modes transfer approach too slowly proper now. There are simply approach too many pre-round steps. Each spherical has a decide part the place every participant picks separately so as, adopted by a loading display, then an intro cinematic, then a countdown. I prefer to assume I’ve a excessive tolerance for this type of factor with my 2,000 logged hours of Rainbow Six Siege, however Harmony’s sluggish transitions wore me down fast. It is a fixable downside, so I am curious how shortly Firewalk will be capable to reply to suggestions only a month earlier than Harmony’s launch.