Concord Review – A Solid Shooter With an Identity Crisis

Harmony on PlayStation 5 & PC

As somebody who by no means purchased closely into hero shooters through the heights of the Overwatch craze, I used to be greater than just a little intrigued by Firewalk Studios’ tackle the style with Harmony. It’s certainly one of PlayStation’s earnest makes an attempt at breaking into the live-service house, a feat met with nice success with the discharge of Helldivers 2 in early 2024.

With Harmony, PlayStation is doubling down on its current stay service push, hoping to succeed in the identical lofty heights and chronic reputation as different shooters on this now overcrowded style. Will this live-service experiment succeed or will it’s a shortly forgotten failure? Solely time will inform.

It could be an enormous understatement to say there was a blended reception to Harmony when it was unveiled. Its preliminary flashy teaser trailer gave related vibes to Future and No Man’s Sky, displaying a brightly coloured ship zooming by way of the outer reaches of house.

Quick ahead a yr to Harmony’s first gameplay reveal, displaying off a recreation that closely borrows from varied preexisting beloved IPs to money in on fanbases from extra well-liked video games. It instantly acquired fairly a poor reception from gamers, with some labeling it as generic and uninspired proper off the bat. This sentiment appeared to hold by way of to Harmony’s open beta interval, with meagre participant numbers for a flagship multiplayer title from Sony.

One of many principal causes for this preliminary damaging response appears to be as a result of recreation’s cost mannequin. Quite than adopting a free-to-play multiplayer expertise like most of its contemporaries, Harmony requires you to fork out $40, which leaves a whole lot of gamers, myself included, confused. Why ought to I pay upfront for a hero shooter that may not have legs once I can play the likes of Overwatch 2, Valorant, and the upcoming Marvel Rivals at no cost? Firewalk Studios’ reply to that query appears to be by providing gamers a extra premium expertise, with excessive manufacturing values, slick visuals, and a persistent story and lore.

Whereas the preliminary response to all that Harmony has to supply has been regrettably bitter, I don’t imagine all of it’s fully warranted. Beneath the entire confusion, there’s a nice multiplayer shooter expertise at its core. The one query is that if it’ll final.

As quickly as you boot up Harmony for the primary time, you will note a cutscene that introduces you to a handful of the sport’s 16 potential Freegunners. Simply as with the cinematic trailer, Harmony’s cutscenes have very excessive manufacturing values. The visuals are hanging in all the suitable methods, with good lighting, textures, and animations throughout the board. The character designs are just a little generic, nevertheless, as there isn’t something significantly distinctive or fascinating about every Freegunner. I don’t imagine they fairly deserve the quantity of hate and vitriol they’ve been getting on-line, however I also can empathize with the frustration on the lack of uniqueness on supply.

This truth is made even worse by Harmony’s similarity to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy in its themes and common tone. Star Little one is a carbon copy of Guardians of the Galaxy’s muscle-bound Drax, proper all the way down to his persistent lust for battle and humorous off-color remarks. Lennox, the trigger-happy green-skinned alien with an easy-go-lucky angle bears a whole lot of similarities with Guardians’ Star Lord. He additionally appears to be considerably of a pacesetter of the North Star vessel that serves because the backdrop for many of those small narrative snippets you’ll see when loading up the sport.

As of the writing of this overview, there are solely two quick cutscenes accessible, with extra coming weekly. Touted as certainly one of Harmony’s principal distinctive promoting factors, I’m not but bought on the sport’s lore and narrative chops. It at present quantities to a few scenes that includes a handful of snarky characters embarking on their journey as newly appointed Freegunners (assume house bandits). Having solely simply met the crew of the North Star in these transient glimpses, I’ve little or no purpose to care about who they’re and their objectives at this level, although they appear likable sufficient.

To assist flesh out the context and background lore of Harmony’s narrative, Firewalk Studios has applied an in-game codex (the “Galactic Information”) to present gamers extra data relating to the sport’s universe. You’ll turn into conscious of this instantly. There are a laughable variety of notifications that pop up throughout cutscenes prompting you to test it out on the mere point out of any character, location, or earlier battle.

In principle, having a codex is a neat thought because it provides the choice for extra lore-inclined to delve deeper into Harmony’s world. Nonetheless, upon opening the Galactic Information, you might be greeted with a convoluted mess of a galaxy map, with every node providing some type of lore tidbit. After hovering over a node, you’ll get “Lore XP” unlocking additional nodes throughout varied paths.

Typically these nodes grant entry to small paragraphs telling you a couple of planet’s position within the Galactic system, whereas others embody pages of textual content going into wealthy and meticulous element about how Harmony’s universe operates. It’s an amazing possibility for these eager to know extra, however because it stands the Galactic Information is a dauntingly complicated mess. I really feel as if a extra conventional codex could have labored higher right here, as I admire the quantity of effort that went into Harmony’s world-building. A excessive stage of care and a focus to element went into it.

Nonetheless, with solely a handful of cutscenes accessible, I’m discovering little or no purpose to care about all of it as issues at present stand. I might a lot reasonably see and play by way of what appears to be a well-thought-out universe and characters, reasonably than wading by way of numerous blocks of textual content within the Galactic Information.

This begs the query: why didn’t Firewalk merely develop a single-player marketing campaign to facilitate this? I actually would have most popular it to be a full-priced $70 recreation with a good single-player story to play by way of. Doing so would have been an entire lot much less complicated and would have given followers a extra real sense of the characters, setting, and general lore. It’s positively a missed alternative.

Regardless of Harmony’s narrative woes, its saving grace is the way it performs. Firewalk Studios consists of business veterans with expertise in making beloved heavy-hitting sequence resembling Future, Name of Responsibility, Halo, and Mass Impact. All of that expertise clearly exhibits in Harmony’s minute-to-minute really feel, because the FPS gameplay is punchy and satisfying in all the suitable methods. The gunplay is twitchy and responsive, with a pleasant unfold of weapon sorts. The motion is especially spectacular, because it feels appropriately weighty and agile relying on which of the Freegunners you resolve to take right into a match.

Every of the 16 Freegunners on supply at Harmony’s launch performs vastly completely different from the final. Followers of hero shooters ought to really feel proper at residence, as there are six class classes with buffs and perks often known as Crew Bonuses. This acts as Harmony’s distinctive twist on the style, as every Freegunner provides sure buffs to the remainder of your characters whenever you subsequent spawn in a given match. For instance, Anchor will enhance all therapeutic acquired for the remainder of the sport, whereas Tacticians and Wardens will enhance reload pace and weapon vary, respectively. What’s extra, you’ll be able to construct and customise your very personal roster in Harmony’s deckbuilding-inspired Crew Builder system. It provides gamers much more freedom and flexibility that units it aside from different shooters in the identical discipline.

It’s an fascinating system that incentivizes you to combine and match your play type in any given match, encouraging you to experiment with new courses and characters. That’s to not say you gained’t gravitate to a couple favorites, as there’s loads of construct versatility and selection on supply that’s positive to fulfill any play type. I used to be a selected fan of the Hang-out character class, as these exhibit Harmony’s gameplay at its finest. Haunts all have elevated mobility, whether or not it’s Bazz’s spectacular somersaults, IT-Z’s snappy teleportation on the click on of her fingers, or Roka’s hovering jumpsuit that enables her to deal explosive rocket-launcher devastation from above.

Regardless of not being as cellular (or enjoyable to manage), the opposite courses supply one thing distinctive sufficient to make Harmony matches an absolute blast. For instance, Duchess has the power so that you can place big steel partitions, blocking paths and creating choke factors for the remainder of your group to focus fireplace on the enemy. Lark is a Tactician who can place deployable Spore Seeds that regularly buff your allies, whereas Haymar wields the aspect of fireplace to deal devastating injury over time to her foes. Throw in a few of your extra conventional gunslinging, heavy, and therapeutic courses, and there are many alternatives for synergy and tactical teamplay in a match.

At launch, Harmony has a complete of six recreation modes and twelve multiplayer maps for gamers to strive their hand at. Multiplayer is break up into respawn and non-respawn modes, with a pleasant combine between conventional group deathmatch and extra objective-focused multiplayer. Harmony’s Brawl respawn modes, Takedown and Trophy Hunt, are for gamers who desire a easy group deathmatch expertise. Space Management and Sign Chase are just a little extra tactical, prompting gamers to seize and management zones whereas stopping enemy gamers from doing the identical. I a lot most popular the Overrun objective-based respawn modes as they encourage group play and push you to make use of a wider vary of Freegunners. Nonetheless, I can see a whole lot of gamers being compelled to play the Brawl modes, just because it’s the one one populated with gamers.

This brings me to one of many largest points I’ve with Harmony in its present state – there’s nobody taking part in it. In the course of the recreation’s preliminary “early entry” interval it was actually not possible for me to play the extra aggressive Rivalry no-respawn modes as there merely weren’t sufficient gamers to refill its lobbies. Even the respawn Brawl and Overrun modes might take over three minutes to load a match, which is frankly fairly regarding for a flagship multiplayer-only title at launch.

Fortunately getting right into a recreation was far simpler as soon as it grew to become publicly accessible on August 23. As anticipated, I might get into matches sooner and was even capable of play a number of the Rivalry non-respawn modes, Conflict Level and Cargo run. These aware of hero shooters resembling Valorant and Overwatch will really feel at residence with these modes, forcing you to pay extra consideration to the Crew you resolve to carry right into a given recreation so you’ll be able to work collectively as a group to succeed. These are slower than the opposite respawn modes, however I loved the extra cerebral gunplay and positioning that these modes encourage.

Regardless of sooner load instances throughout Harmony’s public launch, it might nonetheless take roughly two minutes on common to load a match and even longer for the no respawn modes. I might anticipate higher for the primary few days of a launch for an FPS multiplayer title and it has me involved about Harmony’s longevity. The sport’s lackluster development provides to those issues. Firewalk Studios has determined to forgo a conventional Battle Go, as a substitute choosing beauty unlocks by incomes XP by way of finishing Day by day, Weekly, and Seasonal missions.

Whereas there’s nothing inherently fallacious with this method, there isn’t something significantly thrilling to unlock apart from weapon and Freegunner skins. These quantity to nothing greater than a change of coloration palette and desires enchancment. As beauty unlocks are the life power behind most live-service video games, I wish to see extra distinctive choices to incentivize me to work in the direction of unlocking them.

Concerning longevity, Firewalk Studios has revealed a Season Roadmap for Season 1 and Season 2 of Harmony. These will carry new Freegunners, modes, cosmetics, in addition to extra cutscenes to flesh out the sport’s story and lore. I’ve religion that the sport will proceed to get help for some time and am to see what’s coming sooner or later. Nonetheless, my largest concern is that when the time comes and Harmony will get the content material it must make issues extra fascinating, its fan base could have already dwindled.

I imagine a part of the rationale for Harmony’s meager fan response is as a result of recreation’s identification disaster. That is probably attributable to its unusual $40 asking value, particularly contemplating that gamers can entry different well-liked hero shooters with wholesome participant bases at no cost. Harmony’s lore, story vignettes, and multiplayer additionally really feel fully disparate and just a little misplaced. It’s onerous to care concerning the story when you find yourself seeing duplicates of the identical characters face towards one another with none context. Whereas that is true in all hero shooter video games, these don’t fake to position you in a wider narrative or anticipate you to observe together with intensive in-game cutscenes.

This might have solely labored if it locked sure characters to sure factions and if it gave a story purpose for these battles. That is maybe one of many principal the reason why Sony’s different live-service experiment, Helldivers 2, grew to become an exceptional in a single day success. That recreation immerses you in its world and encourages a way of neighborhood by setting wider overarching duties that gamers really feel like they’re working collectively to realize. For a recreation that places such a heavy emphasis on narrative, it’s a disgrace there isn’t something related in place to present me a story incentive to maintain taking part in in Harmony.

As a live-service title, all of this will change and enhance over time. I don’t doubt that Firewalk Studios will work to implement fan suggestions to make enhancements to those parts, however I do surprise if it is going to be too little too late by this level. Regardless of its points with its disparate multiplayer and narrative, lackluster development, and a low participant base, there’s an especially pleasant hero shooter beneath all of it. Harmony’s basis consists of an FPS expertise that’s extraordinarily enjoyable and satisfying to play – a lot in order that I totally intend to maintain taking part in it after this overview.

My largest concern is whether or not or not others will really feel the identical, particularly with the pretty steep $40 asking value. I anticipate to see Harmony to at the least seem on PS Plus’ Important or Additional subscription service sooner or later if it doesn’t get the participant base it wants. Due to this, it’s onerous to totally advocate buying Harmony with out seeing the way it fares down the road, as stay service hero shooters stay and die by its neighborhood and followers. Both approach, I hope in years to come back Harmony can do what it takes to make a significant dent within the live-service hero shooter house, as it’s a delightfully satisfying and enjoyable shooter at its core.