I used to be on trip final week, so I received to expertise the reveal of Sony’s new multiplayer FPS like everybody else: forgetting a State of Play stream was taking place, tuning in quarter-hour late, then rewinding to the start because of the magic of contemporary reside streaming.
Sony solely had two massive video games of its personal to showcase—not surprising, since “slowly” appears the everlasting tempo of big-budget recreation growth—however I used to be shocked that whereas everybody round me was hooting and hollering about Astro Bot, I used to be the one one who needed to see extra Harmony. I preserve seeing variations of the identical three reactions to Firewalk’s debut recreation: That it is an Overwatch clone, or one other dead-on-arrival service recreation, or a multiplayer recreation that needs to be singleplayer.
That is not what I noticed. The cynicism round service video games is earned, however once I have a look at Harmony, I see heroes that I do not acknowledge from different video games, intricately designed weapons I need to shoot, and a format of FPS that we not often get exterior Name of Obligation nowadays. We have barely gotten a glimpse at Harmony up to now, however I’ve some ideas concerning the reveal:
The ex-Bungie of us at Firewalk know a factor or two about shooters
There is a motive Harmony’s cosmic mysticism and floaty characters ring a bell: Firewalk was based by Bungie vets who labored on Halo and Future. Pedigree solely goes up to now after we’re speaking a few newly-formed workforce, however I imagine design director Josh Hamrick (who was additionally a gameplay designer on Halo: Attain and each Destinys) when he says Firewalk is specializing in “constructing a robust gameplay basis of tight core motion, tight, visceral taking pictures, and expressive skills.”
Harmony’s heroes remind me of Overwatch, however Firewalk is clearly making an enviornment shooter
It is pure to see a plucky crew of characters with various heights and one-word names and assume Firewalk is making Sony Overwatch, however my intestine says that impression will not maintain up as soon as we have truly performed it. All the pieces I noticed in that gameplay trailer—round maps, haphazard actions, three-to-four shot kills—suggests Harmony is an enviornment shooter. Within the trailer and in a PlayStation Weblog publish, Firewalk describes each round-based modes and modes with respawns.
In different phrases, Harmony would not look like a “shooter MOBA” within the Overwatch fashion, with its extended group fights, strict function adherence, and linear maps. We should always anticipate one thing nearer to Name of Obligation or Future’s Crucible—a mixture of conventional FPS modes each informal and aggressive. This can be a core motive Harmony has my consideration. Firewalk seemingly understands that there is no extra room for battle royales, extraction shooters, or Overwatch clones (we’ll see how Marvel Rivals works out), however there may be a gap for enviornment shooters to make a minor comeback.
The early success of XDefiant, Ubisoft’s free-to-play Name of Obligation various, is indicative that individuals are within the temper for informal shooters once more. I am undoubtedly amongst them.
That massive vacuum robotic offers me hope that Harmony’s heroes will truly really feel totally different
If there’s one facet of Harmony that I hope does really feel like Overwatch, it is equipment design. The simplest solution to kill my buzz for a hero shooter is to present me heroes that largely play the identical (sorry Apex Legends, Valorant, and XDefiant). It is encouraging that Firewalk needs to embrace the “asymmetry” of its Harmony heroes.
“We’re influenced so much by combating video games and even technique video games within the attention-grabbing manner the asymmetry of their characters makes each matchup really feel actually totally different,” stated lead gameplay designer Claude Jerome.
“Leaning into the asymmetry of the characters, actually pushing the chance area of two totally different characters colliding, it is all about creating alternatives for improvisation,” stated lead character designer Jon Weisnewski. “That is the place we are able to get out of the way in which and let gamers discover their very own magic.”
It is good speak, and it is backed up by moments within the trailer. 1-OFF, the yellow cylindrical robotic from the cinematic, actually towers over each different hero on the map. He clunks across the enviornment like a beacon, inserting bounce pads and serving as cell cowl for teammates, and his solely “gun” is a vacuum. I need to strive it out so badly.
Harmony has an enormous day one roster
Harmony is launching with 16 Freegunners (what it is calling heroes). That is a fairly robust begin, touchdown on the upper finish different hero shooters: Apex Legends launched with eight, Overwatch with 21, XDefiant 5, Rainbow Six Siege 20, and Valorant 10. I’ve some pals who discover it overwhelming once they must study a dozen-plus characters proper out of the gate, however as somebody who will get bored once I do not change heroes each few rounds, I benefit from the choices.
Harmony is not free-to-play (that we all know of), and that is very thrilling
Did you discover that at no level within the Harmony reveal did Sony say “free-to-play?” I needed to watch it again once more to verify, nevertheless it appears like Harmony will probably be a uncommon paid multiplayer recreation. That is probably nice information. Paying for Harmony from the bounce would hopefully imply Firewalk will not be inclined to nickel and dime gamers with glitzy battle go advertisements and $40 pores and skin bundles at each flip.
The standardization of free-to-play (together with quaint greed) has led to video games which can be finest described as storefronts that occur to have videogames hooked up to them. It should not be misplaced on Sony that Helldivers 2 (a $40 recreation) earned a variety of goodwill by prioritizing free updates and making its premium pores and skin retailer an afterthought. Its 12 million gross sales suggests that individuals need to pay for multiplayer video games if it means they’re truly getting an entire recreation.
If Sony learns the fitting classes from Helldivers 2, I would like to see a couple of issues from Harmony:
A worth between $30-$40Every character unlockable at an affordable tempo for no further moneyNo randomized cosmeticsA distant retailer tabProgression timber that by no means expire (battle passes)
That fancy cinematic trailer backfired laborious
On reflection, the Harmony reveal was by no means going to set followers ablaze, beginning with that fancy cinematic trailer. Firewalk was in all probability going for a Blizzard-style cinematic that tells a self-contained story and units the stage for Harmony’s world, however that is not what followers thought they had been watching. The tons of of hundreds of people that tune into Sony streams had been ready for its subsequent singleplayer open-world journey, and what they noticed in Harmony was a trailer for a recreation they are not getting.
Harmony’s week-by-week storytelling sounds formidable (in a nasty manner)
Firewalk’s has a novel plan to inform tales throughout the PvP confines of Harmony. Each week, Firewalk will launch “temporary cinematic vignettes” that “characteristic ongoing narrative arcs that develop the characters’ tales, relationships, and unpack the broader Harmony galaxy.” Sounds cool, however laborious to drag off. Producing 52 cinematics a yr is an enormous process for an ongoing recreation the place schedules can shift, and in the event that they’re as brief as one or two minutes, will followers care?
Is “hero shooter fatigue” actual?
Earlier than we dismiss Harmony as a shooter conceived in an period that is lengthy handed, I would problem simply how “over” hero shooters we actually are. Apex Legends and Rainbow Six Siege are persistently within the prime 10 most-played video games on Steam. Valorant has hundreds of thousands of gamers, and even Overwatch 2 nonetheless attracts a crowd.
All of those video games handle to coexist with out rubbing shoulders, and that is as a result of, regardless of sharing a personality design methodology, they’re fully totally different flavors of FPS. Apex Legends and Overwatch 2 each have heroes who flip invisible, create bubble shields, and mark enemies by way of partitions, however we do not contemplate one a clone of the opposite. That is the lens I am viewing Harmony by way of, a minimum of for now. It is making use of heroes to a taste of shooter we do not get typically, and I actually need to play that beta in July to see the way it shakes out.
