Review: Back In The Beat With FUSER
After Rock Band, Harmonics has been in an odd place trying to create rhythm games that are just as popular. Things like DropMix, Dance Central, and Amplitude have done okay in their own rights, but have lacked the accessibility and same rhythmic musical joy that Rock Band made. However, Fuser has a lot of really great personality, depth, accessibility, and difficulty. Taking over the job of a DJ and curating, improvising, and taking requests doesn’t sound super impressive at first. But with a huge variety of tracks, effects, creating your own loops, and some really great ways to interact with track addition, Fuser brings a lot of life and energy back to Harmonix.
The first major thing to address is the core rhythm game gameplay. At first, it seems really simple, taking tracks and putting them into the mix on every fourth beat, the downbeat. My first playthroughs seemed pretty discouragingly boring because of the simplicity of it all. However, things escalate really quickly and become far more difficult. Not only did my “manager” have me place songs at the right time, but each instrument of each track can be added to the mix at a very specific moment when it would sound the best. This would be the start of a baseline, the course of a song, or a strong riffs of a guitar. Those special beats can appear on the downbeat or at any other beat. So, juggling through different songs trying to play each instrument at the correct moment, and fulfilling various requests from the audience along with curating the general vibes adds a lot of complexions that were unexpected. Also, players can add a plethora of effects and even their own loops/samples from a variety of instruments. The more I play it, the more I get used to all of the different aspects, controls, and individual instruments which leads to more fulfilling and better sounding experiences.
Along with really great core game mechanics are the campaign mode and customizations. Although the campaign is an extended tutorial for the first fourth of the game, I still could thoroughly the main gameplay of making sweet, sweet music. The way to unlock a lot of songs, clothes, venue decorations, and more is done through the campaign, which is can be a negative for some. I think the restrictions and handholding really taught me how to play the game better and the NPC‘s that guide you through your DJ journey may be cheesy, but they are endearing. I do wish that the campaign would open up your music options a little bit wider and quicker, but players still get to add a number of their own music every round, so it’s not too restricting.
The customization for characters is allowed for a lot of colorful variety. I think some more body type options could’ve gone a long way, but the different outfits, masks accessories, and a variety of great colors encourage players to discover and create their own dream DJ character. The customization for venue settings, displays, effects, and crowd interactions are pretty good but could’ve used a lot more variety overall. It’s entertaining for sure, but I feel my own character is just there to fill in when she could, never like a rising star or worldwide sensation.
(I have yet to play multiplier yet as this is an early access game provided by Harmonix, so it won’t be a part of this review, but there are battles and co-op modes)
Fuser seriously surprised me. Harmonix has not had a great track record lately and I couldn’t think of a rhythm game really captured or could bring me in the same way that Guitar Hero and Rock Band did. Fuser ushers in a new age of mixing songs, great technology to smartly connect, and enhance songs along with satisfying and enthralling customizations and challenges. Music enthusiasts, rhythm gamers, and just about anyone could find a lot of sincere happiness in truly creating new songs and entertaining a crowd. Try out Fuser, I’d say it is worth the time and money to play it if you love a challenge and sick beats.
