It has been a strange summer without music festivals. These mass gatherings weren’t allowed to take place due to the COVID-19 virus but what if you could still enjoy the atmosphere and energy of those festivals from the comfort and safety of your own home? Enter Fuser, Harmonix’s newest rhythm game where you can become the DJ you always wanted to be!
Harmonix is back
Fuser is the newest game from Harmonix, the studio that brought us Guitar Hero and Rock Band in the past. It’s been a while since the team launched a new rhythm game but with the release of the highly anticipated Fuser, the time is finally here. Unlike the other products the studio launched earlier, Fuser doesn’t come with a replica of an instrument, instead, it offers you an incredible amount of playable songs, right from the start. The reason why you’re not using a plastic instrument this time is because the genre shifted from rock to EDM. No longer are you chasing your dreams to become the next big rock legend, in this one, it’s all about your DJ career. In all honesty, I think the game came a little late to the party as the EMD scene is slowly losing its importance and its fans, also due to the fact that there weren’t any actual EMD festivals this summer. That being said, I do enjoy the music and I love the idea of Fuser. It’s a game where you can dive into the high energy level of a DJ and customize everything about it to make you feel right at home. It looks complex and hard to master at first, but the more you advance in the story, the better your skills will eventually become, leading you into some extremely fun and addictive freestyle sessions.
Learn the ropes, master the mechanics
As you can see in the screenshots, this isn’t Harmonix’s usual rhythm game where you have to push the right button at the right time. It still is just that, in a sense, but it clearly evolved into something new, something more complex yet also more rewarding. Your turntable is divided into four sections where you can drop a song into with the push of the corresponding button. One section will cover the bassline while another will take the lyrics from a certain song. By mixing all four elements together as one, you’ll hopefully come up with that banger the crowd wanted to hear. What’s really impressive here, is to see how well the immense library of over a hundred songs works so well together. Even if you mix rock, pop, and R&B songs together, the outcome will most likely be very enjoyable to hear. To learn and master these mechanics, it’s advised to go through the campaign mode..
In the campaign mode, you’ll learn what’s crucial to become the best DJ of the festival and you’ll quickly learn there’s a lot to take into consideration. First things first, if you drop a new element of a song, there’s the best time to do so, indicated by a small line that’s constantly moving on top of your turntable. Timing is everything, especially when you later learn that songs themselves also need certain timing to mix with the beat in the best way possible. It doesn’t stop there just yet, the crowd is constantly craving your attention, and they know exactly what they want to hear. Combining all those elements and keeping track of all of those small metrics while shuffling between your library of songs takes some exercise to master but it’s extremely rewarding once you do. I’m not a big fan of the campaign as I thought the dialogues and character development was rather cringy, plus the cutscenes clearly suffer from performance issues on the Nintendo Switch. And yet, I appreciated the mode for what it did. It taught me how to become a better DJ and it gave me an opportunity to unlock a lot of fun stuff to get creative within the freestyle mode. As the name already gives away, this mode gives you complete freedom over your songs and you can create new music at your own pace, without having to include certain elements to please the crowd or your promotor. If you’re looking for a mesmerizing and relaxing music experience, this mode is the best way to do so, although you’ll need to struggle through the other modes to unlock enough tools to play around with.
Time for an online festival
On top of the offline modes which you can easily enjoy on your own, Fuser also comes with an incredibly addictive multiplayer mode. In this mode, you’ll work together with others to create the best possible set. You switch turns to take control over the turntables, always building on what the other players were creating. Although you’re constantly working together, it’s also still a competitive mode since the one who pleased the crowd the most, will eventually take home the crown. It’s also fun to know that you can be part of the crowd, telling the other DJs what you want to hear. This results in what’s probably the best alternative of the real festivals, namely an online festival where you’re all jamming together on the music you’re creating. It has that same feeling of being connected with other people, sharing the love for music. A feeling that’s so strong during festivals and a feeling I certainly missed the most this year. Although Fuser never replaces the fun of a real festival, it comes pretty close thanks to the high energy of the multiplayer segment.
Conclusion:
Fuser is a great game showing that Harmonix still got that magic touch of creating fun rhythm games. It’s unlike anything they released previously but it works surprisingly well. There’s a lot to learn and master and the learning curve is rather steep but once you invested a couple of hours into it, it’s extremely rewarding and addictive. While we couldn’t go to the festivals this summer, Fuser takes the festivals to the comfort and safety of your home.
