An uncommon function of Sony’s new hero shooter, Harmony, is that deployable objects—therapeutic pads, shields, partitions, that type of factor—are persistent between rounds and respawns. If the opposite workforce does not destroy your stuff, it stays the place it’s throughout a complete match.
I appreciated the concept after I heard it only for its novelty, however wasn’t positive how huge a deal it will be in apply. Now that Harmony’s first beta has began, I can say it is undoubtedly not a trivial quirk: It is actually goofy in a means that I’ve up to now discovered a variety of enjoyable, although that may simply be as a result of my workforce completely killed it with the deployables technique in my final match.
Considered one of Harmony’s modes is a no-respawn mode the place rounds are received both by eliminating the opposite workforce or capturing a single level within the heart of the map. The primary workforce to win 4 rounds wins the match.
I’m not fairly as intelligent as my teammates, who spent the primary two rounds loading up the seize level with therapeutic pads, shields, and privateness partitions, constructing us a fortress of glowing power fields which we sprinted to and huddled in for the following rounds—we received in a clear sweep.
The opposite workforce was doubtless nonetheless attending to grips with the sport: They may’ve targeted their hearth on our shields to take them out so they might bust up all our therapeutic pads. However since they allow us to have our particular little well being spa proper on the purpose, we have been fairly unstoppable: I might come out, shoot at certainly one of them, after which run again inside to heal up, and repeat.
In one other mode, one the place the aim is to seize an object on the heart of the map and extract it at certainly one of two factors, the persistency of deployables could not be exploited in such an apparent means, however I did stick a therapeutic pad behind a half-wall close to our aspect of the pickup level for the extraction merchandise. That proved to be an enormous assist, since there was all the time a brief skirmish there earlier than one workforce grabbed the merchandise and made a run for it.
My therapeutic pad stayed put for that total match, which pertains to one other notable impact of deployable persistence: It helps you to profit from a selected character’s capability with out having to play them each spherical. It is one of many methods Harmony encourages character switching, which it is very huge on.
After each respawn or spherical, you are offered with the character choose display screen, and deciding on various kinds of characters offers you “crew bonuses” over the course of the match. For instance, for those who choose Daw, the character who drops these therapeutic pads and shields, future characters you choose could have sooner reloads as a result of his Tactician crew bonus.
It is potential that huge deployable forts will not make it to the high-level meta, however the notion that you just should not stick to the identical character for a complete match looks like it is perhaps embedded deep sufficient in Harmony to stay round even when folks get critical.
The present Harmony beta is barely open to pre-orderers and PlayStation Plus subscribers, however subsequent week there will be an open beta—listed below are the total particulars from Sony. If you happen to’re leaping in, too, I can not advocate sufficient choosing Daw within the first spherical or two. Simply drop these therapeutic pads and shields in protected and handy spots, or for those who’re courageous, stick them straight on the purpose.
