On the one hand, Fusor is simply a video game that cannot make up for a year of missed music festivals. On the other hand, Fusor is the very best of the festival condensed into a digital form. The enthusiastic crowds, the blazing fireworks, and the pulsating music. But this time, you are the star; Fuser challenges you to produce your own musical mashup, but there is a substantial game surrounding this creative central concept.

I met with a Harmonix representative via Zoom to get a live gameplay demo of Fuser. I had previously played this game at PAX East, but that demo was a fairly short tutorial level. This time, I had three mixing experiences: an early campaign level, a late campaign level, and the game's freestyle mode.

In Fuser, you play as a DJ on the music festival circuit. The set you spin requires four musical parts: percussion, bass, main instruments, and vocals. There are over 100 songs to choose from, and the game automatically synchronizes them. (Whether it sounds "good" is up to you, but I have spent several hours with this game and have yet to encounter a "bad" sound)

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The game's freestyle mode allows you to spin any song in any slot you want in an attempt to find the perfect dance soundtrack. However, the campaign must respond to audience requests in real time, and the audience is always looking for new music. For example, rock vocals or piano instrumental parts. However, new music cannot be included anytime a request is made; it must be timed to either an upbeat or a downbeat. Things get complicated very quickly when trying to balance multiple requests before the audience gets bored and gives up. The challenge for fusers is to learn the ins and outs of their favorite songs and be able to accommodate every request.

Aspiring songwriters will want to dive right into Fuser's freestyle mode, but first let's discuss the campaign. While there is always the danger that a rhythm game campaign will hinder rather than promote music, Fuser's approach seems quite sensible: much like Harmonix's "Guitar Hero" series, you start by playing back-up at small events and eventually up to headlining huge festivals. The concept of "Story" is that each venue has a different promoter, each with a unique style in attracting fans and producing music.

Harmonix showed two different campaign levels, but the core gameplay was nearly identical in both. Before the show, one could choose 10 or so songs of one's choice or the game would recommend a set list. During the show, the player spins a long, frequently changing set of songs, responding to fan requests. In the first level, the main challenge was to get new songs into the downbeat before the fan requests closed. At the second level, however, things got more complicated.

In later levels, the rhythm and tonality of each new track could be manipulated manually. In addition, you can create your own synth patterns, and each song has more than a dozen possible patterns that can be employed. These patterns must be sampled, created, and deployed in real time, adding an additional element of a ticking clock. When all cylinders are working, Fuser is a giant juggling act. But there is no punishment in the game, and the advantage is that by doing, one can acquire resources for more in-game goodies.

Fuser is a bit different from the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises that Harmonix pioneered in the early to mid-2000s. Instead of a huge number of songs to master, there is a small amount of levels that allow for more variation. This makes you want to replay each level over and over again, and each time you do, you want a reward.

XP is earned per set, and this XP unlocks many customization options. But you can also unlock body shapes, hairstyles, shirts, pants, hats, shoes, and even the "attitude" that determines how the DJ will carry himself on stage: anything from a regular DJ who walks in off the street like Rock Band to a wacky maestro who wanders in from a science fiction convention. You can make it happen.

The ability to arrange the music in your own way is one of Fusor's main attractions, especially since the game is not bound to the traditional "DJ" genre. There is plenty of pop and hip-hop, but it also includes dance, rap, rock, Latin, country, and R&B tunes. You can combine these as you wish, and you are not bound by the "percussion, bass, instruments, vocals" mold that is often required in campaigns. If you want to see how four different vocals fit together, or if you want instrumental backing vibes, you can experiment with any format you like. You can experiment. In most cases, this is what the game's freestyle mode allows.

The question, of course, is whether amateur singers will be able to share their creations with the world; Harmonix recognizes that customization is a big part of Fuser's appeal and explains that users can share their mixes within the game's community for free . But users who want to monetize their content, such as streamers or those who want to sell their mixes, may face thornier legal issues. While the game itself will probably lay down some ground rules, both some freedom and some restrictions on the sharing of songs are to be expected.

A Harmonix representative explained that while 2020 has been a difficult year overall, games like Fuser may help fill the void of canceled concerts and music festivals. Music and dance are pretty central to the whole human experience. While a game can't recreate the intensity, camaraderie, and weirdness of Burning Man or Glastonbury, "Fuser" can at least bring us back to why we love music in the first place.