Symphony Review

Today we are taking a look at a magnificent game that goes under the name of Symphony. Symphony is an Indie production and falls under the same genre as Audio Surf and Beat Hazard.  Players have the ability to play their own songs or choose one of the songs that come with the game. The game has some RPG elements, making the game unique and fun to play. The player can upgrade the ship with various weapons, which can be obtained by clearing levels.

The story of Symphony is simple, but quite interesting. When you start the game it explains you that a demon has captured the Symphony of Souls and has captured your music. In order to set your music and the Symphony of Souls free, players will need to clear  the levels, defeating demons in the process. The evil entity appears every level, mocking you and bullying you, giving you more motivation to start blasting enemy ships away in order to defeat the demons. Symphony made me realize how much fun it is to shoot everything to pieces while listening to piano music in the background. The game has a scan function that automatically scans your computer for music and places it in the music folders. To find your favorite track back you can filter the songs by artist or album. I was a little confused about the options menu in the beginning, but once you start the game you’re able to find it quite easily.

The gameplay is absolutely amazing. Once a song is selected, the player can choose from six different difficulty levels, ranging from Pianissimo, which is the easiest difficulty, to Fortissimo, the hardest one. Although harder difficulties will have to be unlocked first, which can be achieved by progressing further into the game. In each level, you will be the commander of a small spaceship, shooting loads of little ships, pillars and various other enemies to pieces while you avoid being destroyed, because that results in a penalty to your final score. Every few levels you have a bossfight, where you have to defeat a demon in order to advance to the next level. Whenever you shoot an enemy they drop music notes, that will give you some score as well as ingame currency. On top of that, they repair your ship. There are two types of ingame currency, called inspiration and kudos. Both of these can be used to unlock new upgrades or weapons for your ship. Each cleared level unlocks  a weapon, that can have a random rarity. While there is a wide variety of weapons, the chances of finding new weapons gradually decrease as you find more. Each song has been broken down in 3 colorful phases, representing the intensity of the song.

The controls have been thought out well in Symphony. Remembering controls is easy, as you will only use the mouse to control your ship, shooting with the left and right button in the meantime. One can choose to set weapons to autofire or manual shooting. Both options work well, so choosing one of these possibilities  depends on the playstyle and weapon usage by the player. The graphics are beautiful and fit well with the music. The combination of colors create a relaxed atmosphere and that is unique in a game that involves a lot of shooting. The transition between colors goes smoothly, making the game an enjoyable visual experience. I did not encounter any problems with textures and framerates and the game runs extremely smoothly.  The ingame audio is lovely and can be tweaked to the players personal preferences. Symphony has some fun sound effects, making the shooting a lot more fun. The audio has been well balanced, meaning you’re able to shoot stuff and enjoy your music at the very

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.