Fuser Review (PlayStation 4)

by Jim Smale · Published November 16, 2020 · Updated November 16, 2020

From the creators of Rock Band and Dance Central. Welcome to FUSER, a non-stop digital music festival where YOU control the music and share it with the world!

Pros:

Decent graphics.
22.28GB download size.
Platinum trophy.
Character creator-choose from 8 presets or create your own.
Cross-platform play-on/off.
PlayStation 4 Pro settings-Ultra graphics or 4K resolution choice.
Calibrate audio/video sync.
Colourblind support.
Cursor and scroll speed sliders.
Can skip cutscenes.
Introduction set that acts as a tutorial.
Music creation DJ gameplay.
Four game modes-campaign, freestyle, co-op freestyle, and battles.
Social-share and listen to other players mixes.
Crates-these act a bit like profiles where you load it up with tracks, instruments, effects, and snapshots.
Snapshot-save a mix and it allows you to import the snapshot to then edit it.
In-app purchases.
Campaign-six promoters you work for and you can then unlock new tracks, instruments, audio effects, etc.
Has DJ Hero vibes.
Stage kit-light shows, stage effects, fireworks, projectors, and crowd effects.
Gameplay-you have four turntables and add discs (songs) to them. The Gimmick is you add an element of the disc to a turntable like just the beat or just the vocals or the percussion. This makes it like a DJ mix.
Play how you want in a show.
Downbeat-lay down a new disc on the downbeat to get a bonus as it makes the song coherent and gives the impression it all flows together.
Crowd meter-tells you how well you are doing.
Really satisfying when you easily mix songs.
Bar to show when to do a downbeat.
Earn EXP and level up to unlock new items for your set and currency to buy songs.
Can replay songs.
Able to eject discs on the fly.
Campaign-you will get new tasks popping up as you play.
Performances in the campaign are judged on a five-star system as you had in Guitar Hero games.
Audience requests can pop up and doing them gives bonus scores.
All the disc dropping is color-coded and assigned to each face button for ease of use.
Elements of the disc will not only be colored but have an icon to say what it is.
Really good selection of songs from all genres.

Fuser Review (PlayStation 4)

Cons:

In-app purchases.
Hard to judge the downbeats.
A lot to take in.
The big learning curve in terms of understanding what you can do.
Not a game you can stream due to the DMCA likelihood.
Small bars and icons making it all much harder.
The campaign serves more like an extended tutorial.
The difficulty in keeping the crowd happy is so up and down and can be brutally unfair.
So many songs are locked.
Had a couple of blue screen shutdowns.
You need excellent reflexes.

Fuser Review (PlayStation 4)

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
9/10

Sound - 9/10
7/10

Accessibility - 7/10
8/10

Length - 8/10
8/10

Fun Factor - 8/10

8/10

Summary

Fuser is a game that evokes major DJ Hero vibes and for that alone, I loved playing it for a large part. Its a game where it gives you a huge library of songs and lets you just drop em into a mix and the mixing technology is never in doubt, the work the devs did to make all these songs not only work but make it sound like it’s meant to be that way is nothing short of incredible. The gameplay along with all the scoring and mechanics is ripped from your Guitar Heroes and Rock Bands of the world and it works fine if you can get into it. The problem I found is the campaign was just a slow tutorial styled experience with a horrible overlying story and I didn’t get much from it. The time of down beating was so hard for me to grasp and time that it wound me up more than inspire me to go forward. I could never get the crowd on board mostly due to timing and the bar to time it being so small. I would say the Fuser is a game made by technicians or skilled coders but it lacks the more gamey part of the experience.