Symphony

 PC
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 54 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 54
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 54
  3. Negative: 6 out of 54

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  1. OilMessage
    Aug 8, 2012
    8
    Nice game. However sometimes difficult to see enemy bullet.There are times when i do not understand why dead. And whether there was really need this is music game. I think still a good game.
  2. DepthExc
    Aug 9, 2012
    10
    I'm a fan of music games, so I bought this game the day it was released. It is beautiful, simple and a great way to re-experience your music. My only pet peeve with it was that it failed to recognize my iTunes library at first, and it took me a bit of time to figure out I had to download the latest version of Quick Time to get it to work. The game play experience is clean, simple and fun.I'm a fan of music games, so I bought this game the day it was released. It is beautiful, simple and a great way to re-experience your music. My only pet peeve with it was that it failed to recognize my iTunes library at first, and it took me a bit of time to figure out I had to download the latest version of Quick Time to get it to work. The game play experience is clean, simple and fun. As you progress through the levels of difficulty, you also get progressively deeper interactions with enemies that warp or change the music in different ways until you kill them. The ship's progression mechanic and the ability to unlock a multitude of weapon and customize your ship accordingly kept my interest in the game's mechanic going, but ultimately - it is the experience of playing a cool game on top of your favorite music that draws me back to it. For the price-point it's at - I highly recommend this game. It feels cleaner and better than Beat Hazard, and it provides a different and novel visual experience.

    If - like me - you have a large song library of tunes you love, this is a great way to re-experience and rediscover your music ;).    … Expand
  3. Harem
    Aug 7, 2012
    10
    Worth all the 9$. Really fun and entertaining, a lot of customization with tons of power up and different weapons. All the level are different and there are a lot of difficult modes (six) , the only downside is that there are not many different enemies. I have played for 2 hours straight and didn't feel it was repetitive at all or anyway not more repetitive than every other game of thisWorth all the 9$. Really fun and entertaining, a lot of customization with tons of power up and different weapons. All the level are different and there are a lot of difficult modes (six) , the only downside is that there are not many different enemies. I have played for 2 hours straight and didn't feel it was repetitive at all or anyway not more repetitive than every other game of this genre.
    But anyway it's a really good game for his low price.    … Expand
  4. Jcourtney
    Aug 7, 2012
    9
    Easily worth the entertainment value for only $9 bucks. It does make listening to music that much more enjoyable and each of your songs is it's own level. Get this game.
  5. sh4dow
    Dec 8, 2012
    6
    This could have easily been as big (and better) than Audiosurf. Unfortunately, the ridiculously clunky implementation of leaderboards (which is really what these kind of games are mostly about - at least to me) and overall very bad interface keep it from being that.
    It looks like it was designed for mobile platforms and there was NO optimization for PC gaming whatsoever. HUGE text and    This could have easily been as big (and better) than Audiosurf. Unfortunately, the ridiculously clunky implementation of leaderboards (which is really what these kind of games are mostly about - at least to me) and overall very bad interface keep it from being that.
    It looks like it was designed for mobile platforms and there was NO optimization for PC gaming whatsoever. HUGE text and mouse input only (and on a general note: one cannot store weapon loadouts. It's tremendous fun having to swap all those weapons depending on what difficulty one chooses...). But worse than that, you can't see anywhere which songs were already played by others, you have to let the game analyze a whole song (which takes about 20 seconds) and then you still have to click a button just to check whether there are leaderboards for that particular song. Good luck finding one. Aside from the songs that come with the game and those that are discussed on the GOG forums I have not found a single one so far. And... the fact that there may not be a huge diversity of songs that have been played by people (I can't say for sure because I don't have the time to let the game analyze 100 songs just to check that) wouldn't even be so bad if they would either at least show in the song list which songs have leaderboards or have a catalog somewhere, even if it is just on their website. SOMETHING, damn it!
    They should've ditched the whole story aspect (which I find just annoying aside from the somewhat interesting boss battles) and concentrated on the things mentioned above instead. It could have been so great because while I like the interface of Audiosurf, I don't really like the gameplay of it. With Symphony, I would LOVE the basic gameplay but without proper leaderboards it's just useless. So in a way, my score is somewhat generous. But... it does look and play very well and I see all the potential that it has. It seems such a waste because it seems to me that implementing those things I mentioned probably would just take them 5% of the time that it took to create this whole game. And it could catapult it from nice but useless to cult status.    … Expand
  6. SwitSwat
    Sep 23, 2012
    9
    Seeing as I had high hopes for this game, I was really anxious to play it. It did not disappoint. This musical shoot em up is a wonderful masterpiece created for music lovers everywhere. The game is addicting, colorful, and challenging. And the ability to add your own music makes it even more impressive. All in all, it's a great game, which I don't consider perfect, but is still a gem.Seeing as I had high hopes for this game, I was really anxious to play it. It did not disappoint. This musical shoot em up is a wonderful masterpiece created for music lovers everywhere. The game is addicting, colorful, and challenging. And the ability to add your own music makes it even more impressive. All in all, it's a great game, which I don't consider perfect, but is still a gem. 9/10 from me.… Expand
  7. DubVulture
    Dec 30, 2012
    3
    Nice game for the first hour, then you will notice that it's always the same and the levels are very similar to each other. You could disable the music and put a random track in the background and feel no difference.
    After the Mezzo-piano difficulty, Mezzo-forte and so on are completely impossible to beat 100% for the 95% of the songs: plenty of enemies, small arena and a big collision    Nice game for the first hour, then you will notice that it's always the same and the levels are very similar to each other. You could disable the music and put a random track in the background and feel no difference.
    After the Mezzo-piano difficulty, Mezzo-forte and so on are completely impossible to beat 100% for the 95% of the songs: plenty of enemies, small arena and a big collision box due to the large ship.
    Not mentioning the "cannon balls" fired by the enemies ships that can't be seen when the arena became red (on black background) since they're red or black.
    The story is useless for this type of game and unattractive, the Bosses are easy and only of 5 types. There should be a way to "deactivate" the story mode if I do not want to be interrupted when I'm playing since it doesn't allow you to record a score on the leaderboard because of the extra points you get for the Boss.

    6,99     … Expand
  8. Sinloth
    Sep 4, 2012
    10
    Anyone praising Beat Hazard forget about it instantly and go pick this one up! Symphony is an amazing game really, I just can't stop playing it. And with a few thousand songs from various soundtracks through game music to my favourite metal bands, this title will keep me occupied for quite some time. Beat Hazard is seriously boring compared to Symphony. Symphony has a lot of cool ideas, aAnyone praising Beat Hazard forget about it instantly and go pick this one up! Symphony is an amazing game really, I just can't stop playing it. And with a few thousand songs from various soundtracks through game music to my favourite metal bands, this title will keep me occupied for quite some time. Beat Hazard is seriously boring compared to Symphony. Symphony has a lot of cool ideas, a little story background and a far better drive. You'll always want to play just one more song :)… Expand
  9. Heryas
    Sep 1, 2012
    10
    Un remake petit prix sauce Audiosurf en Space Invader, et ce avec votre propre musique, ça change, c'est addictif et je crois que c'est que nous demandons tous actuellement en terme de jeux vidéos :)
  10. epichotcheese
    Jan 18, 2014
    4
    Interesting concept with lots of major design flaws. How much you enjoy the game depends on how much you loved your music collection. Honestly, beside looking at the cool colors and effects on screen the game is a bit pointless. Enemies ships always comes out at the same spot forcing you to stay at the bottom of the screen and only move up to collect points and power up. It's pretty muchInteresting concept with lots of major design flaws. How much you enjoy the game depends on how much you loved your music collection. Honestly, beside looking at the cool colors and effects on screen the game is a bit pointless. Enemies ships always comes out at the same spot forcing you to stay at the bottom of the screen and only move up to collect points and power up. It's pretty much the exact same thing for every sound. Also, the lack of random or shuffle feature makes absolutely no sense. Don't waste your money, just put on a headphone and enjoy your music.… Expand
  11. Simochi
    Jan 8, 2013
    9
    Spent $5 when it was on sale in Steam,but it worth the full price. The best part is you can play the game with any of your favorite music files on your hard drive!!! Plus this is a shooting game. This makes the game more perfect since I like shooting. You can upgrade your ship as you complete songs. It take a while (20 sec maybe) to initiate/analyze a new song, and the game does not readSpent $5 when it was on sale in Steam,but it worth the full price. The best part is you can play the game with any of your favorite music files on your hard drive!!! Plus this is a shooting game. This makes the game more perfect since I like shooting. You can upgrade your ship as you complete songs. It take a while (20 sec maybe) to initiate/analyze a new song, and the game does not read Asian language font.… Expand
  12. KouDy
    Sep 8, 2012
    9
    If you like arena shooters this is the kind of one. You get to listen to your music collection while shooting stuff. Very rewarding gameplay with unlocks system. 6 degrees of difficulty making the game even longer. Stunningly nice looking graphics eventho it looks as simple graphic. Perfect game for relaxation.
  13. Canorsherd
    Aug 6, 2012
    8
    A very fun and relaxing little game. Reminds me very much of Audiosurf where I can just launch the game, sit back, and play through a few of my songs. Though much like Audiosurf this is very repetitive. For $9 I would recommend this to any fan of rhythm games. Sadly for anyone else $9 might seem a little much and you may want to wait for this to go on sale before you pick it up. All andA very fun and relaxing little game. Reminds me very much of Audiosurf where I can just launch the game, sit back, and play through a few of my songs. Though much like Audiosurf this is very repetitive. For $9 I would recommend this to any fan of rhythm games. Sadly for anyone else $9 might seem a little much and you may want to wait for this to go on sale before you pick it up. All and all this is a fun little experience and I felt I got my moneys worth.… Expand
  14. FurthestFlung
    Jul 3, 2013
    6
    While this is a great game in concept, in implementation, it stumbles. The procedural game setup can always be a double-edged sword, since, even if you "never get the same layout twice" by randomizing the stages, if all the stages just consist of the same 6 things over and over, then if you've seen one, you've really seen it all. Symphony has not just too few enemies to stayWhile this is a great game in concept, in implementation, it stumbles. The procedural game setup can always be a double-edged sword, since, even if you "never get the same layout twice" by randomizing the stages, if all the stages just consist of the same 6 things over and over, then if you've seen one, you've really seen it all. Symphony has not just too few enemies to stay entertaining, it has the same small number of enemies flying in the same small number of patterns over and over again. In fact, there are so few patterns of enemy flight paths that you frequently find ships overlapping!

    There is another major problem in the game, in that, apparently fearing that they might make some songs too hard or others too easy, they decided to give the player infinite lives, a ship so huge you can't possibly dodge anything, but make it take tons of hits and regenerate with every enemy killed (including by ramming your ship into it), so there's basically no skill to the game at all, you just play by buying up more expensive weapons for your ship to be able to handle higher levels that give you more cash to upgrade your weapons enough to handle the next highest level.

    In general, I think how much you like this game depends on how much you've played it. It's fun for the first few hours, but notably, only 0.5% of players ever actually played the game for 12 hours. That, right there, shows exactly the problem in the game. It just doesn't have enough variety to keep people coming back past playing their favorite 20 songs or so.    … Expand
  15. Thatothergamer
    Apr 15, 2013
    9
    Symphony is an amazing game that lets you turn your music into a 2d shooter. It has a good customization option for the ship that you pilot, and the different weapons offer many different play styles. The bosses and enemies are also quite nice and enter and attack to the rhythm of the music. My only complaint is the difficulty spike once you get into the mezzo-forte difficulty but it isSymphony is an amazing game that lets you turn your music into a 2d shooter. It has a good customization option for the ship that you pilot, and the different weapons offer many different play styles. The bosses and enemies are also quite nice and enter and attack to the rhythm of the music. My only complaint is the difficulty spike once you get into the mezzo-forte difficulty but it is still a really fun game. It is easily worth its small price tag… Expand
  16. SandvichHoovy
    Aug 28, 2013
    9
    A well-crafted, supremely enjoyable game. The only reason it's not a ten is that it is sometimes difficult to see what is going on amidst all the chaos of the ships and bullets. For nine dollars, it's a steal.

    Guitar Hero, meet your new nemesis.
  17. aralath
    Aug 8, 2018
    8
    Really fun game. You can import your own music and play with them. Enjoyable.

Awards & Rankings

94
#94 Best PC Game of 2012
93
#93 Most Shared PC Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. PC PowerPlay
    Oct 11, 2012
    60
    Busy and discordant. [Oct 2012, p.76]
  2. PC Gamer
    Oct 5, 2012
    84
    Symphony is fun, pure and simple. [Dec 2012, p.75]
  3. Games.cz
    Sep 18, 2012
    80
    This well-made musical shoot 'em up probably won't live up to the classics, but it manages to entertain for long hours. Fortunately, some flaws here and there do not bring the gameplay enjoyment down. If you love music and shoot 'em ups at least a bit, you can't go wrong with Symphony.
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