Sense of Harmony is a choice-based game in which you play a young woman, Elizabeth, with cybernetic implants that grant her hyperawareness of what other people feel. She works as a high-tech prostitute, while simultaneously juggling classes in what appears to be a college major in computer science. This is a very interesting setup for a game, but Sense of Harmony doesn’t give us a full story. It lays the groundwork for a mystery involving a coworker and potential challenges with new ownership of the brothel, but it never resolves or explores these. The main conflict in the game involves a dramatic confrontation with a new client, but the resolution leaves little explained. Sense of Harmony, then, is more like a teaser for future games involving Elizabeth than a complete game in itself. As a prelude (to use the game’s own term), it’s pretty effective, and I’m curious to see what comes next.
Anyone interested in playing Sense of Harmony should be aware that it is not titillating. Sure, the PC is a prostitute, but the only extended scene with a client focuses entirely on what happens after sex — his emotional needs, plus the internal conflict between her needs and her desire to meet his. As for the rest of the game, it could work just about as well if the PC had any other job.
I hope that any further games in this series spend more time on Elizabeth’s internal conflict, as I found that the most interesting part of Sense of Harmony. You have the ability to sense what people most deeply need, maybe even things they’re not fully aware of themselves. What moral obligation does that lay on you, then, to help others — when you’re so much better at it than everyone else? Yet how much can you really live for other people when you have your own desires and emotional limitations? And what about the asymmetry between your ability to give emotionally to people versus their ability to give back to you? Sense of Harmony just begins to explore these intriguing questions; I hope subsequent games do even more.
A few minor comments: The little artwork in the game is beautiful — even professionally done, I’d say. I love the game’s first line: “Your fingers glide along sweat coated polyurethane…” It even encapsulates the game, to some extent: It initially sounds erotic; however, the last word is anything but. Moreover, Sense of Harmony frequently gives — thanks to the PC’s cybernetic implants — detached, precise analyses of sensory input. Registering that something is made of polyurethane in the middle of an intimate encounter is exactly the kind of thing that Elizabeth, and Sense of Harmony, would do.
Overall, I really liked what I saw in Sense of Harmony. However, it’s not truly a full game. Instead, it’s a prelude — like it says. I expect that future games in this series will explore the potential conflicts that the current game sets up, and I hope that they will spend a good bit of time on Elizabeth’s internal conflict as well. Sense of Harmony is a solid teaser for what looks to be an interesting series of games.
An Exercise for the Reader 