Harmony:
The Fall
of Reverie

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie (2023) is a narrative game where you return home to look into your mother's disappearance, only to discover an unexpected clairvoyant ability to see the future. Like other narrative games, play involves exploring, talking and making choices. Here though, you see the consequences of the decisions laid out before you. It stands in contrast to games like Citizen Sleeper that let you work all the angles simultaneously, here your choices have immediate costs that make it impossible to hedge your bets.

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When Polly returns home after a few years abroad, to look for her missing mother, she quickly realizes that her hometown has drastically changed. A megacorporation controls the population, and her community is in danger. As if this isn't enough, she also discovers a special power to visit an alternate dimension that mirrors the real world.

As you progress, you get to know the inhabitants of both realms and how they are interrelated to each other. Each time you face a moment of decision you are taken to the Augral tree to pick an approach: Glory, Bliss, Power, Chaos, Bond or Truth. This impacts not only the current choice but humanity's progress towards one of these end-game aspirations. These choices are presented in an Adjustment-Bureau-style timeline that shows not only the inner workings of history but also how your choices impact and lock off future decisions.

The result is an unusual way to tell a story. In many ways, seeing what is coming down the tracks robs the narrative of the usual surprises and plot twists. But at the same time, it adds weight to the consequences because you consciously choose them. These consequences ripple back and forth between worlds and lives and are ultimately satisfying because they come at the cost of other paths you can no longer take.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Harmony: The Fall of Reverie 5 months ago. It was re-examined by Ellen Robertson and updated 4 weeks ago.