Saturday, May 18, 2013

There's a Fuse Demo Available and I Like It...Sort Of.



Here's the thing - Fuse used to be OverStrike - a cartoony and comical third person shooter that looked absolutely fun, and not something that would take itself too seriously. The personalities between the four characters were distinct and one of the main draws for a lot of folks that wanted to dive in.

Fuse is what happens when marketing and 12-year olds beat up OverStrike with the need for grittiness because that's what the kids love. Far be it from other gamers that might want something different. And I'm not joking about the 12-year-old bit.

When it officially arrived, there was a lot of understandable pessimism tossed around. I mean - look at the trailers.

OverStrike


Fuse


See the difference? You can't help but wonder what sort of game OverStrike was going to be if it was finished and sent out into the wild.

But that's gone, so now we have Fuse. There's a demo out for the 360 and PS3, and despite my hesitations, it's not all bad. Each character wields a different weapon that contains the titular alien material, and as such is used in different ways. Main character and squad leader Dalton Brooks uses the MagShield, which can drop cover and repel stopped bullets in a shock wave. Isabella Sinclair is the team sniper, and uses the Shattergun to lift enemies up off the ground for kill assists.

You're able to jump between the four squadmembers when the situation calls for it, which didn't feel forced. I did hop over to other members if I needed a sniper or someone with a cloak ability for stealth kills. And the shooting, if basic, is still pretty solid. The Fuse weapons are fun to play around with, and work as intended. I should mention that you can hop online with friends or random folk to play through the 15-minute build, and team kills can ramp up a score against the same target. You also have limited skill upgrades to take you through the fights as well.

As I ran through this though, I couldn't take my mind off how despite these features, it felt like it wass just...there. It's by the numbers; something that wouldn't have too much longevity when finished. The character skills and Fuse weapons, while fun, still felt like novelties - as if they wouldn't keep me entertained against the enemy. Additionally,  the characters are toned down considerably from their first show in the OS trailer. It's so easy to say that one girl can go invisible, then that one dude has a crossbow. There's no individuality present.

I'm keeping up my optimism that this might turn out into something great and entertaining. Insomniac is a great team who have made some stalwart stuff. Let's hope that this won't signal some sort of turnaround.

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