Developer: Awesome Games Studio
Publisher: Awesome Games Studio
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PS4, Switch
Tested on: PS4
Fury Unleashed – Review
It’s often hard to know the difference between a Roguelike and a Roguelite game, even though the difference is actually quite easy to spot. A Roguelike game wipes your entire progress when you die, while a Roguelite game often has a sense of progress outside of the runs you do in-game. You often are able to carry over upgrades to your next attempts at clearing the game, or you can upgrade your character to make future battles easier. This time we’re taking a look at Fury Unleashed, which proves to be a great Roguelite experience with a proper progression system.
Story
Fury Unleashed revolves around a comic book character whose creator is going through some sort of existential crisis. It seems that Fury used to be the equivalent of a rock star, albeit for comic books. Now, his creator isn’t sure what to do with the series anymore, as it seems that he isn’t getting the attention he used to. Now, you’ll take the helm of Fury and plow him through different comic book settings, which all involve big guns and a lot of guts and gore, showing your creator how badass you can be.
The story won’t really be clear when playing the game. You’ll sometimes unlock a small ‘though sequence’ that tells you a bit more about the world outside the comic book. Sadly, these story snippets come by only rarely, if you make enough progress. More than often, you’ve already forgotten the previous snippet of text before the next one pops up on your screen.
Graphics
Fury Unleashed has quite nice 2D graphics that will cater to fans of old-school games, but also look modern enough for our current generation of consoles. The game itself is quite colorful, and while things start slow, you’ll see enough projectiles flying by as you progress through the levels. Each zone has its specific surfaces and backdrops, as well as many different enemy models and big boss creatures. The game also features a varied amount of special effects thanks to the different weapons and attack animations. Everything is really well-crafted and things move and look very smooth.
The game uses a comic book esthetic, which works quite well. Some parts feel like Metal Slug meets comic book scene, which does wonders for a semi-indie production such as this. The theme can also be found during the level select, where you have to choose from different comic books, picking your personal poison.
Sound
This game could have done well with just a bare minimum of voice acting, as the atmosphere of the comic book appearance just screams for a narrator. Other than that, the sound design is proper, mostly depending on the different sound effects, with a subtle but upbeat soundtrack playing in the background.
Gameplay
Fury Unleashed is a very well-polished Roguelite experience. You’ll be battling through chapters that are divided into separate screens, collecting new gear and upgrades as you go. The offset is quite simple; you run, gun and do some platforming while avoiding enemy fire and traps. You can opt to play the game alone, or with a friend, and you can also mess around with the difficulty settings. When playing the game on easy, however, you bail out on earning a lot of potential trophies (or achievements).
The game is quite easy to work with. You’ll run around as you would in any other platform title, and you use your right stick to fire your weapon in the direction that you tilt it. Other than that, you’ll have grenades, a special skill and the ability to sprint and dash. The game keeps things simple and that’s great for a title such as this. Each of the stages you find yourself in is divided into different panels, much like a comic book, and you’ll need to find the exit panel to progress to the next chapter. At the end of a series of chapters, there will be a boss fight, allowing you to unlock new content if you beat the different bosses at the end of a comic book. When you clear one boss, you can keep playing that run, even if you make it until the last comic book. If not, you’ll first have to defeat all three different bosses in order to start a new game from another comic book than the jungle one, which is the first of the series.
As this is a Roguelite experience, it means that some progress can be made, even though the levels have to be done anew when dying. You’ll find ink on your journey through the pages of the comic books you find yourself in, and this ink is pretty much the equivalent of experience. When collecting enough, your hero will level up, and you can choose to distribute skill points on a skill tree. Many of the unlockable skills are passive, meaning you can get more life points, earn more ink with kills, get more armor, and so on. Other than that, progress gets rewarded with unlocking new starting loadouts, but it does take a while before you get these.
Conclusion
Fury Unleashed is a great Roguelite experience that also offers beginners a chance at beating the game. While the latter will disable many trophies, you’ll still be able to enjoy the experience that makes this a very interesting and action-packed game. You’ll be treated to a great randomized experience, with a sense of progression and an arsenal of weapons to mess around with. If you like the genre, and are looking for something that plays smoothly and looks rather awesome, this game is available at a very fair price for its content.
Fury Unleashed - Review,
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