Monday, May 13, 2013

Fuse (PS3) Demo Impressions

The demo for Fuse from Insomniac and EA hit PSN and Xbox recently, so I figured I would check it out.  It's a four person co-op third person shooter (try saying that three times fast).  There are four playable characters to try, experience to earn and many guys to kill.

There are four characters to choose from, each with different abilities.  Dalton's gun has a shield that absorbs bullets, and it can launch them at a nearby target.  This ability is really nice, since you will be shot at a lot.  The vulnerability after using it might be dangerous on higher difficulties, though.  Dalton's alt fire sets a stationary shield for a time.  Jacob has what essentially looks like a bowcaster.  It fires powerful single shots, and the alt fire will light someone on fire that has recently been hit.  Naya has a rapid fire rifle that will create a wormhole in any target she kills, which will damage nearby enemies.  Killing an enemy with the explosion will create another, so you can easily chain kill weak targets.  Her alt fire has her turn invisible.  Yeah, I like that a lot.  The last character, Isabelle (Izzy), has a rapid fire weapon that will encase a target in crystal, making them easy to shatter.  Her alt fire is a med beacon.

I tried all four characters, and I liked Naya and Izzy the best.  I'm sure if I used Dalton, I'll get killed while trying to be Superman with his ability.  Jacob makes a good sniper, so I know which of my friends will pick him.  I really like Naya's invinsibility, and can definitely see myself using that often.  Izzy had my favorite weapon (the rapid fire crystallization gun), and the med beacon will be really useful when playing with my friends, since the group I will likely run with loves to play on the hardest difficulty.  Getting a level up gives points to buy character skills, allowing you to fine tune your character.  It's not as advanced as Borderlands, but I'm all for some RPG elements in my games.  Characters also can equip a team perk that everyone will benefit from.  I didn't get to try these in the demo, but there were some good choices in there.

Most of the controls are pretty standard.  You can fire your weapon, aim down the sights, throw grenades, take cover, roll and sprint.  I kept accidentally hitting the roll button when trying to take cover, since I'm still playing Gears of War 3 with my friends every week (my fault, I know).  This will have you vault over the cover, which can be useful (just not when you accidentally do it, haha).  There's also a melee attack, but I didn't have any use for it in the demo.  I really like that the select (or back) button will pull up the squad members, so you can switch who you are controlling on the fly.  I imagine this won't work in four player co-op though.  You also get a stealth kill, which I will want to use a lot, since I always enjoy a good assassination.

The environment you start in is pretty cool, you have to climb up some pipes and cliffs in on a snowy mountainside.  You quickly make your way to a base nearby, and have to kill lots of guards before making your way further inside.  It was pretty fun to fight the soldiers, but it felt like there were too many in any given area.  They seemed to come out of nowhere, so in a small courtyard, I fought at least twenty soldiers.  If every encounter is like this, I imagine they would run out of soldiers in an hour.

There is online and split screen co-op, but I didn't get a chance to try those out yet.  The game was pretty fun solo, and I'm hoping to try the full version.  I'm betting the co-op is even more fun, so I want to try that with some friends.

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