Fast and Fury-ous!
Not short of a multitude of run and gun side scrolling shooters. This latest entry by developers Awesome Games Studio has big boots to fill, and a lot to live up to in terms of being innovative, fresh and unique. Luckily, it’s fair to say,and playing for the purpose of this review.It nearly succeeds in ticking several of those boxes at the very least!
You play soldier Fury, in a roguelike comic book heavy platformer, where survival is key and everything else,alive and breathing, requires combat interaction, converting a wide range of enemies into brain marmalade!
Procedurally generated, no run is ever the same with the emphasis on building combos that grant our soldier resistance to damage and sustained health,aptly known as fury.
Each area on screen is the square on a comic page, which players can navigate to find the required exit onto the next page.
In a jungle setting, our soldier is confronted by bugs, witch doctors, flying wraiths and carnivorous plants(to name but a few) whilst jumping to avoid a multitude of spinning saws causing injury on contact, or maybe death.
Permadeath is prevalent, yet XP earned allows our hero to level up and attain skill points.These can be spent on permanent abilities like increased health, increased combo time on a large skill tree. Meaning repeated runs builds a better stronger soldier.
There is a massive amount to do on each area comic page. Portals and the acquired portal ability can zoom our soldier to any area, where you can acquire new weapons from finding small comic pages, treasure chests for a small payment to unlock and multiple challenges from a hooded stranger, like hitting various time points or combo challenges against the clock.
The weapons range from a standard sword and machine gun on startup, with fury possibly acquiring an impressive arsenal of everything from flaming swords, rocket launchers, flamethrowers and special weapons like the spinning saw gun!
You will need them, when you come across the games many randomised bosses. (a staggering 40 in all!) of many large abominations, such as giant spiders,large hives spewing bugs in welcomed paced battles that are not too long or tricky.
Visually, everything is bright, colourful and pretty impressive. The gameplay is fluid and smooth and I encountered no slowdown or any issues as my soldier jumped about and carved up enemies effortlessly.
Controls wise,most of the buttons/triggers are assigned, yet by default, the trigger buttons are assigned for jumps and gunfire, but to be honest, I don’t like triggers used this way.
They are noisier and on the switch, a little less responsive than the buttons,and on a game that ultimately requires speed and reflexes to build combos. It can feel a lot trickier and awkward.
The same can be said for firing guns and aiming the laser sight with the right stick. Stopping as you aim takes time, and I found the slicker way was to jump with the B button, spam melee with A and save the guns for the boss fights..
Fury Unleashed is a fine game, that boasts a lot of content at a reasonable price. It’s looks and pace are top notch with satisfying gameplay on every run.
If you are like me though, and spend a lot of time with games like Dead Cells and Rogue Legacy, you will discover nothing too fresh and innovative here and something feeling a little short..
This title certainly comes recommended, and is a joy to play and worthy of adding to your collection..
Just don’t expect it to overwhelmingly rock your world!
Thanks to Awesome Games Studio for the code
