Fuse (PS3/360)

**6souls** · 2012-09-13 22:41

Spoiler: show

What happens when humans take possession of volatile alien technology they were never meant to have? Today, Electronic Arts and Insomniac Games announced Fuse, a 4-person co-op action shooter that thrusts players into the roles of four elite, covert agents with their own unique skills and experimental weapons. Formerly known as Overstrike, Fuse allows gamers to play as Dalton Brooks, Izzy Sinclair, Jacob Kimble or Naya Deveraux as they fight to protect mankind from a deadly alien energy source known as Fuse. Fuse is the first multiplatform release from Insomniac Games, the world-class developer known for creating AAA blockbuster franchises like Ratchet & Clank and Resistance. Fuse is scheduled to launch in March 2013 in North America and Europe.

"Fuse demonstrates what Insomniac does best: outlandish and gruesome weapons design, over-the-top action and a touch of humor," said Insomniac Games' Founder and CEO, Ted Price. "We're especially excited to see how players utilize lethal teamwork by combining their Fuse weapons to stop a deadly arms race."

"EA is honored to be working with world-renowned developer, Insomniac Games, to bring their first multiplatform release to players everywhere," said Sinjin Bain, Vice President of EA Partners. "This studio is known for delivering high-quality, action-packed, and most importantly — fun — games. Fuse is on target to deliver that and more in March."

Fuse is a 4-person co-op, story-driven, action game where even solo players can experience the unique attributes of each agent by using the game's LEAP feature to switch between the four characters at will during combat. Each agent is equipped with unique skills and weapons not only integral for survival, but that also allows for unexpected and extraordinary results. Experimental Fuse weapons are powered by a volatile alien substance that gives players unique capabilities that expand their strategic options in and out of combat. Through lethal teamwork, players can complete objectives and kills to earn Fuse points for powerful upgrades. Players can also play online or offline and level up along unique character paths, allowing players to unlock more powerful Fuse-driven abilities as the game progresses. In addition, the game's progression system is unified between different play modes, allowing players to continue improving their agents regardless of how they play.

In Fuse, the members of contact team Overstrike 9 attempt to thwart a rogue paramilitary organization called Raven from stealing the Fuse source located deep within a classified government facility. Overstrike 9's pursuit of Raven will take them around the world, from the fortified desert facility to underwater bases, island strongholds, icy mountain peaks, palatial hideouts and beyond. Later, as the team closes in on Raven, another more sinister enemy reveals itself as a truly horrendous global threat.

http://www.fusegame.com/

Dalton Brooks, "The Tank"

Most of the Overstrike 9 team has a rough past, but Dalton's might be the roughest, says the game's creative director Brian Allgeier. "He ended up working for Raven and he had an old flame he used to work with called Mei Lin Mao, and he was kind of staying there for all the wrong reasons." In a flashback cutscene, Mei Lin (who the team will run into during the game's main storyline) asks him not only to kill an enemy, but cut out his "beautiful eyes" for her. Creepy. "He needed to break away, to the point where essentially he appeared to be killed, and he managed to move over to Overstrike 9," says Allgeier.

Dalton's main fuse weapon is the Magshield, which is created by combining the alien element fuse with ferrofluid, a real-life substance that's essentially a liquid controlled with magnets. "He is the hardened soldier," says Allgeier. "He uses that magshield to push forward, and just uses brute force to decimate enemies."

The Magshield can absorb enemy gunfire while it's up (which you simply hold the left trigger to do), and then blast it outwards with the right trigger, completely obliterating any close-up enemies. Dalton can also drop shields in the field of battle, and any teammates who fire through his one-way shields to kill an enemy will get bonus point rewards.

Jacob Kimble, "The Sniper"

Jacob's origin story is that of an LAPD cop with a vengeful taste for justice. The flashback cinematic shown to the press features him, in uniform, pouring gasoline over a car trunk containing a child killer, and then throwing a lighter on top of it. "Jacob's history is as an LAPD detective," says Allgeier, "and he always felt that the ends justified the means." All of these characters have pasts probably past due on catching up with them, but Jacob's specifically seems the most volatile.

In terms of gameplay, Jacob finds a fuse-powered crossbow called The Arcshot in the game's first mission, and can eventually upgrade it into a one-shot weapon. The gun also has a secondary fire mode: The bolts, which are made of fuse and liquid mercury, will combust after a period of time, doing damage to the enemy they're stuck in or anyone around him. With a few more upgrades, Jacob can even choose when the combustion happens, so the Arcshot's ammo can turn into a sort of trapshot, where Jacob can set up some shots, and then blow them when enemies come into range. "His role on the battlefield is to keep distance between him and the enemy," says Allgeier.

Naya Deveraux, "The Assault"

Overstrike was originally designed as a four-player stealth game, but Allgeier says that one problem with that was that the characters were all support-based, and none of them felt very powerful on their own. That was the case with Naya, whose "weapon was originally just cloaking, and we felt that she needed something more offensive," he says.

What they came up with for Naya (a thief who's been in and out of trouble with the law her whole life) is the Warp Rifle, a combination of fuse and the theoretically scientific antimatter. It's an assault rifle, more or less, but when it's fired at an an enemy, they'll get a debuff on them that slowly builds up over time. Fire enough at one enemy, and Naya's gun will create a mini black hole on them that does area-of-effect damage, and also creates a singularity on any close enemies with the same debuff. In other words, it's a chain effect: Hit three or four enemies with the gun, focus in on one of them until his singularity goes off, and then they'll all explode in a flashy warp hole of damage.

Naya's cloaking skill, then, is basically just used to let her flank around the battlefield when necessary, finding just the right angle to chain enemies from. Both abilities can be upgraded, so eventually she can stay under cover longer, or make use of a faster fire rate from the Warp Rifle.

Izzy Sinclair, "The Healer"

"Izzy's definitely the more technical of the group, and she has a background as an information broker," says Allgeier. "She was convicted of white collar crimes, joined Overstrike and got her hands on the Shatter Gun." Izzy's specialty was originally just crowd control, and fans really enjoyed the idea of the bubble gun from the original trailer. But as Insomniac played with that idea, says Allgeier, it found the gun worked better in theory than action.

The Shatter Gun is instead build around crystals, which are made out of fuze and black melanite. Hitting an enemy with Izzy's gun will cause crystals to form around it, which she (or other team members) can shatter for more damage and devastation. The crystals will link up, too, so Izzy can run around just freezing up enemies in place, leaving the rest of the team to clean up the mess.

Izzy's secondary fuse action is a healing crystal, which can be thrown like a grenade. It lands on the battlefield with a green circle around it, and anyone in that circle will either be healed up to full health, or can even be revived after going down. In its current form, the healing crystal is a little hard to aim -- Insomniac is considering a more Gears of War-style grenade tossing interface. But in the final game, Izzy's leveled-up crystal is meant to help her support downed teammates at a larger distance.

Izzy has had one other little change made to her over development, but fans never saw this one. In the current game and in last year's trailer, she has red hair. But Insomniac showed off an early version of the character to the press where she was blonde instead.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/12/me...strike-9-team/

More write-ups;

[IGN and Gamespot links removed]

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/pos...s-an-overhaul/
http://www.oxm.co.uk/45740/previews/...-gears-of-war/
http://kotaku.com/5942538/the-resist...ould-be-better
http://www.destructoid.com/preview-y...e-234807.phtml
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/...acs-overstrike
http://www.shacknews.com/article/757...rstrike-reborn

**Qalbert** · 2012-09-14 06:14

**Tyrath** · 2012-09-14 08:09

This looks fun. Wonder if you can play it with 2 people and have the rest AI controlled or it has to be 4 people.

**6souls** · 2012-10-22 19:39

**6souls** · 2012-11-13 17:50

The faces on these characters..

http://d2dtg84rmu0v0y.cloudfront.net...zy_Solo_02.jpg

Spoiler: show

All images are 1,920px × 1,080px

**Correction** · 2012-11-13 18:38

Originally Posted by 6souls

All images are 1,920px × 1,080px

And downsampled as all fuck. Shenanigans.

**6souls** · 2012-11-13 18:39

right click, view image

**6souls** · 2012-11-15 17:09

Insomniac’s first multi-platform game is on the way, set to hit Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in March 2013. I spoke with the developers a few weeks ago about what we can expect from the squad-based, third-person action title, and it sounds pretty rad. So if you want to get going on the raditude, Insomniac and publisher Electronic Arts would love for you to pre-order the game.

So what do you get? You get SKINS. Specifically, four Hyperion Prototype Agent Armor Skins, Four Hyperion Prototype Weapon Skins, and the Quickdraw Team Perk (not a skin), which will add high-powered fuse elements to one-handed weapons for all four of the game’s characters.

http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/201...ses-announced/
http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/201...ew-roundtable/

**Correction** · 2012-11-15 19:59

Originally Posted by 6souls

right click, view image

I'm saying they're bullshots.

**TacoTaru** · 2012-11-16 09:47

Can't wait for this game. Sad they abandoned they abandoned the more cartoony aesthetic that reminded me of The Incredibles in the Overkill trailer, but all the previews I've read still sound great.

**6souls** · 2012-11-27 16:56

Orange & Black Walking Towards You

**Correction** · 2012-11-27 18:10

http://i.minus.com/jZmY6SF0mOWPY.jpg
http://i2.minus.com/ioMZJ05B6rt55.jpg
http://www.abload.de/img/fuseprarh.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...g?t=1354053363

**Qalbert** · 2012-11-27 18:24

i want overstrike back

**6souls** · 2012-12-18 02:38

**6souls** · 2013-02-04 11:34

**6souls** · 2013-02-16 03:07

I first played Fuse back in October. It felt like a functional and polished cover shooter at its core, but it suffered from a severe lack of ‘spark’.

Developers need their games to have a bankable identity now more than ever. You’re never going to pay top dollar for something that feels average or uninteresting, that’s just plain common sense. With cheaper alternatives on PC and mobile formats, console studios need to work harder than ever to arrest your attention.

After revisiting Fuse last month, I’m slowly beginning to understand its appeal. Most of this new-found enthusiasm comes from Echelon mode and yes, it’s another take on ‘Horde’. What really rattles my cage is that so many studios seem to be taking a half-assed approach to survival modes, as if they’ve been knocked together in a lunch hour. It simply doesn’t fly.

But Echelon feels like a proper attempt at shaking up the format. It’s still a round-based survival game contained on a single map, but rather than gunning down waves of enemies until your fingers bleed, Fuse hurls a barrage of quick-fire objectives at the team. It’s like a hybrid of Wario Ware and Gears of War’s Horde, if such a notion can be conceived.

It works too, turning what could have been a faceless co-op mode into something that feels exciting, engaging and utterly insane. My hands-on session took place at a facility in Pakistan, littered with chain-link fences, elevated platforms and metallic walls. It sounds dull, but it certainly wasn’t without colour.

The round began with a Raven gun ship flying in to dispense troops below. Its mini-gun peppered us with suppressing fire while we unloaded on the rappelling troops, sending several bodies tumbling down to the ground. We learned that you can even take down the chopper too if you’re fast enough, but we were shit if I’m being honest.

“OK, yep, so we just kill these bozos and then it’s on to the next round, right?” That’s what I was thinking in my bullish, critical head. But no, the next round saw an ordnance drop fly in from above and our task was to fight a huge pack of riot shield Raven troops for control of the supplies.

If you’re too slow they’ll destroy the cache and you get nothing. Succeed and you get a big weapon boost. It’s all to play for. Round three was sadistic, throwing one of the game’s mid-bosses and a big wave of footsoldiers at us. The giant, bastard-hard ape mech flattened our whole team in seconds.

With pride swallowed and our expectations re-aligned, our group of critics hit the restart button and tackled the mode again, but this time in a less-sceptical light. Echelon mode – as it happens – is insanely good fun and, well, just plain insane.

The aesthetic quality on show makes each wave feel like a war in its own right. Fuse particles spray everywhere, bullets ping off surfaces and the din of gun-fire erupts all around you. It’s even possible to engage in a bit of Uncharted-style climbing to create ad hoc cover.

I spent a whole round shimmying around the edge of a wall, emerging to shoot over it with my free hand whenever an opportunity arose. When you mix this with the possibilities of Fuse weapons to place impenetrable shields or to inflict area-of-effect damage, you can start to see the game’s appeal a little more clearly.

I’m still not convinced that the Fuse chaining mechanic is a marquee feature – basically because I need more time with it – but yes, it did make more sense as I got into the habit of propping up shields to plug gaps in cover, giving my squad a chance to raise hell in safety.

We also scrambled over money bags that spawn in as a reward for good performance. They spew coins all over the shop and feel like they belong in a Smash Bros. game, giving you currency to spend on new abilities and upgrades. It’s a daft, playful touch.

I also played a campaign mission set in Jodhpur that threw up some new tricks. What struck me is how much more aggressive the enemy AI felt when compared to my October playtest. They really don’t fuck about as they hound you with relentless fire and push forward for the kill.

At one point a stealth cloaked enemy troop grabbed one of my squad-mates like a human shield and forced us to shoot around them for the kill. Between that and the crushing difficulty of our courtyard skirmish, we all felt the pressure brought on by these relentless bastards. Only a weak and tacked-on platforming section felt out of place. The rest felt surprisingly solid.

Drying off my sweaty palms, I turned to Insomniac CEO Ted Price for a quick chat about the game, particularly Echelon’s crushing difficulty. “We’re not afraid to make a game that challenges players, at all”, he said. “With a four-player game, you do have to throw some pretty tough challenges at players to keep them on their toes so it doesn’t get old.”

Echelon mode certain does keep players on their toes, as complacency will see you downed in moments. Price explained one of Echelon’s six sub-modes ‘Countdown’, as an example of focused teamwork at play.

“In Countdown you’re taking a Fuse canister to a specific spot as it counts down to critical mass,” he explained, “so you have to get it there in time. But if you stand on the spot, within proximity of the canister, your Fuse weapons are always powered up, which gives you incentive to help protect whoever’s carrying it.”

There are many of these little mechanics at play to enforce teamwork in both Echelon mode and the campaign, but I still feel like it resonates stronger in the former. For example, when facing a mini-boss in ‘High-Value Target’ rounds, Price explained that failure to take down the threat quickly will see it calling in endless waves of re-enforcements.

You’re always under pressure and it ramps up excitement apace. When jetpack, stealth and riot shield troops enter the arena however, you need to be ready for a rough ride. I asked Price if this visible attempt to do new things with the Horde archetype was a key goal of Insomniac’s.

“It’s easy to become complacent as a player of round-based games” he explained. “So it was important for us to make sure that every battle felt a little different. We can do that by randomising the way sub-objectives appear in Echelon.”

The same goes for platforming sections in the campaign. Although the clambering I experienced felt asinine, Price assured me that it was just a taster of what’s in store. “It’s important for us to break up combat and it’s important to not create a one-note game where you’re always fighting.

“Those are our moments to tell some of the backstory in real-time, and create conversations between characters that help flesh out their personalities and tell more of their story during those traversal moments.”

Whether or not that story will help support the crazy gunplay at the beating heart of Fuse remains to be seen. I’m now keeping a cautious eye on the game’s development moving forward, just in case my renewed hope is justified. It could end up surprising everyone come launch day, and besides, new IP is what we need more of, right?

http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/14/fuse...to-make-sense/

**6souls** · 2013-03-23 18:35

NA May 28, EU May 31

A new kind of arms race is about to begin. Today, Electronic Arts and Insomniac Games announced that the four-person co-op action shooter — Fuse — will launch on May 28 in North America and on May 31 in Europe. Fuse thrusts players into the roles of four elite, covert agents — Dalton Brooks, Izzy Sinclair, Jacob Kimble and Naya Deveraux — each with their own Xenotech weapon and set of unique skills used to fight to protect mankind from a deadly alien energy source known as Fuse. Developed by the critically-acclaimed independent studio, Insomniac Games, Fuse will mark the company's first multiplatform release when it becomes available for PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system this spring.

"Insomniac Games is known for delivering best-in-class weaponry that breaks the mold of traditional video games — and Fuse is no different," said Ted Price, CEO and Founder of Insomniac Games. "These Xenotech weapons further the innovation players will find in this unique, action co-op shooter. We can't wait to bring Fuse, our first multi-platform game, to gamers worldwide this May."

Players who pre-order Fuse from select retailers will be able to unlock special armor and weapon customization for each of the game's four elite agents. These weapons can be used to bolster their characters' respective arsenals through increased damage on all one-handed weapons.

Pre-order bonuses:

• Four Hyperion Prototype Agent Armor Skins — Upgrade your agents' look with four special, state-of-the-art armor skins discovered inside the top-secret Hyperion Base

• Four Hyperion Prototype Weapon Skins — Customize your Fuse weapons with four skins based on each of the original prototypes developed inside Hyperion Base

• Quickdraw Team Perk — Increase your damage with this team perk adding powerful Fuse elements to all one-handed weapons for all four characters in your squad

**6souls** · 2013-03-24 15:25

**6souls** · 2013-05-06 09:24

Demo May 7th

Next Tuesday, a digital demo of EA and Insomniac’s Fuse will go live on XBLA and PSN, so you should download it and see what you think. A brief aside: when a publisher decides to release a demo, that’s generally a pretty solid sign of confidence that the game won’t be a steaming pile. So that’s good news!

Even cooler is that the demo will allow up to four players to jump in together in some cooperative multiplayer. While that may not be super revolutionary, it’s great that we’ll get the chance to actually sample what it’s like to play the game as it’s meant to be played, rather than having to settle for a gimped version of the final product. There’s also some 2-player split-screen available if you’re into the local co-op kinda thing.

http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/201...ming-on-may-7/

**6souls** · 2013-05-28 20:23

Fuse 2 Officially Not Announced

For you, our fans… for those of you who dig what we do with crazy worlds, characters and weapons… for those of you who check out Fuse and enjoy a co-op romp through a very “Insomniac” game, this is what I have to say: we’re just getting started.

We’ve already begun expanding what we’ve begun with Fuse. Right now as I write this we’re taking the core concepts behind Fuse and prototyping new stuff… stuff that leverages this bizarre alien substance which is at the heart of the game. No, I’m not talking about DLC. I’m talking about new Fuse experiences altogether.

What’s wonderful about creating and owning one’s IP is that you can take it any direction you want. And that’s what we’re going to do. Stay tuned!

http://www.insomniacgames.com/games/...ast-and-future

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