Though it doesn't reinvent the rogeulike genre, Fury Unleashed makes a name for itself through its comic book style and action-heavy combo system that relies on agile shooting and swift thinking.
Despite the roguelike genre’s tendency to recycle many of the same elements, I rarely tire of its structure. There’s an eagerness to dive back into a randomly generated cloud of levels, equipped with the knowledge of past deaths and the determination of a few invested upgrade points. In the time since playing Rogue Legacy–a title I didn’t initially grasp or appreciate–I’ve grown to notice where developers attempt to break new ground or simply provide a fresh coat of paint.
Fury Unleashed does not dramatically alter what players may have come to expect from a roguelike, as the game tends to wear inspiration on its sleeve. However, a frantic combat system emphasizing player movement to maintain a dwindling combo meter allows the game to etch its own place in the higher points of the genre.
Told through the lens of a comic book, every level in Fury Unleashed is a page of panels teeming with themed enemies and traps to navigate. But the choice is less Comix Zone–where players literally crashed through white lines and saw opponents drawn in by an omniscient hand–and more one to allow for bright colors and a loose narrative. The story is fairly barebones, yet meaty enough to justify thought. John Kowalsky is the author of a long-running comic called Fury Unleashed, its hero going by the name Fury. Kowalsky, however, is suffering a creative impasse, as reviews for the comic indicate it may be time for Fury to rest and Kowalsky himself struggles with the personal and business side of his life.
Players discover this story in small chunks at the beginning and end of new chapters of the game, taking on the role of Fury. As Fury, players are the literal manifestation of a comic book character battling its creator’s creations. A figure named Mr. Doodle informs Fury that Kowalsky is losing faith in them and must put a “chaos” to rest that is seeping into the comic’s world. Coupled with a few blurbs from Mr. Doodle, players will run across cell phone images of reviews for Fury Unleashed, comment sections, and emails from friends and business partners.
As a person who has often struggled a lot with writer’s block and feeling a lack of creative output, Fury Unleashed struck enough of a chord with me that I found its sparse use of storytelling to be effective. One may assume that developer Awesome Games Studio may have a personal connection with the narrative it is trying to tell. Though I find it comes at intervals too far and few in between, the small nuggets are enough. Creation is fighting for its own existence by helping its creator in whatever meta, gamified way necessary.
From there, the comic world serves as a paintbrush for a handful of themed levels bound to the confines of a page. Across Fury Unleashed, players will fight across an Aztec jungle, a Nazi fortress affected by a time-traveling Third Reich, an alien warzone, and unfinished worlds that are black with ink. I remember playing Comix Zone on my Sega Genesis and constantly impressed by how action moved back and forth between panels like in a real comic. The hero Sketch would talk in speech bubbles and could even tear at the background paper to make a damaging paper airplane. It was as if the action was taking place inside of a living comic book. Fury Unleashed never goes to the extremes that a game from fifteen years ago took. Instead, speech bubbles are kept to a bare minimum, “cutscenes” are only played out as a brief still at the end of a level. Infrequently a portal will open up or the screen will change to a world that is just a black-and-white sketch and the borders of the page appear, revealing a desk with coffee stains and Post-Its.
Where I found the style most appropriate was in the bright colors and eccentric enemies and weapons. While several of the skeletons and Nazis and aliens players encounter across the game act as palette swaps, their bold designs are imaginative and fun. The game does not attempt to take itself too seriously and doesn’t wish for the player to either. But I think it would have been better if Awesome Games Studio had thrown in more contrasting elements throughout levels. Since there are only four playable “comics” in the game, players are only going to encounter these themes throughout. The jungles of the first chapter always contain magical skeletons and bugs and plant life–it’s a wash of greens and yellows. Players will fight gun-toting Nazis in a complex network of grey fortresses and fight bosses in tanks and mechanical contraptions that would be the envy of Bionic Commando. The alien comic, which provides a significant jump in challenge, has extraterrestrials capable of producing energy shields and teleporting harmful bulbs of energy on players.
Considering the significant amount of time players will spend in these themed comics trying to complete the campaign, it would have been nice if the randomly generated levels offered more drastic characteristics throughout. After three chapters of a Nazi fortress, the small frames that compose each chapter begin to bleed together. In an actual comic book, no reader wants to feel that they are dwelling on the same panel too many times and in a game, the same logic applies. I would be less critical of this approach if players were able to move through comics faster or if there were one or two more themes but as it stands, Fury Unleashed does suffer from that creative shortcoming.
Combos make sense in fighting games but their place in a randomly-generated roguelike with a focus on shooting seems a bit more muddy. Thankfully, this is what sets Fury Unleashed apart from its countless brethren in the genre. In the game, every enemy killed increases the combo count by one. After that first kill, players have a limited time to kill another enemy before the combo resets to zero. Get hit and you lose the combo. Think Contra or Metal Slug but mixed with Devil May Cry. It’s a painfully simple system at first because players have yet to unlock the tools necessary to stretch this mechanic as far as it will go.
Higher combos means that players will be rewarded with more ink, the game’s currency used to upgrade Fury and unleash their true potential. According to Awesome Games Studio, the entirety of Fury Unleashed can be completed without breaking your combo. I never made it past 150 without having my combo broken because this is not an easy game. Before players have access to any upgrades, their Fury is capable of tossing three grenades, a close-quarters melee attack, a superpower, a stomp, a double jump, fast travel charges, and an infinite dash that can also be used once in the air. Quickly, it becomes obvious that speed is just as necessary as accuracy with a gun. Players will need to learn when best to dash across a panel (which also grants the ability to run across small gaps), fast travel across a chapter (which also refills your combo meter), or throw a grenade.
The initial moveset granted to players doesn’t feel overwhelming but in the thick of battle, its easy to forget that a quick button press may help. For a long period of time, I rarely used grenades except when encountering a boss. The starting “superpower” of an outward freezing blast was a temporary thing because it felt ineffective and needs to be recharged with around 20 kills. If a player manages to get through the first comic of Fury Unleashed without investing in any upgrades, I will be impressed.
Ink is so crucial in the game because it allows players to first invest in a higher pool of maximum health points to help with survivability. From there, the duration before a combo resets can be extended. Grenade capacity can be increased. A stun is added to the stomp. Players generate healing orbs with higher combo counts. A shield is added with every five combo levels. A branching list of abilities can be purchased that don’t necessarily make Fury stronger, but gives them the ability to maintain that crucial combo count. The longer a combo goes on, the more ink players will get.
Fury Unleashed‘s upgrade tree is initially fairly rewarding but also can become prohibitive in its costs. After a point, the tree devolves into focusing on increasing critical damage and chance, max health, reload speed, and grenades. Nowhere in this tree is there a node focusing on increased base speed for guns or Fury or an increase to base damage. Players can invest five upgrade points into extending their combo which which maxes out at a six second base. Likely the most important upgrade players will get is a combo shield for every five combo stacks. This shield can absorb damage so as not to lose your combo count, can be upgraded to be consumed and refill your combo meter, or amplify reload speed and critical chance. Nodes for extended combo time with stomp and grenade deaths are also available.
When these parts of the skill tree are maxed out, players may feel a lot more confident in the damage they are dealing and the chances their combo will stay alive. Better yet, skill points can be redistributed to try out different abilities, something I found to be very helpful when I realized that all the points I was spending on health upgrades weren’t proving to be a good return on investment. Still, Fury Unleashed could have used more branching paths of upgrades that expand the capabilities of players.
To be honest, it’s quite easy to lose your combo counter, especially after the jungle area. Enemies’ projectiles become increasingly difficult to avoid and panels are filled with hazards that become harder to dodge. A Nazi with a flamethrower and a jetpack charges players and must be killed before it hits you. Multiple aliens might be able to hit you from a distance but are also protected by a shield projector that, when destroyed, explodes with damaging energy in every direction. Hidden mines, laser beams, pools of acid, and more all raise the stakes and in levels and add more for players to avoid while trying to maintain their precious combo.
The same applies to boss fights, which are littered throughout chapters and at the end of each comic. Bosses are moderately creative and challenging, serving as mobile or stationary foes that flood the player with projectiles. Think of them as small instances of bullet hell shooters. Some of these bosses are manageable, where others are just chaotic, much like the levels they serve to guard. Boss patterns can be learned with practice and just enough timing but a few will unpredictably launch a full room attack that seems nearly impossible to dodge without perfect timing. What does this amount to? There’s a good chance that players may have maintained an entire combo for over three chapters, only to have it destroyed by a boss.
That sting of a lost combo wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that ink costs to actually level up and get a skill point weren’t so high after about 50 levels. Eventually, I got to the point where I had to start from the first comic to see any gains after the alien comic became a roadblock. Players can only start from a new comic after they defeat the three main bosses of a previous comic but considering the amount of good luck and skill required to beat the later comics in a fresh run, it’s no easy task.
Fury Unleashed certainly sounds frustrating with these flaws. But to say that the game isn’t enjoyable would be a lie. Players will collect golden ink during their playtime which is used to make purchases from vendors. Guns, armor, and passive bonuses are doled out frequently to the point where a player should be well-equipped after a couple chapters. The gun selection in Fury Unleashed is incredible. Varying in damage type, clip size, reload speed, and style, players will become acclimated to what makes a gun work for them. Two can be equipped at a time and it’s always best to have fast-firing gun with a high-damage one. Because reload speed becomes a major factor with several guns, it’s a crucial element to consider when upgrading. Players will also be able to donate their health at certain vendors for similar rewards.
Where Fury Unleashed shines is at the beginning stages where players are working to become acclimated to its mechanics, especially the speed and how best to maintain a combo. About halfway through the upgrade tree, playing the game from a starting chapter to death is a joy. By that time, players should be in tune with the skills they have acquired and grasped the best way to tackle panels of enemies. It doesn’t detract that more combo-focused skills should be available or that a bad panel full of projectiles can ruin a good run. Even with a lack of variety, the game offers incentive for players to keep perfecting their craft. Want to punish a friend? Have them join you in co-op to soak up some bullets in your stead. Harder difficulty levels ensure that a high skill threshold must be met and, of course, there’s the chance to do everything in one combo. Among all its random elements, the speed and efficiency Fury Unleashed can draw out of players is its own reward.
