The Reasons Why 10 out of 10 Won't Do Fury Justice

Many gamers are unaware that there are 40 odd game developers in Australia. The fact is that most of them are working on developing titles for other studios overseas. They are contracted to perform development work for other people and don't often get the opportunity to develop their own products. Our home-grown industry also feels as though it is beginning a fight for its very own survival with the growth of developers in China and Asia who have been able to provide cut price development directly in competition with the Australian studios. This is why Auran is excited about their new title Fury and, after having seen it first hand on Thursday last week, so they should be. However, the problem with this game is not based around the concept or implementation of the design it will be with the process of review that the game has to undergo upon release. Fury is, for all intents and purposes, a game which is more like a sport than a game which is clearly defined by genre. When looking at playing a sport do you read a review of the sport which rates different aspects of the sport in scores out of 10 in order to decide whether you want to play it or not? You might play the sport or see other people playing it first and then make your decision based on a number of factors. It certainly does seem that scoring Fury with categories ranking graphics, sound, playability, etc. will highlight the extreme limitations of the review process. It just goes to show how far we haven't come in the last twenty five odd years of gaming journalism.

The notion of creating games which are like massive online sporting events is not new. One of the best original sporting concepts in gaming was the original Speedball. While Speedball was an excellent sport title it lacked from being invented in a time where there was widespread domestic internet, which may be why we see it being remade now. Where Unreal Tournament was clearly a game built around the notion of being a futuristic competitive sport it easily fitted in to the FPS category. Bet On Soldier also attempted to fit in to this category without much sales success, however, this game also slotted in to the FPS category. There still haven't been enough game releases of this type to clearly define a new genre. Most of those games already released have been placed squarely in the FPS mould of gameplay. Fury will not do that. While there are elements of RPG, elements of a persistent online world, elements of the MMO, elements of third person action games, and Fury has an extremely fast and competitive pace with either single player competition or team based competition as its focus, this cross mix of types does not help to define exactly what the game is. How do you then fit the game in to a genre and say that it is an RPG game where there is no single player story driven narrative. The character development system pioneers a class base system in which all characters are human. So, there are no differences between race. What players can then do is basically create their characters with as many different variations using the incarnation system. You can try out different types of character combinations without ever locking in your character to one set type. Incarnation allows you to play around with one type and then, in essence, redial in another one, save it, and try again. This is an excellent solution which will give players virtually unlimited amount of design permutations on their characters. I am sure this will keep players coming back for more.

The players will be able to trade, gossip, organise groups and just hang out at sanctuaries. Although, when I asked whether Auran would crack down on guilds devoted to dancing naked they said that they hadn't given it much thought. This is also where you will be allocated specific tasks called trials. Players will then have to use perform these trials in PvP games in order to unlock abilities and help to progress in rank. There will be four multiplayer types in the first release of the game. The multiplayer matches are: Fortress, Vortex, Elimination and Bloodbath. Bloodbath is your standard all-in kill-one-kill-all free for all deathmatch type game. Vortex is a 32 player (16 x 16) capture the flag type game. Fortress is an interesting massive team based battle where players attempt to capture and hold specific supply points in order to win the map. An adaption of the advance and secure type of gameplay which is common in FPS multiplayer now. I got to see the Elimination mode being played. It was an extremely fast team based game where one team basically has to kill (or eliminate) the other. As with all team games the team which plays best as a team has the greatest chance of survival. This will be highlighted in Fury as not all characters can tank and deal massive amounts of damage. Healers and other types are required to cast buffs for the group to enhance their ability to fight and survive.

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