While games such as World of Warcraft and Guild Wars still remain champions in their respective areas, Fury is set to tap into an all-new fanbase, with the game's focus on pure player versus player (PvP) carnage. And, judging from our recent playtime with the title, Auran look to have hit the money; Fury is shaping up to be one of the most exciting titles for 2007.
Fury is a game that allows gamers to fully customise their characters in becoming one of the greatest fighters in the universe. Players take the role of one of the Chosen, heroes that have been selected to be reborn due to their previous heroic deeds. The universe that Fury is set in is on the verge of destruction, and it’s up to the Chosen to go round to other dimensions to fight and rebuild the universe.
The game doesn’t actually feature class systems, but instead allows you to distribute skill points into different skill trees where you’ll be able to learn new spells and abilities. Fury is broken up into four ruling schools of power - Life, Death, Growth and Decay. Each of these schools of power provides different abilities, allowing you to distinguish yourself during combat. In addition, you’ll be able to undergo trials where you’ll be able to learn new abilities and equip certain weapons. While there is actually no real class system, you’ll be able to customise your character in being suitable for tanking, healing or dishing out devastating spells.
Influenced by Star Wars much?
Our character was pre-made and was quite obviously a mage-based character, since the majority of attacks were magic-based. The variety of spells available was apparent as we had various spells including teleportation, fire-based skills such as fireballs and wind-based skills such as hurricanes. Many of these spells proved to be more beneficial during different situations. Fireballs worked well as a basic attack, due to their low mana cost and quick cast time, though there was certain attacks that worked quite differently. We had an area of effect (AoE) spell that blasted enemies from a distance, which worked well in damaging several enemies at once, as well as having a stun effect that immobilised our opponents for several seconds. Similarly, there will be various other spells that provide beneficial buffs, healing spells and debuffs.
Our brief demo consisted of several areas, which showcased the fundamentals of what Fury is about. You begin in a sanctuary where you’ll be able to communicate and see other players, acting as a lobby for online matches. Sanctuaries also provide gamers with additional benefits, such as being able to buy and sell items, undertake trials, learn new abilities and train for future battles.
After a few minutes of exploring the lovely sanctuary, we jumped right into a battle with several other players. The battle mode we participated in was Vortex, which plays much like any other ‘capture the flag’ mode. You are broken up into two teams, making it a group vs. group battle where you must pick up items called vortexes (which look like crystals) and secure them at your base. Once the gates finally open, players run ferociously onto the arena floor, acting like gladiators, as they must slaughter other players and mobs holding the crystals. The intensity picks up a notch once opponents team up together in preventing you from securing these crystals.
Picking up these crystals is fairly straightforward. By merely clicking on them you’ll prompt a time gauge that requires you to wait a few seconds before successfully picking it up - meaning you’ll have opponents trying to harass you constantly to prevent this. Once your character successfully picks up a crystal, your body will become crystallised, decreasing your movement and blurring your vision as you slowly try to place the crystal at your team's base.
A lovely view of the sanctuary.
Concluding our experience with the game, we thankfully won our Vortex match with a nice 3-1 victory. At the end of the match we were offered to choose from a few rewards (weapons and armour etc.), with each member selecting their desired item and rolling on them to determine who would receive them.
In addition to the Vortex mode, there will be other modes to show your strength in. Bloodbath is a 32-player free-for-all, last man standing battle; Elimination is a group vs. group mode; and Fortress is a mode that consists of 64 players running around, killing each other and capturing territory. Each of these modes will spread across several different maps, meaning there will be a bit of variety to be found.
The arenas that these modes are played in vary in size and design, meaning you’ll need to opt for different skills and tactics depending on your surroundings. In the aforementioned arena, the focus was primarily based on teams using quick and sneaky tactics to ensure that their team could safely secure crystals to their base. It's expected that others will require strategic placement of team members and communication within your team to ensure success.
Nasty! Knife to the neck.
Combat works so well during these matches that the appeal of the game grows significantly. Your spells will have cooldown periods ranging from a few seconds to several dozen (depending on their power), and the respawn timer between deaths is fairly short – allowing you to quickly run back into the action. There will be certain items spread throughout the arenas, such as health potions and weapons to assist you too.
While the build we saw was a few months old, the game runs and looks absolutely stunning, with movement being unbelievably smooth – just running and jumping around and strafing feels so smooth and looks equally as good. The controls are exceptional, and the variety between character designs and locations provides a welcome experience to newcomers. Animation is fantastic, combat runs smooth and small things such as facial detail look superb.
If this build is any indication, then Fury is looking like it could be one of our most anticipated PC titles of 2007, and a crowd favourite for being one of the best locally developed titles.
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