Fury Unleashed is one of those games that I enjoyed from the very first screen of the game. Developed and Published by Awesome Games Studio, Fury Unleashed is a combat-driven roguelike that lives up to the name of the developer who made this game. After staying in Early Access for around three years, the developer has finally released this excellent shooter that seriously satisfies your thirst for shooting and satisfying combat. This is our review of Fury Unleashed on PS4 in which we load up and try to survive in comic books by slaying down massive bosses and creatures.
The best thing about Fury Unleashed is how much the game allows you to customize the gameplay to suit your needs. Be that visuals or gameplay. You can tweak if you want to have a walkthrough without any blood shown on the screen. You can also tweak different control difficulty mechanics such as Auto Fire which simply makes shooting a right joystick stick. Auto Jump Down also makes your character jump down instantly where they can with a push of a button. It comes with Aim Assist and different other solutions to make the game as accessible for you as possible. All of these settings allow you to tinker the gameplay to the very last bit, making the game extremely easy to play if you are a casual player who just wants to jump in, kill some enemies and feel like an absolute badass as you clear level after level slaughtering enemies like vegetables.
Before you begin playing the game, you have plenty of character customization options as well. If you just starting the game, these options will be limited but complete the game one or two times and you will have plenty of options to choose from right from the start of the game. This includes both the visual customization of your character as well as the loadout of your character. Visuals do not impact the gameplay in any way. You can choose your character, their hair color, skin color, accessories, and war paint color. Come to the loadout section and you can choose with a primary weapon and melee weapon you want to use at the start of the game. Get in touch with the developer and they will even put your face in the game. What more do you want?
You get a decent selection of weapons at the start of the game. Some of these are locked but you can unlock them from different side quests that you complete while playing the main game. Once unlocked, you can use these primary weapons and melee weapons right from the start of the game. The weapons you find here are not the only ones found in the game as well. As you beat main bosses, find different vendors in levels and unlock secret chests, you will get access to some of the wackiest weapons in the game which really allow you to bring the pain to your enemies.
Coming to the gameplay of Fury Unleashed, it is brilliant and every move is fluid-like. You have tons of moves up your sleeve apart from the normal moving and jumping. You have a double jump, sprint, and stomp attacks. For close-ranged combat, you have your melee weapons and for ranged enemies, you have a plethora of ranged weapons at your disposal. You also have an ultimate ability as well as a thrown explosive in your inventory. To make your character even more powerful, you can purchase armor from different vendors or equip them after you uncover hidden chests in the levels. As you level up, you can unlock even more skills and upgrades from a detailed skill tree. All of these options allow you to have the ultimate badass character suiting to your playstyle.
The main story of Fury Unleashed is played in the form of a Comic Book. There are multiple Comic Books to play through however every time you play them, you will get a unique boss to fight at the end of the comic book. Each Comic Book has three main bosses that you have to defeat to unlock them as a starting comic book at the beginning. Each comic book offers a completely unique setting and thus the enemies are also unique. The level design of Fury Unleashed is also one of my favorite aspects of the game. From the industrial look of the Nazi era to the lush green forests of the Amazon Jungle, each map is beautifully detailed and full of brutal enemies. When I say the enemies in the game are brutal, I really mean it. Apart from their solid design, the enemies will make mincemeat of you if you are not careful. At the standard ‘Hard’ difficulty, you have to watch out for every hit and manage your combos to ensure that you get regular health drops in order to stay in the game. Since it is a roguelike, death is permanent and if your health reaches zero, you are done for and must start the game from the very beginning.
The levels are designed as rooms where you do not know what is present in the next room until you reach there. Sometimes you will come face to face with a mini-boss or sometimes the main boss will appear out of nowhere and you will have a tough fight at your hand. Entering a random room is always a gamble. However, this sense of tension that what awaits you in the next room really entices you to play the game to its fullest as well. You know that if you mess up and die, its game over, and all your progress is lost forever so you have to take every step carefully. As you explore different rooms, you will find different challenges, side quests, vendors, and hidden rooms. You also have a handy fast travel mechanic that will allow you to quickly fast travel to the entrance of any room that you have previously explored. Enemies do not respawn in the game once you’ve killed them.
Certain challenge rooms can only be accessed if you have a certain combo level. The more enemies you kill without getting hit, the higher your combo goes so you must have that particular number of combos active in order to access those rooms. In addition, the vendors, chests, and challenges are not visible right from the start. They are marked with a question mark unless you go to their location and explore them. Only then, you can see if they are vendors, challenges, or just hidden chests. Sometimes you will find side quests for additional weapons which must be completed before they are unlocked for you at the start of the game. Hidden chests will give you weapons or armor that can be equipped. Some vendors will also allow you to purchase different blessings or upgrades from them which remain active as long as you remain alive.
Coming to the boss fights of Fury Unleashed, the game is definitely not short of them. As much as I love the design of some of these bosses, they are absolute hell to defeat unless you are playing on Easy. Even on Hard, these boss fights will really test your mettle and you will only defeat them if you are at the top of your game. You will need to use all of your skills, abilities, and weapons to tackle these bosses. The mini-bosses that appear while playing levels are not too difficult but every time you reach the end of a comic book, you will come face to face against the main boss which allows you to progress to the next game. These main bosses look brilliant, their fights are epic and you will have a blast defeating them. Defeat these bosses and you will be rewarded with a sweet weapon or another upgrade for your next comic book.
Fury Unleashed is definitely one of those games which offer a really high level of satisfaction when you beat bosses and progress in the game. It is brutal in certain sections but the execution of the whole formula is flawless and I simply loved playing Fury Unleashed. Its art style is brilliant and the simple yet effective combat mechanics are excellent. It also comes with co-op gameplay however I was unable to test the game out in co-op. I am pretty sure that it will be even more fun in co-op if you a friend over or simply want to slaughter some monsters or Nazis with your significant other. You will not be playing this game for its story but for the sheer gameplay fun and epic boss battles.
Final Verdict:
Fury Unleashed is an excellent shooter and I absolutely had a blast playing it. What makes it so special is that is extremely accessible for players of all skill levels. Normally, I have seen people wanting to play such difficult, roguelikes but they are unable to play them because they are difficult and demand a lot of time and practice to master which is not an option for everyone. Fury Unleashed’s Easy mode and its multitude of difficulty modifiers allow even the most casual gamer to experience the carnage it offers. Plenty of wacky weapons, tons and tons of deadly enemies, action-paced gameplay, epic boss fights, brilliant visuals and effects coupled with a stellar soundtrack, this is the ultimate roguelike shooter that you can find on any store today. I will highly recommend this game to you if you’ve always wanted to experience a badass roguelike but always hesitated because of the difficulty. This game will blow you away, in every aspect just like it blew me away. This is really a game that came out of nowhere for me and now I cannot stop playing it.
Final Score: 9.8/10
