Fury Unleashed Review (Nintendo Switch)

Game: Fury Unleashed
Genre: 2D, Action, Platformer, RPG, Rogue lite
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, X box One and PS4)
Developer|Publisher: Awesome Games Studio
Age Rating: EU 16+ | US Teen
Price: UK £17.99 | EU 19.99 | AU $29.99 | CA $26.24 | US $19.99
Release Date: 8th May 2020

Review code provided with many thanks to Awesome Games Studio

Comic Origins

Comics – or graphic novels as we prefer to know them as – as adults, are great fun. Crazy stories with amazing artwork; stories are capable of being told in comics that you just can’t mimic in a film. But that doesn’t stop video game developers from seeing if they can have a bash. One of the earliest examples of this I remember was Comix Zone on Mega Drive: a brutally hard beat ’em up where you could literally punch enemies through panels. Years later, Awesome Games Studio brings us a hot release: Fury Unleashed. Will this be a mint condition gem, or something fit for the comic book bargain bucket? Lets find out.

Time to dive into a good comic.

Unleash the Fury

In Fury Unleashed you play as the hero of the comic book titled none other than Fury Unleashed. You play through an entire episode of a comic, moving from panel to panel, taking down the baddies and winning the day. Just like the good old days. There’s actually more heart to the plot than I was expecting. As you play the game, you discover more about John Kowalsky: the author of your adventures.  Throughout the game, it will often draw back briefly and give you insight into the author’s psyche as he deals with his struggles as a creator as well as receiving criticism. It’s quite touching, and it’s something I rarely experience in a rogue-lite game. It has nice silly comic book humour, while reminding you of the struggles creating comics in a ever-changing world can be.

I disagree with these opinions.

Lots of Options

The game begins with a handy tutorial to get you to grips with the controls. A fairly simple 2D action set up. But I did find replaying the tutorial a few times particularly beneficial as there are a lot of mechanics at work in this game, some of which I forgot the first time round. You can shoot a gun with the right stick or RZ button, use a melee weapon with Y. You can jump and double jump, and dash on the floor and in the air. You can stomp on enemies heads if you fancy, fling a grenade, or use a special ability. Quite a lot going on really. Many ways to tackle each panel giving the player a massive amount of options. The controls feel a little floaty but solid. I soon got into the flow and feel of the gameplay very quickly, and I was soon dashing my way from panel to panel destroying baddies and avoiding crazy traps. If you feel it’s a bit too much, the game offers a generous easy setting which does allow you to tweak the gameplay to suit you: with sliders for game speed, damage you receive, etc. Switching to easy doesn’t penalize your ability to upgrade or experience the game to its fullest. The only thing you won’t unlock is achievements, but that’s hardly a bad thing on the Switch. The game also allows you to disable its cartoon gore and violence in case you want to think of the children or some adults.

Many ways to tackle each panel.

Comic Graphics

The graphics are comic book inspired in case you haven’t guessed that yet. The levels actually have white comic book panels around them. Characters and enemies appear 2D, hand drawn and even move like they are made of paper: animation I remember seeing in games like 20XX. Here it seems to fit with the comic book aesthetic really well. You get to customize your male or female protagonist with cosmetics: a welcome addition. Enemies are also appropriately themed for the level designs, for example: gross Aztec skeletons in a beautiful forest-like-ruins backdrop. There are three other comics with unique themes to discover.  The game will also surprise you with hard drawn sketches reminding you that your playing a comic book. There isn’t a lot of music in the game, but the attention to sound effects of enemies was nice. I liked the noises from the feral plant life.

Customization of your character’s cosmetics is a nice addition.

Rogue-Lite Surprise

Unlike a lot of rogue-lites I’m used to, you don’t have to destroy all the enemies you encounter. Your goal for each stage is to reach the end. So you can choose to skip and focus on the platforming, or fall into the temptation for combat which is strong in this one. I found I wanted to search from panel to panel finding as many items as possible, all while taking out as many baddies as possible. The game has a heavy emphasis on its combo meter. As you increase it you improve your chances of damage resistance, healing, and using special abilities. Of course I’m not that amazing. I often got caught by the darn buzz saws. But I liked how my blood stained the blades, gotta love those gory attentions to detail.

Watch out for buzz saws.

The game is peppered with a surprising amount of boss fights. Once you reach the end of the comic you have the big epic boss fight; it is different in each playthrough attempt. You also encounter several mini-boss encounters along the way. These never felt too grindy and were a ton of fun to encounter each time.

He’s behind you.

As it’s a rogue-like game you will die a lot. But with death brings the potential to upgrade your heroes stats on a massive skill tree with the skills points you have managed to accumulate. What I liked here is if you’re not happy with how you set your skill points you can choose to deselect them at any time and re-allocate them to a skill you feel is more useful. Then after that you can start another run. For me a single run game session quickly turned into five, OK seven.

Always gotta have the last word.

Yes, Co-Op Is Included

But hey maybe your thinking at this point: Fury Unleashed sounds great, but can I play with my partner? Well my friend, Fury Unleashed has couch co-op too. Not only that but you can each customize your characters separately. When you encounter items in the game you can choose who receives them regardless of who picks them up, as opposed to just the greedy gamer who keep picking up everything when they see it. Sorry, I can’t help myself. If a co-op partner does go down they revive on the next level. It’s a shame you can’t bring them back on the spot at a sacrifice to your own health. So some casual gamers may find this a little tricky.

Love the load screens.

Great to Revisit

Like most rogue-lite games I wanted to replay Fury Unleashed again and again to unlock all the perks, and just because I was having so much fun. There’s lots of stuff to unlock: like characters, starting weapons, as well as the drive to get a high score and discover secrets. Levels are randomly generated every run, so it always feels new each time. The game also lets you replay the tutorial any time. Handy if you take a long break from the experience. And if your still not sure, you can download the free demo and see for yourself before you commit to a purchase. The demo will easily showcase the best of what the game has to offer and see if it’s for you.

Watch out for surprises.

Mint Condition

You know when I first saw the picture for Fury Unleashed I kinda expected this to be yet another junk food gaming rogue-lite. Some thing that I’m totally on board with. But after playing it several times and having weird nightmares about Aztec skeletons, this has easily jumped to one of my favourites in the genre. I loved the surprise heart to the story, as someone that often questions their own written work and creativity I found something to connect to; though I’ll probably never reach the heights of fame in my creative work. It’s good that video games like Fury Unleashed can remind you that moments of uncertainly are normal. And right now in this moment you are enough.

Also Fury Unleashed is just brilliant.

Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up

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