Fuse

Great article that I agree with. It brings up something I've been very concerned with lately: that every game has to be a CoD or Gears of War clone these days.

I also agree with the article that it's sad that there are so many games these days that take themselves a little too seriously. Sometimes I play a game just for the fun of it, to get a good laugh at fun things etc. Sometimes I want to play a game with charm. The Uncharted games are good examples of these rare ones. It's a shooter with a story and characters that are made for charm and fun. Sure, there are serious stuff too, but it doesn't take itself too seriously.

Overstrike looked like one of those fun games but now it looks really generic with this overly serious approach.
 
Nathan said:
Know what the old Overstrike trailer reminds me of? I can't believe I never thought of that, until I saw someone mention it on youtube, the Timesplitters series. I could have totally seen Overstrike being very similar to it and I would have loved Insomniac for it.

[YT]tekc9dtiCGE[/YT]

[YT]y7JoYffgFYQ[/YT]
Click to expand...
I actually wouldnt mind EA contracting Insomniac to make a future Timesplitters game
 
Nathan said:
It's probably unrealistic to hope that Insomniac realizes that they've made a mistake and return to the old Overstrike style. I went back to watch the E3 reveal Trailer on Youtube and the ratings are 1.430 likes and measly 38 dislikes.

Now compare that to the new Fuse Trailer Soapy posted, which has 367 likes and 625 dislikes.
Click to expand...

They've sadly probably committed to it at this point in terms of money and design work that it would be insane to back out now. I'm guessing Fuse is further along than Overstrike ever was. Which is a damn shame.
 
Just checked out the gameplay trailer and it didn't do anything for me. Overstrike was colourful and the tone wasn't too serious but the direction Insomniac has gone with Fuse (ugh, still think it's a terrible title) doesn't look in any way appealing. I don't know, maybe because I'm a sucker for unusual & visually interesting art directions.

However, I'll continue to give the game attention (like checking out new trailers/images/previews and what not) because I like Insomniac, but from what I've seen so far from Fuse (ugh!) doesn't interest me at all.
 
Gameplay looked generic, but I'll def check the game out. Gamefly FTW
 
I'll be sure to answer your guys' questions later today. I'm just trying to see what I'm allowed to say and what I can't.
 
Borderlands is one of the better examples of how to do it. Gearbox makes mature ****, but it's also got that nudge wink thing going.
 
The modern video game industry is just like the film industry: The fear of standing out.

Fuse might be a good game but it's 'gritty' look is so generic and derivative.
 
Great question Zenith!

Unfortunately, you answered your own question at the very end of your post. It's definitely too early to tell. Ted Price showed us a pretty in depth presentation on what Fuse was going to offer. All the levels do not look like the one Insomniac just finished demoing. I think it was just the most polished. The other levels were a little more vibrant. However, there was still a gritty tone to them.

As I said in my original post, this is one of the few games that doesn't sell itself through videos. This is a game that sells itself from actually being at the helm of the controls. This has one of the best cooperative mechanics I've ever had the pleasure of playing. It's very reminiscent to Resistance 2's cooperative component. Obviously though, it's been scaled back. Each Operative brings their own unique style to the experience which is REALLY awesome!

From your question Zenith, I think you're going to want to play as Naya. She is so awesome. She has the stealth component you're craving. There were definitely setups that catered to the play style you're wishing for. However, it's going to depend on the A.I./the people you're playing with if you can pull off the approaches.

For example...

We got to play the demo they showed in the Fuse trailer/Gametrailers episode. When you start up the demo, you're on the island undetected. At least this is what the demo leads you to believe. The player controlling Naya can go around the environment cloaked and brutally stealth kill enemies. The animations are awesome! She'll pull out her commando knife and make short work of them. The others have up close melee combat as well that enables you to take enemies out silently.

This though is not the focus of the game. Insomniac loves blowing **** up in the coolest fashion. They create weapons of destruction that provide the player with awesome visual feedback. But again, I feel some of the set ups they've created can easily be designed to cater to stealth game play.

After dispatching all the opponents outside of the compound, there are two paths players can take. You can either choose to enter the facility by blasting through a wall, or, take an underground drainage tunnel into the compound. When we played, we liked to divide up the team and attack the compound from all angles.

Players controlling Dalton & Jacob blasted through the wall, while Naya and Izy(who I was controlling) used the drainage tunnel to get inside the facility. All players waited to be on the same page. We launched our attack simultaneously! The players on the outside blew up the wall, causing all of the A.I. soldiers to come running towards the explosion. Naya went stealth and climbed up the ladder and managed to get up on a cat walk for a great vantage point. I hid behind some crates and whipped out my shatter gun.

The enemies were all distracted by the explosion, their backs were to us. I crystalized the enemies and Naya took them out with her warp-rifle. Through the smoke Dalton came through with his shield and Jacob behind blasting everyone with his arc shot. It was a sight to be hold! We cleared the entire room so quickly and effectively, it caused a stupid grin to form on my face.

That's one of the beautiful things about this game. The mechanics feed off each other. You can try and play lone wolf but when you all work together, you're more efficient. Dalton's shield is awesome to get behind. Shoot some bullets from the shatter gun and crystalize enemies and then have Jacob melt them with the arc shot.

Another cool design set up, one you got to witness in the GT episode, was this...

After clearing the room, we were delving deeper into the facility. The place was heavily guarded. Turrets were blocking our paths from advancing further. Naya could go stealth and be undetected by the turrets. However, there were two control panels that needed to simultaneously be activated. With the help of Izy, myself, I managed to use the shatter gun to crystalize/incapacitate the turrets for a few moments. This enabled the player controlling Dalton to sneak into the control panel and successfully flip the switch.

The game also offers many unintentional set ups that you'll be revisiting with friends through memories. This is something Insomniac really wants to encourage. They want you and your friends to jump on and play the game. Then, maybe the next day, you'll reminisce about your experience. I know we all were and we only had like a ten minute demo to play!

My favorite being...

Izy is essentially the medic of the group. While everyone can help each other be healed, she is the most effective at it. Kind of like Resistance 2's Medic class. Well Izy is equipped with these awesome heal grenades/beacons she is able to throw. Insomniac designed these so that players wouldn't be confined to having to be next to a player and revive them as the medic.

If a player is down, lets say half way across the map and you have impeccable accuracy, you can throw the beacon and have it land next to the player to help revive them.

Unfortunately, I'm not the hero in my story. :( I totally forgot that that was Izy's secondary. Instead, this is what occurred...

One of my team mates were down. I had no way of getting to them. We were pinned down by heavy fire. It felt like the whole damn base was coming after us. Dalton made a funny crack about it. We were dangerously close to failing the mission because Jacob was on the verge of death. It was pretty harrowing. I wanted to charge for my down team mate but knew I would essentially be in the same predicament.

That's when Naya came to save the day. The player controlling her quickly activated their camouflage and slipped into the heat of battle. They made their way around the soldiers and crouched, in the middle of the chaos, to help our downed teammate. Bullets whizzed past them. Explosions went off. Seeing Naya pull that off undetected was so freakin' awesome!

It's a shame the game is getting the response it currently has been. Just so everyone knows, this is not the work of EA. EA was supportive of the project from the get go. This was just a natural progression Insomniac decided to do. Story is something they really want to focus on. They want to make this compelling narrative and, from our presentation, I'm very intrigued to play and learn more! I can't go into specifics there...but I can assure you, I honestly feel had they kept the Overstrike tone, we wouldn't be getting what we are.

I will admit though, the marketing for Fuse isn't the greatest at the moment. It's not really conveying the sense of what the game truly has to offer. I'm surprised they didn't include some of the set ups were managed to play. Those, even though short, were very memorable! I personally didn't like the track they used as music for the Fuse gameplay trailer. But hey, it's a minor nitpick. Here's hoping they manage to step the marketing up a bit and show what Fuse REALLY has to offer.

I know a lot of you are saying Borderlands and Bulletstorm are great examples of mature humor. That may be true, but they definitely are not great examples of compelling narratives. Borderlands, from what I've heard, has a forgettable story. Bulletstorm I've heard mixed things story wise. Some people liked it. Others hated it. It was condemned for being short. Insomniac is trying to hit straight across the board an awesome experience. They want great mechanics, awesome weapons, and a compelling narrative that makes you FEEL for these characters. With the little time I got to play, I was definitely attached to these characters. Especially because they have such interesting back stories. Namely Dalton.

If Insomniac can pull of what Bungie did with Halo, create 30 seconds of game play and try to replicate it through the entire experience, then I have no doubt Fuse is going to deliver something memorable.
 
Last edited:
Thank you so much for your in depth and honest answer. I'll still keep and eye on this and see how much more develops from this. Especially now that you said all this. it's true about Borderland. ( Odd that some of us brought this up, cause the latter two games though are fun and did pull off some the stuff said to a degree , their not third person)

The story wasn't very strong in all area's but that was set up more with parody's of other movies and other catch phrases done in clever ways and just things to through in to surprise the player like not being able to find treasurer cause we're told the entity we found & fought was called the Vault.

I know the sequel will be some more cohesive story wise both in jokes and possibly story.


Bullet storm was mostly just about the unique kill streaks. That was it's selling points cause all of the characters depending who you are, you wouldn't want to hang out with in real life cause their all dick heads. That's Villains and the protagonist you play. but there wasn't more to it then that. it still a fun game but I was big on the story cause I didn't care for the characters really. I just wanted to shoot something , and only play games like on occasion now. I guess my tease have changed as I've gotten older. but if i'm in the position where I can't stand both the hero/ main character I play with the villain which I'm supposed to dislike well....

And it looks like Dishonored took the unique kills streaks a step further and added story among other elements. So it'll be better more unique version of BS did.
 
Last edited:
I wish I could know how everyone at Insomniac Games is reacting to the overwhelming negativity. Were they prepared for the massive backlash or did they seriously assume that everyone would be totally into the violence and grey/brown color palette, that pretty much every shooter out there has. Why didn't they have more faith in their original concept?
 
Hey guys,

Insomniac just posted a job listing for a video editor. I plan on applying for the position. I've been editing video almost my whole life. Film was what I originally wanted to get into before video games. I decided to whip something together real quick to showcase my editing skills. I figured, since the official trailer isn't getting the best reaction, why not do a trailer centered around Fuse?

I decided to take the official trailer and "revisit" it. I didn't have too much to work with but I enjoyed the challenge of trying to create something effective. While I know a few of you guys aren't too thrilled with the direction Fuse is going, I hope you're able to look past that.



Here is a link to my trailer. Please let me know what you think!

Hope you enjoy it!

-Adam
 
Ok just saw it i think you'll do fine in the job man. :up: I hope you get it.
 
Nathan said:
I wish I could know how everyone at Insomniac Games is reacting to the overwhelming negativity. Were they prepared for the massive backlash or did they seriously assume that everyone would be totally into the violence and grey/brown color palette, that pretty much every shooter out there has. Why didn't they have more faith in their original concept?
Click to expand...


Its always difficult to get a sense of what is the internet's reaction and how that will translate to the general public. Its totally possible that they are not all that worried and were expecting this. I'm not unconvinced that Fuse won't sell more than Overstrike despite my preference for the latter. I mean every year I read people proclaiming they won't play the next CoD yet it continues to sell well, there is obviously a market for all of that and I would imagine Fuse's gritty brown world will appeal to them.
 
Insomniac’s Latest Originally Looked Like a Game For Kids



The shooter we now know as Fuse, and which was formerly known as Overstrike, looks like a reasonably realistic third-person shooter. The first time we saw it, though, it was a little more cartoony. Which apparently is nowhere near as cartoony as it was originally.

"The game started out with a much more stylized and campy direction. We were actually going for something on the level of Ratchet & Clank, except with humans," Insomniac Creative Director Brian Allgeier tells IGN. "Maybe it was going to appeal to gamers who, we thought at the time, might be in their late teens. The industry's changed quite a bit… We would focus test the game in front of a lot of gamers, and get their opinion. These are people that regularly play PlayStation 3 and Xbox games. We started to discover that everyone thought this was a game for their younger brother. We would hear this from 12-year-olds. So we decided that we needed to make a game that had an older appeal."

He goes on to say "that's kind of the reason for the delay. It's like moving the herd of elephants, or turning the ship. Just turning a massive ship into a different direction and charting a new course."

Now, Overstrike's first trailer was nowhere near "campy" or "Ratchet & Clank", so I'm assuming that was the game's starting point before setting off on the long creative voyage where we now find it, perhaps slightly adrift, today.

It's important to remember that games change art styles all the time while they're early in development. What's notable about Overstrike/Fuse's metamorphosis is that it's done so publicly.

Always Independent: The Story of Insomniac Games
Click to expand...

Source

F***ing, stupid 12-year olds. That's all I have to say.
 
****ing ridiculous. Its really sad and upsetting to hear that they had so little confidence in what they were creating.
 
I'm starting to wonder how they find these kids? Cause if it's cause their related to some of the workers / actually publishers it's time to actually look out side that and oo actually get real people/ smarter kids for the real focus testing. Not the limited ones/ kinds, they've been doing.

Oh well whats done is done. We'll see what happens. The head of the studio has spoken on tv/ online video saying this and now so has the game director in that article. all that's left if more game play vids, and more importantly the reviews and a fans/the target audience(which is dropping from the original concept ,but still might find some) speaking with their wallets.
 
Last edited:
Both in article and video



source:GI

And now you know for sure they were pushing them as "secret agents." (which usually mean spies ) as the head of the studio on this ip just said on video. unfortunetly it still looks more "military, " (too much of that as it is already "Game wise")then the "secret agent" identity thair trying to push with this. Any way we'll see how this turns out.
 
Last edited:
Insomniac wants Fuse players to 'take the universe seriously'

(2 hours ago)
36

​
Insomniac's Fuse began as Overstrike, a colorful co-op spy game with a humorous flair. Fuse continues the co-op direction of the game, but has shifted its look to a style that tilts more toward realism than fantasy.

Some internet reaction has labeled the new style powering Fuse as just another 'standard military shooter,' but Insomniac says it's not totally shunning the game's fantastical elements.

"We have our underwater bases. We've got missiles and volcanoes. We have a lot of exotic situations but at the same time we want people to take the universe seriously," Insomniac Creative Director Brian Allgeier told Joystiq at the 2012 New York Comic Con.

But over-the-top elements still exist in the more mature-looking multiplatform game, as evidenced by the game's weapons and abilities.
Fuse (10/12/12)



Continue Reading





source:Joystiq
 
Podcast


Episode 16: The Basement, New York

Today on The Basement, Vic and Scott leave the smelly confines of the basement—fly free, little birds!—and travel 3,000 miles to New York City where they interview Insomniac’s Brian Allgeier. Three things you need to know about Brian: 1. he worked on seven Ratchet & Clank games; 2. he’s working on a new game called Fuse; and 3. he sports a well-groomed, lustrous beard on his face.
Behind-The-Scenes Pro-Tip: The interview took place in a subterranean nightclub in midtown Manhattan, which was eerily basement-like. Let the mind-blowing begin in 1..

source:EPD.TV/ROTR
 
spring boarding off what EPD.TV/ROTR did last week with their pod cast
source:GI


And the humorist take from they just told on Dalton's concept at the beginning in this video sounded fine. Oh well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Members online

Total: 1,191 (members: 14, guests: 1,177)

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
200,554
Messages
21,759,214
Members
45,594
Latest member
evilAIS

Share this page

Back
Top
monitoring_string = "afb8e5d7348ab9e99f73cba908f10802"