Fuse Review

NOT

Bland Story
In the games that Insomniac developed, a lot of people are used to the quality storylines featured in Resistance or the Ratchet & Clank games. Those who are expecting some sort of the same quality will be disappointed as Fuse’s overall story is bland to the point that it’s non-existent. The game tells the story of the four members of Overstrike 9 where they get the objective to stop the evil company known as Raven Corporation from getting an unknown substance called Fuse. If Raven somehow manages to get it, it can be used against humanity and thus end the world. Unfortunately, the four members of Overstrike team manage to get hold of the fuse weapons. This pretty much is the premise of the story and this will stay the same until the very end when you complete the game. There is no plot build up whatsoever but instead, the eight to ten hour campaign is pure action, though it’s not a bad thing to those that love action games.

Bad A.I.
It’s rare for a shooter game to have a smart A.I., therefore players can expect Fuse to have the same problem. From my years of playing shooter games, I can say that Fuse is one of those games that has bad A.I. where the enemies will simply run towards you to shoot and never bother to cover. Majority of the enemies are like that and sadly, it somehow makes the game somewhat easier to complete. For the most part, the regular enemy A.I. is bad but when it comes to the bosses, they have actually pretty decent intelligence.

Echelon mode feels uninspired
In addition to the game’s campaign, Fuse also have an Echelon mode where it depicts similarities to Gears of War’s Horde mode, but with a little twist. In Echelon mode, the team of four will go through waves of enemies and for every successful takedown and completion of the mission, you get credits that you can use in the campaign mode as well. As for competitive mode, unfortunately those didn’t get added in so pretty much players are left with the campaign and Echelon mode only.

Not for Loners
FUSE is a great co-op game but when it comes to being a single player game, that’s where the game falls short. Those who are thinking of playing the game by themselves should not even try it. Aside from having a bland story and dumb A.I., the four characters that you get to control are stupid too. The character A.I. is also bad but luckily, you are able to use one of the four any time. However, if you are going to depend on them on a crucial fight, expect to experience some kind of challenge. Since Fuse is catered as a co-op game, players that fly solo will not enjoy the game.

VERDICT

As a co-op game, FUSE succeeds in every way possible but is useless as a solo experience. When played co-operatively, fans of the genre alike will be able to enjoy what the game has to offer since Fuse really is one of the best co-op games around. However, there are flaws to the single-player side which affect the overall experience. Not to mention the story is bland and the Echelon mode is nothing new either. Overall, if you are looking for a great game to play with friends, get it but be wary of its flaws. Those who play by themselves will be best to skip it.

[Editor’s Note: FUSE was reviewed on the Xbox 360 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]