Fury Review

By Rob Fahey Published 20 November, 2007

Oh yes, we're feeling it.

Version tested: PC

"fury; noun (pl. -ries); wild or violent anger, a surge of violent anger or other feeling; violence or energy displayed in natural phenomena or in someone's actions."

Okay, we all knew that one. However, anyone without a decent Classics education might have missed this one...

"Fury; noun (pl. -ries); In Greek Mythology, a spirit of punishment, often represented as one of three goddesses who executed the curses pronounced upon criminals, tortured the guilty with stings of conscience, and inflicted famines and pestilences."

After playing Fury for a week, the first definition did nothing for me, really. Maybe on the second or third day, when I numbly contemplated throwing the damned PC out the window, or snapping the keyboard over my knee, I'd have felt some sympathy for that first definition. But after a week, it's definition number two all the day.

I'm not sure what my crime is (there's a long list to choose from; let's just assume I downloaded some albums or something), but yes, I feel like I'm being punished. I'd go so far as to say that a curse is being pronounced upon me, through the medium of my computer's screen. I don't know about famines, but describing Fury as being "pestilent"? Oh yes, that rings bells. That rings all sorts of bells.

Wrath

Fury is a massively mult... No, wait, stop there. Fury thinks that it's a massively multiplayer game. It's marketed as such, and indeed the first bullet point on the back of the box is "Intense free to play MMO with no monthly subscription."

'Fury' Screenshot 1

In theory the game looks like this. In practise, do you have access to a trillion dollar IBM supercomputer? If so, go do something useful on it.

This is a lie. On two counts. Firstly, we take issue with calling this a massively multiplayer game at all - in fact, it's a fantasy-themed deathmatch-style multiplayer game, which masquerades as a proper MMO by having persistent characters and a needlessly gigantic and bloated lobby area. There is no storyline, no quest system; the entire "fantasy world" is just a massive area stocked with NPCs who will sell you equipment and abilities between battles.

Secondly, the whole "no monthly subscription" thing. That's true, to the extent that you can play Fury without paying a subscription - but there's an eyebrow-raising system in place which means that players have to pay a monthly fee in order to do basic things like selling items on the Auction House. Those paying a fee also get better loot after battles, and are given free in-game gold. We're not actually totally opposed to the idea of paying for gold or in-game privileges, but Fury's implementation is cack-handed at best.

Then again, cack-handed is another phrase that comes to mind quite a lot when talking about Fury. It's a game which feels like it was designed by one of those hyperactive 12 year olds who watch too many action movies and then post on forums about how it would be MEGA KEWL if there was a game where you had a chaingun on that fired bullets in the shape of naked boobies. It's a school of game design where more is always better, and one which exists at a tangent to the real world - or to any idea of entertainment.

Spleen

'Fury' Screenshot 2

This screenshot is an analogy for how playing Fury will make you feel.

Consider this; when you go into battle in Fury, you have a bar full of skills on the bottom of the screen, much like every other RPG in the history of ever. Fury's designers, however, drank too much caffeine one day (or perhaps one year) and decided to give you twenty four skill slots. Yes, twenty four combat skills equipped at once.

More is better! Except it's not. In order to fill out those 24 skill slots, Fury has an array of skills available to your character which is so bloated we're surprised the box doesn't leak trans fats all over your floor when you open it. Countless skills do almost exactly the same thing, but with minor differences in their percentages; countless others are almost totally useless in combat, because they affect opponents' stats in a way that's nothing short of obtuse.

More is better! Except it's actually worse. The lobby area (or fantasy world, or whatever you want to call it- it's still a damned lobby, no matter how big you make it) is brimming with NPCs, a huge number of whom are totally redundant. You end up running all over the area in order to visit NPCs whose function is almost exactly the same, but very slightly different. We reckon about three out of four of them could be removed, their functions merged with the remaining NPC, to wonderful effect - but Fury's "more is better!" approach and its determination to pretend that its lobby is a vast fantasy world means it needs loads of NPCs to do jobs that are done by one simple menu in other games.

'Fury' Screenshot 3

This looks dramatic. In reality they'd be running past each other at ludicrous speed, spamming random spells and shouting 'LOL'.

The thing is, the combat itself didn't have to be awful, once you get down to it. Oh, it's got problems - it's got more problems than Amy Winehouse accidentally locked in an off-license for a weekend. It's much too fast-paced, to the extent of being outright chaotic, and a combination of a terrible camera and some pretty awful lag make it utterly unplayable at times. Underneath it all, though, there's a simple, effective battle system at work - it's just that it's totally suffocated by the huge layers of pointless wadding and stupid decisions which smother the Good Idea at the heart of it all, and leave its swollen, blue-faced corpse by the side of the road while they run off to find a chaingun that fires boobie-bullets.

Technically, Fury is quite a stunning accomplishment; we didn't realise until now that the Unreal Engine 3, in the wrong hands, could be quite so bad. The game actually looks quite nice; nothing special, but far from awful. However, its mediocre visuals will tax your PC like an Inland Revenue man hopped up on crack; we had to scale the settings right down in order to make it remotely playable, and even then it crashed us back to the desktop with depressing regularity. Perhaps it was trying to tell us something.

Or perhaps we're trying to tell you something. What we're trying to tell you is that there are a hell of a lot of really good games coming out right about now - so there's absolutely no reason for you to lower yourself to playing this pestilent game. We're probably boosting its score by an entire mark on the basis that the uninstaller works, actually.

3 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Rob.

About Rob Fahey

Rob Fahey is a former editor of GamesIndustry.biz who spent several years living in Japan and probably still has a mint condition Dreamcast Samba de Amigo set.

Read more articles from Rob by visiting the Rob Fahey archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • aldo_14 #1 4 years ago

    "1 user owns this game" ---> "Fury Community Manager"

    Poor lad.

  • Shrike #2 4 years ago

    I like the way the only guy that owns/wants it is the game's community manager.

    Edit: You've betrayed me for the last time, F5.
    Edited by 1 at 20/11/07 @ 07:34

  • BravoGolf #3 4 years ago

    lol, excellent bitter review :-D

  • asphaltcowboy #4 4 years ago

    @aldo_14

    LOL! Good spot! :D

  • morriss #5 4 years ago

    heh

  • KingOfIceland #6 4 years ago

    Screw Mass Effect, I'm getting this one *turns off sarcasm*

  • lambtron #7 4 years ago

    hahahahahahah!

  • Hog-lumps #8 4 years ago

    Penis bullets would be much more aerodynamic.

  • TILT #9 4 years ago

    No stallion references?! I'm disappointed.

  • spekkeh #10 4 years ago

    "This screenshot is an analogy for how playing Fury will make you feel."
    I LOL'd

  • Erinan #11 4 years ago

    "We're probably boosting its score by an entire mark on the basis that the uninstaller works, actually."

    Ouch.

  • jiveguy #12 4 years ago

    Bah, beaten by the forums. Never mind.
    Edited by 1 at 20/11/07 @ 10:03

  • Scarbir #13 4 years ago

    Codemasters + mmo = well eh, ouch.

  • Lagto_Soa #14 4 years ago

    it's got more problems than Amy Winehouse accidentally locked in an off-license for a weekend

    I don't think Amy Winehouse would accidentally be locked in an off-licence for a weekend. I think she would have engineered the situation very carefully. They're sharp, those alkies.

  • Wrestlevania #15 4 years ago

    Rather relived that the developer's incomeptance at sending out beta invites that actually worked kept me out of the beta several times over.

    And what an absolute stinker for Gamecock to kick off their "quality indie" publishing aspirations with.

  • jlaakso #16 4 years ago

    Been looking at this in ads. Won't anymore.

  • Turambar #17 4 years ago

    I came to similar conclusions playing the beta.

  • UncleLou #18 4 years ago

    Heh, nice review. :)

    Never even heard of it, I have to admit.

  • Pulsar_t #19 4 years ago

    You have to be fair to the Wii, the PC gets thousnads of shovelware titles every year that no body buys :)

  • Snooz #20 4 years ago

    Hell hath no fury like a eurogamer scorned

  • Olemak #21 4 years ago

    This is the quote they'll put on the retail box:

    "There's absolutely no reason for you to lower yourself to playing this pestilent game"

    Owww! That's gotta smart!

  • Bumhug360 #22 4 years ago

    This is the quote they will put on the box

    "More is better!"

  • pinchofsalt #23 4 years ago

    "And what an absolute stinker for Gamecock to kick off their "quality indie" publishing aspirations with."

    Its Codemasters.
    Besides, Gamecocks first game was the sublime Dementium.

  • Reihn #24 4 years ago

    Motherfucking *ouch*. (can I say that? hope so..)

    I'm a little sad about this - Fury is an Aussie made . . .

    Guess it goes in the pile with the Starship Troopers game.

    Still, at least Melbourne can claim to be the home of Bioshock and (more importantly) Shogun: Total War.

    * Actually Starship Troopers was pretty fun, in a Pentium II kinda way.

  • Reihn #25 4 years ago

    Ah, Newfarm then!

    This post has been cheerfully withdrawn. ; )
    Edited by 1 at 21/11/07 @ 00:08

  • Olemak #26 4 years ago

    The Aussies have still their gamedeveloping honour retained thanks to Irrational / 2k Australia, thanks to classics such as System Shock II and Freedom Force, so no worries mate. As long as we get titles like that from down under, we'll agree to ignore the odd Fury once in a while.

  • Reihn #27 4 years ago

    Despite my total lack of 'involvement' in the game dev scene, I'm vaguely friends with one of the guys who worked on Freedom Force (and other stuff since then).

    Of course, that's not really saying much considering that there are only a dozen people in Australia... boom boom

    Anyway, he's a super nice/talented guy, even if he didn't invite me to his wedding. Prick.

  • Ryuken #28 4 years ago

    Poor Auran, pls get back to Dark Reign lads.

  • Slamhound #29 4 years ago

    But really is it ethical to boost a game's score on the merit of an uninstallation procedure that the developers in all likeliness didn't code themselves?

  • cobracotton #30 4 years ago

    yeh it is a shame that this game sucks but the Aussie Games industry is certainly on the up, now if we can just get the ratings system adjusted by the censors we'll be on a good course

  • AlexWeekes #31 4 years ago

    We're in New Farm, not Ipswich. Give us a *little* credit :p. *ahem*

    On the whole, this review focuses on negatives with Fury that we've already identified and are already working towards fixing as soon as we can. One of those is the number of NPCs. Amongst many, many other improvements.

    In the words of our CEO: "We have learnt a lot in the first month since release, and obviously we need to make improvements. First of all we need to provide a game platform that is stable and performs well on more machines – we’ve made some big steps, but we have further to go. We need to provide an easier to understand and more enjoyable experience for new players. We need to work closely with our core community to deliver on our goal of making the Number One PvP game in the world."

    With a lot of hard work, we hope to follow in the footsteps of EVE by getting out some key improvements to our game in the coming months and getting some growth happening.

    If you choose to steer clear of Fury at the current time after reading the reviews, well ... I can't disagree with that decision. What I will ask is that if you are interested in a PvP game using MMO-style combat then keep an eye on our progress over the coming months (in particular the first big step along the road coming next month). The team here is working hard, and we're committed to doing everything we can to unlock the potential of the "simple, effective battle system" Rob mentioned (even if it was in passing).

    (Also, should correct/clarify the statement "Those paying a fee also get better loot after battles, and are given free in-game gold." Subscribers do *not* get better loot. They *might* get more loot (though having an extra roll slot), however that loot is drawn from the same pool as for non-subscribers. Subscribers also do not get free in-game gold, as such - what they do get is an extended gold bonus (which non-subscribers also get). The gold bonus is earned while offline. The longer you are offline, the longer the bonus will be when you log back in. Subscribers get a higher cap on this bonus.)
    Edited by 1 at 21/11/07 @ 09:05

  • Peppers #32 4 years ago

    No storyline.

    We don't play it for one, the players, matches and community
    are the story. It's not some anonymous, senseless faceless
    grind.

    No quest system.

    Ya, thats right, no killing x number of boars until we smell like
    cats ass from staying up 3 days straight to grind some instance
    with 40 people we could give two shits about, but that's the
    right way eh?

    The NPCs suck.

    Yep. They do. Being fixed.

    Bewbs and Chainguns.

    Not sure what to say here. Your fixation is disturbing.

    So many skills, just ... too much.

    24? Are you fucking kidding. My old WoW modded interface had
    countless more. Additionally, you dont have to equip 24 you
    fucking dumbass, you can equip 8, 10, or 4 of them and increase their
    power. You can increase your armor and decrease your skills
    or vice versa. Your cursory exploration of this game speaks
    volumes to your complete and utter fucking ignorance.

    Combat was bad.

    Sounds like your a poor player, and don't play on your laptop. Ok?
    I have zero problems with the performance of this game, I like
    82 FPS. Yes 82. Stuff it square in your shit systems ass.

    Your a zealot about how shit should work. You don't understand PvP,
    farm more fucking rats in a grindfest game filled with chainguns and
    boobie-bullets, you win Asshat of the Day Award.
    Edited by 1 at 21/11/07 @ 02:33

  • qazedski #33 4 years ago

    You are kidding me right - does this reviewer know fek all?

    Aperently, "Those paying a fee also get better loot after battles, and are given free in-game gold."

    This is clearly not true and is a lie - this is great jurno work guys - Eurogamer = no fekking clue.

    Do your research, stop making stuff up and *maybe* people will believe this crap.

    Oh, and BTW, I think the game is OK - needs work and a lot of improvements but no way a 3, properly about a 5 or 6.

  • jlaakso #34 4 years ago

    I gotta give it to the devs for having the guts to reply in an honest, level-headed manner after quite a beating in the review. I do hope you get it together; the game's concept is intriguing.

  • justin_saunders #35 4 years ago

    lol at Peppers. Your only comeback was "WoW did it worse than us".

  • andywilkie35 #36 4 years ago

    This game will be shut down tomorrow

  • mkreku #37 4 years ago

    Yeah, not so funny to mock the game now, eh? Those are real people losing all they've worked for the last couple of years.