The growth of the “Roguelike” and “Roguelite” styles of games -- particularly in the Indie space -- has built an entire genre out of old-school reference, platforming and essential challenge. Most of the more hardcore of these, such as The Binding of Isaac, are 0-Up based, in that you get one shot at it, coupled with the idea it’s never the same design space twice. So you’re not feeding off memory of AI behaviours or level design, however, you are gaining options to power yourself up more and more for each re-entry, through permanent items either found, or earnt. In some ways these are the ‘first’ Groundhog Day-style games, and trust us when we say, that genre in and of itself, will be huge sooner than you think.

Which brings us to Fury Unleashed -- a fun Indie packing a hailstorm of challenge, yet so much charm it's hard not to just suck up the tears and push on through. Where that charm lies is in its comic book references deepened by the studio’s intermittent fourth-wall breaking message screens the further you get into the game. It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost a behind-the-scenes look at personal investment in the project, only as a reward. But it’s compelling, and that’s the most important point.

So, what is Fury Unleashed?



A *sort of* comic book come to life. But, not really. Rather the game’s aesthetic centres around being a kid growing up in the 80s or 90s -- obsessed *with* comics, but also guns, explosions, skeletons… Arnie. It’s the sort of game I would have made when I was 15. But there’s more thought in this than just its visual and throwback style. The progression system, while fully tapped into that of a Rogue-style game, gives it more. Equally, Fury’s ‘procedural’ design is more predictable and repetitive. You’ll re-enter worlds with level-design that are familiar; enemy placements that are familiar, but it is definitely never the same panel twice. This is where “Lite” comes into the “Rogue”. Fury Unleashed is more of a jaunt than falling down a borough, but what this does is help you think more about how you approach each re-level; do you speed through to open up the next chapter? Do you explore every panel and take out every enemy for larger rewards to tackle the next? Are you hunting Achievements? Or do you just want to shoot everything as if you were playing Contra?

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"At some point you either linger and risk taking injury, with minimal health drops and a persistent HP level chapter-to-chapter, or you speed through to the last panel, avoid combat and get through with a higher HP for the next chapter..."

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That’s a fairly broad, but apt explanation of what Fury Unleashed is.



What these types of games do is test your resolve. Gun players can probably get through on the bare minimum, but your average player can become their own worst enemy. Especially if you play with a completionism mindset. At some point you either linger and risk taking injury, with minimal health drops and a persistent HP level chapter-to-chapter, or you speed through to the last panel, avoid combat and get through with a higher HP for the next chapter, but you’re chances of adding to your skilltree are now small with limited ink drops (the game’s currency), and tougher enemies in the following chapters. Risk-reward, we believe it’s called.

Enemies throughout either come at you, or fire projectiles in your direction. But in each chapter playthrough you can come across random items, such as new weapons, abilities, such as triple jump, or challenges that give you bigger rewards. And this is balanced against what we mentioned earlier in whether or not you linger, or rush through. Where the game adds another string to its gameplay bow is in the Twin Stick Shooter space, in that the right analogue stick on your controller is also how you aim and shoot your guns. You also have melee attacks, but largely it’s the ranged combat that will keep you more safe. Though weapons do have reload ‘cooldowns’, but you can find passive buffs to speed these up. But again, this all boils down again to that risk-reward concept of play.



In order to progress to the next comic series, you need to defeat three bosses, and coming across them is equally randomised, so chapter-to-chapter, you might wind up in a more difficult space and facing off against all three rather than in subsequent chapters, but that’s the charm of the game; while “Lite”, it’s still a bit of a crapshoot as to what befalls you from an impediment perspective, and this keeps you on your toes. Each comic book you progress to also has a theme and going back to the charm of the game, the devs have really embraced the world and art of comics, but at a level that’s simple and not complicated. And really, this is an equal strength against the game’s challenge and progression system.

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"It’s also an easy game to just pick up and play with mechanics easy enough to master, but packed with a layer of challenge that is subtle and rewarding..."

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Fury Unleashed is a fantastic distraction title that may have released in the right real-world window while we all struggle with the staying at home setup of 2020. It’s also an easy game to just pick up and play with mechanics easy enough to master, but packed with a layer of challenge that is subtle and rewarding. Especially on the Hard difficulty level. Rogues aren’t usually my bag, and I’ve never been a massive fan of procedurally-generated worlds, but the “Lite” side of those things in Fury Unleashed make it a gem of a game to sink your teeth into.