Enough About Fuse

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

Couple of quotes from Mr. Scoville that I thought were pretty relevant.

"My big problem with Fuse is that it's one of the most generic-feeling games I've played in quite some time. The four characters periodically chime in with some surprisingly sharp one-liners, but everything that takes place between those one-liners is astoundingly mediocre. The game has a plot, though it might as well be an action movie-themed Mad Libs with all the blanks filled in with Fuse, or Raven, or Overstrike 9, and ham-fisted attempts are made at delving into each character's backstory, but barely any attempt is made to make those characters appealing in the first place, so most of the story just feels like mediocre fluff."

Add to that a set of mechanics and a visual aesthetic that are crushingly average and inoffensive, and you have yourself a game devoid of any life, colour, or flavour. I know this might seem CA-RAZEEEE, but in order to be good, a given object actually needs to do more than not be terrible. Who'd a thunk it? Weird!

Fuse is really not meant to be played as a single player game.

"Fuse is definitely a game made to be played with friends. In addition to four-player online co-op, there's also local two-player. The game becomes a much more enjoyable experience once it's a social activity with people whose company you enjoy. But the same can be said about just about anything else, whether it's throwing around a frisbee, riding a bus, or even doing your laundry. The question is, does Fuse offer enough entertainment to justify you and three friends each dropping sixty bucks on it?"

The answer seems to be a resounding "No."

Would you try to play Halo as a Stealth game? No, you wouldn't. Because IT'S NOT A STEALTH GAME.

Halo 3 had stealth segments. Why have them in the game if they weren't mean to be played stealthily?

Same thing with Fuse. When Borderlands came out, yeah, people also complained a little about the Single Player but not that much at all because they understood that Borderlands is MEANT TO BE PLAYED WITH OTHERS. Same thing with Fuse.

Again, why have something in the game if it isn't mean to be played that way? Vanilla Team Fortress 2 and the original Unreal Tournament didn't have any single-player content. You know why? Because they were online multiplayer shooters. They were not meant to be played by one person, so they didn't have a mode where one person could play. It's as simple as that.

People bought the game and sat down, trying to play it as a single player game. And when it failed to hold their attention because they didn't play it the right way, they blamed Insomniac for selling out and generally crying all over themselves for their beloved Overstrike.

I liked the part where you made a massive sweeping generalization about the entire consumer base of the game without anything resembling a source or a link supporting it.

And this isn't just with Fuse. An alarming number of gamers do this to games. They try to play it the wrong way and then they cry afterwards about how terrible it was.

They try to play it the wrong way and then they cry afterwards about how terrible it was.

play it the wrong way and then they cry afterwards

play it the wrong way

Spoiler

 

[Marik2]

snip

You missed the point of what Jim said

He was mad that it turned into another bland shooter, when it was originally a cartoony fun game

 

[Sir Shockwave]

I think that the Jim's major problem with FUSE is not that it's supposed to be multiplayer, but that they took Overstrike's funky, cartoonish style and morphed it into another generic, grizzled shooter.

My god, that Avatar...

...Boat Sword will be the absolute highlight of the year X3

OT: I also agree with what this guy writes above, and suspect this is why Jim made the video - the game traded away any personality it had to become yet another Shooter game.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Also you can play BL2 single player just fine, well up to UVHM anyway.

Actually I was talking about the first one. Ever tried the first BL by yourself? Pretty boring.

Eh you know, opinions and whatnot.
I played the first one intensively by myself almost the entire time I owned it.

In your defense, I played Borderlands (first one) entirely by myself and loved it, I loved the game's mood, something akin to the movie Doomsday in my opinion, which means hysterical, violent, post-apocalyptic cartoonish humor... That got me going through the whole game.
I got back to Borderlands 2 recently, and only the other day (near half the game done) did I habilitate the network so anybody could jump into my game, and I'll tell you what, it's funnier that way but it is NOT essential to the the entertainment Borderlands gives, at least to what I find amusing about the game that is.

I've tried both Borderlands on SP and MP. The games themselves don't get more fun in MP, it's the interactions with friends that make it so.

 

[MorganL4]

People bought the game and sat down, trying to play it as a single player game. And when it failed to hold their attention because they didn't play it the right way, they blamed Insomniac for selling out and generally crying all over themselves for their beloved Overstrike.

Nice assumption dude.....

Umm no. The truth is I was really looking forward to Overstrike ever since E3 2011..... THEN they announced the change from Overstrike to Fuse, and I lost interest in the game all together. I haven't played the game because I am voting with my wallet. If I don't buy it they won't get my money, if they don't get my money then they have one less sale due to making the thing much more generic. If enough people follow suit then MAYBE just MAYBE the devs and publishers will get the message.

 

[EHKOS]

Honestly I'm only upset because Insomniac said they wanted to do Resistence/FUSE type things instead of colorful R&C platformers. I mean, they created Spyro, and now they fell into the brown FPS genre. It's just sad really.

So I won't be buying FUSE, and I won't look fondly upon it, but I won't ***** about it either. I'm just pretending it doesn't exist, and if you don't like a gamem, that's prolly the best course of action.

 

[rob_simple]

Ummm...I played Borderlands 1&2 --including True Vault Hunter Mode-- in single player just fine, thank you very much.

If games aren't supposed to be played in single player then that option shouldn't be available. If there is a single player option made available to the player then it should work.

Insomniac seem to have a really bad habit of doing this lately: forcing multiplayer and delivering an ultimately broken single player experience (see also: Ratchet & Clank All 4 One).

 

[rob_simple]

Also you can play BL2 single player just fine, well up to UVHM anyway.

Actually I was talking about the first one. Ever tried the first BL by yourself? Pretty boring.

Opinions. Learn what they are.

I've played Borderlands three times on my own and I still love it; before The Darkness 2 it was my favourite shooter of this generation.

Your whole OP just screams, 'stop not liking things that I like!'

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Enough about Fuse? I haven't heard so much as a whisper about it since it was released...
I played the demo it's a pretty solid shooter, it does everything a modern shooter should do has cover mechanics, I shoot things they die ect; but here's the thing, It's also a really bland game. There is nothing there to keep me invested and wanting to continue playing. It just kind of left me saying "eh".

EDIT: I would just like to mention that I never even saw the overstrike footage or heard about it until the Jims' latest episode. So I'm not coming at it from the angle of "Overstrike looked better and now this is just a generic shooter"

 

[Sherokain]

Responding to the OP the example with halo doesn't really work halo is an FPS primarily that's its genre. As far as I can tell Fuse/Overstrike is also an FPS "multiplayer game" isnt a genre its a feature.

 

[Tom_green_day]

But it should still hold up as a single-player game.

I may be missing something here but... Why?
CoD has single-player, that doesn't mean the single player needs to hold up the game. It's just something to do if you can't play the multiplayer. If a game is focused on co-op, the co-op should hold up the game, not the single player. Maybe that's just my opinion, but I don't feel every game needs to revolve around the single player.

 

[shrekfan246]

But it should still hold up as a single-player game.

I may be missing something here but... Why?
CoD has single-player, that doesn't mean the single player needs to hold up the game. It's just something to do if you can't play the multiplayer. If a game is focused on co-op, the co-op should hold up the game, not the single player. Maybe that's just my opinion, but I don't feel every game needs to revolve around the single player.

Let me rephrase: The single-player portion of the game should hold up on its own merits.

Whether it's focused on co-op or not, it has a significant single-player portion. That single-player portion should be entertaining enough to justify playing it.

For all the shit Call of Duty gets about the campaigns and their lengths, it (Modern Warfare at least) justifies the existence of the single-player campaign with a whole lot of bombastic environments and set-pieces. It may not be enough to justify a $60 price tag for five or six hours, but it's good enough to play for a person who doesn't necessarily care about the multi-player.

They didn't have to include a solo mode. But they did, and the game will be judged on the merits of said mode because, in the interest of sweeping generalizations, the people who would be interested in multi-player already have their multi-player fix, and the people interested in the single-player are going to find it generic and lackluster. What, apart from the "Fuse weapons" that would likely be viewed as little more than a cute gimmick by the Call of Duty/Gears of War crowd, sets the game apart from any other sci-fi military multi-player shooter?

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

But it should still hold up as a single-player game.

I may be missing something here but... Why?
CoD has single-player, that doesn't mean the single player needs to hold up the game. It's just something to do if you can't play the multiplayer. If a game is focused on co-op, the co-op should hold up the game, not the single player. Maybe that's just my opinion, but I don't feel every game needs to revolve around the single player.

He's not saying it needs to "hold up the game" he's saying it needs to "hold up." A game obviously doesn't need to revolve around it's single player, but if it has single player, it should be good. Even if it's "meant to be played in multiplayer."

 

[TheEvilCheese]

A friend of mine bought fuse on Friday and we've played a fair bit of split-screen over the weekend, I really enjoyed it but the story and visuals are completely forgettable and bland. The co-op gunplay mechanics work quite well to be honest, the fuse weapons work really well to differentiate playstyles and add combo potential (Izzy running behind a shielded dalton, he blasting close range enemies and her assaulting the more distant enemies to kill or freeze them with the shield damage boost).

I would never buy it myself or play the single player because it would be fairly bland, and my biggest problem with the game is that it's too damn easy. The skill trees are entirely meaningless because you can fill every skill by the time you hit max level and some setups, particularly Jacob with his fuse weapon, are powerful to the point of game-breaking. We've cleared all the survival maps on 2 player and done most of the campaign on hard- dying only a handful of times- because we're so crazy powerful. We have yet to complete the campaign because it feels a bit too dull.

All in all, opportunity missed and not just because of the style change, although that didn't help. Still enjoyable though and would recommend for maybe $25 which I'm sure it will fall to soon enough.

 

[Ferisar]

Wait wait
WAIT A SECOND.

You're telling me I
am not PLAYING the VIDEO GAME
The RIGHT WAY?

Well, jee whiz crazy wizard of farshireland.

Maybe that's the fault of the game not being able to communicate what it wants to be TO ME the player? Why have a single player component if it's a co-op exclusive?

This sounds like hydrophobia 2.0.

Like, come on. Don't tell the player they aren't playing something the right freaking way and is why they can't ENJOY the game. Maybe the game isn't THAT ENJOYABLE TO BEGIN WITH.

I haven't played Fuserstrike or Overfrisbee or whatever it is, and I hold no reservations to knowing what the single player is like, but if the single player exists, and it's boring as as a broken ballista, what the hell are people supposed to do? Sit there and go: "Fie! Thine game attracts the fellow man in glorious co-operation! Minute spent in venture toward allies, in hope of an advanced entertainment!"

Sure, Halo isn't a stealth game. But it's flipping obvious it isn't a stealth game. The level design reflects it isn't a stealth game. EVERYTHING reflects that it isn't a stealth game. FUSE isn't so difficult that you need friends there. There's no barrier of entry to its single-player (as far as I see). You just got some dudes following you with guns that shoot stuff.

Aside from that, the biggest complaint about the game doesn't seem to be focused on its multi-player, moreso on it's transformation into a different game. The whole feel and style of the game we saw prior to EA was just different, and people are mostly peeved about that, not about any single-or-multi-player issues you seem to be focused on.

/rant over

I STILL LOVE YOU.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

The game is indeed taking a lot of flak for the change of style alone and that is kind of unfair. If it never showed the original artstyle people wouldnt be so upset. I still would pefer if they kept it but to go "It was cool now it sucks" is very unfair for the game.

I wouldn`t call it unfair. This is what happens when you skip something very promising (in terms of artstyle and presentation) and then turn it into something that feels just old and overused. The Overstrike trailer received an overall very positive vibe, people were looking forward to play it and not Fuse. If the artstyle of Fuse would`ve ben the original one nobody would`ve ben upset, you`re right but i`m pretty sure that people wouldn`t go nuts about it either (old, overused). They threw away their chance to release something unique. They made the mistake showing how unique it could have been, now they get the feedback.
I`m still pretty sure that E.A. was the driving force behind the artstyle change. I don`t really buy the whole "it was our decision"message with this publisher in the back.

(now i have to watch the new Jimquisition)