Review

Fury

“Chaos ensues…”

Are you one of those gamers who loves to play player vs. player (PVP) matches in a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG)? Do you hate “grinding” for hours trying to make it to the required level to play certain instances/missions? If you are and you do, then Fury is a game you should check out. Developed by Auran, Fury is a MMO that is all about online PVP battles. Fury tries it’s best to be a past paced, action packed, online experience that will hopefully change the way we look at MMO’s. Is Fury successful? Like I said…it tries.

Fury follows the story of Altaia, a realm slowly being consumed by a dark force called the Fade. It seems that Altaia’s inhabitants were given magic by the gods. It was supposed to be used for the good of humanity but, like every civilization that comes into power, most of Altaia was using magic for their dark desires. This brought about the Fade. Traveling across Altaia, the Fade destroyed everyone and everything in its path. The remaining citizens of Altaia have fortified them selves in magical sanctuaries. Elemental Essence, a rare and valuable resource that keeps the Fade at bay, protects these sanctuaries. Everything seemed hunky-dory until warriors visited Altaia from other realms, seeking to take the Elemental Essence. Altaia wasn’t the only realm to be effected by the Fade. A new war begins, as Altaia must use the same magic that created the Fade to battle other realms over possession of the Elemental Essence and save their home. “It has begun… MORTAL KOMBAT!” Sorry wrong game.

Using the power of the Elemental Essence, Altaia is able to bring back warriors that were consumed by the Fade. After a brief intro, you are brought to the Temple of Rebirth as a reborn warrior. This place serves as the character customization screen, where you will choose your gender, name, Archetype, and the appearance of your avatar. This is also where you begin the tutorial that introduces you to Fury’s gameplay mechanics. During this time you will be shown how to move your avatar, fight, level up, use magic, get rewards, and interact with NPC’s (non-player-controlled characters). This is also where you will learn the difference between the eight Archetypes. In Fury, the Archetypes are the roles representing different Elemental schools that a player can choose from. Really, the major difference between them is what abilities and equipment they start with at the beginning of the game. Even though each has a general function in a fight (a healer can heal teammates ect.), every Archetype is free to use any ability in the game. Plus, if you decide that you don’t like your current Archetype, you can always switch to a new one.

Once you are done with learning the ropes, you are eased into the world of Fury. Being that you were just reborn and all, you will have to collect your memories by fulfilling trials given by Guides. Guides act as the professors of the four Elemental schools. Each school specializes in a different Element, has different Archetypes that utilize said Element, and therefore has different Guides that work for each school. For example, the Destroyer Archetype hails from the school of death, which specializes in fire. Majority of his/her abilities are aligned with fire and in order to increase those abilities, the Destroyer’s have to seek out Guides from the school of Death. What’s interesting is that the Guides don’t teach you the new abilities. They “unlock” your memories of when you were a great warrior that happened to use these abilities. This comes at a price of course. Using Essence that you’ve won in battle (more on that later) you are able to purchase trials from Guides that unlock said memories. If you aren’t confused yet, then perhaps what I am about to say won’t surprise you as much as it did me when I started Fury. The trials you are given aren’t really trials. When buying a trial from a Guide, all you are really doing is downloading a memory. Once the download is complete, you are given the opportunity to read about your past life at the moment of which you used the ability you just relearned. You still with me? Good. As you “complete” more and more trials, your avatar will start to move up in rank. This allows you more equip points, which in turn allows you to equip more items and learned/remembered abilities.

In order to acquire Essence, which you will use to buy new skills, you will have to compete against other players online in arena like battles. This is where the heart of Fury lies, in that this is a game totally dedicated to PVP. When you are ready to compete, you must find a War Master NPC. There are three different types of War Masters and each represents a different type of PVP match you can compete in. The three match types are Bloodbath (free for all), Elimination, and Vortex (capture the flag). Before I go into each match type, let me explain something. Fury has been developed to allow for fast pasted, yet strategic battles between players online. Using your skills wisely and working as a team are the keys to victory. That’s why Bloodbath has got to be the worse match type out of the three. It is a timed, free-for-all match type where the winner is declared by their blood points (awarded for killing opponents and/or holding blood tokens dropped by defeated players). Chaos ensues as soon as you enter a Bloodbath arena. With thirty-two players allowed to compete at one time, it’s very hard to understand what is going on at any given moment. Poisonous green bolts and fire balls flying across the screen, clashing swords, bodies being knocked from one end of the arena to the other, and massive confusion is normally what a Bloodbath match consisted of. There is no reason for having a buff that removes negative effects brought on by magic from the other players, when you don’t live long enough to even know what the negative effects were. As soon as I would run out to join the fray I was hit with multiple physical and magical attacks, mostly from off screen, resulting in frustrating deaths. The only time I had fun was when I was lucky to battle an opponent one on one. What’s funny about all this is that I won my first Bloodbath match…and I didn’t even know how. With all the confusion, I was surprised I got any points at all.

Vortex is the Capture The Flag (CTF) type match in which two teams race to capture four vortex crystals. There are two ways you can get a vortex crystal. The first is to kill a Perkon (insect) and take the crystal it drops back to your base. The other way is to steal captured crystals from the opposing teams base. This is where Fury’s gameplay mechanics start to shine, as real teamwork is needed in order to win. Not only do you have to worry about the other team, but you have to worry about you position on the map as well. The Vortex match type has large maps filled with bottomless pits, vantage points, power ups, jump pads and more. Each team must utilize its member’s skills and the environment well. For example, lets say you just picked up a Vortex Crystal and are on your way back to your base. Two things you will notice upon picking up the crystal is that you move slower than normal and that you can’t attack enemies (unless you drop the crystal of course). Because of this, it would be a good idea to have a teammate around for support purposes. Their job would be to fight off the enemies or, at least give you more time to get away. While you are running with the crystal, you tell your teammates to set up an ambush at the bottom of a certain hill on the map. Using a jump pad, you launch yourself over the hill and land safely at the bottom. When your enemies follow suit, they are met with a big surprise…followed by their death. To top it off, you are later accompanied by a healer to ensure a safe journey back to your base.

The last match type, and my favorite, is Elimination. Broken into three rounds, this match type is where two teams fight to the death. The winner is the team that is left standing at the end of each round (two out of three to win). This match type requires strategy because once you die, you can’t come back until the next round. Before each round, you are given a little time to prepare with your team. This is when you would activate any buffs (like raising your teams defense points) and plan your attack. I remember fighting against a team that had a really good healer that kept us from doing any serious damage to our foes. So, being that we were on a map that had pits, I told one of my teammates during the preparation period to cast “grasp” on the healer when he was near a pit. This ability causes an opponent to be held in place for a given amount of time (or till someone hits them). Once he cast “grasp” on the healer, I used a melee technique that causes opponents to be knocked back a couple of feet. I successfully struck the healer with this technique, sending him down the pit to his demise and allowed us to make short work of his team. A feeling of satisfaction crept threw my body as my plan came together.

Bottom Line: Fury is a pretty good game, with a great premise at work. The interface is similar to other MMO’s, where the bottom of the screen showcases your moves in which you left click with the mouse to activate. Fury comes equipped with voice chat (even though no one was using it), free online play, nice graphics and an overall unique feel. There are even moves that you can learn that act as finishers. Once an adversary is about to kick the bucket, you can cast one of these moves. If it connects, you will be granted an animation of your avatar beating the opponent like a blue-haired stepchild. “Finish Him!” Sorry wrong game again. Hardcore MMORPG gamers probably won’t like the lack of a real adventure mode, the chaos that can occur when trying to battle opponents and the fact that all Archetypes are allowed access to all abilities. Still, Fury is definitely worth checking out if you’re sick of killing level 2 rabid squirrels for 5 xp each, trying desperately to level up your level 60 character!