Fuse (Xbox 360)

It’s important to judge a game for what it is rather than what it is not. Some games are built around the multiplayer experience but have a very weak single player component if any, and some single-player adventures will have a tacked on multiplayer component that had little thought put into it. To base your opinion wholly on the weaker side of the experience feels almost like chastising a comedy for not putting more effort into the romance side of its plot. However, Insomniac Games’s Fuse on Xbox 360 is very strange case, in that it was clearly built around its multiplayer experience primarily but the single player version of its campaign might actually be the superior way to play.

Fuse is a third-person cover shooter that wants you to play cooperatively with up to three other players. While the online servers are now dead, you can still play the game offline in splitscreen mode with another player. However, the actual story might be more enjoyable to play alone, and that comes down to the game’s Fuse weapons. Granted to players early in the campaign, each of the playable four characters has their own designated weapon that uses the abnormally powerful substance known as Fuse for its ammunition. Dalton has a weapon called the Mag Shield that projects an energy shield from its muzzle, the player able to release a pulse of energy to damage nearby enemies and fling the ammo and explosives it stopped back into the faces of those who fired them. Izzy has a rapidly firing weapon known as the Shattergun that will eventually encase anyone shot with it in black crystal that pushes them and nearby soldiers up and above cover so you can finish them off. Jacob’s Arcshot crossbow at first seems mostly like a tool for sniping, but once you get the ability to detonate the bolts it releases fire that is good for catching shield-carrying enemies by surprise or roasting a large group. Naya certainly has the most visually impressive one, enough shots eventually causing a small black hole to form that eventually detonates in a pulse and can cause a chain reaction of black holes if other people have been shot by Naya recently as well.

When I first saw Naya’s visually impressive black hole I immediately imagined players potentially get stuck playing as Jacob or Dalton in a four player co-op session, their guns still having their place but not packing the raw thrill of seeing space warp from your weapon fire. However, going alone allows you to utilize the Leap feature where you can swap between the four squad members at almost any time. This meant that instead of being locked into one cool weapon based on your character choice, you could swap to whoever you want to play as or whoever was the best fit for a situation. Suddenly, Dalton wasn’t the guy with a boring shield, he was the guy who could go in front and carry a shotgun as his extra weapon so he could do a lot of damage when enemies were in close. Jacob could be the group’s sniper by also carrying a sniper rifle to match his crossbow, Izzy could handle general damage output with automatics, and while there isn’t a fourth distinct niche possible with the regular weapons since the fourth normal gun on offer outside of handguns is a variation on automatic fire, Naya could fill a special role because the four playable characters still have more special actions they can perform.

Naya eventually gets the ability to turn invisible for a time, making her perfect for slipping behind enemy lines to flank them, a useful tool when small packs of riot-shield wielding troops enter the picture. Jacob’s bolt detonation is his secondary trick, but Dalton can place a shield down as well to protect the rest of the squad if he needs to move, and as you start to purchase upgrades through the game’s experience based level up system, characters can even fire through Dalton’s shields to deal extra damage. Izzy provides a crucial support role though, able to toss a med beacon down that not only keeps you topped off as long as you’re in its radius, but can even revive downed allies that are in its area of influence. Fuse uses the common shooting game approach to health where avoiding damage for a while will let your character recover from recent damage and the AI squadmates can and will try to revive you when you go down so being killed isn’t necessarily a reset back to the last checkpoint. For the most part the AI are actually fairly good at assisting in a firefight too and using their special weapons properly, and while sometimes your carefully curated weapon set might be upset by the AI player swapping their sniper rifle for a shotgun when you find a weapon’s locker, they are mostly there participating in the battle enough that enemy soldiers are going down but you can’t expect them to win the whole fight on their own.

Customizing your small team of four and swapping between them as you please actually makes the team feel like it functions best as a squad rather than just one player character and some AI tagalongs. By playing the campaign in single-player you get full access to all the interesting weaponry and the different tactical approaches they encourage and the enemies you face in the story are designed and positioned well to encourage this frequent swapping. Cover is certainly important for you to use as you will be chewed up if you stay out in the open too much, but Izzy’s great for handling groups where the enemy relies on it too much since the crystalization chains to nearby troops and raises them out of cover. Enemies who only can be hurt by Fuse or have tech that enhances nearby soldiers are best dealt with quickly by someone like Jacob or Naya, but when you need to press your way forward in a time sensitive mission like when you’re delivering Fuse containers before they run dry, Dalton can move ahead and blast everyone back. Those Fuse containers also give the brief thrill of providing anyone in their radius with infinite Fuse ammo for a quick power trip, but an even bigger power trip comes after the difficult and lengthy battles against armored foes who drop limited use heavy weapons like a flamethrower, rocket launcher, or minigun.

Those large mechs can really drain your ammo down and being able to swap characters for them helps with allowing you to use weapons like the shotgun without worrying you’ll run dry during an important fight. The game eventually even really tests your group management by throwing some of the mechanized enemies together for some satisfying yet difficult tests of how far you’ve come. Regular troops will get new tools like the riot shields, jetpacks, and sniper rifles, and there are even aircraft to fight in some levels that you can take down sometimes to prevent troop backup or other times need to face in longer skirmishes. The actual bosses can take some creative turns as well in concept although they often demand the same skills and strategies as the other tough enemies rather than really asking for something new, but that’s hardly a complaint in a game that otherwise does a lot to vary up its campaign areas.

Fuse kicks off when the four agent team called Overstrike 9 are sent to a secret underground research facility and end up discovering the unusual element known as Fuse being used in weapon testing. A private military group known as Raven quickly attacks to try and steal the valuable substance and associated weaponry, and from there the player is on a quest to keep these tools out of enemy hands since Fuse is powerful enough to wipe out entire island populations if used properly. This adventure will take the team to a set of increasingly creative locales, and while “secret” can be appended to many of them, you go from that underground research facility to an underwater base to a private island. While some areas may seem a little like fancy set dressing for more battles in areas with cover, you will eventually find that underwater base cracks open to let the water in, and you’ll end up having more unique battlefields like riding through the mountains on a gondola. Even when it’s an interior laboratory or some familiar setting cropping up, Fuse does do a good job of making them feel diverse in how the battle will be fought while having a delightful escalation to an actual space station that does embrace expected ideas like anti-gravity in fun ways.

Interestingly enough, the four main characters of Fuse aren’t squeaky clean heroes at all, already working for a clandestine group outside the law to start the adventure and essentially just trying to stop the vile deeds of a different shadowy organization with worse morality than them. Dalton, the guy who almost looks like your simple action hero character, is quick to suggest pragmatic routes that are pretty dark like shooting the enemy’s hostage to be done with it or being willing to give up and go hide when it looks like Raven can destroy the world, but he does come through to the right side most of the time so he never sinks too low that he’d be unlikable. Izzy is certainly misanthropic, but even she sees the value in saving people’s lives so they have a chance to prove her wrong. Naya was raised to be an assassin by her father, but she pushes the group towards doing the right thing all the same. Only the ex-cop Jacob really feels like he came from a relatively positive background, a cop who took some matters into his own hands but never having real darkness to atone for. Fuse doesn’t really have these characters suddenly see the light or anything, but having them gradually thaw or casually discuss some of their rough pasts makes for a surprisingly fresh take on the hero team, although it does feel like the game could do more to really establish their pasts then a few flashbacks and the intel files you might miss out on collecting.

There is one mode that completely removes the Leap feature though to focus on that multiplayer cooperation, Echelon basically the content you’re meant to be able to keep coming back to. Echelon has enemy waves spawn in for the Overstrike squad to take down, the exact setup changing based on the map and mode. Some are purely about taking down the enemies, others might have you defending an area or trying to move a Fuse container to its designated spot, or you might have to fight your way to resources to stay in the fight. In the multiplayer setting without Leap to let you swap between squad members and tactical styles on the fly, it can still be enjoyable, the shooting still satisfying thanks to the animations tied to your weapons and the experience point system that will reward you for doing special kills like having squad mates mix their Fuse effects on an enemy. However, when you’re locked into one character you’ll probably pick the Savager or Daybreaker since they’re the two automatics and you can’t specialize too much if you’re going to spend the whole session as one character, although you can carry a pistol and the Dragonfly is a little submachine gun for fast damage output if you do want to risk utilizing the Prowler shotgun or Harbinger rifle instead. The room for strategy is limited when you’re just a part of the team, and while you can coordinate if you have a splitscreen friend along for the ride, the AI aren’t really teammates you can speak to, meaning you can’t engage in the same niche-specific play that Leaping allows you to embrace. You’ll still have a decent shooter, but it can’t compare with the options the campaign has for if you’re choosing to play alone.

THE VERDICT: Fuse is a cooperative multiplayer shooter that is best played alone, because if you do run through its campaign without any help, you can swap between four characters with creative weapons and abilities whenever you like. The customization through leveling up and their extra two-handed weapon also opens up the potential for making a squad whose members play into different niches, the player given an incredible set of tactical options that are not only satisfying to embrace in the moments perfect for them but are fun to play with even when a fight is straightforward. Spectacular animations accompany the use of your sci-fi weaponry and the enemies not only put up a good and varied fight throughout the campaign, but the characters are an interesting bunch of antiheroes going to some exciting locations. When you can’t Leap because of multiplayer co-op it can still provide a good time because of how it builds its shooting mechanics and firefight layouts, but it hardly captures the exciting action and tactical breadth found in controlling the full squad on your lonesome.

And so, I give Fuse for Xbox 360…

A GREAT rating. I’m going to go out on a limb for Fuse since it seems like this game wasn’t well-loved in its time and reviewed rather poorly. Players and reviewers likely took up the game on its promise for co-op third-person shooting and played it with friends, and while multiplayer can usually enhance any game, playing cooperatively denied these players the deeper experience the Leap system allows. The Fuse weapons and associated abilities are all interesting new tools that do feel distinct from the weapon variations usually found in science fiction games, and by being able to swap between the characters at will you can utilize their strengths effectively and jump out of a character when they’re a poor fit for the current situation. The progression to new setpieces and exciting environments makes Fuse’s world more interesting to engage with and the game doesn’t try to paint its protagonists or its world as one where everything is clear cut and will go exactly as you predict. You’ll want to see where the game will go next and be surprised when it goes further with an idea than you would have imagined, but the plot is backed up by the excellent combat encounters that bring in new enemy types who allow you to both embrace your Fuse weapons and fight against enemies with unique Fuse tools. While letting every character potentially use the four Fuse tools might have made multiplayer not trend towards anyone being stuck with a less-exciting weapon, it also would remove the many use cases where something like Dalton’s Mag Shield not only shines, but can be as gratifying to utilize as Naya’s flashy antimatter weapon.

If Insomniac Games had built Fuse as a single-player experience where you swap between four characters as you like to utilize their drastically different strengths, then maybe this could have risen up to even greater excellence. It does feel a little odd to tell people not to play the multiplayer part of a multiplayer game since it’s not as exciting, but this loops back to what I said in the beginning of this review. Judge Fuse for what it is, and while it didn’t intend to have its single player be the star of the show, the impact of the Leap system takes them from a shooter with some good concepts and animations to one that nails the idea of controlling your own squad of differently capable characters.