FPS General

Fuse is out this week and we've had about a week now to spend playing Insomniac's first foray into multi-platform gaming. The game is a blast and these are a few things you're going to want to watch out for if you plan on picking Fuse up this week.

#4. LEAP

At its core, Fuse is a co-op game before anything else and few studios do co-op better than Insomniac Games. LEAP is simple: if you are playing without a full four-player squad, the remaining members will be AI controlled. However, at any time you can take control of those characters using the LEAP system.

LEAP brings co-op to a new level, particularly if you are unable to fill out your squad before going online. Note: LEAP can't be used if you have a full squad of human players.

EA has announced that Insomniac Games' upcoming shooter Fuse will be getting a co-op demo next week, giving players a chance to preview what the game has to offer before the game ships on May 28th.

So, why should you bother downloading the demo? Here are a few great reasons to give it a shot.

LEAP Between Characters

Fuse features a unique cast of four characters to choose from, but with the exciting LEAP mechanic, players can actually jump between players seamlessly. Each character has their own set of abilities and skills, so using LEAP lets players take advantage of all of those skills, allowing players to play every role. The idea here is that there are always four characters pivotal to the game, so if you can't rustle up three friends to play with you, you can still make use of every character.

"We wanted to make sure that there are always four characters in the game but you can have just as much fun by yourself, or with one friend, two friends, or three friends. So that's been our design mantra from the very beginning," said Insomniac CEO Ted Price.

Fuse is a game that we've been looking forward to for a while but it's one of those titles that kind of lives in the back of your head. A game that you don't think about very often but whenever you remember it, there's that excited moment of, 'Oh yeah! This exists, I totally forgot.' Whether or not that's a good thing is up for discussion.

If Fuse has slipped under your radar, it's to be forgiven. Here's what the game is about, in a nutshell. Created by the Insomniac Games, the team responsible for the amazing Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet and Clank, Fuse is built from the ground up to emphasize the cooperative aspect of FPS games. Plenty of titles include a co-op mode, but unless you're talking about Borderlands 2, this is usually just a tacked on mode that tells the singleplayer story with two players on the screen.

In Fuse, however, this is a story-driven co-op experience. Even if you decide to play solo, you actually have the option to swap back and forth between characters using Fuse's LEAP system. This is essential because each of the four characters brings something unique to the gameplay experience and everyone is essential for completing missions.

At any rate, Insomniac has announced during PAX East that the game would be shipping on May 28th in North America and May 31st in Europe. Bear in mind, however, that this is a console game and will not be shipping on PC unless Insomniac Games changes their minds in the near future.

Insomniac Games has revealed some details on Echelon Mode from their upcoming shooter Fuse, announced a few months back. The new game mode is a blend of co-op and competitive, taking a cue from Gears of War's popular Horde mode.

While players are intended to work together to survive waves of enemies in Echelon mode, there are also cash drops that will spawn randomly on the map that players will be scrambling to get. These cash drops are not shared, so whoever grabs it first will be able to use it to purchase upgrades and abilities. This progress carries across all of Fuse's game modes, beyond Echelon mode.

Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price stresses that Fuse is being developed as a fun game where you can work with other players to do well and have a good time. In an interview with Joystiq, he said, "Part of our goal here is to make this a friendly game – if you've had experiences in multiplayer games before where you jumped in and had your head blown off in the first couple seconds, we don't want that to happen in Fuse. 

We want Fuse to be a game where you're actually working with players and competing for cash and status. But it's always a friendly competition."

Echelon mode definitely presents a challenge, as Joystiq's David Hinkle can attest to - his team never moved beyond Wave 6 and, to his knowledge, that was further than anyone else at the private play session. There are a total of 12 waves of increasingly difficult enemies, randomly generated each time you play Echelon mode.

Fuse launches in March of 2013 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 - no word yet on PC or Wii U releases, but our fingers are still crossed.

Source: Joystiq

Insomniac Games has been teasing Fuse - their upcoming co-op shooter - for a while now, posting a countdown on their website that was originally intended to lead up to the debut trailer for the game. Unfortunately, last minute legal battles held up the trailer and they weren't able to make that date.

Instead, they released a developer blog and website update that showed some first screenshots and had a message from Insomniac explaining the situation. Well, the legal struggles are over and the first proper look at Fuse in action is available above!

If Fuse is looking familiar to you, the game was originally announced in 2011 under the name Overstrike. Having gone through updates and design changes, the game took on a new moniker - Fuse - and is progressing forward well. Insomniac Games is best known for their PlayStation-exclusive Resistance and Ratchet & Clank franchises, but Fuse will actually be launching on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Check out the trailer above and visit http://www.insomniacgames.com/ for more information on Fuse!

Insomniac Games has announced a brand new cooperative shooter called Fuse, previously known as Overstrike. The game was first announced back at E3 2011, and has since gone through several overhauls and changes, ultimately having the name changed to Fuse.

PlayStation 3 users will remember Insomniac Games for their work on creating three incredible core games in Sony's Resistance franchise of sci-fi shooters. Changing things up a bit, Insomniac is working with EA to publish Fuse on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

As for the game itself, Fuse is a cooperative shooter that is once again set in a sci-fi universe. When a volatile alien substance called Fuse falls into the wrong hands, the CIA calls in Overstrike 9; an elite group of soldiers. Players take on the role of one of the four Overstrike 9 team members for the cooperative gameplay. The four characters are Dalton the team leader, Naya, Isabelle and Jacob.

Fuse boasts a wide array of unique weapons, intense co-op teamwork and some incredible alien technology. We're expecting a trailer to release very soon, as it was supposed to go live this morning only to be halted by last-minute legal issues.

Drop by http://www.insomniacgames.com/ for more information on Fuse and check out a gallery of screenshots after the break.