14 DAY TRIAL // Fuse, the current title in development at Insomniac Games, blends story with gameplay in a better way than its previous incarnation, Overstrike, which was more about an amusing story than a tight gameplay experience, according to the studio’s boss.
Insomniac and Electronic Arts presented to the world back at E3 2011 Overstrike, a stylized shooter that promised to deliver a funny story just like the previous Ratchet & Clank games from the studio.
Now, one year later, Insomniac revealed that Overstrike has evolved into Fuse, a more realistic shooter with a visceral feel, similar to the studio’s other big franchise – Resistance.
According to Insomniac CEO Ted Price, the evolution of Overstrike into Fuse was a necessity, as the previous project didn’t really manage to blend story with gameplay, at least not in the way as Fuse does.
“It wasn’t until fairly recently that we realized there was something of a disconnect between story and gameplay,” Price told the PS blog. “Story was living separately. That was a hard realization for us, because for a game to really impact people we believe story and gameplay have to be tightly meshed.”
“So we started developing Fuse, and we started looking at it as something that powers gameplay as well as story. We made it the driver for the weapons and we made it the core of the progression system. When we did that everything started to click. That was the time when we made the tone shift as well.”
Even if Fuse has a more violent tone, just like many realistic military shooters nowadays, Price assures players that it’s still an Insomniac experience with humor and style.
“The world is still very ‘Insomniac’ – it’s stylized in its own way and doesn’t adhere to any realistic conventions that we see today, and it is in no way a military sim. And it still has humor, but it’s a very different kind of humor to the campy, cartoony approach we originally took,” he added.
“I understand too that the change upset some of our fans who saw the trailer in 2011 and expected something very different. But what we have now is actually a better, deeper experience where we have gameplay and story tied more closely.”
Fuse is definitely looking much more impressive, at least judging by the recent 18-minute gameplay video released by the studio earlier this week, complete with commentary from Price.
Look forward to hearing more about the shooter in the near future.