JOE catches up with a man who knows a thing or two about games to chat about his newest title FUSE, as well as where he sees next-gen gaming going
JOE recently got a chance to play the latest game from Insomniac games called FUSE, but which started life as a very different project called OverStrike. We got the chance to sit down with CEO and producer Ted Price to chat about what makes this newest game different, as well as where he sees next-gen gaming going
JOE: We’ve been playing FUSE and it looks great, but what can readers hope to see in this game?
Ted Price: We built it from the ground up as a four player game, to raise the bar with co-operative play, whether you’re playing alone, or with three friends. We spent a lot of time with the AI bots so that you’re supported the way you want to be supported by them in a way that works really well.
You’re not locked into one character though, you can use the leap feature to jump between all four of them, and they all have different skills which fit to a different archetype with their unique weapons
JOE: Tell us a little bit about the characters and their FUSE weapons
TP: All the FUSE-powered weapons give the characters different aspects to their play. Dalton is a tank, Naya who is a great flanker, since she has invisibility, Jacob is a distant damage dealer and a trap expert, and Izzy who is a healer and a crowd control expert.
All of them play very differently, which gives players an incentive to leap to try out different approaches in game play, but you can still go through the whole game as one character if you like, and you’ll get skill points to customise your character.
That’s not all though, you can combine these weapons to get these very arcade-like combos, which is a real incentive to play as a team.
JOE: This game took a really drastic change early on and became a bit more grounded. Do you think that these weapons are the real difference make between this and other shoot ’em ups?
TP: Not only the weapons, as I think the story does too. We spent a lot of time on building the characters and the world that they inhabit, to try and ask the question what would happen if humans got their hands on an alien substance? But I’ve been encouraging people to play it to see the difference fro themselves.
That said, these weapons something that people won’t have seen before. Dalton, the tank, he gets a giant mag shield, which his team-mates can fire through and stay protected. Izzy has the shatter gun, which crystallises enemies and branches out to catch nearby enemies, which team-mates can then shatter, it’s almost like setting up bowling pins for your friends to knock down.
Jacob can burn his enemies with his Arcshot, and he can also pin them to something or lay a trap for them. Naya has a warp rifle, which can coat enemies with a mixture of FUSE and anti-matter, which triggers a black hole, which is really cool.
JOE: You’ve called this game “co-petetive”, what exactly do you mean by that?
TP: We have a game mode outside the story mode called Echelon, which are big arcade-style battles, and they are really hard.
You’re asked to move around the battlefield and complete objectives, which are totally randomised, and you’ll need to work together as a team. However, there are also FUSE credits which are huge cash rewards, that are available for you to grab and give your individual character a boost or buy new gear, so there’s a competitive element too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Ah20wNe1g
JOE: So talk to us about next-gen, can you give us any inside information?
TP: Not a huge amount, we have to stay pretty tight-lipped! But it’s really great to be working as a developer right now, we have multiple audiences like on mobile and consoles.
However I do think this console generation has stretched on for a long time, and I don’t think the next generation is going to be totally different to what we’ve seen in this one.
There will always be a demand for huge blockbuster games though, I truly believe that. With regard to FUSE in particular, we truly believe that gamers are becoming more social, and that gamers are becoming more connected, which we saw with Sony’s announcement. That trend is going to continue I believe, and our response to that trend is a game that really promotes co-op play like this one.
JOE: Lastly, tell us about the Ratchet and Clank movie you guys are working on.
TP: As a company we’re involved, we’re working hand in hand with the guys that are building the movie. Blockade and Rainmaker are taking a lot of the assets that we built and are creating something pretty incredible. The script writer they have also worked on Ratchet & Clank, so they’re staying true.
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