FUSE: Colouring in All the Wrong Numbers

In between the increasingly idiotic box-art controversies (more on that later) and its very generic gameplay with more cliches than a Michael Bay film, Insomniac Games’ FUSE has had a fair share of changes. However, as Insomniac chief Ted Price revealed to VentureBeat, no changes was as great as the decision to add more colour to the game. Seriously? According to Price, “Fuse has changed less than any other IP that we’ve built. But this has been a much more public change. I know a lot of people have had fairly strong reactions. It’s interesting, too — since we released a trailer two months ago, we’ve made major changes to the look of the game. We’ve added a lot more color. That’s been in response to fan feedback from this first new trailer that we released.

“I think when people see it again, they’re going to be surprised at how much it’s morphed one more time. But that’s the development process. That’s what we enjoy. That’s how we get to a final product that we’re truly proud of.”

All well and good Ted. Honestly. But why is this a big deal? This isn’t like Diablo 3, where other entries in the series had a darker, more grizzled colour palette and suddenly it was sunshine and rainbows in the Lord of Hell’s playground (which itself was a fan exaggeration). We later learned that even the man who headed the first two Diablo games had his differences, though less about the art style. The point is: Diablo 3 had an established template that it had to compete against, one that fans loved – and let’s not discount just how rabid fans of Blizzard can be.

But FUSE? It has nothing but competition in the form of Borderlands 2, Gears of War, Halo, even PSI-Ops. And this is purely because it borrows aspects from each and every single game, so as to appear a lumbering behemoth with little to no distinguishing feature of its own. Even its sci-fi elements borrow liberally from properties like Aliens, Avatar, Area 51, friggin’ Half Life and more. And how about them character types, huh? Nothing like the atypical alpha male, the authority-hating Lisbeth Salander type, the grizzled black cop and the calm, collected Asian type.

Keep it squarely in mind that “more colour” is the biggest change that fans suggested. Who the hell forgot to point out that FUSE looks like every single game with a gun out there in existence? Who looked at the title and decided that its colour palette was the only thing that needed improvement?

Let’s hope Insomniac pulls a rabbit out of its hat (which actually turns out to be Ratchet and Clank) with FUSE. All signs thus far point to this being a generic action game that will give Resident Evil 6 serious competition in the derivative department. And Price’s comment that FUSE has changed less than any other IP in development at the company doesn’t bode well. It essentially means that as of right now, this is the game we’ll be playing – that is, if we haven’t tired of playing it a million times already.