So the demo is up for grabs on XBL Marketplace (Size 1.5GB). Will write some impressions after i have tried it out. Have to say upfront that i am still bummed out by the art style change they made from the more stylised version.

For some strange reason I dreamed about playing this game. Haven't tried the demo yet or anything and I'm not particularly excited about it either... So weird. Anywhoo thanks for the notice, gonna download it myself now too.

@yummylee: That's an omen if i ever heard of one. You better play that demo then :)

The demo was kinda short for the 1,5GB download. The look of the game still haves some of those elements from the earlier concept, like the main character looks way more stylised than the other characters. Also i could notice the quirky writing from those earlier trailers shining through. The gameplay was kinda floaty and unresponsive, but it was ok.

I played through the demo with the medic lady and it was easy to revive downed players with the stim grenade. All in all it was ok, but im not sure if i would pay full price for this.

Also co-op doors confirmed!

I'll get it when it comes on PSN, I'm probably the only person on the planet, who is really excited about this game - I just love Insomniac that much.

OK then, well... it's actually better than I was expecting, but i think that's because i had practically zero expectations for it whatsoever so having a little fun with it actually came as a surprise.

There's definitely some things about it that I like, such as:

• Being able to switch between all four characters at will
• Dialogue seems pretty snappy, especially from Dalton.
• Good selection of voice actors it seems, with the likes of Brian Bloom and Jennifer Hale. Though Hale's in full faux-British mode, which I've never been the biggest fan of.
• UI looks pretty snazzy.
• Music definitely had a cool, gritty sci-fi feel to it.
• Tech trees and experience points!

Oh, and the actual gameplay itself seems alright. The controls feel a little floaty when the movement is concerned, but stuff like getting into cover and the shooting are solid. I'm still not a huge fan of the much more generic aesthetic it's taken on, though, but the writing sounds like it has a bit of a bite to it at least. Overall it looks like it could be a pretty fun coop shooter, and even after all this time I do still enjoy me some third-person cover-based shooting, and especially ones that include multiple classes and levelling up.

I love Insomniac but I just can't, sorry.

Welp, that's a third person cover based shooter alright..

As for a 'demo' its kind of boring. Straight in, hiding behind cover and shooting at guys with hardly any set up. If there are enemies from a far, use the Sniper guy. If there are enemies close, use...anyone. Someone goes down use the cover shield guy to revive or the 'medic' to throw a heal grenade.

I know Insomniac wanted to attract a larger audience with this one and that's probably the main reason they changed the art style but I really feel the previous art style and sass could of helped it not seem so bland. From what I've played this is just boringly meh. It's not even bad its just merely 'does the job' at being a third person cover based shooter and the 'unique powers' don't feel all that special or anything new you haven't seen from any other class based games.

Also, just want to add that the fire looks so bad. It literally looks like something out of minecraft or a PS1 game. The game itself is kind of rough looking all around mind you, but the fire is on a whole different level of crap.

Still, I dunno, I was pleasantly surprised. I really hope there'll be more enemy types besides facing an army of faceless clones, though.

It's got Jennifer Hale and Ali Hillis in it so..
Well I guess there's that! Other than that it just seems like any other co-op shooter thingymajig, can't really tell much from a demo though

@yummylee: My thoughts exactly.

So a 4 player co-op shooter featuring characters with unique powers that had a lot of hype going for it early on (pre-graphical change anyway) turns out to be just another mediocre shooter. Could Fuse be this generation's Brute Force?

@yummylee: Shit, if Brian Bloom is in the game. then I HAVE to give it a look.

I feel i should warn people that i haven't liked anything Insomniac has done, so my impressions are probably tinged with a little bias against it for no reason. With that said, here we go.

On the xbox, what feels like a full second input delay for all controls, a frame rate of somewhere between 20 - 24 giving it a very choppy look, odd sharpness and contrast similar to the unfinished looking Future Soldier on consoles (pc version looked much better), some very odd looking face animation.
On the content side, guns lack any feel of power, the developer has gone for bullet soaking enemies but larger clip sizes which some people may like but not me, it doesn't help that the boss enemies in the demo have little strategy about them they just take a ton of bullets, the characters have unique abilities but non of the ones featured in the demo are interesting, they either do damage or are a shield, there's platforming but it's just push a direction then press A, the trailer shows a ledge takedown but stealth doesn't seem like a core aspect of the game, taking cover is a very simple system but it's easy to over shoot a corner and end up vulnerable, then try to fix the situation but the controls seem to have been moved around in an attempt to avoid the standards of the genre just enough that you fumble around alot, enemies will run up to you which results in awkward melee button fights.

This is a crappy post and certainly not a review of any kind, just what i felt coming away from the demo.

@yummylee: Maybe it'll look better on the PS3 version? You know, since they know that console more.

If Brute Force bombed, then yes.

I haven't download the demo yet but I was wondering for those complaining about the bullet sponge enemies. Is there anything on the skill tree or upgrade that makes combat easy and simple or do you feel overpowered.

The demo was pretty easy from my experience and certainly wouldn't consider the enemies to be bullet sponges -- like, at all. I played as the medic who had a sniper rifle available and one headshot was enough to take down any of the regular grunts, and even without that they'd go down pretty quickly.

I enjoyed it. I actually like the way the main character models look, especially Dalton and I'm sure the Fuse powered weapons will feel better the more you pump skill points into your characters. I found the shooting to be fine and the environments to look pretty bad, but it was fun despite some really shoddy AI companions. It seems like the kind of game you'd have far less fun with if you were playing it on your own.

Probably has the very best fire effects in any game ever.

I have pretty crap internet at home, so I can't download the demo. To duders who have played the game, could you be so kind to answer these questions:

1. Do the Fuse weapons level up? If so, do they level up ala Resistance 3/ Ratchet and Clank or via Skill Tree?

2. Do other weapons level up as well?

Thanks in advance!

So I downloaded it and man, that was worse than I was expecting. The controls were super floaty/not responsive, and it just seemed overall not great. I really wish they had stayed with the original look, but whatever. It just doesn't seem like the game for me.

This.

There was an episode of Top Gear where Jeremy Clarkson described a car (I forget which) as "just a car." That's almost exactly how I felt about this demo - it's just a game. There is absolutely nothing about it that stood out to me. I guess some of the dialogue is okay, and the character models look decent. But for the most part, this is merely a functional game - you've played a dozen cover-based shooters like it before, and you will again. Unless there's something I'm just not seeing about it, I can't possibly see this rising above the general mediocrity to become a beloved title in the Insomniac library. That's a damn shame.

I loved the demo. Deff pre-ordering it.

For some reason this thread makes me think about how forgotten this game probably will be post E3.

We sure are at the end of a console cycle.

The demo kind of throws you into the deep end, but by the end of it I was warming up to it. I don't know that I'll pick it up on release, but I'm thinking I definitely want to buy it at some point.

@megalombax said:

To answer both of your questions, the experience and leveling system appears to consist largely of a skill tree as opposed to the Ratchet and Clank style of having weapons level up as you use them. Some of these perks/skills upgrade your Fuse weapon specifically with different benefits (for instance, there is an upgrade to make the crystallization effects of Izzy's Shattergun chain to more enemies), while others affect your character's specific character ability, as well as basic stats like damage and health. From what I can tell, there are upgrades that increase proficiency with the other weapons that are not the Fuse weapons.

Each character has their own skill tree and are upgraded individually, but the AI appears to level up the other characters you aren't playing so that you're not swapping to underleveled characters in the single-player campaign.

Finally, there is also a set of Team Upgrades that are purchased with in-game credits as opposed to experience points.

Thanks for the info duder. I've always liked the Ratchet series style of weapon upgrading since it's always a nice surprise how the weapons will evolve. But any form of upgrading system in a TPS is always a plus point in my book. Thanks again!

seems like OK fun to play, but yea it suffered greatly when it was reverse-borderlanded.

I actually thought the AI was really good. I liked how when I went down, the guy with the shield put his shield up, walked over to me and placed it in front of us and then healed me. Another time I was near death and the medic through her healing grenade at just the right moment to save me and turn the tide of battle. And yet another time I was outnumbered but the goo girl froze all the enemies and I was able to take them out. Overall they were actually really effective, completing objectives, taking down enemies, and using their powers effectively to help each other. Best part of the demo for me.

As for the rest of the gameplay, it was meh. Functional but nothing special. Also a shame to see how much going multiplatform has hurt the graphics for Insomniac. Resistance 3 looked way better than this, as did most of the recent Ratchet and Clank games.

Downloading this now, as I want to see the thing meself before forming any deeper opinion. Though I'm already part of the club who's bummed out by the 'artstyle change.' (Yeah, yeah, CGI trailer, but still...!)

I'd hope there's a local co-op multiplayer involved? And if so, does the demo have that?

@raven10: After playing through the demo five times I have to say it's a real mixed bag. (3 on 360, 2 on the PS3) Sometimes they're really aggressive and you see enemies exploding all over the place and other times they just stand behind cover still taking damage from enemies that have a line of sight on them. In one of my playthroughs two of them went down within 30 seconds of encountering enemies and on two occassions where I went down I could see their outlines running around around the scenery like headless chickens, the medic didn't even bother to use her special either time.

After playing both versions of the demo they both seem Identical. The only difference I could tell is that the PS3 had far more contrast in the visuals. I'm really surprised that this was the demo they put out, they're very clearly just trying to reel in the standard shooter crowd. Insomniac/EA have been very bad at promoting the game and it almost feels like they're trying to hide some of the crazier elements. One of the videos out there shows a giant man shooting lasers and this demo hints at nothing like that. I think the game will be fine and the writing will probably have a great sense of humour, a little of which is shown in the demo ("If you put me in the room with a cat I'm gonna shoot it.") I have my fingers crossed that it will be good anyways.

I liked the demo, it wasn't amazing, but I'll pick it up a few months after release-

The removal color, to the point of turning every title into a homogenized vapid husk is by far my largest issue with this generation. After hearing that a great art style was removed from the game because a 12 year old in a focus test said that it looked like something that their little brother would play, I can't even bring myself to spend my time and bandwidth on a free demo.

I just get can't get over it.

That demo threw a bit too much information at me at once. Overall, I found it to be pretty bland and generic. The controls felt a little too loose and the weapons didn't feel very satisfying. Also, that boss battle went on for too long.

Are they fucking around. This seriously isn't a fifteen dollar XBLA game?

Insomniac's financial woes shall continue. I'm calling it.

i actually had a good time playing it co-op. i would get three other people together in like a year and have us all buy it used and spend a weekend with it. that is, unless the reviews come in and its way better than it seems.

Seemed really fun, I got a mixture of Uncharted and Binary Domain off of this thing.

I actually found it quite enjoyable. After being a little underwhelmed by GOW Judgment this seemed pretty good.

I literally spent like 2 hours a couple of days ago replaying this (like, 10-15 minute long) demo over and over, just goofing around in a full team of four. It was a great deal of fun, and while the controls could be a little tighter, they work well enough that I've found playing the game to be really enjoyable. I do wish the classes were more diverse, though, even if combining the effects of different Fuse weapons Mass Effect style is a neat touch.

Overall, I can definitely see this game having potential, though I'm still a little reluctant to buy it since it's right in between Resident Evil Revelations and the Last of Us.

Too bad nobody will buy this and Insomniac will probably crash and burn because of this shit.

I freaking love their Ratchet and Clank games and it´s heartbreaking to see what they are turning their company into. First those shitty outsourced Ratchet and Clank wannabe games and now this. Fuck. Looks like we´ll lose another one of the great studios.

I can´t even be bothered to download the demo. It´s just sad.

is that really the box art? its terrible was the guy who cropped the frame high.

I haven't played this yet, but just read the wiki and laughed at this ridiculous breakdown:

I'm glad they have these catchy nicknames I can remember.

The PSN version's controls felt good to me, could be perhaps a bit tighter. Shame there is no PC version, have way more people there to play co-op with, which seems the best way to play this.

The game seems fine. It's reasonably fun but nothing outstanding. I seriously doubt I'll end up buying it, at least not when it's new. I was honestly expecting more from a developer as creative and awesome as Insomniac.

I don't really got much to say about all this but thanks @fierrze for letting me know. I haven't turned on my Xbox since Bioshock Infinite.

not to be too devil's advocate on here, but i'm wondering if we had the same exact gameplay with the original look if people would be as hard on it.

I just downloaded it and had more fun with it than I expected. I don't see the story being any good, but the guns were fun to use and I like skill trees so I could see me buying it at the right price.

I'd say the worst thing about it was Jenifer Hales terrible British accent. It's so bad it irritates me ...

It still shocks me she's a Newfie.

So how do you know it's shit? Reviews aren't even in for the game yet. Some people played the demo and liked it some played it and didn't. Sounds like pretty much ANY game that is released with a demo too me.

I'll wait till I see sales, word of mouth/review scores, and until I've played it to see if it's actually shit or not. Just saying. The demo itself though was interesting. Short. That is my biggest issue is that it is really hard for me to get a sense if the story which I think is crucial for a game like this to pay off in just a demo. Some of the spunk and fire was in the dialogue but if the story falls flat, even if the gun play and mechanics are relatively interesting if not that fresh then I could see the game getting reviewed a little harshly.

The demo was kinda... boring? I really liked the initial trailer when it was announced, and was hoping that it would have more of a bite in the dialog. It felt very pedestrian and standard, and the "innovative guns" seemed not that cool. The whole treatment kinda turns me off. It felt like "Army of Two Four", with slightly better developed characters.

I doubt I'm getting the coop gang together for this. Unless it turns out that the demo was just crap and there is some unseen brilliance in the rest of the game. Maybe it's time for another run through 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.