Overstrike Becomes Fuse

[carlh267]

Before Diablo 3's release: "This game looks too colorful now!"

Before Fuse's release: "This game looks too gritty now!"

The thing is, both scenarios involve changing a perceived expectation. The Diablo crowd were expecting something gritty, and it wasn't up to their standards. Insomniac set up a light hearted premise and it's taken a gritty turn. And frankly, we're fine for gritty shooters. This could've filled a niche with very little competiton. How many quirky comical shooters are there on the market at the moment? The only one that comes to mind is Borderlands, and even then that holds a different market appeal.

Personally, I'm less enthusiastic about this now. Insomniac has a good pedigree of humourous games, and frankly I was excited for another one. I'll withold judgement until I know more details, because Insomniac have proven they are able to do gritty quite well. The Resistance and Infamous series were both excellent, and while Infamous did have moments of levity it was still a fairly serious affair. I'm more than willing to reckon this will be a good game, barring any interference from EA (I really don't want to jump on the auto-EA hate wagon, but frankly you can only judge a horse by the races its won, or in this case the horses it's hamstrung and sent to the glue factory).

Overstrike would've been a day 1 purchase.
Fuse will be a wait and see affair.

I can get your point, but the whole "Diablo is too colorful now" argument was a tad bit ridiculous.

I'm a little less enthusiastic, but I agree with you, Resistance was a great series (despite the floundering of the second game, I still enjoyed its set pieces). Just a correction: Infamous was made by Sucker Punch, not Insomniac.

 

[kitsuta]

With Fuse's more photo-realistic visuals and altered story came new weapon forms and amplified violence. Enemies melt, explode into chunks, spray blood when they're cut, and wobble their backward heads after unsettling neck-break animations.

This quote seems to imply that their reason for changing the aesthetic was because they wanted more violence. Because clearly, color and smooth shapes means no violence is allowed. Just look at Borderlands, or TF2, or Mortal Kombat. Oh no. Wait. So-called cartoony aesthetics actually let you get away with more gruesome, violent things because they are less likely to put people off. Oops?

It's their game and they're the only ones who really know the full process behind the decisions they made. And if you compare the models' faces, it's not that drastic of a change in style - most of my problem is with the design of the suits and robots, which have that overwrought "we couldn't stop adding useless bits" look that plagues so much modern scifi. And honestly, you can still have ugly robots with cartoony models.

It's really not a deal-breaker, but man did I like the original style better.

Spoiler: Oh, alright. I guess you'll be the ones carrying my awesome weapons. Got it".][img]http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9xocgWqvd1qlf9wno1_400.png[/img][/spoiler] Meh. [spoiler="Why hello there, shall we commence with the buttkickary? WE SHALL

I wanna party with those motherfuckers!

 

[Wicky_42]

That trailer was really quite fun-looking. Those screen-shots are not. Then again, it's perhaps not fair to bump those against each other, so I'll see what a trailer for the new one looks like...

It looks like this:


Not exactly riveting stuff. Especially not compared to the OverStrike trailer.

*sigh*

Well, that was dry. And completely incomparable to the Overstrike trailer. Colour me disappointed until further info is released.

 

[Weresquirrel]

I can get your point, but the whole "Diablo is too colorful now" argument was a tad bit ridiculous.

I'm a little less enthusiastic, but I agree with you, Resistance was a great series (despite the floundering of the second game, I still enjoyed its set pieces). Just a correction: Infamous was made by Sucker Punch, not Insomniac.

D'oh! Not rightly sure what I was thinking when I wrote that... Anyway, I agree on the Diablo front being overblown for what it was, but then again, I never played Diablo 1 or 2, so I wasn't invested in it. I love me some Ratchet and Clank though, and comedic writing is a strong suit of theirs. I hate to see potential wasted. We'll have to wait and see though. No sense getting bent out of shape until more information is available to us. Then we can get ourselves good and angry about their BETRAYAL!

 

[TheNaut131]

Can I just sit here and cry about Izzy's design change? Even if she had the same moves, without that fucking coat it's just seems...empty

 

[Irridium]

Before Diablo 3's release: "This game looks too colorful now!"

Before Fuse's release: "This game looks too gritty now!"

The thing is, both scenarios involve changing a perceived expectation. The Diablo crowd were expecting something gritty, and it wasn't up to their standards. Insomniac set up a light hearted premise and it's taken a gritty turn. And frankly, we're fine for gritty shooters. This could've filled a niche with very little competiton. How many quirky comical shooters are there on the market at the moment? The only one that comes to mind is Borderlands, and even then that holds a different market appeal.

Personally, I'm less enthusiastic about this now. Insomniac has a good pedigree of humourous games, and frankly I was excited for another one. I'll withold judgement until I know more details, because Insomniac have proven they are able to do gritty quite well. The Resistance and Infamous series were both excellent, and while Infamous did have moments of levity it was still a fairly serious affair. I'm more than willing to reckon this will be a good game, barring any interference from EA (I really don't want to jump on the auto-EA hate wagon, but frankly you can only judge a horse by the races its won, or in this case the horses it's hamstrung and sent to the glue factory).

Overstrike would've been a day 1 purchase.
Fuse will be a wait and see affair.

Small correction. Infamous was created by Sucker Punch, of Sly Cooper fame. Not Insomniac.

 

[Living_Brain]

Small correction. Infamous was created by Sucker Punch, of Sly Cooper fame. Not Insomniac.

Already corrected Capt'n!

 

[shrekfan246]

Can I just sit here and cry about Izzy's design change? Even if she had the same moves, without that fucking coat it's just seems...empty

You speak truth. That outfit had tons of character and really distinguished her from the rest of the cast, and really livened up the stylized and fantastic nature of the game. The new screenshots... just look so generic. Just gotta echo my earlier sentiment, it's sad that this story is the first I've heard of this game and I still was disappointed by the new screenshots.

 

[crimson sickle2]

I actually wanted Overstrike, unless all of the character's have gilded rainbow coming out of their mouths every time one of them speaks in substitute of the generic lines, I'll pass.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

This ip used to interest me, but now it doesn't.

It may as well be a Lego golf game for all I'll pay attention to it now.

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

From watching the trailer I see I stylizes, slightly cartoon human FPS with some interesting character that I wouldn't mind playing

When I look at the new screen shots I see and non-discript FPS with characters that look all the same in a "gritty" realistic setting

I'm going to whole off condemming this new FUSE untill I see and working trailer and in-game play, but still, bad form Insomniac Games

-M

 

[Vault101]

Looks like some marketer saw it and went, "This doesn't look HD.. we need it to look HD."

I'm pretty sure HD isn't a colour palette or artstyle

That's nice. Your point?

my [i/]point[/i] is I thourght you were refering to the shift to "gritty" and using "HD" as a way of describing it...which some people do (COD and their HD ultra gritty realistic graphics....as people say)

I was pointing out "HD" in that context seems misleading/inacurate

 

[Vault101]

Which is why I said "It looks like some marketer said.."

Get my point this time?

so marketers are idiots (surprise surprise)

got it....

 

[major_chaos]

I'm going to be the odd one out and say that trailer not only made me not want to play the game, it made me wish chronic migraines on the devs and if was anymore "quirky" I may have had to garrote myself with a paperclip chain, while the screenshots look like something there is a chance in hell of me playing. Also:
"With Fuse's more photo-realistic visuals and altered story came new weapon forms and amplified violence. Enemies melt, explode into chunks, spray blood when they're cut, and wobble their backward heads after unsettling neck-break animations."
now THAT sounds like fun, if there is one thing I love its tasteless ultra-violence.

 

[Grimh]

Aah, hmm, yes, I see.
So what we have here is basically a "Reverse Borderlands" situation.

I guess visually distinct characters with their own personalities are not as interesting as bland samey characters who's only major visual distinction are their haircuts.
Oh no wait, I'm sorry, one of the girls is wearing a grey jacket over her grey combat suit which clearly sets her apart, how foolish of me.

Not saying that the whole game will automatically suck because of this change, but I just really liked the original aesthetic.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I am so amazingly disappointed right now.

 

[carlh267]

Announcement trailer is up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijlVoaa1uqM

Still reasonably excited, but I can't help but think Dalton's shield should be a different color.

 

[Irridium]

Well, that was dry. And completely incomparable to the Overstrike trailer. Colour me disappointed until further info is released.

Well, here's another trailer!


Admittedly, the game looks like it'll be fun. Still, I feel it would've been better if it still had the charm from the Overstrike trailer.