Fuse Review: Four Wild Weapons, One Shot at Glory

Fuse is a game built around a simple idea: give four agents each a wild weapon and let them fight as a team. That idea is the game’s strength and its weakness, and the two rarely meet.

Insomniac Games, best known for Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, made Fuse for Electronic Arts. It came out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013. The game follows Overstrike 9, a team of four misfit agents sent to stop a shadowy corporation from gaining a dangerous alien substance called Fuse. The setup sounds like a shooter with a plan.

It mostly works, but only in short bursts.

Trailer, via FuseGame.

The Four Agents

Overstrike 9 is a ragtag group, and each member gets a distinct role and a distinct gun. Dalton Brooks is a reformed mercenary with a Mag Shield that absorbs bullets and pushes them back at enemies. Naya Deveraux is a former Raven employee with a cloak device and a gun that fires tiny black holes. Izzy Sinclair is a young scientist with a crystallization gun that turns foes to glass. Jacob Kimble is a detective with a fire crossbow.

The game leans on these differences to drive its co-op play. One agent can shield, another can hide, and a third can melt enemies apart. The idea is solid. The execution is less so.

The Guns and Their Problems

The guns are the star of the show. Dalton’s Mag Shield is a standout, pushing bullets back at enemies with satisfying force. Naya’s black hole gun is clever in concept but awkward in practice. Izzy’s crystallization gun is visually striking but often feels weak compared to the others.

The problem is balance. Some guns feel powerful and useful. Others feel like a novelty that gets put away after the first level. The game tries to make every agent feel essential, but it does not succeed across all of them.

Story and Voice Work

The plot is thin but serviceable. Overstrike 9 investigates a quiet weapons lab, finds Fuse, and learns it bonds with anything it touches. The villains include Dalton’s ex-lover and boss, Meilin Mao, and Naya’s estranged father, Luther Deveraux. Senator William Fable wants to weaponize Fuse, and Raven Corporation stands in the way.

The writing leans on humor and snark, which fits the cast’s personalities. Dalton is sarcastic and world-weary, while Izzy is rebellious and sharp-tongued. Jennifer Hale voices Naya, Ali Hillis voices Izzy, Khary Payton voices Jacob, and Brian Bloom voices Dalton. David Kaye plays their handler, Oculus. The voice work is professional and committed, even when the script asks for jokes that fall flat.

Cover Shooting and Skill Trees

The shooting itself is standard cover-based fare. Enemies hide behind walls, you find cover, you fire. The game adds a skill tree for each agent, letting players upgrade abilities as they level up. This gives players a reason to stick with one character, though the upgrades themselves are modest.

The horde mode, called Echelon, borrows from Gears of War. It is a decent addition, giving the campaign a second reason to play. But it does not save the game’s identity problems.

What Works and What Doesn’t

Fuse succeeds when it commits to spectacle. The guns are imaginative, the explosions are large, and the game knows how to stage a big moment. It fails when it asks players to sit through filler levels and fights that feel like they were designed by committee.

Here is what stands out:

1. Dalton’s Mag Shield, which remains the strongest and most entertaining gun in the arsenal.
2. The casting, which brings real talent to roles that could have been cartoonish.
3. The ambition of the weapons themselves, even when they do not land.
4. The cover shooting, which is competent if forgettable.

Here is what drags the game down:

• The uneven balance between agents and their guns.
• The thin plot, which relies too heavily on setup over payoff.
• The pacing, which slows in the middle of the campaign.
• The multiplayer modes, which feel like an afterthought.

A Missed Opportunity

Fuse was a critical and commercial failure for Electronic Arts. That failure is easy to see in retrospect. The game never commits fully to being a shooter, a sci-fi adventure, or a co-op experience. It tries to be all three at once and ends up being none of them.

The guns are the reason to play. The rest is a letdown.

Final Score

Fuse is a game with a great idea and a poor execution. Its four agents and their wild weapons deserve better than a campaign that forgets about them half the time. The multiplayer modes feel tacked on, and the story is a thin excuse to get players fighting.

The game is not a disaster, but it is a disappointment. It shows promise in its weapons and its cast, but it fails to deliver a full package.

co-op shooter · Electronic Arts · Fuse · game review · Insomniac Games