Back to my one-two punch: my preferred female can also turn invisible for short bursts, perfect for sneak attacks, but generally speaking, she's suited for far and away offense. My go to guy on the other hand has a very limited range, so you have to come up and nice and slow and obvious like. But like a tank, meaning he's hard to mess with. Yet not impossible, as the enemy proved time and time again.
The pace is fast and freewheeling. Look around, shoot, dodge, shoot some more, jump into another body, and repeat. You're constantly jumping back and forth, because you need to, to stay alive.Plus it’s simply fun; the real joy comes from discovering who does what, and how who is most applicable in a certain situation. As a result, Fuse doesn't feel quite as cumbersome as other examples of the genre.
But it isn't sensory overload either; between skirmishes, there was an environmental puzzle to solve, to help even out the pace and emphasize teamwork in another way. Even if it's one person doing all the button presses. And cooperation is rewarded thusly; when a character does a particularly effective or creative kill, it fills the Fuse meter. And once it's maxed out, a tap of the button allows for everyone to become especially devastating. Though, when playing with others, its up to you all to figure out when to pull the trigger.
Otherwise, controls are standard fare. Though I also loved how melee attacks were quite showy; the aforementioned female character pulled off some rather spectacular moves, like head-scissors take downs, stuff that you'd normally see in the WWE ring. Ultimately, and this is something that will surely irk diehard fans, the game is pretty forgiving with it comes to controls. When you choose to duck, you can be somewhat far away to cover and your character will zip towards a safe spot. Which I liked, bit again, you're talking to a newbie here.
The other mode was a purely multiplayer affair, which emphasizes both cooperation as well as competition. It was your standard king of the mountain scenario, but because you have the ability to hop around, from character to character, and which was especially necessary here thanks to the brutally punishing AI (that was in the midst of being adjusted; even the developers conceded that it was too tough), this other portion of the game was definitely more pulse pounding.
As for what the competitive aspect might be, certain enemies will drop large sums of money. The developers referred to it as their ode to Smash TV. So not only are you running around, hoping into different bodies left and right, to help the team as much as possible, you're also given the chance to be greedy as well. Quite the combo.
Again, as someone who normally does not like third person shooters, I came away extremely impressed. It's both frantic yet not overwhelming, and completely accessible while feeling totally dumbed down. A combination that’s already difficult to achieve, and which is all but absent in its contemporaries. Though I'm also curious to see how someone who swears by Gears of War will view Fuse.
