Overstrike’s Aesthetic Evolution Into Fuse Was For Older Appeal

If there was a training course in How To Play And Think About Video Games, I think one of the courses has to be on lecturing people that yes, it's okay if you play a game that is for everyone and no, just because your little brother might enjoy the game, doesn't mean the game isn't worthwhile.

Few things are as juvenile as worrying if your taste in media will be critisized for being too kiddie. And for men that are largely in their thirties–as per metrics state, anyway–it's frankly unbecoming that we so regularly have to have conversations about "kiddie games." Grow up. Play what you fucking want to play, not what looks like is 'appropriate' for your age bracket.

So then: Overstrike! Overstrike was the latest victim to this insane fixation with making/playing games with an 'older appeal,' and 'older appeal' apparently means boring and derivative. Hey, I guess that's how kids probably view adulthood, huh? Hmm, maybe this big trend makes sense now…

In a writeup on Insomniac Games, IGN revealed the reason why Overstrike changed its aesthetic.

“The game started out with a much more stylized and campy direction. We were actually going for something on the level of Ratchet & Clank, except with humans,” Allgeier said. “Maybe it was going to appeal to gamers who, we thought at the time, might be in their late teens. The industry’s changed quite a bit… We would focus test the game in front of a lot of gamers, and get their opinion. These are people that regularly play PlayStation 3 and Xbox games. We started to discover that everyone thought this was a game for their younger brother. We would hear this from 12-year-olds. So we decided that we needed to make a game that had an older appeal.”

The especially unfortunate thing about this all is that by situating it against other Realistic, Mature Games For Older Audiences is that the competition is so cutthroat, Fuse will have that much more of a difficult time convincing people it's worth their time. Call of Duty vs untested, new franchise? Hmm…