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Over the years, video games have primarily focused on granting power fantasies to players by putting them in the shoes of ultra-powerful killing machines. With all of that practice and iteration, games have gotten increasingly refined in their ability to make players feel good about creating various forms of wanton death and destruction. Fury Unleashed is a game practically obsessed with delivering a very straightforward version of shooting action that positively reinforces ripping through enemies as quickly as possible, and it does a really great job at it, especially in adapting its gameplay to touch screens.

Comic book action

Fury Unleashed is a 2D side-scrolling shooter that is built around the aesthetics and design of comic books. You play as the book's protagonist, Fury, and wander between different comic panels, laying waste to skeletons, aliens, nazis, and more. Fury is a super-soldier of sorts who is well versed in all manner of firearms while also having melee weapons, grenades, and super powers at their disposal.

As you make your way through the pages of various comic issues, a light story unfolds, though it's focused more on the fictional creator of these comic books rather than Fury themselves. Rest assured, though, the focus here really is on the moment-to-moment action of unloading bullets in rooms full of enemies, gathering gear along the way, and seeing how far you can make it before you die.

Retro roguelite

The action in Fury Unleashed feels like the gameplay of classic 2D side-scrolling arcade games like Contra and Metal Slug, though with some key differences like independent control of movement and aiming via two virtual joysticks. There's also a gear system in place here that has you discovering and equipping various forms of armor, grenades, power ups, and up two gun options you can swap between on the fly.

This sounds like a lot to handle via a touch screen, but Fury Unleashed's mobile version is surprisingly pretty easy to wrangle (not to mention it also has perfect bluetooth controller support). There aren't a ton of control customization options, but the granular auto-aim settings can really help you fine-tune the degree of compensation you might need when using virtual buttons. If even then things seem too difficult, Fury Unleashed grants you upgrade points after every run that you can use to give yourself bonuses and increased stats on subsequent play sessions, and there's even somewhat of a “checkpointing” system that lets you skip to later levels provided you've cleared the previous ones enough times.

Combo breaker

I can't stress enough how well Fury Unleashed's touch controls work. For the purposes of this review I was able to complete every section of the game on its default “hard” difficulty without touching a controller. Everything from jumping to tossing grenades feels easy to master with perhaps a little bit of practice, and my only consistent hiccups during play mostly came from accidentally opening the the quick-access map, which unfortunately isn't moveable or able to be toggled on/off despite having some customization options for those that play with controllers.

Otherwise, the only thing that might make Fury Unleashed's action feel a little divisive is the game's combo system. Although you can absolutely play this game by cautiously and methodically working your way through levels, it heavily encourages you to string kills together as quickly as possible while avoiding damage. Currencies that help you during runs and generate ability points between them drop more plentifully from enemies the higher your combo meter is. Some ability upgrades are also specifically tied to granting bonuses based on your combo. I don't necessarily mind this gameplay model–especially as it adds some additional challenge to a game that at times can feel a little easy for a roguelite–but it can lead to some frustrating runs where the flow of enemies doesn't quite work your way or a slip of the finger results in dropping a huge combo string that you can't help might have been avoidable playing on a different platform.

The bottom line

Fury Unleashed does a fantastic job of delivering quick, high-octane roguelite action that feels varied, deep, and manageable on a touch screen. It may not be the most original kind of game out there, nor will it necessarily push your skills to their limits, but it is a bloody good time nonetheless.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/fury-unleashed-review/

I think we can all agree the gig economy sucks, but GrubDash Driver is a game that goes out of its way to reinforce that point. This management game puts you in the shoes of a delivery driver trying to make ends meet and it is a grueling, soul-crushing experience in both concept and practice. Because the game is so painful to play, though, I'm not sure players might stick with it long enough to glean or appreciate anything about what it has to say beyond its initial (and rather obvious/agreeable) assertion.

Grueling gig

In GrubDash Driver, you play as someone who just lost their job and has to resort to working as a GrubDash driver. GrubDash is this game's fictional food delivery app that more-or-less acts the same way as services like GrubHub and DoorDash operate in real life. Individuals request orders through the app which then go to you, and you have to drive to establishments to pick up said orders and then deliver them to the person that requested them.

It's a job that is repetetive but requires a lot efficiency if you want to score tips or simply not be late with your delivery, and this is reinforced by nearly every single one of GrubDash Driver's mechanics. Every delivery starts with a push notification on your in-game phone, followed by a “getting ready” phase where you make sure you have everything you need before leaving the house. From there, you drive to town where you automatically find parking, but then have to wander through streets to find the correct establishment. After playing a “food pickup” mini game that determines the food's freshness rating, you then have to book it across town in a driving sequence that feels as unresponsive as it possibly can. Once in the neighborhood, you wander between houses reading addresses before dropping the order off at its final location, where you have to make small talk with the recipient before moving on to the next order.

In pursuit of perfection

GrubDash Driver is essentially designed to make you in a constant rush to try in an attempt to beat the clock. Delivery time windows are small, and no pickup or drop-off locations have consistent geography to allow you to rely on player knowledge to take shortcuts. When you first start out, you may consider yourself lucky to get food delivered at all, even though arriving early, maintaining freshness, getting client names correct, etc. can score you the coveted tips you need to really start earning any significant amount of funds.

These funds you then turn around and use on upgrades to make you marginally better at carrying out deliveries. There are also options to spend funds on paying down debt or upgrading your house, but those ends aren't tied to any gameplay systems and are almost treated as vanity expenses. As a result, there is heavy incentive placed on buying new cars that drive better or paying for upgrades that let your character read better, walk faster, etc.

Maddening messaging

I definitely appreciate the way that GrubDash Driver presents the idea of the gig economy as a driver. It is miserable even when you are finding success and it's outlandish to think anyone can simply optimize their way through it to create upward mobility. All that said, GrubDash Driver goes too far to make experience of playing it miserable while also allowing for optimization to occur that it seems to mix up the messaging it appears to be going for.

By making the process of delivering food absurdly difficult (and in some ways that don't make real sense) but offering the ability to purchase upgrades that ease that difficulty, GrubDash Driver seems to suggest that the gig economy is–in fact–something that can be gamed, even when designed to work against you at every turn. There's definitely enough written text in the game to communicate very clearly that the takeaway from this shouldn't be that you can succeed in the gig economy if you try hard enough, even though GrubDash Driver is precisely structured to reinforce that (misguided) belief.

The bottom line

GrubDash Driver is a maddening critique of the gig economy because it gives players goofy and terrible-feeling mechanics to illustrate the difficulty of the work while still granting rewards that you can freely reinvest into making the work easier to perform, netting you more profits. It's a strange way to try and communicate the struggle of the gig worker since it ultimately does allow for you to make meaningful career and life advancement so long as you put up with it for long enough.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/grubdash-driver-review/