Fury is a massively muliplayer online role-playing game, but it has fast action like a first-person shooter. I was able to speak with the CEO of Auran, Tony Hilliam, who showed me the current state of Fury. Tony stated that the number one goal of Fury was to create a great PvP game, as most PvP games are an afterthought for an existing single-player game (such as Quake, Half-Life, and Far Cry). He described it as World of Warcraft on steroids, mixed with a healthy dose of Unreal Tournament.
In focusing on PvP, there are no tradeoffs on PvE Elements. As you level up and aquire more goodies, fighting is still about the skill of the player. Part of the skill is matching the appropriate power-ups and using them appropriately. There are over 400 abilities available to the characters, and you can only equip a certain number of them at any one time (based on your current level).
Twitch gamers may be in for a schooling when it comes to team play. Part of your success depends on how your team coordinates its abilities and uses them, which adds a stregic element to the battle system. If you plan on going offensive, then your team will benefit from more offensive abilities. Likewise, your team should select defensive abilities when guarding, but you can mix and match your team’s abilities to fine-tune how they play.
You can’t just throw a bunch of characters together and hope they’ll fight… you have to have a compelling story for all the carnage. You play as one of the Chosen, who are heroes that have lived a thousand lives and fought previous epic wars. You have been reborn to save the realm from destruction, and you have the Fury Essence as your ally (alot like the “Force”, I gather). Fury Essence is the most powerful magical force, and is used to battle the Fade, which is a Decay Essence (like “The Nothing” from the Neverending Story).
When asked about the game’s name, Tony replied that (from a marketing perspective), they wanted the game to have a strong one-word title. Historically, most MMO and role-playing games have very lengthy titles (World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Witch King, Guild Wars: Eye of the North, etc.), and most FPS action games have short titles (Halo, Quake, Half-Life, etc.). Auron feels that the strongest aspect of the gameplay is in action, and they wanted to portray that in the title. Tony said that you can look at Fury as an “MMO without all the swamp rats”, or as “Unreal Tournament with swords and auctions”, depending on how you want to play.
Your character can be built up and progress as you get better at fighting. To create your character, you first “roll” on different items, much like the character creation of any MMO. As you complete battles, you are ranked on several aspects of the battle, and this ranking system gives you different rewards (in the form of Essence) based on your performance. This Essence is then used to unlock “ancient memories” from your past lives (a way of saying you can buy new abilities with the rewards from battle). So the formula to “level up” your character is to fight, earn Essence, unlock abilities.
Based on your level, you will have a certain amount of Equip points. Theoretically, you can unlock as many “ancient memories” as you want, but you will only be able to equip a limited number based on your current level. Before you enter a battle, you can equip your character with the abilities you want to use (by simply dragging and dropping the ability’s icons to your Equip slots).
The graphics already look very good based on today’s comptuer standards, and uses the Unreal Engine 3. Tony pointed out that this beta build is four months old, and the new version has improved visuals. Fury will ship with four game types, with each one offering a different style of gameplay. You can play a solo event, group with other players for a versus battle, a medium-sized team event and a large scale team conquest event.
The basics of Fury are very easy to pick up and learn. The controls should be second-nature to anyone who has played a FPS. In battle, the Elemental Energy system comes into play, which is a factor in how you strategize. Players can use special abilities at the cost of elemental charges. These abilities range from fireballs (dealing splash damange) to deathblows. There are a significant amount a play choices based on your selected abilities: you can either maximize charges to deliver a more efficient attack, or focus all of your charges to deal a larger amount of damage.
When creating your avatar (character) Fury is much like any other RPG with the option of selecting the gender, body type, hair, face, colors and so on. In addition, you will start the game with a number of basic archetypes allowing you to play as a healer, champion, destroyer, and invoker or to create your own custom mixture. Archetypes are a brief description of a specific incarnation. Archetypes help other realm members identify what kind of role your current incarnation is likely to play in a group or fight. Your character will have an archetype determined by the memories you have recovered and the equipment and abilities you have equipped on your current incarnation.
The world of Fury is divided into different war zones. The sanctuaries are the peaceful areas where players socialize, buy and sell, undertake trials, train, and customize their equipment. The war zones are the combat areas where players fight others to win rewards, and thus enhance their characters.
Fury has an interesting prescription plan, depending on how you want to play. You can purchase the game for $49.99 and never buy another thing ever again: you can unlock every ability and play all you want. A $10 monthly subscription will get you additional benefits, such as additional rolls and priority on gaming servers. Tony stated that if you want to play like an MMO, then you can pay like an MMO. If you want to play as a PvP, then you pay like a PvP and never have to buy a subscription.
On September 15th, Auron is promoting Fury with over $1 million in prizes. Many of the prizes will be in Fury game cards, which gives players in-game gold (you can buy Fury game cards with real money, which then translates to game currency). A typical game card can be purchased for $10, which translates to roughly 120 gold pieces in the game.
The world has been shattered by the powerful forces of The Fade. Only the Chosen can take to the battlefield to fight and recover the Fury Essence that will provide protection and save your Realm from the destruction of The Fade.
Through your skill in combat, you will be reborn and recover the lost memories of your former life and the ancient magic and powers, long forgotten. You have lived a thousand lives and fought in countless battles in your past, which you must now unveil to fight for your future.
As one of The Chosen you will prove your determination to protect your Realm from The Fade and when battle is done, return to the safety of The Sanctuary to receive the spoils of war.
Re-defining PvP Combat
Fury not only challenges the world of mmo role playing games and PvP, it redefines the idea of the “game world” itself. Instead of facing one or two opposing factions within a single server, you are pitted against dozens of other Realms (servers). Once you have chosen your home Realm, you can form up into groups, teams, and Clans (guilds) within your Realm, then vie for supremacy against all others.
Tens of thousands of players can exist upon a single Realm, so you’ll find no shortage of enemies or allies. Who will emerge as the leaders of each Realm, rallying thousands of players into the most epic battles ever seen?
Fury is the Ultimate Player vs. Player experience – Coming Q4 2007.
Trials
- Trials are quests that have to be completed and are the method by which the player “remembers” (acquires) abilities and unlocks them for use in future battles.
- All trials are PvP based
- Trials are acquired from NPC in sanctuaries.
Zones
There are 2 types of areas; Sanctuaries and Warzones
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Customize your Spells and Skills
Players are free to change their avatar’s incarnation any time before entering battle depending on their mood or the needs of their group. Each avatar can ultimately learn any ability and use all equipment in the game. The construction of incarnations is akin to deck building in a collectable card game; each avatar can have as many 200 incarnations.
Fury’s unique approach lets you develop your avatar in as many ways as you like. Our classless advancement system means you’ll never make a mistake that could ruin your character. Fury is all about templates, which we call Incarnations. Instead of picking a class, advancing, gathering gear, grinding on NPCs and then eventually maxing out your very specialized character. Each avatar can redefine themselves in advance of any match and bring the skills they want to play with.
The construction of incarnations is akin to deck building in a collectable card game; each avatar can have as many 200 incarnations. If you don’t get it right first time, no problem. You are free to change your avatar’s incarnation any time before entering battle depending on your mood or the need of your team.
You’ll never need an alternative character in Fury as each avatar can ultimately learn any ability and use all equipment in the game. You keep your name, clan, friends list and Fury doesn’t force you through another set of mindless progressions just because you want to try something new in the game. Fury’s Incarnation system adds significant features not present in other games.
The only limitation is your Characters’ ranking, which determines how many equip points you can use at one time. Your character ranking improves as you advance through the game.
Incarnation
- Incarnations are like a record of a combination of skills and equipment. It is made for players to quickly save and use it later.
- Incarnations are selected from a dropdown menu to save players the hassle of logging off and in again to change character.
- Incarnations can be named and edited in sanctuaries although it doesn’t change the name of the character.
- A character can have up to 255 incarnations.
Schools and Disciplines
Fury’s 4 Elemental Schools*link and 8 Combat Disciplines*link feature over 400 different abilities – and your character can gain them all! Allowing you literally millions of different combinations. Your character can save up to 255 unique combinations of armour, weapons, items, spells and abilities in templates we call Incarnations. As you win more battles, you’ll gain more skills and items, but you are never tied to a single character type. If you spend six months to get to the top of the game, you won’t have to start again if you decide to try a melee class.
Schools
- In Fury, all skills are from a school. Schools are the bodies that teach players the different skills and each school has a theme associated to it.
- Each school has one major element that it represents and two minor ones. In addition to this there are two disciplines within every school in essence dividing the skills into melee and magic:
- The different schools are:
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Ranks
As you advance you gain rank (there are 10 total), which allows you more equip points for the incarnation you’ll take into battle. This means, more or better skills, spells, etc.
The game also automatically matches people, when necessary, to ensure the best balance. By letting people fight across realms (servers), it eliminates the wait times many other MMO games face with arena style combat. Fury also features a range of ladders and ranking systems so that players will always know where they stand in comparison to their friends and enemies. Team up with your friends, Clanmates and Realmmates to battle for glory against hundreds of thousands of players.
Characters, skills and guilds all have ranks. For characters, the rank determines the maximum equip point it posses. For skills, it determines their effectiveness and the higher ranked skills need more equip points. For guilds, it determines the guild hierarchy. Fury’s rank names go from 1 to 10 and are ordered as follows:
- Chosen
- Initiate
- Disciple
- Adept
- Ascendant
- Immortal
- Master
- Grand Master
- Paragon
- Eternal
- PvP combat focused – Every development decision focuses on providing players the ultimate in Player vs. Player experience.
- Combat with the visceral thrill of an FPS game, and the strategy and depth of an RPG.
- A robust matchmaking system that ensures players always fight opponents of equal skill and experience
- Classless advancement system for ultimate flexibility – No more gimping your character or being constrained to a specific set of abilities. In Fury you don’t choose a class – you define your own!
- A game that provides instant action to catch your attention, and the meaningful depth to hold it.
- Realm vs. Realm system with literally dozens of other Realms to fight against!
- Ladders and tournaments for clans or solo players to prove their worth.
- Over 400 abilities, each with 10 unlockable ranks providing near endless possibilities for character advancement and achievement.
- No boring PvE grind – go straight into thrilling PvP combat against human-controlled opponents.
- An MMO that you can actually achieve things in during your lunchtime.
- Next-generation game built on Unreal Engine 3.
- Challenge system for fighting with friends, groupmates or clans, for practice or bragging rights.
Fury’s Backstory (Why We Fight)
It is not hatred that makes me draw my blades, nor lust or ambition that fuels the fires of this struggle. It is the base emotion of fear, fear of The Fade.
The Fade is an inescapable nightmare, a blackness that is unrelenting. When it drags you down, the panic is overwhelming as you gasp for air that isn’t there. Flailing your limbs in a desperate need to touch something substantial, you will find only nothingness. It will seem as if all your senses have left you and though you cannot feel the chill on your skin, a cold sickening force will consume you.
At first, you will believe your suffering will end in death, but that is not the way of it. For centuries you will exist as something less than spirit, drifting aimlessly in the emptiness, lonely and full of anguish. I have felt this. It was all I knew for countless years and I am still haunted each and every time I close my eyes.
Eventually, I was pulled from the everlasting darkness of the Fade and cast back into the living world of flowing color and glorious light. This salvation was not by chance, as this is a time in need of great warriors.
There is only one thing that keeps the shattered remains of our world from the Fade. This substance is Essence, more valuable than gold, far more rare and only won in battle. Without Essence our Realm will be pulled into the Fade and I will not let that happen. I will take up my blades and fight.
Though it is fear that drives me, I also fight for those who saved me from the Fade, so they will not suffer that horror. I fight for them and I fight for our future.
The horn of war blows long and loud for the war of The Fury.
Fury is a full price retail product (USD$49.99). It is then free to play online, with regular free content updates and an option to subscribe to “Immortal Membership”. All players have unlimited access to maps, abilities, items and advancement (power), while Immortals have access to additional features. All players have Immortal status for their first month of play.
Immortal Membership Benefits:
Fury offers players a $9.99 per month optional subscription to unlock additional features including:
- Quick travel in the Sanctuaries and Schools
- VoIP talk privileges
- One additional Item Roll Slot
- Extended “rested gold bonus”
- Selling privileges on the Auction House
- Priority log-in queuing
- Entry into weekly and seasonal Ladders
- Personal player battle statistics
- In-game Customer Service access
- Elite access to the test server to preview new content
- In the future, additional features will be added for Immortals such as crafting, player housing, special Clan functionality and lots more. We reserve the right to change which features are offered as part of the Immortals service at any time.
Hero Status:
Players who do not choose the Immortal Membership option are called Heroes. In brief, a Hero player can play as often as they like without ever paying any more to play.
Heroes can access all items, all abilities and can reach the highest rank in the game, and therefore they are not disadvantaged in terms of power they can achieve. Heroes can fight, advance, earn rewards, trade, buy auction items, join Clans, send mail and have access to the same number of Incarnation save slots as Immortals.
Heroes also receive the standard rested gold bonus, they have two item roll slots at the end of battle (Immortals have three) and they can listen on the integrated Fury VoIP channels, but not talk.
Future Updates:
We plan to follow the traditional MMO model of regular free updates. Patches and small balance issues will be addressed every week or two. New game features, feature enhancements, major balance issues, new game types and new content will be released for free on a regular basis.
Fury Game Cards:
Both Heroes and Immortals may purchase additional in-game gold through Fury Game Cards. The cards can be purchased online or from participating retail stores. Gold can be used to purchase new items and abilities; repair or recondition old items; dye armor and customize your avatar’s appearance; send mail and so on. Game Cards available in multiple denominations: (shown here in USD$)
- $4.99 (60 Gold)
- $9.99 (130 Gold)
- $19.99 (300 Gold)
- Fury Subscription cards also available (i.e. no credit card required)
- 1, 3, 6 and 12 month terms
- Longer terms give greater discounts
What does Fury cost?
USD$49.99 to buy the game, then it is free to play for as long as you like.
Players can also choose to join the ranks of the Immortals. Immortals receive access to premium features and perks such as entry into competitive Ladders and preferential log-in queuing during peak times. Immortal Membership costs USD$9.99 per month.
It is important to note that being an Immortal does not make a player more powerful, but rather allows access to more features. Our mantra is:
Why have you chosen this business model?
Fury is a different type of game and will appeal to different types of players. Some will be casual players who log on for an hour or two every now and then. Others will play seriously every day, join competitive Clan-mates competing for Ladder Rewards, and will try to maximize every element they possibly can.
In short, casual players can play for free as much as they like. Regular or hardcore players will most likely want to subscribe to unlock additional benefits and increase their flexibility. As an Immortal, you gain many hours of entertainment for less than $2.50 per week.
What limits are there to playing as a Hero?
Once you buy the box, you can begin unlocking abilities, winning items and loot and customizing your character just the same as the Immortals. You can join Guilds/Clans, trade items, play on all the same maps and have just as much fun as Immortals. Of course, Immortals get a few additional benefits, but the key is that Heroes can become as powerful as Immortals..
Do Immortals get extra powers or better equipment?
No. A Hero has the same access to the Fury’s abilities, items and advancement as an Immortal. Fighting against an Immortal of equal rank and equal skill will produce a very evenly fought battle. In fact, a Hero can possess the most powerful abilities, wear the best pieces of armor, and wield the most powerful weapons in the game.
Why have different pricing options at all?
Ultimately, we looked very long and hard at how we could appeal to the more casual players while still ensuring we could support our most hardcore of fans. Many players simply want to have a game on their hard drive and play it occasionally and a monthly subscription model obviously has less appeal to these gamers. We wanted a flexible system and the result is that we can offer players a fully featured combat game that is free to play, while offering some cool additional features for the more serious players who join the Immortals.
What costs are there to run Fury?
Fury operates on a secure client-server architecture like a traditional MMO. All battles are hosted on secure servers that control all player actions. As a result, this helps us protect players from many types of exploits that occur in peer to peer games.
One of the main components of our cost structure is the number of servers, the bandwidth required for players, and the personnel required to monitor and maintain the servers. The longer players play, the more servers we need to host them, and the more bandwidth they consume. Therefore, we have dedicated capacity on servers for Immortals plus additional capacity for Heroes. If Hero players play more than expected, they are taking up the capacity reserved for other Hero players. This will increase the queue time to log into the game as a Hero, while Immortals have priority access when queuing.
The other big cost is the size of the ongoing development team that creates additional content for the game. The dev team has some pretty grand plans for free content drops and updates. With the revenues generated from Immortal membership, we will be able to provide a much higher level of service, and a greater amount of new content and features than if Fury was totally free to play.
How is gold earned in Fury?
Fury’s in-game currency is gold. Just like the real world, items and services come at a cost. After every battle, players can roll on one or more items that have dropped during battle. Each player (on both the winning and losing teams) also earns a small amount of gold. This gold is used to purchase new abilities, armor, weapons, consumables (such as potions and scrolls), and for other things like repairing equipment or sending mail.
Immortals also have an extended “rested gold bonus” which means they earn their gold bonus for longer, and therefore have more money to spend on additional abilities, items, consumables and repairs.
What is a rested gold bonus?
While a player is logged off, they earn a bonus for the hours they are resting from battle. When they log on again, they will earn a bonus percentage of gold for each battle until their rested bonus has expired. The longer you are logged off, the longer you will receive your bonus gold when you log back on.
Immortal players earn their rested bonus for longer than Hero players. If you plan to play Fury for more than a few hours per week, it makes a lot of sense to become an Immortal. Not only can you earn more gold, but you will have access to many other cool features as well. And, of course, you are helping support Fury by contributing to the cost of servers and creating new content for all players to enjoy.
What is your stance on buying Gold?
We have looked long and hard at the issue of micro-transactions, gold farming, as well as legal and illegal item selling. By designing our in-game economy around earning gold and loot from combat and offering our own gold selling service, there is no need to buy gold from a third party. This offers greater protection to the consumer and ensures that the revenues are returned directly to the developer. Of course, increased profits ultimately means more content and cool features can be added to the game.
Won’t rich players win all the time?
Definitely not. Fury is designed and balanced so that player skill and overall teamwork affect the outcome of battle far more than items or abilities. Our unique “Equip Points” (EP) system ensures that if you take the best suits of armor and best weapons into battle, you have less EP to spend on your abilities. In fact, if you equip all Tier 10 armor and trinkets, you will have very few EP left to spend on the abilities you take into battle. So a player with low quality gear can use more, higher Tier abilities and therefore has more options in a battle than a highly geared opponent.
Even then, Fury is a game of counter-measures. A player using the best +dmg gear also has to face an opponent who can strip him of Elemental Charges and even use Mirrors to reflect damage. So a player with the necessary skill, situational awareness and a broad range of abilities can counter a player who simply bought the best items on the auction house.
What is a Game Card?
For players who are short of time, or want to spend more gold in the game than they have earned, we offer Fury Game Cards (in-game gold). This allows them to buy abilities and items immediately rather than saving up their gold and loot. It also gives them more gold to repair items, and they can bid higher prices on auction items. Of course, players with lots of time can earn the same amount of gold in game.
Unfortunately, if you are short of both time and money in the real world, you need a rich parent or a better paying job J. Seriously though, if you are playing casually, you will be playing against other players of similar skill, rank and gear. The matchmaking system matches the experienced players with other experienced players, and casual players with casual players.
What is an Item Roll Slot?
At the end of each battle, a list of all the Loot that dropped for your team is displayed. Hero players can choose to “roll” on two items. Immortals have an additional slot where they can roll for an extra item (or they can roll up to three times on the same item). A Hero player could win the best item with their two rolls, but of course the Immortals have more chances to win.
What is VoIP?
VoIP stands for “Voice over Internet Protocol”. Fury has a built-in VOIP system that automatically creates channels for your group, your team and radial chat for your local combat area (like /say or /yell except it is voice not text). This makes in-game chat quick and easy. All players can listen to instructions, but only Immortals can issue commands and call for help without having to resort to typing.
I’ve got no money left. What should I do?
Fury has an economy much like the real world. You must carefully balance your income and expenditure. Going on a buying spree and buying every new ability as it becomes available may leave you short of the gold needed to buy new scrolls or potions, or to repair your equipment. There are many ways for you to make sure your money lasts longer.
As you fight, you earn rewards in the form of Essence, items and gold. Essence lets you unlock abilities without spending any gold, so you can save gold by unlocking abilities using Essence. Also while you can purchase consumables such as potions and scrolls and use them in battle, they are not essential, so use them wisely.
If you win a rare item in battle, consider selling it to another player rather than using it yourself. Heroes and Immortals earn a rested gold bonus whilst resting from battle (logged off). To earn gold at the maximum rate, only play Fury until your gold bonus runs out.
If you follow these tips and still run out of gold, consider spending USD$9.99 to become an Immortal or simply purchase a Game Card to top up your bank account.