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“We want more PVP!” or “How about a pvp-centric MMO perhaps guyz” are two statements you can find in almost any corner of the MMORPG universe online. Well, Auran has attempted to bring you just that: a PVP-Only game. That’s right, this game is nothing but straight up pvp. Game balance, mechanics, and everything revolve around slashing and fireballing the living snot out of your opponents.

Well, too bad it sucked.
“ROFL well whatever you say guy.”
When you buy this game, you essentially get exactly what you paid for. Following suit of Guild Wars’ one-time fee (as in you buy the game) system, Fury doesn’t have much of what I would call an MMO world. Basically, you have your instanced battlegrounds and then your main hub. That’s the world. Seriously, that’s it. The closest thing to exploration in Fury is a handful of confusing themed zones that bring you to skill trainers of particular magic and techniques… IF you can find them that is in the midst of the 5 or so portals (so was that guy in the lava themed section on the north side of the western or…oh dammit). If world-pvp or exploration is your forte in an MMO, look else ware. Hardcore pvp fans, welcome!

However, underneath this compact and content-lacking world lie what I would call a potentially expansive and unique pvp engine. As with most games in the MMO genre, you have your classes. However, Fury does away with basic classes allows you to have a mini pay day with the plethora of possible combinations of skills and magics that make for a very customizable character building experience. Combat is swift, lives up to its FPS speed feel (Seriously, I felt like I was playing WoW in Unreal Tournament-esque speed in pvp), and gives you a handful of maps and game play types, but ultimately a lack of the general MMO diversity will leave you out to dry.

Lets take a look deeper into the actual fighting mechanics. Like traditional MMOs, the action bar is present and ultimately limits you on how many skills you can have accompanying you into battle. The cast amount balance is limited however by “charges” instead of traditional mana. Using lower damaging skills will give you charges while the more powerful attacks and conjurations will take away from these charges. There are 4 types of these elemental charges, and certain ones will cancel out others. I personally enjoyed this system more so than traditional mana. Battle as a whole is also your ONLY method of obtaining experience, loot, and acts as the only outlet of e-peen shedding. On the topic of battle, its good to note that new players Won't get completely annihilated thanks to power ups and matchmaking, however the power ups can also make for an annoying king of the hill style slaughter fest in some matches because they're that good.

In comparison to WoW while I’m on the subject, I’d have to say Fury’s pvp has a deeper substance, as it’s the only substance that the game really has to call its own. However, there’s more fun to be had in competitive arenas and casual Battlegrounds in WoW in my personal opinion, but Fury is a strong “free” (I’m sorry, but subscription-less MMOs have a tendency to be extremely limited as opposed to the pay giants) casual oriented game that could more or less appeal to the < 15 hours a week gamer. I found Fury to be more attractive than Guild Wars personally, but I never was able to get myself into Guild Wars after playing WoW for a year and a half.

As far as graphics go, I found them to be a tad sub-par considering the size of the world and when I played I found the game a tad slow at loading but played fairly smoothly once in game. The sound was I suppose what you could expect from an MMO, so get ready to here that fireball woosh over and over and over… The music is not awful, but the voice acting (especially the tutorial) will potentially drive you insane.

Given this looks like the first of the small Australian developer’s major titles, its worth a try, but for those looking for the full MMO experience, this won’t satisfy for long.

Gameplay – 8/10 – Fast upbeat action for an MMO leaves the adrenaline feel of shooters in your fingertips while you pound the bajeezus out of opponents, but the limit of 3 mode types and lack of expansive world (with added confusion for what world stands!) will leave you out in the cold.

Graphics – 6/10 – Its pretty average looking, high end PCs will make the game look a hell of a lot better but still, aged and dull textures really call for the want for drugs to make it seem better.

Sound – 5/10 – Again, average sound, nothing major. I was fond of WoW’s cartoony feel then again and honestly I feel WoW probably has the best sound of any MMO out right now.

Lasting Appeal – 2/10 – Unless you’re a hardcore pvp addict that gets your fix from a game like this, you’ll get bored really really fast…

Final Score (average of above) – 5.3/10

Closing Statement: A strong title for a casual PVP enthusiast, but the lack of diversity and varied game play will leave for a very dull game I couldn’t respectively give the title of an MMORPG.