Fury Beta preview

Before long you’ve learned the basics and are itching for your first chance to crush opponents in the quest for Essence. At this point, you’ll be whisked away to Sanctarum, the focal area from which all players on the server will be grouping up, heading to and returning from battle as well as learning new skills. This is – so far as we can tell –the only globally MMO part of the game where you’ll interact with other players en masse, similar to central towns in Guild Wars.

It’s the warmaster NPCs you’ll be heading to most of the time, they are your doorway to the warzones that make up most of your playing time. Three warmasters represent the queues for different game-types - either ‘Elimination’, ‘Bloodbath’ or ‘Vortex’. There’s actually a fourth mode ‘Fortress’ for high ranked players and forms part of Fury’s ‘end game’ scenario, but we didn’t get a chance to see that. Unfortunately as far as the Beta goes you can only queue up for one game type at a time - and be wary - there’s no warning or option to exit the queue once you’re at the front of the line. It’s an instant teleport out of the Sanctarum and onto the battlefield, so do all your trading and Essence spending before you enter the queue.

Time for one last glamour shot while waiting in the queue.

For anyone that’s played PvP battlegrounds in World of Warcraft, Vortex will be the most familiar game-type, following a capture-the-flag construct. Two teams made up of players from opposing servers attempt to win various maps by capturing a certain amount of vortex crystals. You achieve this either by finding and returning crystals found in the zone to your base or stealing already captured crystals from the enemy base.

It’s loads of unadulterated fun, running around trying to co-ordinate attack, defence and crystal gathering while surrounded by oppressively operatic music and the constant spark of magic.

In addition to ‘Vortex’ is the team death-match ‘Elimination’ and free-for-all last man standing ‘Bloodbath’ modes. All the basic play styles are covered. Here in the thick of the fighting – and rightly so –Fury burns bright and hard. From the moment the gates of your starting area open and you’re let loose you’ll realise Auraun are crafting something deadly and beautiful. There’s no time for elaborate appreciation of the scenery, or lazily playing with combinations of spells. Your ability research must be done before you spawn in any of the game modes.

Hesitate here and you’re dead.

The speed of a first-person-shooter has been captured perfectly, characters move fast and hit hard. Ranged attacks and spells will thump you from multiple directions, while heavy melee classes like the ‘Champion’ will do their best to slow you down with debuffs until they can get within range. Maps are multilevel too, creating the need for Jedi-like awareness at every turn.

Bloodbath in particular is where every sliver of MMORPG likeness is shed for a down and dirty FPS experience.

‘Divide’ is one of several well rounded Beta maps for the Vortex game type.