E3 '07: Fury Updated Impressions

As Fury edges nearer to completion and launch, Auran is showing off more of its competitive player-versus-player massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The concept behind Fury is simple: Take the action of multiplayer shooters and adapt it to MMORPG combat. That means you don't worry about going out and exploring a world that's full of monsters. Instead, you'll go into a large variety of arenas and compete in online battles against other players.

We got to see many new areas of the game for the first time, such as the various schools of magic. There are four schools of magic in the game, with each one focusing on different abilities and spells. There's life, decay, growth, and death magic. While you can only create a single character, you can eventually learn all the skills in the game. The idea is that you'll eventually max out your character and be able to participate in competitive PVP combat on equal footing with other players because there's a maximum level cap in the game. The exploration in the game is learning what the 400 skills in the game are and how to use them properly in situations.

As we noted, we got to see some of the cool level environments in Fury. For instance, the school of life is a mix of Japanese style and ice. You can get a sense of tranquility walking around it. It's also a fairly large area full of player and non-player characters. Other sanctuaries will have you delving deep into the Earth or exploring a sandy, desert environment.

The heart of the game is in its combat system, which takes place in various arenas strewn with different types of power-ups, just like you'd find in a first-person shooter, such as Quake. However, the combat is very much that of a MMORPG because you have a selection of skills and abilities that you've chosen before combat to use in battle. You won't just battle alone either because you can participate in team battles, at which point you want to make sure you've got a balanced mix of all four classes.

Fury has a much different focus and pace than other games in its genre. Because it is based around battles, you'll be able to jump in quickly and participate in combat, so if you're the type of player who has a limited amount of time each evening, this is ideal. At the same time, if you want a more involved experience, you can participate in larger scale battles. There are a number of arena modes, such as bloodbath, which is basically deathmatch with respawns. Then, there's vortex, which is a variant on capture the flag. And elimination is basically deathmatch without respawns; if you die, you're out.

Auran is busy putting the final tweaks and touches on Fury. This combat-oriented MMORPG will launch later this year.