Fuse is an action video game with a third-person perspective, developed by Insomniac Games. The global publisher is Electronic Arts. The distributor of Fuse in Russia and the CIS is "1C-SoftClub". The game was released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at the end of May 2013.
Fuse is not the original name of the project from Insomniac Games. At the time of the announcement, it was called OverStrike, but then, about a year before release, the developers conducted a kind of rebranding, which resulted in OverStrike becoming Fuse. Additionally, some changes also occurred in the game itself: for example, the creation of the American studio became more serious compared to what it was before.
Interestingly, there is a reference in Fuse to the previous incarnation of OverStrike. OverStrike is actually the name of the squad of four people led by a mercenary named Dalton. This team of experienced fighters – the main heroes of Fuse – receives an important mission: they need to infiltrate a research complex that has been taken over by terrorists, where the study of an extraterrestrial substance with very interesting properties – the very Fuse – was conducted (or rather, was previously conducted). After infiltrating the attacked base run by unknown individuals, the mercenaries, which besides Dalton include characters like Jacob, Naya, and Izzy – each with their unique abilities – face fierce resistance, and then, as they say, events unfold rapidly and not at all as the heroes had hoped. And perhaps the protagonists would have died right at the threshold of the research institute if they had not found experimental weapons tied to the abilities of Fuse. Gaining extremely powerful "guns," the fighters began to do what they had always done well: kill, slash, and destroy their enemies without trial, investigation, or mercy.
In Fuse, you can play both solo and in cooperative modes, but progressing through the game together with friends or random partners is significantly more fun. As mentioned earlier, all mercenaries are different, and this difference is only amplified after acquiring Fuse weapons. Dalton, for instance, with his "device" can create energy shields that not only protect him and his teammates from opponents' bullets but can also tear enemies apart upon approach. And the Asian character Naya, on the other hand, can turn invisible to stealthily approach enemies, as well as fill them with projectiles that create microscopic "black holes" within them. And what do "black holes" do? Right, they suck in and break apart any objects at the atomic level.
Although Fuse looks like pure combat action, it surprisingly isn't devoid of stealth mechanics. It is possible and necessary to complete some locations in stealth mode, especially considering that many enemies – such as robots – are very difficult to destroy, even when acting together. It’s better to bypass them if there’s an opportunity.