Guns of Fury PC review — I never met a(l) slug I didn’t like

Guns of Fury is basically what you’d get if you crossed Metal Slug with a Metroidvania. If the game caught your eye, that’s probably why. As far as the shooting and levels of carnage on display go, the game absolutely nails this. However, there are some issues with the game’s pacing, as well as the way Metal Slug-esque combat fits into this genre mould, on top of some pretty galling difficulty spikes in some boss battles. Overall, though, this is a fun adventure that offers exactly what it says on the tin, alongside a hefty dose of some well-hidden mysteries to sift through.

You play as Vincent Fury, who’s trying to stop a man called Easton from using an energy source called the Tetra Cell for the purposes of war. There’s not much plot here, but there’s dialogue before boss battles and notes to find on computers scattered throughout the world. The story is highly generic, but that’s fine for a game like this. The dialogue is also sort of stilted, but it’s infrequent enough that this doesn’t matter. However, the art direction suffers a similar fate. Despite the pixel art being well made, the art itself doesn’t have any originality to it. It’s odd, considering how Metal Slug games have their own style as well as distinctive heroes. Vincent is one of the most painfully generic protagonists imaginable, just looking like a regular dude with a beard.

In case you haven’t realised already, Guns of Fury drops players in an interconnected map that you get through by finding gear and abilities that let you unlock new areas. Vincent equips a pistol with infinite ammo, more powerful weapons with limited ammo that you’ll replenish when enemies drop it, subweapons, and melee weapons. There’s a pretty surprising amount of breadth to your arsenal here, which works well with the game’s run-and-gun focus. You’ll consistently be finding new weapons, keeping combat interesting as the game progresses.

One aspect I wasn’t quite expecting is just how hard the game goes into offering a Metal Slug-esque experience. Areas are completely stuffed with enemies, with projectiles all over the place. The level of challenge here is pretty solid and requires a fair amount of attention to be paid at times. Save points are frequent enough, but not so frequent that you’ll feel as if you don’t need to worry about whether you’ll be able to make it to the next one. As a run-and-gun, Guns of Fury is very satisfying and seeing objects in the environment get blown to pieces really makes the game feel chaotic.

There is an issue with this, however. Since Metroidvanias are so focused on running around the map to explore, the constant combat with the game’s surprisingly varied enemy list can kind of get in the way. Guns of Fury has you running around more than most games like this, so having to fight your way through room after room can get a bit much. It’s the reason Metroidvanias typically have a balance between exploration and action, so this might turn some people off. There were definitely plenty of times I wanted to just get to my destination and not continue fighting again and again.

This is further complicated by just how much the game expects you to run around. There’s a spectrum across Metroidvanias that goes from giving you no direction at all to holding the player’s hand. Guns of Fury is the former. After getting new abilities, I often had absolutely no idea where to go. By the latter half of my playthrough, I dreaded obtaining anything new, as I knew I’d have to start my search for the way forward all over again. I know that’s par for the course here, but this game seems to require you to do this far more regularly than most, and the lack of signposting complicates this.

It isn’t uncommon for you to get an object you can only use once and then the game expects you to remember where you saw the one area it opens up. This would be mitigated depending on how you’re able to mark your map, but you can only put a handful of coloured squares on the map. This game would have massively benefited from something akin to the most recent Prince of Persia‘s snapshot feature. I constantly found myself heading back to the game’s many blocked pathways since I simply couldn’t tell or remember what was blocking my progress there.

There aren’t many particularly noteworthy abilities to find in Guns of Fury. You’ll find a mostly boilerplate set here – a double jump, a slide, a wall jump, etc. There are also some weapons that basically act as keys, such as one that’s useless as a weapon but opens specific doors. You do eventually get a slide that grants some invincibility frames later on, but it shows up way too late in the game. That being said, the game controls well and the shooting is fun. You’ll find treasure all over too, both in the environment and dropped by defeated enemies. This gives you cash you can use at shops, but most of the stuff shops sell isn’t really all that helpful, so I had way more money than I ever needed to spend by the end.

When it comes to Metroidvanias, there needs to be a balance between exploring new areas and searching for the way forward. Guns of Fury makes its biggest misstep here. I felt that I was spending far more time trying to find the next area than I ever did actually in the new areas. I’d sometimes spend over an hour trying to find my way, only to spend ten minutes or so in the newly unlocked area, before I found myself crawling around the map trying to find the way forward again. Granted, exploration here is fairly fun, plus there are many breakable walls and cleverly hidden details.

The general progression sees you getting to a new area, finding then defeating its boss, and getting a new ability that lets you continue. Guns of Fury‘s bosses are actually decently challenging for the most part, often taking multiple tries since I try not to use healing items unless I truly need them. A couple of bosses seemed particularly overpowered, however. There are two humanoid bosses that show up later in the game that have attacks that are borderline unavoidable. They also tend to do too much damage. Almost all of the bosses are very spongy, although I only really minded this with these two particular bosses. Even the two-phase final boss was far easier than either of these, so I felt they were more annoying than necessary.

It took me about a dozen hours to finish Guns of Fury. I explored as thoroughly as I could, for the most part, but found a fair number of items that I’m not sure what to do with, so I’m sure there’s another few hours of content for anyone that can figure it out. I did find the best handgun in the game by locating a specific item while exploring, though, but you only get this at the very end and it isn’t even that much better than what I already had, so I was a bit disappointed by that.

I did enjoy Guns of Fury overall, but do think it needed better pacing and a greater balance between exploration and forward momentum. Despite how generic the visuals and plot are, there’s a good game here that I’d recommend to anyone interested in this specific combination. It isn’t the best Metroidvania around, but due to how good the action is and the fair amount on content on offer, anyone could certainly do a hell of a lot worse.

While you’re here, consider checking out our previous review:

Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator PC review — Dead on arrival |