There’s a corruption lurking out in space, the consequence of humanity’s rampant progress into the stars that, in the far future of Superfuse, is literally just called The Corruption. In fairness, it’s almost certainly the effect of capitalism’s ongoing war against the masses, and the elites have ensured their own safety and comfort for years. With the onset of this new plague, they’ve created Enforcers, enhanced individuals who are capable of purging the blight. There’s a space on the squad, and you’re taking it.
Superfuse is billed as a co-operative hack and slash action-RPG, but if we’re looking for more straightforward terms, you can think about it like a cyberpunk Diablo. It boasts weighty, domineering combat, with your enhanced individual turning the Infected in front of them into goop with every swing of their fists, hammer or another instrument of destruction. You earn experience with each kill, and you gain skill points each time you level up. You can then use these to work your way along the extensive DNA-framed talent tree, developing your warrior so that they become even better at turning everyone into goop.
Loot plays an integral part of Superfuse, and as you despatch the denizens of each level you will come across a variety of weapons and armour with which to buff your character. There’s even a spot of inventory Tetris to play, with a limited amount of space ensuring that you focus on what’s important and don’t simply come back from a mission with a load of old space rubbish.
Fuses are integral to your character’s customisation, and you’ll find them out in the world. They can be attached to your skills to enhance them, gaining passive effects like an increased chance of critical hits or more direct enhancements like adding ice to your attacks. Each skill has a limit to the number of Fuses you can slot into them, but as you level up you can add and adapt them, allowing specialisation for each of your key skills so they match up with your playstyle.
Superfuse’s comic book-infused art style works really well, and you can play with the camera zoomed right in on your character if you want to really get the most out of the visual design. For the sake of surviving the action RPG combat, you’re probably better off zooming out a bit, but it’s nice to have the option.
You certainly shouldn’t let the comic book looks make you think this is a game aimed at younger players; Superfuse is grim and gory, with blood spattering everywhere given even half a hint of a chance. That, combined with the less-than-drawing-room-worthy language means that this is a thoroughly grown-up universe, and it’s all the better for it. There’s a hint of Borderlands about Superfuse, but thankfully without the inescapable juvenile undertones that permeates Gearbox’s headline franchise. It actually shares more DNA with Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and I can only emphasise that that is a good thing.
The weighty synthwave soundtrack matches the dark science-fiction setting, and helps to ground the world of Superfuse in emphatic style; I found myself sitting in the opening city hub and just listening to the drama-laden tones. It’s definitely been influenced by M83’s phenomenal Oblivion soundtrack; since modern sci-fi orchestration doesn’t get much better than that, it’s a worthy source of inspiration.
Our early hands on had a few rough edges, and this is a game that will launch in Steam Early Access first. There’s seemingly no pathfinding in place at the moment, so if you click on an area that your character has no direct line of sight to they’ll just get stuck on the piece of scenery that’s in their way. It’s not too problematic if you’re just navigating a level, but it can really make a mess of combat if you’re not careful. Combat itself can be a bit too frantic, and it takes a keen attention to detail to ensure you’re clicking on your foes and not on the floor. Still, it doesn’t stop the entire operation from being deeply enjoyable.
Superfuse can be played with up to three friends, with your four-person team exploring the rotting corridors of the space station together and sharing in the blood spattering and bone smashing. It’s clear that the story-driven campaign is going to be a lot of fun to experience with friends, with your steadily-growing repertoire of ways to hurt the horrors sure to keep things interesting well into the depths of space.
We can’t wait to see more from this one, and won’t have long to go before we do. Superfuse is heading into Steam Early Access on 31st January.
