Written by: Ian

 

 

 

With a bevy of ex-Rare devs at the helm, is "Fusion Genesis" the start of a new space opera? Part dual-joystick shooter, part Elite, part RPG, Fusion Genesis immediately struck me as being fantastically ambitious, but yet with a mostly simple core gameplay mechanic. Do all these elements stack up?

 

 

Fusion Genesis has a mostly voiced main storyline, and also 6 faction storylines to complete as well. Interestingly, you can also move between these factions with ease anytime you like. Some aspects of the plot (involving some shady figures and technology, and a trek across the galaxy) as clichéd and delivered poorly, but when compared to other XBLA titles, it’s mostly very good, and is often fairly tongue in cheek anyway.

 

 

There’s a huge amount to see and do in Fusion Genesis. Most system maps take 5-10 minutes to cross in an average ship, and there are dozens of these maps, not to mention other combat arenas, and the instanced mission maps.

 

 

There are loads of ships for each faction, from bulky trading vessels and cruisers to agile fighters and interceptors, along with a comprehensive upgrade system for both your own ship and also your help drone. Unfortunately, the game is clustered with menus, and in particular the pilot upgrade system (accessed through the back button) in extremely unintuitive and difficult to use. Too many of the interesting RPG elements are buried between layers of menus, although I found that they were not always strictly necessary to progress (although the do make life easier).

 

 

The mission types are fairly generic, but there’s loads and loads of them, and the twin-stick approach for this type of game is novel and works pretty well. Given the size and scale of the maps and opposition, the combat is also much deeper than you may imagine, whilst some missions even involve some basic tower defence elements.