Chains of Fury Preview: There's Somebody At The Door

So far, I’ve downloaded over 50+ demos during the Steam Next Fest. It’s not feasibly possible for me to go through them all, and realising the sheer volume, there’s a number I’ve dismissed early on due to time factors. Chains of Fury wasn’t one of those games.

I’m going through an FPS phase at the moment, what with Kingdom of the Dead, Scathe and a few others. The cartoon-like visuals struck me first, and when it was clear it was going to be a 90s-like shooter, well, best fetch the boomstick.

From Cobble Games and Gaming Factory S.A., Duke Nukem 3D was the immediate comparison when I first wrote about it, and in the very first scene, we see a Nukem poster. Come get some! I instantly liked it, not just because of this reference, but I could punch through walls.

A lot of the bigger games take themselves a little too seriously, in my opinion, and the good ‘ol indies keep it real with some of the fun destructive quirks we love in the genre. Red Faction was one of the greats that allowed for environmental destruction, but could you kick a door down in the face of alien scum? You can in Chains of Fury.

I’ve never heard of the ‘Metroidvania Boomer Shooter’ genre, so I’m going to keep my grandad cap on and say it’s a 90s FPS. That means a lot of corridors, a fair amount of backtracking looking for the right direction, a healthy amount of crates containing health and ammo, and… repeated assets.

Perhaps the most frustrating element in the demo was the repeated use of characters. There were only two types of enemies except for two droids. It isn’t the end of the world (the gore makes up for it), but these adversaries are as thick as paint. The hog-like brutes in it could be taken out from afar as they seldom moved, and half of the alien types could be insta-killed with a door in the face. That said, when they do hit you, they shred through you like butter.

But Chains of Fury has the hallmarks of being something good, if a little too repetitive in its current mould. The visuals are cool, the bone-crunching kicks to the face (and doors) are wicked, and the guitar riffs in the game wouldn’t be out of place in something like Valfaris. Regardless of first impressions, I’ll be getting my hands on this as soon as feasibly possible and therefore recommend you check out the demo while it’s on the Steam Next Fest.

Deets below.