Price says that sci-fi substance is also at the root of the developer's decision to move away from the Overstrike identity. "As we started playing around with this element more, it became evident that this was really about something much bigger than this team of mercenaries," Price says.
As the game developed, Insomniac says the lighthearted visual tone of Overstrike didn't match what it was ultimately becoming: a mature, co-op shooter with a more serious story centered around the Fuse element.
"When we went in a darker direction, a less comic direction, we were able to do a lot more over-the-top experimentation with the weapons," he says. "We were able to make them look more brutal and do things to enemies that we simply couldn't do with our previous incarnation of the game. It wasn't until we started trying these things that we realized that's where the core fun, in terms of the minute-to-minute combat, lay."
Price says reaction to the change, even within Insomniac, was somewhat mixed.
"A large percentage [of the team] was relieved that we were embracing a more mature existence because it was more relevant to the gamers we were targeting," he says. "But there are some folks who loved the original campy direction. You can never please everybody. You have to do what you think is best for the game."
Price says the decision to move from Overstrike to Fuse only happened after "a lot of soul-searching," and plenty of "debate and analysis of what's going to make this game great." Allgeier says the decision to center the game around Fuse was made in early 2012.
