According to Rebound, the future looks like a retro grindhouse Mad Max movie and involves extreme poverty, violence, and racquet sports. So not too different from today, then.
Furyball: Rogue Revenge is the name of the newly released game from tennis specialists Rebound, and while it shares the same DNA as a sports game, it’s also so far removed from tennis that you’d be forgiven for not making the connection.
Set in and around a giant megacity in a retro-futuristic wasteland, Furyball is a game about trying to get deep into the heart of Neo Arcadia, presumably so you can eat properly or something fancy like that, and fighting tooth and nail to get there.
Except you’re not fighting in a traditional sense; you’re instead whacking deadly bullet balls all over the place, using them to wipe out your opponents in deadly sporting spectacles.
Confused? I mean, I’ve been playing for hours already, and I’m still not 100% sure, but I’m not here for the story, and neither are you.
So why are we here, then?
We’re here, Dear Reader, because tennis is fun. I’ve never been good at the sport in real life, but I’ve played a bunch of tennis games over the years – some realistic, some less so – and all of them were reasonably entertaining despite my lack of interest in the real thing.
Furyball: Rogue Revenge takes the essence of tennis – hitting balls hard and with accuracy – and turns it into a violent battle for survival with increasingly challenging post-apocalyptic sports-punks.
Each new round is a combat encounter where you must smash your giant metal bullet ball at your enemies. However, you can forget about the laws of physics in this game, and instead of Newtonian realism, you’re instead trying to hit rebounds and ricochet off bumpers and batter your enemies into oblivion.
Inspired by pinball, there are odd-shaped walls, flippers, and jet bumpers for you to take advantage of, building up the power and speed of your attack for extra carnage. It quickly gets frantic, with multiple waves of enemies coming at you from all angles.
You’ve got a sword-looking paddle-thing that you hit the ball with, but you can’t use it to beat up your enemies (well, not often). Instead, you must upgrade your ball and imbue your racquet with special abilities, such as burn damage or bolts of electricity. It’s a roguelite, so every time you win an encounter, you get a reward, which is often an upgrade for your gear or some sort of stat boost.
Early Access Impressions
At the end of each region, there’s a boss who has much more power than the rank-and-file baddies. Fall to these hardened enemies (Iike I kept doing), and you’ll go back to your base on the outskirts of the city. It’s here that the outcasts reside, and it’s here that you can upgrade yourself between runs.
Progression here is slow and steady, and I did want quicker upgrades, if I’m honest. More variety sooner may be a personal preference, but at worst it’s a pacing issue and easy to tweak.
I’m not trying to sound overly negative, either. What’s here is already very solid, and for the most part I’ve been enjoying myself. Sometimes I’ve found it a bit tricky to manage my character and the ball whilst also tracking an arena full of enemies – the screen gets busy.
The gameplay itself is really quite engaging, and I’ve enjoyed experimenting with the different abilities and powers on offer. Sometimes it felt a bit scrappy and unpolished, but all of the things that I would want to see added to the game to improve it are already in the works.
Furyball’s Roadmap
As you can see in the Early Access roadmap infographic below, Rebound has big plans for Furyball: Rogue Revenge. Based on what I’ve played and what’s still to come, I look forward to playing the final release this time next year (or whenever it’s ready).
In the meantime, Furyball offers a decent slice of the game for those brave enough to have a swing at something in Early Access. Despite a couple of rough edges, the current build shows how good it can be when the action is flowing, and everything is working as intended.
Although the Early Access game is already in decent shape, it’s not quite a grand slam just yet. Give it a few updates, however, and I think Furyball: Rogue Revenge is going to end up being ace!
Furyball: Rogue Revenge is out now on PC (Win) via Steam Early Access, and I played it via access kindly provided by the developer.
