PAX Prime 2012: Furious 4 is No More... Kind of
By Nick Henderson on September 4th, 2012 (5 comments)
Many of you have probably already forgotten 'Furious 4' since its announcement at E3 2011. If you have, I hardly blame you. The title was planned as an entry in the long running Brothers in Arms franchise though it bore almost no resemblance to its predecessors. The game was immediately compared to the Inglorious Basterds thanks to its absurd, stylized take on World War II and the emphasis on violently eliminating every Nazi that crossed your path.
Furious 4 shared little more than a name with fellow Brothers in Arms games at first glance but was confirmed to have ties to the core franchise. The game centered around a rag-tag group of soldiers in World War II who take it upon themselves to hunt and kill every member of the Nazi party. Having seen the game demoed at E3 2011 behind closed doors, I was rather impressed by the bold new direction for the game. It played a lot like a standard first-person shooter but shared more in common with a game like Bulletstorm. The game was vibrant, crude, and incredibly cheeky about its approach to the violent subject matter. Take a look at the original trailer below:
Following almost a year of nothing new about the game and a rumor that Gearbox had scrapped the project, Gearbox President, Randy Pitchford, told CVG that Furious 4 had "evolved." This past weekend, Randy took the stage at the annual PAX Gearbox Panel to explain that Furious 4 would re-emerge eventually but not as a Brothers in Arms title. Given my enthusiasm for the game over a year ago, I was immediately delighted to find out that the game still existed. Perhaps I was even more excited to hear that it would cut ties with a franchise that it clearly had nothing to do with. New IPs are few and far between these days so I'm glad to see that Gearbox was willing to go back to the drawing board and evolve this title into something that could feel fresh and new. You know... like they did with Borderlands!
On a side-note, If you look back at Gearbox's history, you will notice that Aliens: Colonial Marines, another major title set to arrive this February, was in a very similar boat recently. For years after being featured on the cover of Game Informer, Aliens went silent while Gearbox assured the public that the game wasn't cancelled. It seems that Furious 4 has now taken up the mantle of the elusive but ever-existing Gearbox project. Now I just hope they don't completely change the name between now and its next unveiling. I have grown attached to "Furious 4" as a title. In all honesty, I think the game would do just fine if they just dropped the "Brothers in Arms" from the beginning.
Let us know how you feel about the news in the comments!
Nick Henderson
I have been around since the very early days of 4Player but you may know me as “the short one” or the guy who is really into Dexter and that sweet new DmC reboot. I am a gaming enthusiast at my core and I love sharing my opinions on the subject with anyone who will listen. I am a cautious optimist and will try any game at least once. When it comes to gaming, I prefer to leave no stone unturned.
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Grate, I didn't like that they were saying it was a brothers in arms game, because it didn't have anything to do with brothers in arms.( and that i want a true brother in arms game) But how ever I don't know how i feel about this game because i haven't seen or heard anything interesting about this game. 4 player coop? man that's new....
Link / ReplyCould care less about the stupid brothers in arms title. Please do away with it because everyone kept bitching about it that it wasnt proper BIA. Furious 4 looks ten time more intersting and fun than the brothers in arms games. i saw a clip of gameplay somewhere after e3 2011 and it had an awesome arcadey look to it with things such as hit points or experience points appearing over the enemies as you shoot them. It seemed to have colorful stylized graphics and it just looked like a fun arcadey co op shooter. i really hope they dont drasically change things because of this. i love games like bulletstorm and the recent darkness 2 that lean more towards an arcade style point or skillshot system with leaderboards and all, it makes playing the levels endlessly fun and addicting to climb the leaderboard and beat your old scores. Theres not enough of these types of games and gearbox is a developer that could do it right too.
Link / ReplyThe demo I witnessed at E3 was very much in lines with Bulletstorm or Borderlands. Lots of arcadey elements that I think people will enjoy. I dont see them changing those elements drastically so i'm not quite sure what to expect when it re-emerges.
Link / ReplyCan they stop wasting everyones time now.and get back to the sequel to Hells Highway which they should have done in the first place.
Link / ReplyI hadn't heard of this title up until now. Laughed through the trailer, looking forward to seeing some game play footage.
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