The folks at the newly formed Gamecock game publisher are going all out to make their presense known as a company that doesn't take itself too seriously (of course you would expect that from the same folks that created the original Gathering of Developers). On Thursday they held a GDC demo of the upcoming MMO fantasy title Fury far away from the Moscone Convention Center in a building that was formerly a Masonic Temple (the building still had the weird art tapestries that depicted demons and other creatures in a vision of Hell).

Between admiring the odd artwork we also spent some time playing Fury. Developed by Australian based Auran, the game isn't going to be your typical fantasy MMO. There are no quests to kill rats or other lower level NPCs. There are no big team quests to raid dungeons. Fury is being designed as a pure Player vs Player game, combining elements of games like Guild Wars with the fast paced action of first person shooter titles.

The game gives the player access to both offensive and defensive based characters which can concentrate either on long range or melee attacks. We got some hands-on time with a build that let us play two different modes. One was a deathmatch style mode where characters just went after each other in a Roman style arena. Our melee based character had basic attacks that could be augmented with special attacks that are set up by clicking on a tool bar on the bottom of our HUD. Much like Guild Wars, these special skills and attacks sometimes took a little while to regenerate. Unlike Guild Wars, Fury is all about PvP combat which means that things like flame and other special attacks are fired up much faster. It took a little time to get used to the quicker pace but soon we were able to get used to Fury's combat style. One thing that the game has inside each arena are special buffs that give temporary increases in abilities (faster healing, more offensive attacks, etc)

The second mode we played was called Vortex, a variation of Capture the Flag. Instead of a flag each team collects crystals that are desposited on the map at various times. The first team that collects five crystals and brings them back to their base wins. The twist is that the opposing team can go and steal crystals from your base before all five are in place. Gameplay modes can have around 16 to 32 players on each level.

Fury uses Epic's Unreal Engine 3 as its basis and as one might expect the game's visual look is solid with some great looking visual effects for the character's attacks. The art style also blends in some Asian influences in addition to the typical Western fantasy art styles. We were told that beta testing for Fury should begin in later this year with a full release due out this fall. We hope to get more hands-on time with the game soon.

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