YMMV / Fuse

• Animation Age Ghetto: Fell into a variant of this — EA's focus group testing had kids wanting it to be more realistic, while older gamers didn't apparently like how cartoony it was — both were of the Rated M for Money crowd, wanting "maturity" over anything else.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Dalton, with his snarky personality and vitriolic friendship with Jacob, with many claiming that he was the only genuinely funny character in the game.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Many wish the game stuck as Overstrike and retained the cartoonier and comical tone that it showcased in its first trailers than the serious and gritty tone that it gained when it got retooled.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The retooling of the game from Overstrike to Fuse in the name of being more commercial became rather comical three years later, when a different shooter game focusing on a team with "Over" in the name in a near-future setting and a focus on fighting robots came out with an even more cartoony artstyle and aesthetic and became an infinitely bigger hit than Fuse ever was. If anything, shortly after its release, shooters with a slightly cartoony artstyle (Fortnite, Valorant, Apex Legends, etc) became so dominant in the casual market that had Overstrike been unveiled around 2017, it would have probably been seen as a trend-chaser.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Most discussion around the game tends to resolve around its controversial Retool from the comical and stylized Overstrike to the Darker and Edgier final game.
• So Okay, It's Average: The general reaction to the game, from reviewers and players alike. They say while it's competent, and the Xenotech weapons have that trademark Insomniac craziness, the rest of the game felt bland, and some aspects, like some of the more far-out bosses, clashed with the more realistic style and the lack of content didn't help either (only seven missions that can be completed in six hours and six Echelon arenas ripped straight from the campaign). Many who tracked the original game before the restyle said that had the game stuck to its guns, it would've, if not more enjoyable or better received, at least have stood out amongst its competitors.
• The Scrappy: Izzy and Jacob, for their underdeveloped personalities, sparse interactions with their team members and having no stakes in the plot outside of just being part of Overstrike 9.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Most reactions to the game being changed from the stylized Overstrike to the more realistic Fuse was this.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: There are some lines in the game's collectible notes implying that the "Fuse" substance is actually alive. This has no actual bearing on the events of the game.

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