Full Metal Furies (2018)

Full Metal Furies is a masterclass in balance and teamwork, creating a delightful and challenging experience that'll addict players into journeying through and grabbing their friends.

Playing as a group of Furies, you set out to destroy the Titans and stop the world's domination. Each character plays in an incredibly unique fashion (Tank for crowd control, Fighter for counters alongside melee, Engineer for turrets and a rotating pistol system, and Sniper for carefully sniped shots). Each character has a skill tree, sixteen pieces of equipment, and mastery that allows extra stat bonuses. Even after a failed level, the currency and mastery still carry over, making nothing feel wasted.

Combat can either be one person switching between two characters, or up to four characters going all out. It's surprising how even just the dynamic between two characters can truly turn the tide of battle, as cooldowns and a slew of tricky enemies maintain that no one character can go at it alone. There's five worlds plus a bunch of secrets - puzzles where the cryptic nature can borderline on maddening at times but has some pretty interesting ways to figure them out (title screen, trailer, the meaning of the passwords themselves) that will keep players guessing.

The story is surprisingly fantastic, or at least the banter between the four Furies. Amidst the surprises from the plot right down to the (real) ending, each Fury never stops being hilarious and interesting in their own way. Some points borderline on shameless reference (the Mario hammer brothers or a Shrek reference) but even with the world teetering on apocalypse, it's a laugh in nearly every scene.

Full Metal Furies is already sizing up to be woefully underrated. With a solid cast in a satisfying gauntlet, this game is already one of my favorites of 2018.