REVIEW | Fusion Paradox (Tidbit-style)

We love all sorts of games. Sometimes it is hard to cover a game in our traditional review style that’s why we have tidbit-style reviews. These shorter reviews cover games that deserve attention too but simply don’t fit our good, mixed, and bad template. In addition, they get a monthly summary article to give them even more reader attention!

Fusion Paradox | 75%
Publisher: Sometimes You
Developer: USANIK STD

Fusion Paradox is an interesting action roguelike with simplistic visuals and an electronic soundtrack that does its job well enough. Imagine Enter the Gungeon, with less content, and in 3D, that’s basically what it feels like to play it, but it does have some differences. Something that really sets it apart from other roguelikes is that you have two different colours with their respective health bars. You will be forced to change between them not only because of how much health you have but also because some enemies can only be shot with a specific colour. This colour restriction also applies to some chests, areas that damage you when you stand on them, specific weapons, skills, and also in puzzles.

The story isn’t that deep, but it’s similar to Remedy’s Control, where you’re inside a bureau where everything went wrong. Some research was being made about a different dimension, a portal was opened and everyone, except for you, got zombified as well as creatures from that dimension invading ours. Now it’s up to you to get to the bottom of this.

You will notice that the enemy variety isn’t exactly that big. Even though there are some enemies exclusive to a floor, there are also enemies you’ll see on every single floor you go through. It can get a little bit crowded in a room because of the amount of enemies which have spawned, regardless of the size of the room. It seems to be random, of course, but there’s a limit and it doesn’t make it nearly impossible or anything like that.

I only experienced two bugs, and one of them made me reset the game, meaning I lost the progress I made on that run. I could hear an enemy that I couldn’t see, get damaged by or damage, which meant I couldn’t get out of the room or progress. The other bug was similar, this time I could see the enemy moving around, but I couldn’t damage him. Thankfully, I was able to get out of the room and progress despite his presence.

The puzzles I’ve mentioned previously can only be accessed once you shoot a rune on certain rooms, after doing so, you will be able to teleport to a room to access them. They are a nice and optional change of pace that seems to only give a key or money as a reward, but most of them aren’t too time-consuming or difficult, so it’s always worth it.

There are shops where you can buy health, shields, ammo, and guns, so I’d recommend exploring floors as much as possible. Another reason for exploring as much as you can are chests, and challenge rooms that also reward you with a chest. They can give you passive and active skills as well as permanent upgrades, meaning they apply to all runs you attempt in the future.

Other than moving, shooting and switching between dimensions/colours, you can also thrust through bullets and use active skills that can do elemental damage to enemies (such as fire and poison), spawn a turret to help you, and even revive you once if you die with it.

Overall, I’d say Fusion Paradox is a good action roguelike with an interesting mechanic. While I’m not the biggest fan of the voxel-based graphics, it does have some good design choices and it’s worth a try for roguelike fans.