Fury Unleashed

Awesome Games Studio, a Polish independent developer, spent five years building Fury Unleashed before it released on May 8, 2020. The studio drew openly from two lineages: the run-based structure of modern roguelite platformers such as Dead Cells and Rogue Legacy, and the kinetic gunplay of classic arcade shooters like Contra and Metal Slug. The result is a side-scrolling action game framed as a comic book whose pages are literally the levels, with each room rendered as a panel and ink functioning as the game’s central resource.

The narrative premise puts the player inside the work of John Kowalsky, author of the in-universe Fury Unleashed comic series, who is experiencing a creative crisis. Levels are built from a mix of hand-authored and procedurally generated layouts across visually distinct comic book worlds, each with its own enemy roster. Forty bosses spread across these worlds give individual runs a clear structural backbone.

Combat is built around a momentum system: killing enemies quickly enough triggers a fury state that allows the player to tear through opposition without taking damage. Sustaining this state across an entire run rewards flawless play with the possibility of completing the game in one unbroken combo, a mechanic that separates skilled play from merely successful play. Weapons and hero skills are collected and chosen during a run, while permanent upgrades carry forward on death to strengthen subsequent attempts. Difficulty is adjustable, with a Hard mode aimed at players who want strict challenge and an Easy mode with configurable parameters. Composer credits go to Adam Skorupa and Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz, whose prior work includes The Witcher, Bulletstorm, and Shadow Warrior 2.

Post-release development was dominated by the addition of online co-op. A beta opened in June 2021, expanded through a second phase in September 2021, and reached full release in October 2021, followed by a dedicated co-op improvements patch in February 2022. Local co-op was available at launch; the online implementation was a substantial addition built over roughly six months of staged rollout. Patches continued through 2022 and into 2023, with a Steam Deck verification update in February 2023 and a Linux build update in June 2023. By October 2025, Awesome Games Studio had announced their next title, HELLREAPER. Clearing the full game without a single hit remains the sharpest test the combo system sets for returning players.