ustralian developer Auran is entering the treacherous waters of the MMO space with its latest offering, Fury. Fortunately, Fury seems like it brings enough original ideas to avoid being drowned in the “me too” seas. Most notably, Fury squishes together the fast action PvP combat that’s usually only seen in FPSs with customizable RPG-like character customization. Fury is setting out to give players the fun of MMOs without the grind, and from what we played it seems like it’s certainly within reach.

Fury is focused on PvP combat, pitting realms (servers) against one another for glory and prizes. As players win battles, they not only earn items and new abilities for their characters, but they also earn points for their overall realm. Higher-ranked realms will have special buffs and abilities, giving players an incentive to not only advance their characters but to also help their fellow players be the best they can possibly be.

In most MMORPGs, players pick specialized classes early on, and characters are stuck with those archetypes for the duration of their lives. This can make it tough to find certain classes when you need them. In Fury, you don’t have classes—characters are defined by general playstyles (up-close melee fighters, ranged attackers, etc.), which can then be customized as players see fit. These customized variations can be created and saved, so each player can have several at their disposal at any given time. And with about 1,000 available inventory slots, character variations can be truly unique.

We got to play a few games of Fury, and it’s definitely a great, though early, hybrid. Combat is quick and twitchy, so if you’re used to patiently swapping attacks with your opponents, you’re in for a surprise. I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the controls were similar to those in World of Warcraft. I played as a melee fighter, and I could rush toward opponents with the press of the “1” button, a la the warrior’s charge attack in WoW. From there, attacks were dealt by pressing other number buttons. As attacks connected, a meter filled on the left side of the status bar. Once it filled, I could move to more serious attacks, including some that damaged multiple enemies in the AoE zone. Attacks had timed cooldowns to prevent players from spamming the same powerful moves.

Our first battle took place in an arena, which was filled with tight passages, tiers and powerups. That’s right, powerups. By picking up the icons strewn throughout each map, your character can receive temporary health boosts, attack upgrades and other buffs. One particularly strong attack buff was located in the center of the arena, which was where many of the fiercest battles were waged. Another game mode split the players into the blue and red teams, which had to steal crystals from one base and return them to their own. While it was basically capture the flag, that mode is classic for a reason.

It took me a slightly embarrassing amount of time to change from my traditional WoW PvP tactics, but when I figured out what each of my attacks did and when each was best used, I started faring a bit better. Even after turning in fairly middling performances (third in a field of eight), my character received some new gear in the in-game mailbox after the matches. I didn’t have much time to mess around with the item screen, but it seemed fairly deep, and the appeal of getting new gear is one that would keep me coming back for more. Well, that and the fact that I’d be helping out my whole server.

While it was still definitely an early build, it was great to actually get to play the game. It may take players without a lot of FPS or MMO experience a while to get used to the controls, but once you get a hang of the basics, they were tight and responsive. Let’s hope enough players flock to the game, so the server-community aspects Auron is integrating into the gameplay are fully realized.