There's a very high likelihood the pretty blonde sitting opposite me on the train knows little to nothing about Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) gaming. Not because she's female - plenty of girls play MMOs... at least plenty of guys pretending to be girls do, which is almost as good if you've done jail time. Nor does her likely lack of MMO track record stem from lack of hand/eye co-ordination, as she seems more than comfortable strumming away on her mobile. What gives away her likely lacking MMO experience is the fact that she's (a) tanned and (b) looks like she's had a full night's rest.

If EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, Lineage, World of Warcraft et al have taught us anything, it's time always beats out skill in an MMO environment. You can hone your reflexes to a razor's edge but at the end of the day, if you encounter an opposing faction online who has played the game two months to your two hours, you're going to get beat. It's the hook to keep you coming back to these games - the near-guarantee of accomplishment achieved over time rather than having some novice hot rat come in, run rings around you and steal your goodies.

Fury at least tries to deviate from this mould, promising to do away with the boring "grind". And if nothing else, maker Auran deserves props for the way they have communicated this. Standard operating procedure when you're making a game like this is to pretend the competition doesn't exist. When everyone was making clones of GTA, they weren't saying "Check out how we ripped off Grand Theft Auto!" Hell no, they found a premise and clung to it to avoid having to endure the comparison.

Auran on the other hand flipped MMOs the bird - including the current 500 pound gorilla of gaming, World of Warcraft. From interviews to www.unleashthefury.com to cheeky ads, Auran offered up Fury as the holy grail of PVP (player vs player), showing up the lame progression time sink tactics of WoW once and for all. Well, they didn't directly say that, but that's the message. PVP without the grind. What Fury was supposed to deliver was an experience that focused on player vs player. A game which offered the gear and progression of an MMO with the pace and skill emphasis of a first person shooter/third person action game.

The conclusion: it takes a few solid steps along the way, but doesn't manage to get the formula right enough to have us cancelling our subs and parking our rear in Auran's world of non-stop combat and seemingly endless NPCs. There's stuff it does good, but the problem is there's plenty of stuff that leaves you scratching your head.

While combat is conducted elsewhere (see below), the place you'll be spending your non-battle time is essentially a massive lobby area. And it's literally loaded with NPCs. There are vendors, trainers, warzone attendants, tutors, the lot. It gives a fair illusion of a high population for all of a minute, then you twig. You quickly get to terms with an exhaustive class structure - probably the game's highlight - which will confuse newcomers no end but ultimately allows you to create multidiscipline characters. There's not as much reliance on desperately looking for a given class - Fury enables you to customise your class to your tastes - although the constant MMO bugbear - reliance on people to heal you while you smash the crap out of the enemy remains. However much of the potential applicability and freedom for this fresh approach would be derived outside of constant combat against your fellow humans... and this is one area Fury has no interest in.

You see, Fury is unapologetically all about beating up other players, not CPU controlled characters (although you get a chance to take on bot type players for training purposes if you wish). You're in an arena or warzone - typically much like an FPS level without loads of verticality - and you run around trying to nuke the opposition in one of a multiple selection of modes.

When you target a player you semi lock on to them - which makes pursuit and aiming a bit of a doddle. So what usually happens is you spend much of your combat shifting targets and furiously spamming attacks, heals and effects that either hinder the enemy or enhance your team. Because the game is quite fast - a lot faster than your garden variety MMO games - the skill part comes in deciding which combinations of attacks you unleash, and fending off the inevitable punters trying to rush you. The custom class structure means its next to impossible to figure out a good team composition; a lot is dependant on how well geared your player is and how sensibly you've skilled - and who you're facing - and of course the obligatory healer.

This sounds fine - and it is in the short term. However what usually occurs is you tend to be chasing around a foe whose running at high speed, periodically stopping, while you tend to attract a pile of scumbags trying to pound you into submission. It initially feels like its luck of the draw, but (quite correctly) the players who have earned the better gear and abilities will usually win. And you earn this by... PVPing more. Many may disagree but while Fury PVP may be fast it didn't feel any more skilled than other competing MMO games - and certainly nowhere near the level of finesse taken in an FPS (which admittedly isn't what the game's about, but serves as a good comparison point). Hectic yes, a trifle unfinished yes, the future of PVP? Not as far as we can see it.

Here's the thing. By having a PVP experience that is no more demanding than its rivals Fury gives us some insights, largely by omission. At least for now, the non-player vs player elements so many of us deride; the questing, the running back and forth, the repetition - much of that plays a larger part in adding to the feeling of achievement and validation than we give it credit for. There's no context or imperative behind why you're battling beyond the storyline. The sense of investment that typifies a successful MMO is lacking here. And because combat isn't and can't be as taxing as an FPS, there's not the same competitive drive to keep coming back to improve.

Fury represents accessible, quick gratification in MMO format. Maybe quick gratification isn't all its cracked up to be, because Fury is right up there in that department. Unlike say, World of Warcraft, in Fury I can go out and immediately be fighting with other people. However I cannot amass hundreds of people and raid an enemy city. I can't find unsuspecting enemies questing in the middle of nowhere and victimise them. And most of all, the time vs skill argument still largely applies. The woman who’s spent weeks in-game fighting and earning her way to better powers will still dust me if I go up against her one-on-one - the difference here is there's less layers between. Despite the best of intentions, Fury still is a grind - just one of a different kind.