FUMES Review Summary

Great car physics, deep customization, and fun co-op make driving a joy, but repetitive, easy races, thin raw content, and a tired soundtrack hold it back.

Co-op enhances fun: Co-op with friends greatly enhances the experience, being described as a great time and guaranteed fun. It adds significant value to the game and is a major highlight for many players.

Great car physics: Car physics are praised as great and fun, with satisfying suspension and handling. Some note a janky yet enjoyable quality, but overall physics are a positive aspect.

Fun and enjoyable gameplay: The core gameplay is widely praised as fun and enjoyable, with many players calling it extremely fun and a very good play. Overall gameplay quality is consistently rated highly.

Satisfying driving experience: Driving feels solid and satisfying, with a variety of vehicles that are a blast to drive. Players frequently highlight the great feel of the cars and the overall driving mechanics.

Amazing overall game: The game is widely regarded as amazing, well-made, and full of personality. Players frequently call it fantastic and absurdly good, indicating high overall quality.

Repetitive and monotonous gameplay: Many players find the core gameplay loop repetitive and monotonous, leading to boredom after a few hours. The lack of variety makes the game feel like a chore.

Insufficient content: There is a general lack of content, with players noting there isn't much to do and the game feels sparse. More varied content is needed.

Repetitive soundtrack: The soundtrack is criticized for being repetitive due to a limited number of tracks. Players quickly tire of hearing the same music.

Game feels unfinished/raw: Players describe the game as feeling rough, raw, and in its infancy. It is clearly in early access with many unfinished elements.

Lack of story and narrative: The game currently lacks a compelling story and narrative depth. Players feel the story is underdeveloped and want more lore and missions.

Extensive Car Customization: Players can customize vehicles with various parts, liveries, decals, and paint jobs. Customization includes both visual and performance upgrades.

Vehicle Combat Core Gameplay: The game centers on vehicle combat, with driving and shooting enemies as the main activity. Players control armed cars in fast-paced battles.

Open World Environment: The game features a large open world, often procedurally generated, set in a wasteland. Players can freely explore and engage in activities.

Co-op Multiplayer Support: A co-op mode allows playing with a friend, with a host system. This feature was added in an update.

Weapon and Vehicle Upgrades: Players can upgrade weapons and vehicles, with a progression system that unlocks new car types and weapons. Upgrades include body, suspension, and cargo modules.

Excellent Overall PC Performance: The game runs smoothly on a wide range of PC hardware, from modern systems to lower-end and integrated graphics, often at high frame rates. Many users report stable performance with no bugs encountered.

Well Optimized and Lightweight: The game is praised for its optimization, low system requirements, and small file size (around 700MB). It launches quickly and is very lightweight to run.

Memory Leak After Long Sessions: A recurring issue is a memory leak that causes performance drops and FPS decreases after approximately two hours of gameplay. This affects both single-player and co-op modes, leading to crashes in some cases.

Runs on Low-End Hardware: The game is highly optimized and can run on very old or low-end systems, including those with integrated graphics, without significant issues. Some users even report running it on a 'potato' with settings turned down.

Great Steam Deck Compatibility: Multiple reviewers note that the game plays comfortably and runs smoothly on the Steam Deck, making it a great portable experience.

Worth the price: Numerous reviews state that the game is worth its price, both at full price and on sale. This sentiment is repeated across many clusters, indicating strong perceived value.

Appeals to vehicular combat fans: The game is especially recommended for fans of Twisted Metal, Crossout, Vigilante 8, and similar car combat titles. Players who enjoy arcadey vehicle destruction and gear collecting will find it particularly satisfying.

Highly recommended overall: A large number of players give the game a strong recommendation, often with perfect scores or emphatic endorsements. The recommendation is widespread and not tied to a specific niche.

Try the demo first: Many suggest playing the free demo before purchasing to see if the game suits your preferences. If you like the demo, you will likely enjoy the full game as it offers more of the same.

Support the developers: Some players recommend buying the game specifically to support the developers. They feel the developers deserve full price or any price to encourage continued development.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $15.00.

Game completion: 10.0h.

Session length: 4.0h.

FUMES is widely described as immediately fun and chaotic, with simple addictive combat and fast action, but many reports say the fun fades quickly into repetition after a few hours or once mission variety runs out. Co-op and reward-heavy progression can extend enjoyment, while missing tutorial and tedious cargo deliveries add early friction.

Friction: No flushed-out tutorial; players are dropped into the world and must figure it out by experimentation.; Menu UI is confusing and does not work well with a controller.; Cargo delivery is tedious and boring, especially early on.; Open-ended structure gives no clear idea what to do next unless returning to the shop.; Co-op has no pause, and AFK cars are destroyed by vines.; Weapon slot placement on bodies feels arbitrary and not progressive..

Unlock drivers: Once it clicks after experimentation, players find their wheels in no time.; Earning upgrades and cosmetics from every battle and delivery reduces the need to grind.; Co-op update made the game grow on the player and took it to another level.; Stacking duplicate items gives a little further progression..

Nostalgic Vehicular Combat Veteran: Aggressive car combat, comparing routes and weapons to old-school arena and demolition games. Motivation: Relive classic vehicular combat nostalgia in a modern open-world format. Stance: buy.

Co-op Mayhem Socialite: Party-based PvE racing, demolition, and roaming, often with voice or coordination. Motivation: Share chaotic vehicular mayhem with friends in co-op. Stance: buy.

Progression and Build Tinkerer: Min-maxing stats, merging duplicate components, tuning suspension and guns, and experimenting with builds. Motivation: Optimize vehicles and weapons through a rewarding progression and customization loop. Stance: buy.

Across the provided hardware cohorts, performance reports are largely positive: the game runs well on low-end Windows systems, higher-VRAM Windows PCs, and Steam Deck, with only isolated caveats such as a memory leak after long sessions and Unity-related frame drops in chaotic scenes.

Windows <8GB VRAM / <16GB RAM: positive. Users report the game runs well on low-end hardware, though some may need to lower settings or use resolution scaling.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Performance is reported as excellent, with high frame rates and no drops below 120 FPS in several reviews.

Windows <8GB VRAM / 16-31GB RAM: positive. Reports show stable 100-130 FPS, though one user mentions a memory leak or performance drop after about two hours.

Steam Deck: Steam Deck feedback is predominantly positive: the game runs smoothly out of the box, frequently hitting 60+ FPS even docked, with strong native controller support and 4+ hours of battery life. However, several concrete friction points emerge. The most impactful is that physical buttons fail during menu navigation, forcing users onto the touchscreen, alongside a confusing controller-unfriendly menu UI. Secondary issues include UI scaling/memory-leak requests, severe FPS drops after roughly two hours of co-op play, and mod-loader crashes that block translation tooling. Core gameplay is seamless, but menu input and UI ergonomics require workarounds, keeping the experience in the tinkering band rather than fully seamless.

Linux and Proton: The filtered reviews show strong Linux/Proton compatibility. Users report the game runs fine on Linux Mint with NVIDIA hardware and works almost flawlessly through Proton. The only reported performance issue is a long-session FPS drop in co-op that the reviewer explicitly says occurs on both Windows and Linux, so it is not Linux-specific friction. No Linux launch blockers, anti-cheat problems, or required tweaks appear in the evidence.

Monetization: Reviews explicitly mention no microtransactions.

Twisted Metal comparisons: Reviewers frequently compare the game to Twisted Metal and other classic car combat games like Vigilante 8 and Interstate '76. Some say it meets the Twisted Metal standard, while others say it is not like Twisted Metal.

Early access development status: Many reviewers note the game is in early access, alpha, or beta with limited content. They mention it has been in early access longer than anticipated and has a small development team.

Mad Max inspiration: The game is often compared to Mad Max, with some describing it as a Mad Max simulator or online game. Some feel it is not close or low budget, but with its own identity.

Small development team: The game is made by a very small team, often specified as four developers. This is mentioned in multiple clusters.

Co-op mode recently added: Co-op was recently added to the game, and some reviewers mention it is coming soon. This update was made after the initial release.