Ion Fury doesn’t just love 2.5D ‘90s shooters, it is a 2.5D ‘90s shooter. Developed by Voidpoint, a studio made up of veteran Build modders (the same engine used to create Duke Nukem all those years ago) and published by none other than 3D Realms, Ion Fury has all the hallmarks of a nostalgic killing spree down memory lane. Following hot the heels of similar retro-inspired shooters such as Dusk, Amid Evil and John Romero’s recent SIGIL, this indie FPS revels in the speed and carnage of its roots, offering up ten-ish hours of relentless action and exploration.
The game formerly known as Ion Maiden (you can guess which band sued the developers into oblivion) is technically a prequel, serving as an origin story of sorts for Shelly ‘Bombshell’ Harrison, last seen in the forgettable top-down shooter Bombshell from 2016. The good news is Ion Fury is a far more memorable experience, mainly because the studio clearly adores the era from which this shooter draws its inspirations, utilising its deep knowledge of the Build Engine to pack in as much detail as possible into every pixel. From neon-drenched streets to smoky bars and arcades, Neo DC – the game's setting – drips with personality.
Ion Fury does feature a handful of modern improvements, such as automatic save points, headshots and the ability to play the game in a quality higher than painfully small ‘90s resolutions, but it’s still a refreshingly old school game. Whether you’re a ‘rush in, guns blazing’ type of player or someone who prefers to pop out of cover to headshot a grenade launcher-toting enemy with your revolver, Ion Fury will not hold your hand, even on the lowest of difficulties. This is a game made with the old corridor shooter way of thinking: learn your patterns, make your shots count and look high and low for health, armour and ammo.
There is some story there, but much like the misogynistic adventures of the Duke himself, it’s the action and the level design that do most of the talking. Levels twist back on each other, revealing new shortcuts and secret rooms, leading to backtracking that feels natural as you find new key cards to unlock new doors, collecting health, armour and ammunition as you go. Ion Fury isn’t particularly daring with its puzzles – it really does just boil down to opening new doors to continue through the level – and you're soon left hoping for something more than the environmental conundrums of old.
Voidpoint has really pushed this version of the Build Engine to its limit, and while every enemy is effectively a walking cardboard cutout, there are little touches that really sell the whole experience, like the impressive fire effects – such as how you can set enemies aflame with incendiary rounds in a high-powered SMG – and how hitting an enemy with a shotgun shell up close will stagger them and force them back a few steps.
Despite being set in a dystopian world complete with neon-drenched cityscapes and gun-toting androids, Ion Fury’s arsenal weapons are oddly fun to wield, but ultimately end up feeling rather uninspired. There’s your usual raft of pistols, shotguns and SMGs, but after three decades of powerful shotguns, you’re left wanting something a little more creative. Each one does have an alternate firing mode, but the likes of Ratchet & Clank and Borderlands have made us connoisseurs of the boomstick variety, and you end up wishing Voidpoint had looked to the likes of Turok rather than Duke Nukem for its inspiration.
Some weapons are also so overpowered you’re unlikely to put them down in favour of the new guns you gradually unlock as you explore the game’s brief campaign. The shotgun, which you unlock with the first half-hour of the game, is so powerful in terms of range and accuracy that you can practically snipe distant enemies with a well-placed slug. It’s fun and empowering for the player, but it sort of defeats the point of utilising different weapons for different enemies and scenarios.
For all the fun that the levels themselves pose, the main boss fights that close each chapter definitely aren’t as enjoyable. Their respective patterns aren’t particularly tough to discern, but it’s the way each one throws an endless stream of enemies that makes these encounters far less palatable. Even manual saving is rendered pointless in these bullet hell-esque showdowns and most of the time you’re left wanting them to end so you can get back to the far more rewarding gunplay of the main game.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a retro shooter that isn’t actually a 25-year-old port of a N64 game, then Ion Fury is the time-travelling love letter from the past you’ve been waiting for. While its weapons and boss fights won’t leave much of an imprint on your memory, the speed and intensity of its gunfights and the intricacy of its level designs more than make up for it. If you want to be punished and rewarded by the shooter principles of old, this is the new/old FPS for you.
Comments 99
Still very much excited. Had it imported and stuck on the east coast for a bit now.
Patiently awaiting my physical copy.
"but much like the misogynistic adventures of the Duke himself"
CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE
@YANDMAN
There is a physical version?
Nice, so glad this made its way on Switch. Definitely a future eShop purchase.
Looks like a decent port of a true home-run, then. Congrats to Voidpoint/3DR on the launch and I can't wait to try it out fir myself!
What's the performance like compared to PS4 / PC versions?
@Dom
This game has gyro aiming, right? Can you comment on how smooth that is?
Also probably worth mentioning that this version apparently only runs at 30fps. Might make a difference for some people.
Added to the wishlist for a sale
@Diorm - Yes, but currently only available in Europe.
Cons: No multiplayer mode. Which is a no no for me!
I love playing old skool Doom 1 and 2 couch co-op play!
@durr respect women
I'd like to know how well it runs on Switch. I've heard 30fps, which isn't ideal for a shooter like this, but I've also heard that getting it to run on modern consoles is a feat in itself.
Looking forward to playing this throw back to the glory days of the 90s FPS. Nice to see retro inspired games dont have to start and end with platformers/metroidvanias.
This looks pretty cool. Even though I have terminally sucked at all FPS games since N64 Goldeneye. (actually I seem to remember not being too bad at Timesplitters 2 but bad at everything else)
100% picking this up day one physical!
Should be closer to a 9 in my book. It's brilliant.
Sounds like a cool game; I might pick it up when there’s a sale. I got too many games I wanna tackle through before Xenoblade Chronicles and TLOU Part 2 releases.
@sikthvash 30fps switch. 60fps everything else.
@DeclanS98 the entire point of Duke 3D is that he is out to save the entire female of the species from being used as alien breeding slaves.
Pretty respectful. If he finds a few strippers here and there what's the problem?
@Diorm There better be or someone charged me for one that doesnt exist. its Physicsl on all formats.
@Darlinfan Would you say that the score and negative points are according to this review are fair? I'm really interested in getting it.
Love the game, but theres no inverted aim...smh
I'm apparently too incompetent for retro-level designs...hell i mean, i even got through some levels of the original Doom before getting stuck. In Ion Fury though, i got stuck in the first level already. I love the look and gameplay of it, but why does it seem like everybody else can handle it and i can't
Great game! Got it on both Switch and PS4
Nice bait with the whole Duke Nukem misogynist thing......
Perhaps drink less soy before you review stuff.
@Darlinfan Thanks for the help man, i managed to get to the third level after all that trouble, it just doesn't seem to get easier for me. I don't know why that is. Doom (2016) was really confusing for me too but the waypoint marker helped me out a lot after i learned about it after struggling through the first 4-5 levels without it haha
"The shotgun, which you unlock with the first half-hour of the game, is so powerful in terms of range and accuracy that you can practically snipe distant enemies with a well-placed slug."
I'm sold. Sometimes it's nice to be an action 80s hero and shoot your gun in the air and watch an enemy ahead of you drop dead, cause you're just that awesome.
Love this game so far; purchased it last night.
Just wish the item pick ups were in a brighter resolution and a bit larger onscreen; hard to see them especially when you’re racing around, seeking cover from enemy gunfire.
Would also benefit with a mini map, so you can focus on where to head over to next.
Great game though; hope we get more titles in the future. 9/10 for me.
It's 30 FPS for anyone interested. I may wait and see if it gets a 60 FPS patch.
Was really looking forward to this, I was hoping for an 8/10 but it still sounds very worthwhile picking up... I would like to get this physically..
@BANJO it gets a solid 9/19 from me. Grab it and enjoy it. It’s absolutely delightful in every way.
@NoNoseNosferatu Thanks, I will certainly pick this up shortly...
IMHO it is ugly... Like doom 64 or turok... I enjoyed doom and doom 2 with its old pixel graphics, but the 90's 3d graphics make my eyes bleed..
Don't buy this game
Bit disappointed it's 30fps, how can it NOT be 60fps? It's not exactly a tour de force of visuals. A shame but not a deciding factor, got it pre-ordered physically and seems like the perfect entry point into games like this.
I really wanted to like this game, but it's just not doing it for me. For one, I skipped the Switch version since it only runs at 30fps (went with PS4 Pro version).
But more importantly, the aiming and hit boxes are all kinds of messed up in the game.
Aiming sensitivity options are awful. It goes from way too fast, to way too slow. There is no in-between.
Hit detection is also bad. I'll be standing at point blank range with the shotgun, and can't land a hit. If you are even one pixel off with the aiming reticle, the shotgun won't register a hit—at point...blank...range.
@MARl0 Hopefully it gets patched. Doom 1 and 2 came out on switch and PS4 with a lot of issues but then got addressed.
@MBII too late, I bought it, I love it.
What are you gonna do about it? 😎
@SquallLeonhart86 Here's hoping. The PS4 version also inexplicably doesn't have a gyro control option. I know that's common on the platform, but it doesn't change how stupid it is that it doesn't have it when the controller is fully capable.
So it comes down to buying the Switch version for gyro, but you're stuck with 30fps. Or buy the PS4 version for 60fps, but no gyro. Basically pick your poison. Why on earth doesn't the PS4 version have gyro? Which would greatly help the aiming issues the game has.
Still wouldn't fix the hit detection though regardless.
Also forgot to mention a weird glitch I keep encountering where my character suddenly teleports and faces the opposite direction from some enemies. I don't know if it's a physics glitch or what, but it has happened more times than I can count while playing just the first episode. It's incredibly disorienting when it happens.
PSA- you can’t invert aim in the game, so it’s unplayable to me. 😢
You can invert the gyro aiming, but not the right stick. Hopefully there will be a patch, and if the developers are listening please make the right stick inversion separate from gyro inversion as I don’t need gyro inverted, just the right stick.
Getting it on Physical. Would buy BLOOD and SHADOW OF THE SAMURAI in an instant, if they'd re-release them on Switch!
@BulkSlash Weird. The PS4 version does have a y-axis inverted aim option. It was the first thing I changed when I booted the game up.
Might buy a physical copy not 100% yet.
Duke 3D is one of my favourite shooters.
Any word on if that's coming?
@Ralizah I'm still tinkering with the gyro aiming settings, but yeah it's in there and it works. The gyro aiming is good, the enemies move pretty fast and I also kind of suck at FPS so it might be me. I'd put the gyro aiming below Splatoon 2, below Paladins, but above Fortnite and probably on the same level if not slightly better than Turok 2. This is after about an hour and a half of play. I hope this was helpful.
@Moon
I hope not because I've already bought Duke Nukem 3D about 4 times already, and I would be forced to get it again on the Switch 😞
Got this on Steam and it's an easy 9 from me, it really understands and builds upon what made 90's shooters great and looks amazing too
@Danrenfroe2016 Yeah, I'd say an 8 or 9 personally, but I've only played it on the PC a while back. Still from everything I've heard it sounds like it runs equally great on the Switch.
As of this date, don't buy this game if you like me need inverted look/inverted y-axis to play. The developer apparently forgot to put in that option.
@Taarna
Thats correct.
I didn't know that and bought the game, and now I cant even play it because no inverted aim...
These constant discussions about being too PC or not enough PC, or whatever else, are getting REALLY OLD on this site. Here we are again....can't we simply understand that others have different opinion and different standards as to what's acceptable or not? You don't find something offensive, others do...so what? That's life! Not everyone agrees. This constant back and forth of you're a prude, it offends women, and who cares, is ASININE. Some of you need to learn to live with different opinions and accept that no amount of arguing online is going to change a strangers mind. And I'm addressing both sides of this stupid and never ending outrage.
Might get the physical version someday if I could afford it. For now though my first person focus are on Doom Eternal, BioShock, and Borderlands.
I scrolled to the bottom to find out if my suspicions were correct, that one nothing throwaway line has caused another uproar. The commenters here will burn a writer in effigy for literally any perceived affront to their rigidly defined beliefs about society, and always in the guise of being the ones who want the most freedom of expression. It's ugly, and it's sad, and I wish the site's mods would do something more than nothing.
@MARl0 Are you sure there isn’t some kind of ‘quick-turn’ button command you might accidentally be inputting?
@Nico07 It runs at 30 fps on Switch.
@TheDanslator If echochambers is what you like then you will love ResetEra.
Nice bait with the misogynist dig but you're not actually a very good writer. Never were, so I shouldn't expect much at all.
The games sub par and lacking originality.
It's just a clone of those 90s shooters and not one that stands out.
@Taarna I am honestly curious: why can’t some people here play without inverted aiming? If I run into a problem where I play two different games back to back, and they have opposite inversion settings— yeah it sucks, but only for like a minute and then I’m adjusted again.
I mean, it really is lame you can’t change that here, though.
@SquallLeonhart86 i remember booting up FF8 to see squall say to rinoa "I just hate fighting all these soyboys. God. I wish Ultimecia would just go back to REEEEsetera already", very apt portrayal
@somebread Whatever.....
Good to see another FF8 fan
Looks great, in a '90s kind of way
That's the best kind of way.
@SquallLeonhart86 QED
@TheDanslator I also use QED cables with my hifi. I am an audiophile
Fantastic game, only sunk a few hours into it but so far i am loving it, I would easily give it 8-9 personally based on what i have played right now
@Antraxx777 As I mentioned, it's literally a teleport. You physically move, in an instant, across the room and face the wrong direction. It happens in like a single frame. It's incredibly disorienting, and nearly always leads to death due to having to figure out where the heck you ended up while getting shot at.
@Moon Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour received an ESRB rating for Switch last year. I'd totally forgot about that until I read your comment. I wonder why it's taking so long?
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/10/it_looks_like_duke_nukem_3d_20th_anniversary_world_tour_has_added_a_switch_date
@KillerBOB Sorry pal, looks like you're buying it again.
@OorWullie Thanks for that! Getting it day 1
Cant wait to continue the misogynist adventures of Duke Nukem on the go!
@roy130390 take it from me, bro- it’s a blast! You’ll love it.
It's a mystery why the author thinks the guns are uninspired. They are at least as varied a selection as any game comparable; to me it just means they were getting tired of the shooty shooty which is fine.
I actually played this game on Steam (briefly) and found it was not for me, simply because my eyes don't adapt well to the color palette. But there is plenty to like and even the starting weapons seemed pretty cool to me.
Did the band Iron Maiden really sue 3D Realms? How did they have a case? The name is based on a medieval torture device that surely no one has exclusive rights to.
@mesome713 GOTY confirmed
How the hell is Duke a "misogynist"? He LOVES women. And like @durr pointed out. the so-called feminists of today sez that prostitutes and scantily-clad women are no less virtuous than those who may perhaps be more modest in manner and appearance. It is frankly exhausting keeping afloat of what they find offensive and impossible to take them seriously when they are hell-bent on dictating their often maddeningly contradictory sensitivities to the rest of us.
What I would consider disrespectful to women would arouse indignation in a lot of men, so I won't open that can of worms as this is not the place to discuss such matters, but I really can't take the whining of modern silver-spooners seriously when they have such a slippery grasp on reality and what real suffering looks like.
Game looks good though and I'm keen on picking up the physical release (which is scheduled for June in Australia).
as someone who basically grew up playing duke nukem 64, this game appeals to my nostalgia in a major way. I loved every single second of this!
@mesome713 huh....you play as a badass woman, how is it disrespectful to women? the reviewer meant duke3d not this...
Duke a misogynist? Duke lives and breathes for women. If there weren't any, he would go mad. Just cause he a big macho man doesn't mean he's a misogynist Dom protector of all women kind.
Wish I had seen the comments about the inverted aiming n/a before purchasing this game. Breaks it for me. Too bad as I dropped $30 on it and it seems really cool, but I can't play it until it's playable.
Overrated as hell, played this at a friend's on PC yes it's a great recreation of a 90s sprite shooter but in no way does this come close to Duke Nukem 3d. I thought the guns sucked, enemy variety lacking poor music and uninteresting stages. Not for me but glad others may enjoy it I'll stick with Duke nukem
@Razer agreed bro Duke Nukem wipes the floor with this game imo
@Antraxx777
Try to think that not everyone is like you. Some people can use both hands about as good, some can use both inverted and not-inverted with very little break-in period. Others can't. For me it's just plain impossible to play an FPS without inverted aim and I wont play a game for 8 hours just to see if I can get used to non-inverted.
@Taarna Where can I get that figure?
@Antraxx777
I think in fairness I could adapt to non-inverted aiming, but in this day and age when patching a game is easy and invert is an option that really should be standard these days it’s easier just to wait and see if the developer fixes it. I just wish I’d known before buying it...
@KFlow325 its coming
@BulkSlash inverted aiming is coming in a patch, also if you put the Konami code in you can unlock the framerate 😉
@Antraxx777 You can enter the Konami code to unlock the framerate to get near 60fps
@Darlinfan I never said it was a bad game but it's clearly following in the footsteps of games that came before and they simply did it better, games that have always been held in high regard.
It doesn't do anything bad but it doesn't do anything special either. It just follow in the footsteps of greater games.
I would say 6 out of 10 would be a solid score for this game. Which this score isn't too far off anyway.
@NoNoseNosferatu Thanks mate! I'll be getting it up soon then. I haven't been much on the site lately and you probably already know by now, but just in case, if you use the konami code you can unlock the framerate: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.
@roy130390 jolly good! Hope you enjoy yourself, pal! Let me know what you thought of it once you get your hands on it!
@NoNoseNosferatu Will do
Thank god there's no inverted aiming.
@Taarna What's the name of the figure. She kinda looks like a female Belmont.
@RasandeRose it's coming. 👍
@Taarna Thanks.
(A shame she never got her own video game.)
For over $500, I think I'll wait until I have a place to prominently display her.
Is there a physical version coming?
@BIG45-70 Yes.
https://www.horrorgeeklife.com/2020/04/28/fps-ion-fury-getting-console-and-physical-releases/
Geez I've been gog.com watching this since it came out but never have picked it up. I had no idea this hit the Switch.
All things told by countless others it's a fantastic game using the classic build engine Duke Nukem, Blood and others were built upon which says a lot.
A Konami code is available to officially unlock a 60fps frame-rate on Switch. I'm not sure what the downsides might be, but on Youtube videos it looks solid and I'm not sure what they put it behind a code.
Anyone know?
I know Bombshell isn't meant to be the best of games, but i really hope it is ported to Switch at some point, i'd like to play it.
@Diorm yes, there is, available at 3D Realms website, don't know if still available
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