Ion Fury Review
Note: I playedand completed the early access preview. The full version of the game will beunlocked on August 15, 2019.
Ion Fury is the rare game that is exactly how it appears at first glance. It’s a well-polished nostalgia trip of a 2.5D first-person shooter. It features a snarky female protagonist who shouts one-liners like it’s her job. It’s not perfect, but it’s fun enough that if you enjoy gunning down droves of enemies while collecting multicolored keycards, then this game was made for you.
Graphics
Ion Fury looks as good as you remember games like Blood orDuke Nukem 3D looking. Its overturned cars, full bookshelves, busy controlpanels, and other various set pieces are detailed enough to be impressive. Despitethe brightly-colored pixelized look, the game does a great job of making theplayer feel as if they are traversing areas, instead of self-contained levels. There are secrets to be found everywhere: abuilding explodes and collapses, and you can climb up its side and into itsremains to find medpacks and ammo. A ventilation shaft can be blasted open andentered, leading to an office on an entirely separate floor.
Each weapon hasa secondary fire and a really cool effect that comes along with it. The crossbowand bowling bomb, in particular, are simply a joy to unleash upon the endlessswarms of foes.
Gameplay
Ion Fury is the perfect recreation of the fast-paced, drink-Mountain-Dew-all-night-and-forget-to-blinkshooter you fondly remember playing when you were in middle school. Thecontrols are tight, the enemies are swift and deadly, and the levels are easyto traverse – if a little byzantine at times. And they are packed with extratouches. When I finally reached the elevator and exited the first level, I wasgreeted with the warning, “you are still missing 19 secrets in this area.”
Ion Fury currently has two chapters and two modes: in Crisisin Columbia, you have to escape a crumbling Washington, D.C. In Heskel’s Houseof Horrors, you navigate a disturbing mansion and the deadly gardens beyond itswalls. Queen of the Hill isn’t really a chapter. Instead, you defend a townsquare against waves of enemies that increase in difficulty as the announcertaunts you between rounds. “I hope you like spiders.” No. No, I hate thespiders in this game, actually. Finally, Bombardier Trial is simply Crisis inColumbia, but you are equipped with unlimited grenades. And only grenades. It’san interesting twist for those seeking to replay the short but sweet campaign.
And who wouldn’t want to replay it? Ion Fury oozes fun and personality.It even has cheat codes! You can access them from the Setup menu to grant youthe usual FPS superpowers like God Mode, No Clipping, etc.
Music/Sound
The soundtrack is great. It’s very typical of the mid-90s heavy-metal-recreated-with-32-bit-synth. It’s the perfect complement for an FPS like this.
The sound is equally great. The booms and blasts from each weapon are quite satisfying. Enemies pop and gurgle as they collapse into heaps of flesh around you. And their heads make very satisfying squish noises when you kick them like footballs. I only wish the enemies had more lines while they were still alive. After the fourth or fifth time hearing one shout “split up!” to his cohorts, I was itching to kill them all just to shut them up.
Protagonist Shelly “Bombshell”Harrison has plenty of fun lines, however. When she gets the shotgun, she predictably,but still entertainingly, yells “this is my BOOMSTICK!” And on more than oneoccasion, she and I both exclaimed “Holy $#]7!” when we discovered a few of thesomewhat disturbing secret areas tucked into the dark recesses of the levels.
Drawbacksand Conclusion
It’s amazing howwell Ion Fury’s overhauled Build Engine still holds up after over 20 years. Thegame is quick and stable, and looks great at 60 FPS. The game’s main flaws aren’ttechnical in nature, but rather the result of odd design choices. Ion Fury bringsjust about everything back from the 90s, including occasionally obtuse leveldesign. Just like in Dark Forces or Heretic, there were times when I foundmyself wandering a level aimlessly while I searched for that one remaining buttonI had not pressed. One door in particular was open only halfway, not far enoughto crawl under. So I began looking for a switch. It wasn’t until about 20minutes later that I discovered the door itself was its own switch.
I constantly found myself clipping into doors and ladders and boxes. It was easy enough to simply step backward and reposition myself, but this correction proved fatal in more than one firefight. This mild frustration was not quite aggravating, but noteworthy nonetheless.
Finally, asmuch as I loved the graphics and the gameplay, it might not be enough to satisfygamers unaffected by such nostalgic atmosphere.Ion Fury isn’t perfect, and it’s not foreverybody. It’s short and sweet and, if you’re looking for a rapid-fire first-personshooter, you can’t go wrong here.