Right as you start Ion Fury, you immediately get the sense of nostalgia and the urge to play an awesome old school shooter like this, and boy does it deliver on that feeling.
The story takes place as a prequel to the 2016 game “Bombshell”. you play as Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison – a bomb disposal expert for the Global Defense Force. She is tasked to protect the futuristic city of Neo D.C. from the mad cult leader – Dr. Jadus Heskel – who unleashes an army of cybernetically-enhanced soldiers upon the city.
That’s all Ion Fury’s story need to make you start blasting away for 8-11 hours of bloody and funny action packet of an adventure.
Ion Fury isn’t just an old school shooter, it is build using the “Build” engine that was used for games like “Duke Nukem 3D” & “Shadow warrior”, by using this engine to really give life to this world that you play in. Neo D.C. is dark from the outside but full colored skyscrapers and full of billboards that fill the smoky city at her beauty. The emphasis interactive environments in the game, just like in Duke Nukem 3D. You’ll notice the importance of shadows in the game, as enemies will use the shadows to sneak up on you from any door, vent or hallway.
The game is split into 7 zones and in each zone, you’ll go through a cupule of areas. You will have to navigate in the area, finding access cards to open the next door to go through. Along the way you can find a lot of secret places with extra armor, more ammo and health kits which I can assure you that you will need.
Across the game, you will pick up a total of nine weapons, from your trusty “Loverboy” revolver to the almost unstoppable “Chaingun”.
My two favorites are the Loverboy – which has an awesome auto-aim that makes you feel like in an old gunslinger from the wild west. My second one is the Disperser – in its default its a very cool and strong shotgun that every time you shot it, Expect to see your enemy’s head flying away. Later on, you will be able to switch the shotgun shells to grenades and watch as your enemies will tear apart like a Piñata with two kids fighting over it.
You’ll need all the weapons you’ll get because each of them will help you in the battle against Dr. Heskel, as he sends his army at you: from the simple grunts with minor robotic upgrades to the small yet very dangerous head spider which will leap Toward you to bite you.
As you clear more and more zones, you’ll encounter tougher enemies like a floating mechanics with multipool rocket launchers, a giant robot on wheels with his on Chaingun and rocket launchers, all the way to skinless like abomination with the ability to launch fire projectiles and teleport right behind you’re back.
The pacing of the game is very fast and exhilarating, the level design is great, and the soundtrack will make you feel every pulse as you go through the city of Neo D.C. All of those combined and we’ve got an awesome FPS game.
You will notice the world is surrounded by references from all kinds of action games and movies. From its own “father” – Duke Nukem to Terminator and many more, you will feel how the team shares their love of the action-adventure genre.
Other than the fact the Shelly is a part of the Global Defense Force we don’t get to see a lot of character from Shelly. Much like Duke, Shelly is packed with quotes from action films that are funny but get repetitive over time. Because there aren’t many good female protagonists in the FPS genre, I was expecting some depth in Shelly, but she became a female Duke Nukem, and its fine, but not much to it than that.
With an amazing environment, great sense of pace and fun, I can highly recommend Ion Fury to any person who loved the old school FPS like myself. With tons of enemies to mass around with your weapons, cool secrets in the game and a lot of old school references. you’re sure to have fun playing Ion Fury.
Ion Fury is available right now on Steam and it will come out next year to the Nintendo Switch, PS4 & Xbox One.
Great review to a FANTASTIC game !!
Definitely going to buy on the Nintendo Switch, and PC as well.