Rating
Ion Fury
Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison earned her nickname as a bomb disposal expert for the Global Defense Force. When transhumanist cult mastermind Dr. Jadus Heskel unleashes a cybernetic army on Neo DC, Shelly decides it’s time to start chucking bombs rather than defusing them. Her journey will leave trails of blood and gore in huge, multi-path levels fil...
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Ion Fury Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Ion Fury is a glorious boomer shooter that feels amazing on the Steam Deck almost through the entire game!
Ion Fury is an old-school hand-crafted pixelated first-person shooter powered by 3D Realms' Build engine, which powered Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior and other 90's hits.
Ion Fury is not only an incredible love letter to ‘90s first-person shooters; it’s a great first-person shooter in its own right. It leverages a classic engine in new and exciting ways and is only very rarely hampered by it. While the humor may rub some players the wrong way, it’s arguably worth suffering through for a game that is in many ways better than its source material. This is a ‘90s shooter the way you remember them, rather than perhaps how they actually were.
Ion Fury is the second outing for protagonist Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison. We first saw her in Bombshell, a top-down action/shooter that was unfortunately a
Following on from her 2016 debut, Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison hits the big time with Ion Fury; the latest first-person shooter from 3D Realms - creators of the infamous Duke Nukem franchise. Ion Fury is a celebration of old-school, first-person shooter games, and embraces those classic tropes in beautiful and bloody fashion.
Ion Fury, from developer Voidpoint, has quite the interesting story. Running on a modified version of the Build Engine -- most famously used for Duke Nukem 3D -- Ion Fury is the first commercial release made with Build in 21 years. So it's with some degree of trepidation that we wade into a shooter running on 20-year-old tech. But is there any reason to actually be concerned? The best way to summarise is with a paradoxical comment: No, but also yes.
After the relative failure that was Duke Nukem Forever, it is great to see a game which rekindles that old classic Duke feel with a new (if not overly similar) IP. It has a number of stumbles, but if you want to take a 25-year blast-to-the-past, Ion Fury doesn’t surpass the FPS games of the age, but it does stand well against them, making it a good choice both for veterans of the age and for those new to the classic shooter style.
All in all, we had lots of fun with Ion Fury, but this retro shooter won't be for everyone. The occassional frame-rate issue, the annoying bad guys saying the same annoying things, and even the graphics from yesteryear will put some off. That said, there's fun to be had here, especially if you're a fan of classic FPS titles. As an old friend once said: "come get some."
Ion Fury effortlessly channels the spirit of old school shooters like Duke Nukem 3D, but the action is slowed by dull backtracking and environmental puzzles. When it flows there's a good challenge to be had, but the level design can be too convoluted for its own good.
Ultimately, Ion Fury is just a disappointment on console. It would have been a nice diversion had it been at least as good as the PC version, but it’s a thoughtless port that doesn’t take console nuances into account. Even worse, it suffers from technical issues that suck even more fun out of it. Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison deserves better.
Ion Fury is a throwback to the 1990’s PC FPS glory days. While many Indie developers have taken this old formula and created something new and brilliant. A perfect example of this is of course games like Dusk and Amid Evil. However, for every good game, there are a dozen...
Verdict: Ion Fury is a love letter to the 1990’s first-person shooter. With everything you love about games like Duke Nukem, Blood, and Shadow Warrior brought forward into a technically superior experience on modern PCs. With all of its nostalgia-inducing excellence, it does occasionally suffer from the same flaws that plague the games it emulates so well. Even so, if you are wanting to play a blinding-fast, visceral, white-knuckle FPS at high resolution and frame-rate, then Ion Fury is easily the best option currently available. And I readily recommend it to anyone.