Ion Fury Review

When it comes to first person shooters, it’s hard to go past the huge impact the Build Engine games - Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Redneck Rampage, and Blood - had on the genre back in the 90s. Their destructible environments, wide arsenal of creative weapons, and dirty (and admittedly sometimes entirely juvenile) humour were a breath of fresh air for gamers tiring of the endless line of Doom and Quake clones that were all taking themselves a little too seriously. But how well does that formula hold up these days? The Build Engine games definitely have a special place in many hearts (mine included), however they do feel antiquated and even somewhat obsolete in 2019, even amidst a mini-Renaissance for 90s shooters. Enter Ion Fury from Voidpoint and 3D Realms, which happily wears the “throwback nostalgia trip” tag on its sleeve, but also tries to inject some new mechanics and quality of life changes along the way, while leaving some of the less desirable relics of the genre in play.

In true Build Engine FPS style, Ion Fury focuses almost entirely on gameplay, with the story serving as nothing more than a weak string to tie the levels together. Protagonist Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison has to defend a futuristic Washington D.C. from transhumanist cult leader Dr. Jadus Heskel (played by Jon St. John, the voice of Duke Nukem, which is a nice touch) and his cybernetically enhanced monstrosities. And that’s it. Now go shoot some shit.

And shoot some shit you will. Luckily the gameplay is up to scratch, making the game’s 10 hour campaign fun and rewarding for its entire length. Indeed, the strongest praise one can give Ion Fury is that it pushes the Build Engine to its absolute limits. Environments are large and highly detailed, full of secrets and interactive elements. Unlike earlier Build Engine titles, which primarily had a bunch of tight corridors and the occasional small boss arena broken up across multiple levels, Ion Fury is made of complex, multi-leveled, and varied environments which serve as a series of loosely connected “zones” across the campaign. This allows for greater freedom of movement (like getting to high ground or retreating into a confined space), and even backtracking to find items you may have missed. It also means you’ll need to make more varied and tactical combat choices than just “kill the enemy before they kill you.”

Complementing the environment design is a varied lineup of highly detailed enemies, though none of them could be considered wildly innovative. Instead, Ion Fury feels like an iteration on the standard 3D Realms tropes, albeit a well-made and fun one. You’ll instantly recognise each enemy type as part of the typical roster from these titles, such as the standard humanoids to the big lumbering bosses that aren’t especially smart but will put you down really quickly if you’re not careful. Unfortunately, some of the weaker aspects of the genre are also in the game, in particular those annoying small enemies (in this case mechanical spiders) that simply swarm in large numbers and are almost impossible to hit because of their movement speed. Fighting these is not challenging, it’s annoying. Similarly, the AI is limited by the age of the engine, and although it certainly could be considered “smart” by Build Engine standards (watching sprites flank and retreat is impressive), it does have its understandable limitations.

The weapons continue the trend of “cool, but not especially original.” You have takes on the usual lineup: a revolver called The Loverboy (pistol), The Disperser (shotgun), The Penetrator (an incendiary SMG), Ion Bow (long range single shot weapon), Chain Gun (heavy weapon), and Clusterpuck (grenade). These weapons are well-designed and a lot of fun to use, but ultimately they’re nothing you haven’t seen before. Alternate fire modes add some additional variety, such as allowing The Disperser to double as a grenade launcher, or letting Shelly mark multiple targets with The Loverboy and then watching as she fans the hammer and takes them out. The one weapon which deserves a special shoutout for originality is The Bowling Bomb, a devastating homing explosive that rolls along the ground after making a cute little beep and really never stops being fun to use.

There are some additional modern gameplay features included in the game, some of which are welcome quality of life changes, while others feel like very bizarre design choices. Absolutely appreciated are the on-screen stats such as enemy counts and number of secrets found, as well as the optional auto-aiming. Voidpoint has even managed to add locational damage into the engine, meaning headshots actually work like headshots, which is highly commendable. However it is beyond comprehension why there is a reloading mechanic in a throwback shooter, especially when there is no indication on the HUD of how much ammo is left in the clip of your equipped weapon. Not to mention the checkpoints. In a Build Engine game. As Duke would say: “Blow it out your ass.”

The biggest criticism one can make however is of the tone of the game. While it’s not as outright silly and puerile as its older brethren, Ion Fury definitely still misses the mark in terms of its humour. Cheesy one-liners, pop culture references and Easter Eggs abound, and admittedly some are quite clever, but when they’re sandwiched between things like neon signs for “Cocktails” with the last five letters no longer lighting up and of course that bottle of soap with a questionable brand name, they get lost in the juvenile noise. This sort of humour worked well enough when we were edgy 12-year-olds thinking we were so badass for seeing our first pair of digital boobs in Duke Nukem 3D. However, now it just feels kind of like a cheap and lazy attempt to cash in on nostalgia but without any of the self-awareness or acknowledgement of the fact that it’s not the late 90s anymore. It would definitely have been feasible - indeed easy - to maintain the schlocky, exaggerated tone of the earlier games while writing jokes that would actually make an adult laugh and not alienate or target minority groups, or alternatively turn up the immaturity levels to parody levels and satirise the content of the earlier games Ion Fury takes influence from.

Ion Fury is a testament to how creativity can thrive through limitation. If someone had said that there would be a new Build Engine game in 2019 that would feature wide, open environments, gorgeous sprite work, and headshots, I’d have said they were crazy. But here we are. This is a must for anyone with fond memories of Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood, or Redneck Rampage, though just remember that you may need to put on a pair of rose coloured glasses to get maximum enjoyment out of it.