Ion Fury

In 2016, 3D Realms released the game Bombshell, which was intended to mark the return of Duke Nukem, before the company lost the legal battle to acquire the title to Gearbox Software. Unfortunately, Bombshell did not reach the required level and did not even achieve the desired success, but 3D Realms did not give up hope and took the title back with… The release of Ion Fury, which tells us the events before the first part, is a shooting game developed by Voidpoint Games with the Build Engine. It is the first game in 19 years to use this engine, with an arcade shooter experience very similar to Duke Nukem 3D.

As with genre games, the story doesn’t play an important role in the experience, but rather justifies what’s happening around you. Explosives expert Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison from the Global Defense Force works in the city of Neo DC, which is a future version of the American capital Washington, and must fight Dr. Jadus Heskel, who has begun… destroying the city with his robot army.

Graphics and Sound

As already mentioned, the game presents the same classic three-dimensional graphics in the same style used by games like DOOM, using two-dimensional models with added depth to the image, which is called 2.5D, but it seems more sophisticated on the audio level The game offers a number of tunes that are reminiscent of classic genre games and one can say: the tunes are good and varied as you go through missions and there are a few tunes that may stick in your mind depending on the player’s taste .

Gameplay and Mechanics

The gameplay style is the same as usual in games of the genre, as it is limited to movement in different directions and the ability to descend, in addition to a shooting button. Ion Fury adds an alternate shooting mode to this system. For example, you can select enemies with the pistol to automatically aim at them, and you can switch the weapon to bomb fire mode. There is also the option to change the type of explosions caused by some bombs. However, automatic healing is not present of course, and you have a life meter next to it, a special armor meter that reduces the impact of damage on the life meter. The life meter can be replenished through injections and first aid kits scattered around the area and by taking armor. Full or partial number of armors to increase your armor points. That’s all you need to know to start the experience, and games of this type always stand out for their simplicity in this regard.

Level Design and Exploration

The experience is divided into several chapters, and each chapter is characterized by its structure around a specific character, such as: B. moving through the streets of Washington or the private building of Dr. Heskel. Each chapter consists of several areas. To complete the areas you will have to explore the surroundings in search of red, blue and yellow pass cards to open the doors and complete the journey towards the end. There are many resources and secrets hidden in each region and most regions contain at least 8 or 9 secrets that are usually kept hidden and it is not easy to find these secrets because they are cleverly hidden in the environment and a lot Require concentration and an attempt to interact with the various details of the environment.

Enemy Variety and Challenges

The experience is limited to the original story missions, in addition to a few additional missions that you can undertake outside of the story experience. Genre games usually offer a wide variety of enemy types, and Ion Fury lacks that. In the first third of the game, you will encounter all the enemies you can face, and their number is actually not as large as the type of games that aim to provide a variety of firepower with a large number of weapons, which differ in concept and strength. Although Ion Fury offers a whole range of weapons, most of them have the same concept in that they are firearms that vary in power and shooting style and nothing more. We hoped there would be more variety.

Overall Experience and Duration

The experience is generally fun and requires quick reactions. Enemies will quickly target you as soon as they see you. There are some minor defects such as: B. the occasional fluctuations in artificial intelligence. Some enemies can simply look at you without moving a finger. In addition, aiming with some weapons can become inaccurate at close range, except… These shortcomings do not affect the gaming experience in most cases.

Ion Fury offers around 12 hours of gaming experience, and if you want to discover all the hidden secrets, even more hours can be added to the experience, which is no easy task. Additionally, the game features several areas as additional missions that you can go through before or after completing the main experience. Ion Fury is an experience aimed at fans of classic shooting games and, despite some minor flaws, is an entertaining experience and could represent the appropriate direction for the Bombshell series in the future.