Review by Richard Winstone
Ion Fury (developed as Ion Maiden) a fresh take on classic gaming? Let’s find out…..
So what is Ion Fury? Well, it’s a classic FPS, some might recognize the name 3D Realms, the makers of max pain, pray, and most importantly Duke Nukem (the original).
Teaming up with Voidpoint a brand new old game, basically its Duke Nukem 3D, but with a new female protagonist who just as foul-mouthed, time to meet Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison, a bomb disposal expert for the GDF (Global Defence Force).
Set in the futuristic Neo DC district, Dr. Jadus Heskel has let his army of cybernetically enhanced terrorist lose, causing havoc thought the city, you take up the challenge of cleaning up the street by any mean necessary including throwing many, many bombs yourself.
In classic throwback style the old skool pixels make a strong return with the classic blood and gore, regardless of what angle you blow the enemy away with they fold like an envelope into a bloody pile on the floor, if your into a bit of nostalgia, hold on to your hats because this game has it in the sacks and is dishing it out ah plenty.
But we look back with rose-tinted glasses we all do, the loading through every other door, single routes to follow, more loading times, well not today peoples Voidpoint, mashed together the best of both world, classic gameplay, classic graphics, with a more open word game with autosaves, no loading screens, some enhanced physics, controller support, etc.
Its everything you could want and more. It took me back to being a young lad, my uncle grabbing a floppy disk and saying pop this in type wolfentien.exe (the first FPS I ever played).
The textures, the gameplay, the excitement I was 10 again and loving every minute of it. The only thing this game is missing is as a boot-up screen a DOS prompt needing you to type in ionfury.exe the soundtrack is even on point.
As you storm through each mission with the classic med kits, armor shards and key cards to find to access new areas, you come across a ludicrous selection of weapons, you starter pistol allows you to go all John Wayne fanning your shot with the alt-fire mode, shotguns, grenades, machine guns, SMGs, bowling bombs……………. Yes bowling bombs, as good if not better than you can imagine, the good old Gatling gun makes an appearance.
Voidpoint has added a few fun game modes like bombs only, and Queen of the Hill, I played countless hours on this mode, trying to beat my previous scores getting lost in a single-player game, competing against the clock.
But don’t take my word for it just have a look at the early access steam reviews, overwhelmingly positive out of 1199 reviews I there are only 37 negatives and well if you read them there people complaining that the early access doesn’t have enough levels, which is fair they did pay hard cash for it, but it is early access so take then with a pinch of salt.
This game is a solid 9/10
fun, exciting and nostalgia with just enough modernization to make it special and not another doom clone.
1 thought on “Ion Fury”