I'm a fan of old shooters, they make my brain cells fire in every direction and I find aspects of their design that could be learned from modern games.

Hence why this game feels so odd to me, it shows itself as embodying everything that made the Build Engine era of games great while rejecting their most unique aspects. The compact and experimental level design, enemy variety, freedom to get lost, difficulty, etc...

And I understand these are flaws for many people, but at least for me and many that enjoy these games for what they are and not the memory of them, this sands down the edges too much.

A final note, even if the general gunplay is good, the reloading mechanic is uncalled for, I can see it had the purpose of making fights more tense by not being able to always shoot (you deal a ton of damage even on hard difficulties) but you can ignore that obstacle by simply spamming the dedicated reload button, making it more of a nuisance.

Though, it's still enjoyable, I will be going through it in depth to really understand it, something it does share with old school shooters is that the true experience comes after you are familiar with its secrets and maps.

Edit: About a month later I've done about everything in the game, went through all the secrets and explored every level, I did not get 100% as a trophy because the game asks you to kill every enemy in a level, even if high difficulties increase the amount of them to the point where they bug out and you can't kill them.

I've come to really appreciate the game's level design, at the same time that the combat becomes so simple due to the lack of enemy variety and the fact all your guns deal so much damage and get so much ammo that the only reason to constantly change is to spice things up yourself.

Still a good time, can't wait for Aftershock.

Retro shooters are flooding the market and Ion Fury is usually named as one of the better ones. And I agree with that assessment, while I still think Dusk is the best of the bunch, Ion Fury is up there. The shooting in Ion Fury is tight and accurate, and it got a lot of cool callbacks to '90s shooters, and it's super fast and hit that old-school run-and-gun gameplay well.

But, there are some notable problems with Ion Fury. You can die VERY fast, which means you gotta autosave constantly. The game is also too sparse on the ammo, I barely used my favorite weapons because they rarely had ammo. I used the first few guns 80% of the time. The game also reuses the same enemies all the time, and it's possible to get a bit stuck in some places (although some might say this is a part of being a retro shooter.)

But all in all the game is a success, but it's probably a game aimed more towards fans of retro shooters. It's quite long, around 8-11 hours, and its difficulty is likely gonna bounce some people off it before the end credits.

If it was around 5-6 hours, had more ammo, and scaled the difficulty to reduce the constant need for autosaves, it would fare a lot better in my opinion.

Feels weird to call this game “safe” while it relies on you liking a specific game engine from 1995, but it kind of is. The weapons are all useful but fairly standard, not having any of the wackier focus other Build Engine games put on this and the enemies are similar with you fighting a lot of the same "grunt with gun" types through most of the game. The levels too don't try to suprise you outside of a couple exceptions and this leads to a campaign that doesn't feel like it goes anywhere.

It is fun though! It's really cool to see something use old tech in this way where it takes advantage of modern hardware while still feeling like the older games this is inspired by. It's not "DOOM HD TEXTURE PACK 4K" it feels like an older game just on a much bigger scale and that ends up giving the whole thing a really cool vibe. And the combat is genuinely fun with all the weapons having that similar, old but smooth feeling.

It's just a shame that it ends up feeling a bit like a tech demo? They had a cool idea of what to do with the game technically but not creatively and the way it gives you its few ideas feels a bit badly paced. For example, it tries to give you a full, uninterrupted campaign like Half-Life or most modern shooters, as opposed to Doom and the other Build Engine games which were split into episodes and reset your weapons and items between them. This leads to the game dumping most of its weapons onto you in its equivalent of Episode 1, and then you just keep them for the rest of the game. A few enemy types are introduced later but it feels similarly quick to throw all its ideas at you and as I said levels don't change too much, with it feeling like a lot of the game is spent in a Cyberpunk city, Sewers or Labs.

Cool game but not a great one. Good core gameplay and cool aesthetic but misses a few beats elsewhere.


Also had a very funny controversy where the devs removed a joke no one was offended by, got review bombed and then added it back in saying "they wont stand for the censorship of art 😤", all over a bottle that said "Ogay".

This is a really weird game to review. On one hand, yes, the formula is there. It's obvious when you play it that Ion Fury is trying its best to emulate the likes of Duke Nukem and Shadow Warrior (Blood not so much imo). Super fast paced gameplay, levels bursting with verticality and secrets, and a quippy protagonist.

However, there are some issues that prevent Ion Fury from reaching the heights of the legendary Build trinity. First of all, and the most damning thing, is the writing and dialogue. I don't normally say things like this in reviews, as I generally respect most involved in game development, but whoever wrote the narrative and dialogue needs to be either fired or switched to another section of the team. I moderate a Dragon Ball roleplaying forum, and people who can barely type a coherent sentence could write more compelling and honest dialogue than whoever the fuck they got to write this shit.

From the first level to the last, Shelly says the most cringeworthy and (even worse) unimaginative bullshit you could possibly think of. Movie references that desperately scream "OMG I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT MAKES SOMETHING FEEL 90'S BUT I'LL TRY ANYWAY," comments on shit that basically amount to the most STRAIGHTFORWARD observation you could possibly make but in a voice that implies there's a joke somewhere. There is no joke. It's not funny, it's not witty, it's not interesting.

What made the Build trinity's dialogue good is how extreme it was. It didn't play it safe. Duke is such an insanely strong parody of 90's action heroes that he actually ends up being a GOOD action hero in his own right due to his many, many memorable quotables that are repeated to this day, in addition to unbelievably unique voice acting. Caleb is just so dastardly, vicious, and witty that you can't help but to love him. And Lo Wang... Alright, he's uh... Well, in an attempt to preserve my reputation I'm just gonna say at least he's memorable and extreme. Despite her solid voice acting, Shelly is not.

Now, regarding the gameplay. It does a lot of things right. The level design is some of the best in any Build game ever, I'd argue that much of this game's level design surpasses the quality of the trinity. The environments are insanely detailed and there's so much to see, it's really the only Build game i'd call "beautiful."

The guns are rock solid. I know some complain about the lack of weapon variety, but I seldom felt that way while playing. All of the weapons do a good job at filling a niche (with the exception of the crossbow... they probably should have fixed the aiming on that but i guess it does work in a pinch) and it's rare that you don't have the right tool for the job. The feedback on killing enemies is generally quite nice too, especially with explosions.

The enemies you face range from "solid" to "why the fuck did they put this in the game" tier. The "solid" enemies are the regular goons dressed in robes and the shotgun guys. I say solid because while they get the job done, they aren't the most stylistically interesting and they have no real dialogue other than basic tactical speak... Which is a far cry from the pig cops of Duke Nukem and the screaming cultists of Blood.

Now, on the other end of the spectrum... The fucking spider robots. Why God Why. I never had fun a single time dealing with these annoying motherfuckers. ESPECIALLY when the game decides to just spam them without any other enemies. At least there's an argument to be made that they er... make combat more tricky against a group? I don't know, I'm being too generous. Remove these fuckers and the game improves two fold.

Anyway, I think the primary issues with this game lay in the obvious lack of writing and style chops. The only thing I can really say has a ton of style in this is like... The music and environments. Shelly is terrible and the enemies are boring. Unfortunately, that's kinda like... the primary focus of the game, it goes without saying. The reason I'm still giving this a pretty good score is because fundamentally it's good, I found myself wanting to come back, and the level design is just too good to ignore.

It seems to me that, at this point, when setting out to make a retro FPS, you need to ask yourself two questions - can I make this game (i.e. do I have the design chops to pull it off - make levels, weapons, enemies, etc.) and - as I think this game proves, more importantly - should I make this game (i.e. do I have any interesting ideas at all for what to put in it). Functionally, this game is perfect and the look and feel are as good as anything on the Build Engine could possibly be, but unless you're just looking for more shooting gameplay to pass the time, you're probably gonna find this pretty boring. Lifeless, lame one-liner voice acting and every basic-bitch reference you can possibly imagine being in something like this crammed into every corner and repeated to death doesn't cut it.

Given that, my rating for this might seem high, but other than being dull, it's so overwhelmingly well done that I can't bring myself to rate it lower. The feel is fantastic, everything works right, and the levels are for the most part very clever. Just wish there was someone on the team with a little more creativity! Feels a bit like a waste of potential.

Ion Fury left me speechless

Procedes to write the longest review ever

Seriously, Ion Fury is so perfect that i can’t even. I’m pretty sure this would’ve been my child obsession if i’d played it in the 90’s. I’m pretty sure that Ion Fury is seductive enough for everyone just by it’s visual aspect. That whole cyberpunk/neon bisexual lightning/retro-futuristic/80’s sci-fi aesthetic might be something pretty common in videogames and culture as a whole nowadays, but one can’t resist it’s charm. And to see that it has finally made it’s way not just into a random FPS, but as one of the kickstarters of the whole Retro-FPS revival, and all of this in what makes the comeback of the glorious Build Engine after more than 20 years... well, it’s just something way too big.

Rarely something so promising manages to fit the expectatives. Ion Fury actually surpasses them. This game is essentially a masterclass in atmosphere, gameplay, and level design. As for the atmosphere, this game goes for completely different direction compared to a game like, let’s say, Dusk (But you can also count Blood, Cultic, and even Quake). And i’m not just referring to the most obvious difference which is the strong differences in their respective themes. What i mean is that a game like Dusk, even if it’s not a survival horror game or anything like that, it is still supposed to make you feel uncomfortable, at times. It’s still obligated to make the experience not entirely pleasant. On the opposite, Ion Fury is pure sci-fi bliss, pure joy, pure pleasure. It’s a fun time from beginning to end. This, concerning the atmosphere, is posible not just because of the visuals, but also because of the music.

Music here deserves it’s own paragraph. The correlation between the FPS genre and electronic music has been explored before, obviously (Unreal comes to mind), but Ion Fury should be consider as a true paradigm. It’s a really eclectic mix of synth sounds. It can sound badass without relying on heavy guitars, it can also sound groovy, and at times it can sound like something out of the Robocop or Terminator soundtrack. It’s nice blend of styles from the 80s, like synth-pop and new wave, and also styles from the 90’s like house music, trance, and such. To put it simple, it’s one banger after another.

Let’s talk about level design. In terms of concept/art/aesthetic, you have 7 different episodes or “zones” as they are called in the game, comprising between 3 and 6 maps, altogether creating a single long campaign, because there’s some kind of narrative progression here. First zone is probably the most iconic of all, and it’s based on the futuristic city of Neo D.C. The second zone is pretty much a mix of some city maps and a few, let’s say, “tech-bases”. Third zone, one of the best of the whole game, happens inside a large building, pretty much in the style of Die Hard. Episodes 4, 6 and 7 are essentially a bunch of tech-base levels. Episode 5, one of my favourites, is a mix of different ideas: A natural environment during daytime, a sewer level (probably one of the best sewer levels of all time), and a fantastic spooky mansion level (i just love the spooky mansion theme in shooters, Blood and Hedon are some other examples). If i can make any criticism is that, overall, it feels like there are too many tech-base maps, but this is only a superficial and very subjective nitpick, since all of this maps are actually pretty good and it’s pretty hard to tell which one you would leave out of the game. It’s just a matter of theme/concept, which comes down to a matter of how and why certaing textures are chosen.

Looking at the level design In terms of pure gameplay, Ion Fury can proudly say that it’s a singular case of an FPS with no bad maps at all. Even the most iconic games of the genre might have a couple of bad maps here and there, but truly, Ion Fury has none. For sure, there might be a few mediocre ones – And i’m sure that’s mostly determined by some repetitive themes – but objectively, there are no shitty enemy placements, no convoluted mazes, no annoying puzzles, no dark places. Simply, there’s no bullshit here. There are simple maps aswell as some bigger and more complex ones. Yet you’ll never feel lost, you’ll never be wandering around looking for a hidden switch. Except, of course, if you’re looking fot the hardest secrets, of which i’ll talk later.

As for the combat, i just have to agree with Civvie about the comparison with Shadow Warrior. Ion Fury’s difficult is not as hard as Blood, and not as easy as Duke Nukem 3D. Instead, it’s actually something pretty close to Shadow Warrior. Weapons are tight, featuring the best pistol ever introduced in a FPS, an excelent shotgun, and some very interesting dual sub-machine guns. It’s also interesting how the chaingun is introduced as the most powerful weapon here. Explosive weapons, on the other hand, well, they could’ve been handled a little bit better. Bowling bombs take some time to get used to, but they end up being the best of the bunch, a very interesting concept all in all. The grenade launcher is ok, but has some problems with the aiming. Clusterpucks, i rarely used them in my entire gameplay, given how hard they were to figure out for me. But the three explosive weapons share the same problem: The unpredictability of the splashing damage. Sometimes you might want to use one of these to deal with a group of weak enemies that are practically tied to each other. Given that case, there are chances that you might only kill the enemy who actually hitted the explosive, with almost no splash damage to the surrounding left. That’s a little janky.

I guess my biggest nitpick with this game is the -sort of- imposibility to reach a 100% at the end of every episode. First of all, Killings are pretty much imposible to do in a 100%. There will always be a single enemy that didn’t spawn correctly when it should, for some unknown reason. And if that’s not the reason, then the counter is broke, or maybe deaths by enemy-infight don’t count. Idk really. And second of all, secrets, which are probably some of the hardest to find i’ve ever experienced in any FPS. They tend to be a lot for every map, and sometimes they are so hard to discover, that it feels a bit excessive, to the point where it kinda goes against having fun. But of course, if you’re able to deal with your OCD, none of these should be a real problem. Actually, i did two consecutive full playthroughs of this game (something i can recall doing just a couple times in my whole life), the first one exploring all of the secrets, and the second one only going for those i remembered. Naturally, the second was a lot more fun.

Ion Fury is so good that it even has a good sewer level. Does it get better than this?

Rating: 8.2/10 - Great

Great weapons, enemies and level design. I do think that things can get a bit too key hunting and the secrets are too well hidden for the rewards they hold but those are minor issues.

Nothing here blows my mind but the overall execution is done so well that I can't help but put it in my current top 10 list for 2019.

🚫 ONLY A SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW IS AVAILABLE. READ MISC SECTION ON WHY 🚫

Ion Fury brings an action experience that aims to replicate its inspirations from over twenty years ago using today's technology, as if to bring a game that features a retro charm with contemporary elements. And it works, Ion Fury is very successful at striking a balance between the retro feel and today's amenities that make gameplay more enjoyable.
👉 opencritic SUMMARY

With its frantic action and sharp level design, Ion Fury on the Nintendo Switch is more than worthy of the time and efforts of any players who enjoy a more old school experience that didn't stop in time.
👉 metacritic SUMMARY

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◻️ ⚠️ Review originally written for FNintendo (defunct website) and published on May 22nd, 2020. Full review is currently unavailable. Expect restored written piece translated into English.
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◻️ ✍️ in European Portuguese (Main body of text translated into English with A.I.)
◻️ 📜 Review Number 39

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ F I N |

Originally Ion Maiden (still bitter about the name change), Ion Fury is a 2019 First-Person Shooter running on the Build engine. It was published by 3D Realms and developed by Voidpoint.

This is probably one of the better Build engine games (I at least had a better time with this than I had with Shadow Warrior. While that game is good, the comedy in it was very subjective to say the least). I had a fun time while playing this.

The attention to detail in every map is absolutely stunning, and certainly more detail than what Duke Nukem 3D was capable of at the time. Little quality of life touches like when you shoot a fire extinguisher, it's contents spray out before it explodes. Not only is that satisfying to do, but the hole it makes leaves item pickups you will need.

The weapon lineup is satisfying as well, with the pistol (named the Loverboy) probably the best pistol I've ever seen in an FPS game. The alt fire for it automatically headshots targets. It is extremely effective even late into the game.

Blowing up enemies is always beneficial. Kind of like Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal with glory kills, if you blow up enemies they drop a ton of armor pickups. This is very useful in this game because the monsters are relentless and will take advantage of Build engine jank to get to you.

The voice acting in this is so much better than Shelly in Duke Nukem: Alien Apocalypse. Voiced by Valerie Michelle Arem, she actually feels like a human and not a female clone of Duke Nukem. Heskel is especially great, played by John St. John. It's unfortunate that the final level doesn't have him as the final boss. But, it is a decent enough challenge so it can be forgiven.

Overall, I had a fun time with this, and I can't wait for the sequel coming out later this year!

Um ótimo boomer shooter se você gosta de Duke Nukem 3D.

A gameplay é similar ao tal citado acima, já que ambos foram feitos na mesma engine, a Build Engine, porém Ion Fury (originalmente chamado de Ion Maiden) pega essa engine extremamente datada e adiciona diversas melhorias de QoL que são presentes hoje em dia, como headshot, auto save, resolução 1080p, e entre outras features. O arsenal que você carrega no jogo é bem interessante, primeiro você tem a Loverboy, uma pistola que você consegue mirar em um inimigo e dar dois tiros automáticos exatamente nele (especialmente apelão contra inimigos voadores), uma espingarda que tem um alt fire que é basicamente um lança granadas, e o grande highlight do jogo, as bowling bombs, que você atira elas como uma bola de boliche como o nome já diz e só explode quando bate em um inimigo, se não você pode pegar ela de volta, no início ela não é tão boa, mas lá pra frente quando o jogo introduzir mais inimigos, vai por mim você vai usar isso pra caralho, e por causa de tudo que citei acima, dá pra dizer que o gunplay é incrível. Ah sim, lembra Duke Nukem 3D, sabe, o jogo que citei acima (óbvio que você sabe se você está lendo essa review em primeiro lugar)? Enfim, nesse jogo tinha cartões para desbloquear o resto da fase e vários segredos pelas fases, e sim estou falando ambos de Duke 3D e desse jogo aqui mesmo, exceto que aqui o jogo dá impressão de que conforme você avança pelas fases, você está realmente andando para lá e não se teletransportando para lá kkkk. Ok mas falando sério agora, eu queria muito dar uma nota maior para esse jogo, mas tem uns defeitos que as vezes me irritam para um cacete aqui, por exemplo, como falei acima, o jogo tem um bom foco em exploração, porém as vezes é muito mal sinalizado onde você tem que ir ou o que precisa ativar para progredir, como alavancas que estão escondidas até demais (combinado com a mira vertical horrível do jogo), não só na exploração, mas também em outras partes, como no chefe final onde eu tive que pesquisar para ver como matava ele, mas talvez isso pode ser comigo mesmo. Agora falando em chefes, o que com certeza não tem nada a ver comigo é o quão esponja de danos eles são, sério, os chefes são tenebrosos de ruins que devoram toda a munição de uma FODENDO MINIGUN ou de um lança granadas, e eles nem têm ataques interessantes, só ficam spammando bombas ou inimigos para tudo que é canto do mapa. E falando em bombas, maluco como a otimização do jogo é péssima quando o assunto é bomba, tipo, quando explode muita coisa na tela os frames caem para um caralho, o que deixa os chefes já desinteressantes ainda mais insuportáveis, felizmente isso não acontece com suas armas (pelo menos nem tanto).

Indo para a trilha sonora e os visuais, a trilha sonora é bem boa, especialmente na primeira metade do jogo (ou no mínimo no primeiro terço do jogo), e enquanto na segunda metade não é tão boa quanto, ainda tem músicas daora. Visualmente é a mesma coisa, tirando as explosões citadas acima, o jogo é visualmente bem bonito, pelo menos no exterior, pois infelizmente a maioria das fases são só esgotos ou cavernas genéricas, especialmente da Zone 4 em diante, mas a primeira metade é realmente daora.

Enfim, posso ter pego muito pesado em alguns aspectos do jogo, mas mesmo com tudo isso, ainda é um jogo muito bom que definitivamente recomendo para fãs da Build Engine ou mesmo de boomer shooters no geral.

7.5 (quase um 8)/10