Kickass! I don't play a lot of DOOM clones, but I always have a good time when I do. Ion Fury is definitely pretty late of a DOOM clone, but it gets a lot of that innate appeal. Dodge and weave, keep peppering the enemy, gore and gib 'em.
Duke Nukem 3D is admittedly a blind spot for me when it comes to DOOM clones (most of my Duke Nukem exposure comes from Manhattan Project and the first third of Forever), so any particular nuance with how the Build engine contrasts with the DOOM engine is lost on me, at least for now. Broadly speaking, levels are HUUUUUUGE compared to what I'm used to - I'm honestly reminded of Sonic Robo Blast 2 first and foremost, at least with respect to how long you spend navigating a particular level. I imagine things get paired down a lot once you memorize certain levels, but even so...
The main thing I find myself impressed by here is weapon variety. When I play DOOM, I tend to fall into almost exclusively using the Shotgun (or Super Shotgun, in DOOM II). Sometimes the Chaingun gets its due if I'm low on Shells, Rockets get their play when I'm fighting a boss, and sometimes fists come up if I'm berzerking - but it's mostly the shotgun's show. In Ion Fury, there's a good amount of forced variety at play. The Disperser tended to be my go-to weapon out of habit, but there's enough of an ammo restriction that I'd have to be comfortable switching to the Penetrator(s). The Loverboy got quite a bit of use, too. Specific enemies would also be easiest to solve with the Electrifier or the Ion Bow, and the Chain Gun and Bowling Bombs made for good switch-up options. The only one I never got comfortable with was the Cluster Puck (heh), largely owing to how little I use Trap Mines in these sorts of games. But it made for a decent alternative grenade.
By contrast, I didn't think enemy variety was great. We're definitely skewing closer to the first over the second DOOM here, where a small suite of enemies carry very specific functions, and you just have to get used to gunning down the same cybernetic cultists rhe whole game. Not a huge deal, the first DOOM did fine, but don't expect a ton of new foes until, like, pretty late into the campaign.
The level pacing is also pretty front-loaded, where the first four zones have 5 levels apiece while the latter three zones... don't. Speeding up towards the finale works fine enough for a game of this length, but I sorta felt like the developers were hurrying along to get to the end, too, after that big climactic fight with the helicopter. Especially since "Countryside Carnage" and "Ordinary Laboratory" are completely missing bosses. I know part of that is that the devs really wanted to use demo level "Heskel's House of Horrors", and it's so much of a non sequitur that it must've been hard to sequence in as anything besides a capstone, but like it's pretty noticeable. Not bad, just kinda funny.
Good, good game all around, though. I definitely think the final fight against Heskel is one of the first times I've been suitably impressed by the final boss in one of these (DOOM and DOOM II are great, but I don't love the Spider Mastermind or the Icon of Sin). Honestly just cool to see that there's a market for this type of game/development in modern day.
P.S. - I get why they had to change it, but I'll forever bemoan the fact that they couldn't call this game "Ion Maiden". Woulda been perfect.
Duke Nukem 3D is admittedly a blind spot for me when it comes to DOOM clones (most of my Duke Nukem exposure comes from Manhattan Project and the first third of Forever), so any particular nuance with how the Build engine contrasts with the DOOM engine is lost on me, at least for now. Broadly speaking, levels are HUUUUUUGE compared to what I'm used to - I'm honestly reminded of Sonic Robo Blast 2 first and foremost, at least with respect to how long you spend navigating a particular level. I imagine things get paired down a lot once you memorize certain levels, but even so...
The main thing I find myself impressed by here is weapon variety. When I play DOOM, I tend to fall into almost exclusively using the Shotgun (or Super Shotgun, in DOOM II). Sometimes the Chaingun gets its due if I'm low on Shells, Rockets get their play when I'm fighting a boss, and sometimes fists come up if I'm berzerking - but it's mostly the shotgun's show. In Ion Fury, there's a good amount of forced variety at play. The Disperser tended to be my go-to weapon out of habit, but there's enough of an ammo restriction that I'd have to be comfortable switching to the Penetrator(s). The Loverboy got quite a bit of use, too. Specific enemies would also be easiest to solve with the Electrifier or the Ion Bow, and the Chain Gun and Bowling Bombs made for good switch-up options. The only one I never got comfortable with was the Cluster Puck (heh), largely owing to how little I use Trap Mines in these sorts of games. But it made for a decent alternative grenade.
By contrast, I didn't think enemy variety was great. We're definitely skewing closer to the first over the second DOOM here, where a small suite of enemies carry very specific functions, and you just have to get used to gunning down the same cybernetic cultists rhe whole game. Not a huge deal, the first DOOM did fine, but don't expect a ton of new foes until, like, pretty late into the campaign.
The level pacing is also pretty front-loaded, where the first four zones have 5 levels apiece while the latter three zones... don't. Speeding up towards the finale works fine enough for a game of this length, but I sorta felt like the developers were hurrying along to get to the end, too, after that big climactic fight with the helicopter. Especially since "Countryside Carnage" and "Ordinary Laboratory" are completely missing bosses. I know part of that is that the devs really wanted to use demo level "Heskel's House of Horrors", and it's so much of a non sequitur that it must've been hard to sequence in as anything besides a capstone, but like it's pretty noticeable. Not bad, just kinda funny.
Good, good game all around, though. I definitely think the final fight against Heskel is one of the first times I've been suitably impressed by the final boss in one of these (DOOM and DOOM II are great, but I don't love the Spider Mastermind or the Icon of Sin). Honestly just cool to see that there's a market for this type of game/development in modern day.
P.S. - I get why they had to change it, but I'll forever bemoan the fact that they couldn't call this game "Ion Maiden". Woulda been perfect.