Ever since Phantom Fury was announced, I was very excited. I really like the overall look of the game. It's a sort of modern version of the graphics from the year 2000, and the artists have done a good job of creating a visually appealing title.
However, the game itself is sadly very disappointing. It feels like an aimless project that isn't sure what it wants to be. It's like Ion Fury, but without the fun and violent action nor the clever level design. It's very inspired by Half-Life 1 and 2, but without the well crafted narrative structure that makes the adventure engaging. It's like DNF 2001, but without the charm or the humor. It's even a tiny bit like Deus Ex, but without the complex mechanics and systems that make immsim so interesting to explore.
Combat is at best dull, at worst frustrating, especially because of the bullet spongy enemies and the lack of quick saves which sometimes forces you to replay a 5 minutes sequence all over again.
Enemies' AI is shockingly stupid, even for a small indie title. They often get stuck and stop attacking the player.
The developers had fun implementing numerous interactions with the environment. At first, this seems cool, but it quickly ends up feeling pointless and superficial. There's no gameplay purpose, and it's also inconsistent since some buttons can be pressed or objects picked up, but many others are purely decorative. Honestly they should have used the time spent making those interactions to improve the core gameplay instead.
Phantom Fury is a very unfocused game. It is ambitious and tries to do a lot of things (there are even some completely unnecessary vehicle sequences, or HL2-styled physics-based puzzles that seem to be there just for the sake of it), but everything feels half-baked, from the gameplay to the story (what story?). There are also a lot of bugs, such as scripts that don't execute properly and force us to reload the previous checkpoint. The bugs can be fixed, but I don't think the adventure will improve with a few patches.
However, the game itself is sadly very disappointing. It feels like an aimless project that isn't sure what it wants to be. It's like Ion Fury, but without the fun and violent action nor the clever level design. It's very inspired by Half-Life 1 and 2, but without the well crafted narrative structure that makes the adventure engaging. It's like DNF 2001, but without the charm or the humor. It's even a tiny bit like Deus Ex, but without the complex mechanics and systems that make immsim so interesting to explore.
Combat is at best dull, at worst frustrating, especially because of the bullet spongy enemies and the lack of quick saves which sometimes forces you to replay a 5 minutes sequence all over again.
Enemies' AI is shockingly stupid, even for a small indie title. They often get stuck and stop attacking the player.
The developers had fun implementing numerous interactions with the environment. At first, this seems cool, but it quickly ends up feeling pointless and superficial. There's no gameplay purpose, and it's also inconsistent since some buttons can be pressed or objects picked up, but many others are purely decorative. Honestly they should have used the time spent making those interactions to improve the core gameplay instead.
Phantom Fury is a very unfocused game. It is ambitious and tries to do a lot of things (there are even some completely unnecessary vehicle sequences, or HL2-styled physics-based puzzles that seem to be there just for the sake of it), but everything feels half-baked, from the gameplay to the story (what story?). There are also a lot of bugs, such as scripts that don't execute properly and force us to reload the previous checkpoint. The bugs can be fixed, but I don't think the adventure will improve with a few patches.