Ion Fury: Aftershock

It's a very nice adventure with multiple set pieces and a variety of decors. New toys to play with and different gameplay situations. There is a driving segment and it's really good, I'd be up for a full game with that gameplay. Story wise, it follows the plot of the original game: sexy and dangerous Bombshell is on a mission against her nemesis Heskel, but this time, it's personnal! I loved the ninties feeling of the soundtrack (especially the dance track at the start). There's a good amount of humour in the game. I liked the Chopping Mall wink ; I think I've spotted other B-movie and games references too (they are never obnoxious, if you don't know the source you'd probably not even notice it's there).

I'm a big fan of Duke3D and Shadow Warrior, and I thoroughly enjoyed Ion Fury and Aftershock. Since there are very few sources that list exactly what Shelly's latest adventure adds in one place, I want to list them here: 1) NEW LEVELS: 15 new levels, with great map designs like the base game. The levels go from urban environments, to rural areas and towns, and naturally, all sorts of high tech bases. 4 early levels involve the new hoverbike, which show some really amazing tricks with the Build engine. (5/5) 2) NEW WEAPONS: Aftershock adds only one truly new weapon, the Homewrecker rocket launcher which fires homing missiles. It's a powerful and useful weapon, but I personally think it makes Ion Fury a bit less unique since the base game is one of the few old school shooters WITHOUT a rocket launcher, forcing you to use different bombs and grenades and playing up Shelly's background as a "demolitions expert". I wish they could have added something as interesting as Duke Nukem's Shrinker, or maybe some kind of electric shock weapon. Aftershock also adds two more ammo types for the Disperser shotgun/grenade launcher, explosive shotgun shells which function like mini-grenades, and a gas grenade which can slowly damage enemies in an area. It also now separates them in the selection so "3" switches between shotgun shells and "7" switches between grenades. The new ammo types add a little variety. The new consumable items are a blast too. (4/5) 3) NEW ENEMIES: Aftershock does well in adding some new enemies, including an armored sentry robot that shoots lasers, and two all new "trooper" enemies, one which can evade your attacks and another armed with a minigun. There are also recolored variants of enemies, including a fire version of the centipede, a gas grenade version of the grenadier, and a kamikaze version of the skull spiders. The game has 2 new, challenging bosses. All in all I think this is one area where Aftershock surpasses most DLCs. (5/5)

It's pretty much more of what made the base Ion Fury great, but more! There are less maps, but each one is bigger, more interactive and more varied than those of the base game. Yeah, it took a long, long time to develop, but the insane effort of Voidpoint shows in the incredible map quality which IMHO surpasses even the best of the best Build Engine mods like Death Wish or AMC TC. The music is top notch too, and there are a few new gun fire-modes and enemy alternatives to make the combat feel fresh even for those of us who have 100% the base game one or more times already. And with the new hover-bike chapter this expansion makes me feel that if the base IF was like a take on Half-Life on the Build Engine, then Aftershock is IF take Half-Life 2 and it's as glorious as that description would imply. Overall, to me Afteshock cements Ion Fury as the queen of the boomer shooter revival.

It adds a lot of content and improves the original game... It even adds that little bit of over the top craziness that was lacking in the main game.