Ion Fury

Ion Fury looks *amazing, is fluid and fun to play, is absolutely enormous, generally well designed, and a technical marvel. BUT, there is a specific enemy, these little skulls with spider legs, and they are absolutely EVERYWHERE. They are *incredibley irritating to fight as they skitter and jump around while charging the player. They are so annoying and prevelant throughout the game, it actually hinders the experience overall. Now, this is me speculating but, I've become convinced the only reason the pistol has an auto head-shot mechanic is to compensate for the constant onslaught of skull spiders. The developers may have been so married to these stupid things, they actually altered the pistol to compensate. But that's just a guess. Do I sound nitpicky? I would think so too if I was reading this having not played through the game but, believe me, it absolutely will wear you down. If you have played through, I bet you know exactly what I'm talking about. All that said, if you like build engine games or old school fps in general, Ion Fury is a blast and I whole heartedly recommend it. Maybe someday, someone mod out at least some of the skull spiders.

Best "Retro FPS", I've played

Trying to ignore the time gap as good as possible, I think Ion Fury might just be the best Build engine game (sorry, Blood). It's just paced so well, plays exactly right, has fun and varied weapons - some specifically made to counter Hitscanners and enemies waiting around the corner. The only downside may just be that the movement can feel a bit floaty at times, which can lead to some tricky situations, given the sheer detail present in the level design, but that's just an artifact of the Build engine. Speaking of level design: It's glorious. Engine from 1996, level of detail and complexity from 2019. Large, intricate (in a good way) and while full of interactivity and references, never losing focus on design, especially when it comes to enemy encounters. What was especially fun were the secrets. Ion Fury has two kinds of them: Normal secrets you'd expect from any other game ... and then there are secrets the game actually counts as such. If there's one thing I could criticize, it would be that I cannot buy the soundtrack as a DLC here. Because the music is just as awesome as the rest. Anyway, if you're still reading this, you're doing it wrong because you're not playing the game.

Everything from the intro screens, to the "Read Me!" text, to the cheeky content, screams classic 3D Realms. Ion is a blast from the past but with enough modern touches to justify the price.

Playing Ion Fury feels great, and it truly deserves the "retro shooter" designation as it just all feels so very tight and satisfying to play with some modern conveniences as added bonus. Great level design, fun shootouts, silly quips, and loads of secrets. The one thing that marred the game for me were the boss fights though. They always ended up being too much of a painful chore as Shelly not only has to fight the boss but also an accompanying onslaught of minions for almost every one of these, which can easily overwhelm the player in quick order. It's just more frustrating than challenging being killed the upteenth time from the sidelines because it can be tough to keep track of them all.