I am playing this series in chronological order and I am struggling to tell whether Phantom Fury is an improvement over Ion Fury.
My main beef with Ion Fury was its bare-bones almost non-existent plot. Phantom Fury has a proper story, albeit one, told in a somewhat jumbled order, one that explains what the kickass main heroine is all about and why she’s doing what she’s doing. However, I’m starting to suspect that these games are rather loosely connected in terms of their plot, and likely intended more as technical explorations of their respective subgenres.
The gameplay… has somewhat suffered. While the more appropriate checkpoint system replaced the abusable free-for-all ‘save anywhere’ mechanic seen in Ion Fury, several changes feel like steps backward:
-there are too many weapons (literally more than there are types of enemies), their selection is awkward (3 or 4 are mapped to a single button. And no, it doesn’t remember your last selection when you switch back to that button).
-the game is too generous with ammo (even on the hardest difficulty).
-I got irreversibly stuck a few times during my playthrough and had to reload the last checkpoint.
That said I am very grateful that Phantom Fury doesn’t have any secrets/enemy counters and there’s no completionist pressure. And if you can stomach the weapons/ammo situation, the shooting itself will still be fun, just a bit less tight and satisfying than in Ion Fury.
At the end of the day we have a somewhat messier gameplay, which is balanced out by a clearer narrative. It’s still a pretty OK FPS, and one without the annoying regenerating health system!
