Ion Fury (REVIEW)

Enriched with excessive amounts of estrogen, and booming with badass bitchery "Ion Fury" answers that age old question scratching at the back of everyone's brain noodle ... What if there were a female equivalent to Duke Nukem?

Based on the goings on within the fictional world of Neo D.C., a distant future locale where augmented cyber criminals disobey a mandated martial law ordinance, Cpt. Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison steps in to be the judge, jury, and executioner. Wielding a revolver, and a stun baton she ventures forth into the city to dispatch local scumbags with extreme prejudice. All while offering one liners that would make the Duke himself shed a proud tear.

Once you're in the game, supposing you buy it, you'll find that the previously disclosed lore in "Ion Fury" comes in the form of a short paragraph found within the main menu's "READ ME!" section along with developer credits. That, and through character dialogue that unfolds as you progress through the game's main campaign. A campaign that comes with four difficulty options that take inspiration from the difficulty settings in games like Duke Nukem, and Wolfenstein. Almost to the point of parody. You'll find that the higher the difficulty in Ion Fury the more gory Shelly's avatar is initially. Reflecting the brutal state of the challenges that lie ahead. Much like the avatar of BJ Blazkowicz of Wolfenstein fame.

Gameplay as one might expect takes the form of the oldschool arena/corridor shooters that previously mentioned games were molded after. In Ion Fury it is a neon lit 3D world brought to life with voxel, and pixel construction with pseudo realistic character designs. Gore included. As Shelly you'll make your way in first person through Neo D.C. wielding two basic weapons at first, and picking up other weapons as you progress. Your goal is to dispatch the criminals, and creatures in each area while minding ammo, health, and shields as well as key cards that are required to open up access to locked sections of the locale. You'll find that the level design in each given section is not only unique, but that it is also layered in nature, and that the environments are teeming with secrets as well as tons of destructible objects that react accordingly when shot or struck. Making the world more than just a base foundation to run and gun through. Something more akin to a living open world with tons of interaction.

Controlling Shelly is a mixture of shoulder button shooting, and basic 3D platforming. Switching between weapons is done by pressing down on the DPad while using said weapons is done by pressing the R2 shoulder button. To move you'll be using the left thumbstick, and to rotate your view you'll be using the right thumbstick. It's nothing too confusing or complicated, and I do believe you can customize controls as you see fit. Where the real challenge comes in is in the fast paced movement of Shelly. She almost skates across the floors of the environments making targeting more difficult at times. The trade off being the ability to more easily dodge enemy gunfire, and attacks. Some weapons like Shelly's revolver do have lock on targets that can be brought up (L2?) to make hitting the intended target easier though. You can also toggle on or off the always run mechanic at the main menu settings along with voxel display, Shelly's brash commentary, and auto aim. As far as gun play goes it is varied with an odd assortment of weapon options including things like bowling bombs, a grenade launcher, and an uzi. Each of which has limited ammo that is further limited by the ammo that can be found within an area.

The thing about the campaign playthrough, as you will find out, is that everything is statically positioned throughout. Meaning that everything from the enemies to the power-ups and ammo are always in the same place. Learning the layout, and locations is the key to clearing each section of the campaign. That, and minding health/shields. As you progress, and trigger save screens you will be notified that the game is saving, and not to shut the console's power off. You can let the game auto-save at key points, or press "OPTIONS", and manually save. Continuing is done at the main menu through the "Continue" option. Aside from that you will be able to unlock bonus levels by finding secrets within the campaign. These bonus levels have their own separate startup menu at the main menu.

The verdict ...

For something that takes so much inspiration from outside sources, "Ion Fury" still does good to stand out as it's own experience. The storytelling does feel a bit forced, but playing through the campaign is fun enough. Fun, and challenging. Gameplay, which seems to be this game's selling point, is spot on with the genre that it hails from, and stays in line with said genre's staple features. Things like interactive environments, and gore really take this game up a notch in quality, retrospectively. Shelly's one liners also hold worth when held up to the torch this game takes and runs with. If ever there was a worthy successor to the throne of corridor shooters I'd say "Ion Fury" has a fighting chance. Despite it's shortcomings in the way of story and plot as well as it's obvious stick it to man politics it offers a proper return to a gameplay formula that was hype back in the early PC era, and still holds it's own to this day. It earns my Hell Yeah!!! seal of approval!