Ion Fury: Review

Shelley Harrison, nicknamed Bombshell, was assigned the most important task. Stop the mad Dr. Heskell and his cult of transhumanist cultists, including robotic soldiers, who attack the neon streets of New Washington? She will certainly do this anyway – casually, with jokes and throwing bowling bombs at everything that moves. She is no stranger to this, because Shelley once already saved the US President, who was abducted by aliens. No, its main mission is Ion Fury the other is to change gender. Calm down, it’s a metaphor. She needed to be the next Duke Nukem. True, in a skirt. And overall she did it.

Return of Bombshell

Once upon a time 3D Realms, authors Duke Nukem 3D, was thinking about releasing a separate game about Bombshell, the girlfriend of the famous Duke. However, the development was carried out by a very small team, and nothing good came of it. Only in 2014, during development Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, over which 3D Realms worked together with the studio Interceptor, there was an opportunity to really make our beauty the main character of a separate video game.

The fact is that then the rights to the brand Duke Nukem owned Gearbox Software, which through the court demanded to change the name Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction and generally change a lot. As a result, the project was renamed Bombshell, and Corporal Shelley Harrison was made the protagonist, although initially she was supposed to play only the role of an auxiliary character.

In 2016, this turned into a top-down shooter. Turned out bad. It seems that the issue is closed? But then there was a fashion for “old school” stylizations of shooter classics, which continues to this day – just recently, for example, we talked about Amid Evil.

3D Realms, Naturally, I didn’t stand aside, and now we have Ion Fury – a shooter that looks like a slightly more modern and prettier version Duke Nukem 3D. Moreover, it was made on a modified version of the famous Build engine (it was also used for Blood And Shadow Warrior), and the game was directly developed by the studio Voidpoint, which together with 3D Realms pored over the re-release Duke Nukem 3D. Only here we have a woman in the leading role.

Not a woman, just a bomb!

Heroine Ion Fury could really become a role model for feminists – an example of a woman who solves all problems without the help of men. Moreover, she shoots and destroys these very men, even if they are often conquered by the ideas of transhumanism. And not only them – spiders, drones, walking and driving robots, gorilla-like monsters and biomutants that can become invisible fall under the distribution.

And she is helped in this bloody dance of death by a good arsenal, including a three-barreled 18-round “Lover” revolver, twin submachine guns that fire incendiary cartridges, a shotgun that smoothly turns into a grenade launcher, a Gatling gun, a rapid-fire crossbow and signature homing bombs into which Corporal Harrison converted bowling balls.

Most guns have alternative firing modes. And perhaps the most useful thing is the ability to use “Lover” to mark several targets at once in order to quickly kill them without the chance (well, almost) of missing.

Shake it, baby!

Such an arsenal, of course, https://primespielhalle-casino.co.uk/login/ immediately evokes associations with how dashingly and on a grand scale Duke Nukem liked to destroy his enemies – apparently, that same “lover”. And the action takes place not in the gloomy “Duma” dungeons, but on the streets of a neon city, where there are strip clubs, bars, and fast food. Naturally, in such a situation, our female bombshell simply has no choice but to prove that she has no less charisma than Duke.

She often (especially after savory murders) makes caustic remarks and jokes, every now and then referring to pop culture and films – from "Terminator" before the series "Breaking Bad". And it all starts with the enemies demolishing half the walls in the nightclub with slot machines, where Shelley was relaxing. Because of this, she spilled her favorite alcoholic cocktail and, understandably, got really worked up.

peace in Ion Fury as interactive as Duke Nukem 3D. In the club you can go to the toilet, raise and lower the lid or look at yourself in the mirror. And then our heroine will be able to improve her health with pizza, knock cans of cola out of vending machines, insert her fingers into sockets (why, it’s unclear, but it adds atmosphere!) and even play the piano.

At the very beginning, you can interact with the ATM, which will throw out a bunch of coins and say the famous phrase with which Duke addressed the pole dancers: Shake it, baby! But what can we talk about if the main villain, Dr. Heskel, was voiced by the same John St. John (John St. John), in whose voice the main character spoke Duke Nukem 3D, – such ironic postmodernism.

Soak in the toilet..

However, Ion Fury good without any references. This is a truly cheerful shooter in the best traditions of antiquity. The action takes off right off the bat and sags somewhat only in the middle, where there is a lot of shooting in fairly monotonous corridors. However, the final levels, made with imagination and scope, largely make up for this.

There are many enemies, they are constantly attacking – and even if you seem to have already walked through the location, leaving behind only corpses, and then took another access card to the next door and returned back, then rest assured that new packs of enemies will appear with a roar through the holes in the walls.

Veterans will play on instincts – constantly “strafe”, shoot accurately at the heads and check the entire environment for armor and first aid kits, which, of course, can be found even in the toilet, having previously killed a couple of terrorists there.

But at high difficulty levels even experts will have a hard time. Especially in battles with bosses, among which there are huge mechs, twin robots on wheels and even a huge flying ship. Salvation can be the competent use of weapon features – such as the marks that the “Lover” puts and the homing of bombs. In addition, the most brutal headshots or point-blank shotgun kills that reduce the enemy to bloody shards can leave behind vital armor for survival.

…And look for secrets!

Our main occupation is, of course, the total annihilation of everything and everyone in search of door access cards. The process is not easy, the levels, especially in the first half, are quite complexly designed. And this allowed the authors to fill them with different situations – you can, for example, fly into the air above huge fans to get somewhere or, hovering, just shoot enemies. You will also need to fly out of a cannon and go through a kind of obstacle course, shooting back at enemies along the way.

There are also riddles and situations where you need to avoid deadly traps like huge saws covered in blood. The search for numerous secrets in the levels turned out to be especially tricky. How to get to that shining armor? How to find the last of the 12 secrets? Perfectionists will rack their brains with these questions. A portable radar helps in part, highlighting enemies and objects around.

Where are the legs??

Certainly, Ion Fury not ideal. There are many levels, there are a variety of locations – here is a city, an old mansion, and some underground complexes. But some, as I already said, are drawn out and begin to evoke thoughts of “copy-paste”. I would also like more variety and fun madness in the ranks of opponents – in Duke Nukem 3D this was better. Arsenal could also be a little bigger.

Or it would be possible to make our Bomb, in the Duke tradition, hurt enemies with its clearly beautiful legs – if it didn’t make them smaller and crush them, then at least hit them in the groin. This would be just right here – in style, as they say. You could also give her a whip, a bottle of whiskey and a wad of dollars, so that she could stuff them into strippers’ panties, observing the principles of gender equality..

Representatives of sexual minorities did not like the hints of some kind of insults in the game, and representatives of the majority did not like that the authors tried to correct themselves and introduce censorship. As a result, a famous scandal occurred. Iron Maiden didn’t like what the project was originally called Ion Maiden, — after filing a lawsuit in court, the name was changed.

A game that claims to be a spiritual successor Duke Nukem 3D, she simply could not help but get bogged down in scandals – this even gives her a completely appropriate rebellious-punk flair. Duke would definitely have laughed contentedly about this and said something vigorous – and the authors would have received another scandal or lawsuit.

But we are here to evaluate the game itself, and not everything that surrounds it. And from this point of view Ion Fury everything is great overall. It would be amazing if it weren’t for the above-described problems with the variety of levels and enemies. In any case, I would like to say thank you to the authors – to some extent, they took us back 20 years ago and gave us a kind of ladies’ version of "Duke", in many ways even more driving, although a little less humorous.

Pros: charismatic heroine; funny jokes and comments from her; full of drive shootouts; atmosphere and gameplay of classic shooters; chic design of many levels; cool guns; stylish and cute picture; expressive voice acting, including the original voice of Duke Nukem.

Cons: In some places the levels are drawn out and monotonous; I would like more variety among enemies; the heroine could be even more vibrant, arrogant and politically incorrect.