Ion Fury (2019)

This title is a love letter to classic ’90s first-person shooters, built on a modernized version of the old Build engine that powered Duke Nukem 3D and Blood. It captures the speed, intensity, and charm of that era, with fast-paced combat, non-regenerating health, creative weapons with alternate fire modes, and sprawling levels filled with secrets to uncover. It is impressive how this engine can achieve to create such diverse games, while still feeling modern enough to support indie developers with unique ideas, not to mention it is still powering a lot of mods being made for existing games, which sometimes become their own thing.

The level design stands out in particular, offering large, detailed spaces that reward exploration and make firefights feel dynamic and unpredictable. The presentation leans into retro style without feeling outdated. Pixelated visuals are enhanced with modern lighting effects and small interactive touches, giving each stage a lot of personality. The sound design, from punchy weapon effects to a fitting soundtrack, complements the chaotic action and keeps the adrenaline high, this is truly one of the most stylish titles that I've ever experienced.

That said, Ion Fury doesn’t try to push the genre forward. Its narrative is paper-thin, mostly an excuse to throw waves of enemies at the player, and the environments can start to feel repetitive after a while. Overall, Ion Fury succeeds at what it sets out to do: delivering a faithful, exciting throwback to the golden age of shooters. For fans of old-school FPS design, it’s a thrilling ride filled with satisfying action and nostalgic charm, though those looking for innovation or a strong story may find it a little lacking. This is truly one of the best oldschool shooters that I've experienced, I highly recommend not skipping it if you like this sub-genre.

Pros

• It looks like and plays like a game from the mid-90s shooter.
• There are many references and easter eggs
• A fun dialogue from the female protagonist.
• It's fast-paced action and challenging
• The gameplay is solid
• Interesting level designs

Cons

• Fight the same enemies throughout most of the game
• It does become a bit of a slog towards the end

An excellent retro shooter and a loving throwback to classic 90’s Build engine games like Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D, Redneck Rampage, and Blood.

As Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison you must take out the evil Dr Heskel and his cyborg cultists who are destroying Neo D.C.

It’s a typical 90’s shooter: minimal story to get in the way of you gunning down anything that moves, catchy soundtrack, hefty guns, big sprawling levels with heaps of hidden areas, and a bad-ass protagonist spouting crude jokes and action movie/video game/TV show one-liners.

The only real downsides are that there isn’t much weapon variety and there aren’t that many enemy types. These are only minor problems and they didn’t get in the way of a great game.