Ion Fury

Ion Fury is an authentic throwback to Duke Nukem 3D that certainly hails to the king but can't quite dethrone him.

A thrillingly authentic take on the first-person shooter's 90s heyday, delivered with nerdish enthusiasm.

A retro FPS built with love by true enthusiasts of the genre.

More than just a throwback to frenzied '90s shooters, Ion Fury is a fantastic game filled with creative weaponry, oodles of humor, and memorable levels.

It’s a game where old-school decisions too often trump good ones. A blast from a past I never lived through, where puerile humour and “area complete” screens tease you about not being a “real player”. Ion’s tongue might be in its cheek, but I’ve got little interest in what it’s saying.

Ion Fury not only recaptures what made retro shooters so memorable, but it improves on them in a number of ways. While not as excellent as some other recent entries in the same genre, this is a game that fans of the past should not miss. It's brutal, lightning-fast, and always putting fun before anything else.

Ion Fury is a shooter that phenomenally emulates what made the early FPS so wonderful. A timeless gameplay loop that effortlessly coaxes fun out of a formula so old it stretches decades into gaming's past, the game is an incredible amount of fun. The technical problems we encountered muddy the waters, but even with those present (and a fix incoming for that game-breaking bug) we enjoyed our time with the game enough that we still recommend that anyone interested in playing it, do so.

If you're looking for a retro shooter that isn't actually a 25-year-old port of a N64 game, then Ion Fury is the time-travelling love letter from the past you've been waiting for. While its weapons and boss fights won't leave much of an imprint on your memory, the speed and intensity of its gunfights and the intricacy of its level designs more than make up for it. If you want to be punished and rewarded by the shooter principles of old, this is the new/old FPS for you.

There are not a lot of flaws in Ion Fury, but it is hard to not compare the game to its Build Engine predecessors. The game definitely succeeds in carrying the torch from the Duke series, and little details like ultrawide monitor support and a jazzy soundtrack will go a long way to winning players over.

Ion Fury is the game Duke Nukem Forever should have been.