Ion Fury

"You come at the queen, you best don’t miss.”
Ion Fury (2019) represents a retro-inspired first-person shooter (FPS) game, developed by the company Voidpoint and published by the company 3D Realms. The expansion Aftershock followed in 2023.
Pros & cons:
++ Wherever Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison lands, the law is enforced in beautifully brutal fashion with her custom-made revolver. Dirty Harry's unofficial daughter makes her way through hordes of cyborgs and mutants while dropping snarky one-liners left and right. All in the pursuit of her arch nemesis Dr. Heskel, a megalomaniacal supervillain who can only be stopped in a final confrontation in the depths of an erupting volcano!
+ The Angel of Death difficulty will transform the melee baton into your new best friend, in order to get you through this challenge. For the fallen shall arise and haunt you once more, unless you destroy their physical shells permanently.
- While the successful replication of the classic FPS experience from the 90s constitutes a strong basis, it comes with the disadvantage of mostly static enemies, where each confrontation boils down to a hide-and-seek encounter.
Summary:
Shelly's tenacity and penchant for law-abiding weapons give this old-fashioned shooter a solid foundation. And I am surprised at how much the 90s style gameplay and presentation resonates with me.
Recommended for citizens who are asked to turn around and put their hands on the wall.
Achievements:
Estimated time for 100% completion: +40 hours
Singleplayer achievements: 62
Multiplayer achievements: none

One of the best shooters I've ever played, and I've played a lot of them.
PROS:====================================
+The guns all feel pretty good to shoot, and all of them have alt fires/functionalities. Even the pistol you get at the start of the game remains useful throughout
+The art is beautiful, the sprites and general atmosphere are very similar to Duke Nukem 3d, but the size and detail far exceeds the stuff you would see in that game
+The level design is ridiculously good, made by people that have worked a long time with the engine with high res textures and an ability to design far more complicated environments than were capable in the past Build games. The neon futuristic cities and outdoor environments look amazing, and even the interior and underground sections are packed with detail.
+There's a good handful of different enemy types to shoot down, and the headshots are satisfying. Even the high tier cultists can be downed with a headshot or two from the pistol and shotgun which helps make the weapons feel powerful even against foes that can one shot you on higher difficulties.
+The protagonist is likable, Shelly is a cool character that sold me on being a badass with her excellent voice line delivery even before I started ventilating hundreds of cyber cultists, although let's be real: Duke is still the king of one liners.
+This game has more secrets than I've ever seen, you get 20+ secrets on some levels. I'm awful at finding secrets and even only finding one or 2 per level, I never ran out of ammo completely, which means you don't really NEED to find them at all.
NEUTRAL: I couldn't decide if this was a good or bad thing, but it's worth mentioning:
+The game is freaking LONG. If you like the game, this isn't really a bad thing: the level quality never drops and the campaign is fun throughout. It's so long that I actually quit playing the game about 10 levels from the ending and only came back to finish it later: even as much fun as the game is there's a good chance you'll end up getting burnt out by the sheer volume of levels, which are all pretty large.
CONS:====================================
+Like most build games, getting lost can be pretty easy on some maps. I personally found the minimap to be next to useless and had to resort at times to backtracking over the level to find where to go. There are 2 or 3 instances that are downright painful and have a good chance of leaving you stumped for a dozen plus minutes before you finally figure out where to go. One map in particular (Knee Deep) forced me to look up a guide, and even after that I got lost again. If you aren't used to this type of level design, this is a serious point against the game, and even if you are you'll still waste a decent chunk of time wandering around your first time through.
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Overall, I had a blast with the game despite the few marks against it. I honestly can't imagine a build game ever topping the sheer quality and insane magnitude this game blatantly puts on display. If you like singleplayer FPS games, a must try.

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.

cool explosions like a good build game
annoying main character like a good build game
good game i think

Best duke Nukem we'll get for the foreseeable future.

What Duke3D would have been if it was made for "modern audiences" and on modern equipment, pushing the Build engine to its limits. Very fun game, you will love it if you enjoyed Duke 3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood, etc.

Buy this, don't buy Phantom Fury