Ion Fury

Management are off to get their eyes checked as Evan Lahti looks all pixelated to them. He’s not, though – he’s just stuck in a ’90s FPS.

- Evan Lahti

There are two ways to play a neo-retro shooter like Ion Fury. One: embrace its zippy movement like you’re speedrunning a ’90s action movie, twitching and snapshotting your way through corridors. Two: meticulously run your eyes and hands along every pixelated surface until you’ve combed the entire map for secrets.

2019 has seen a tiny renaissance for new FPSes inspired by old FPSes. Whereas Dusk (LXF249) conjured the spirit of Quake and Heretic, Ion Fury is published by the company that created Duke Nukem 3D, in a retrofitted version of the original Build Engine. It’s the gaming equivalent of a band reuniting for a new album 20 years after they formed.

Ion Fury does recreate many of the things that made Duke Nukem 3D great: an action hero’s arsenal; cheesy one-liners; bright, expansive environments dense with enemies and hard-to-spot secret passages. At one point we had to stun an enemy with an electrified baton, crouch-jump onto their skull, and leap to a ledge in order to reach a hidden area.

But as it doubles down on the past, Ion Fury retains some of that era’s limitations, too: dead-simple boss behaviour, paper-thin storytelling, and a modest feeling of repetition toward the end of its 10-hour campaign. Still, it’s potent nostalgia for anyone with affection for or curiosity about ’90s FPSes.

Despite its deep connection to Duke Nukem, Ion Fury’s tone is surprisingly different. Supercop heroine Shelly Hamilton (originally written as Duke’s sidekick in Duke Nukem Forever