3.5/5 ★ – Diluted_Thought's review of Ion Fury.

I had read about "Ion Fury" through an article in "Game Informer" a few years ago and was excited about it due to its aesthetic. The developer Voidpoint had emulated late 90's FPS games like Doom and Duke Nukem and gave our arsenal so much needed updates like secondary fire and rolling explosives. It seemed like a winning recipe so I decided to download this game while during a sale. First lets talk about those aesthetics. Yeah they really are reminiscent of the 90s but more so, Voidpoint didn't add any modern effects to the system which means everything from incoming fire, explosives, blood and gore were all handled in engine which made everything look and feel authentic to the titles it was inspired by. The number of enemy types was also pretty impressive and of course its Cyberpunk inspired but it also has touches of sci-fi body horror with heads crawling around like spiders, beasts made of animals and man, spectral techno terminators, armored mechs, and corpses on tank treads. The later fire fights got pretty chaotic. The settings ranged from back ally's to major city streets and you even find yourself ascending a building to fight a flying warship at the top. This game also covers other locations like labs, hospitals, a few spots or nature, a mansion, underground tunnels and so on. They really put a lot of effort into giving players the ability to see all these different settings made within this engine and I can say that I really appreciated their passion. Admittedly, I wasn't a big fan of some of the later locations as it made backtracking for secrets a real pain in the ass. But all in all it felt like a sizable campaign and I never felt cheated on the content. One of my favorite side missions is actually a hidden secret that allows you to have a major shoot out inside a baseball stadium with most of the games baddies. It was pretty intense. This game also has plenty of Easter Eggs and call outs to Doom and Nukem but they have man hidden and hard to find ones that references, Silent Hill 4, Hardwired, Chopping Mall, Hellraiser, Portal and so many other games and films. I got giddy every time I found one of these. In fact I screen shot a bunch of em too. There's even a lovely Easter egg where one of the developers dedicated the game to his daughters. Very touching. The soundtrack for "Ion Fury" was completely composed by Jarkko Rotsten who created a fantastic electronic soundtrack that, again, sounds authentic to the 90s and its full of BANGERS! I found his Bandcamp and saw that he also created a Remix album for some of the games themes. Definitely worth checking out if you dig the music in this game. Let me reiterate that Voidpoint put a ton of passion into 'Ion Fury" and it shows. It's perfect for what it aims to be even I have rated this a 7 out of 10. It was enjoyable through and through and challenging even on Normal settings. The only real negative I have is that I ended up getting motion sickness more than a few times but I had to finish the campaign. I would recommend this for those who enjoy a good single player FPS experience regardless if you grew up with games of this ilk. I understand that there is a sequel titled "Ion Fury: Aftershock" but I'm not completely sure I'd be back to play that game but I'll definitely remember this one. Kudos to Voidpoint for taking me back to a time before puberty hit. I kinda miss those days.