Review: “Ion Fury: Aftershock” (Expansion For “Ion Fury”)

Well, I thought that I’d take a look at the 2023 “Aftershock” expansion to the excellent retro-style sci-fi shooter game “Ion Fury” (2019). But, as amazing as this expansion is, it did not make a good first impression on me. I need to get a bit of a rant out of my system before I review the game…

Not only were we DRM-free gamers on GOG treated like second-class citizens, forced to wait more than three weeks after everyone at Steam got the expansion, but actually getting the launch day build to even run on my computer was a bit of a hassle (requiring lots of restarts/re-installs, telling my anti-virus to leave it alone, many profanities and even a new age “manifestation” or two).

Not only that, unlike earlier versions of the main game, there were no overt renderer options in the GOG launch day build. If you’re using older integrated graphics, the game will slow down to a slide-show if too much happens on screen – thanks to OpenGL being the default.

Fortunately, the devs later provided information on the GOG forums about how to change the renderer. You have to do this literally every time you start the game. Press “Shift” + “¬” in-game to bring up the console, then type “setrendermode 0” for software rendering (or “setrendermode 3” to switch back to OpenGL).

(Note: If you make a mistake with this – “Shift” + “Alt” can change the language layout of your keyboard in Windows – just keep pressing the two keys until it returns to normal.)

The difference is night and day! Buttery smooth gameplay on Intel HD 2500 integrated graphics at 640 x 480 🙂 Anyway, I was originally planning to dock this game’s review score by two points for all of these issues, but the sheer cooleness and quality of the expansion was enough to earn my forgiveness for these myriad failures.

Before I begin, I should point out that this is a traditional expansion that requires “Ion Fury” (2019) in order to play. It also contains some FLICKERING IMAGES too. This review may contain SPOILERS.

Seriously, even the main menu looks cooler than the original game!

Set after the events of “Ion Fury” (2019), the nefarious Dr. Jadus Heskel has not only survived but also has enough political influence to ensure that GDF officer Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison gets the blame for all of the chaos and destruction from the main game.

Suspended from the GDF, Shelly drowns her sorrows in a local club…. and you can probably guess what happens next. But, this time, she has found a way to fit a grenade launcher in her bag…

Ok, you technically start with the pistol but you’re given a grenade launcher literally within the first few seconds. It took me ages to pick up on this reference to the main game…

One of the first things that I will say about this expansion is that, first impressions aside, it is a masterpiece 🙂 It’s almost more of a sequel than an expansion. There are numerous “This is so cool!” moments, tons of extra new stuff, stellar level design, loads of new dialogue lines and – honestly – it makes the main game look limited and boring by comparison. It is THAT good. Seriously, the four years it took to develop certainly weren’t wasted!

Where do I even begin? Perhaps the amazing vehicle segment – reminiscent of the “Duke Nukem Forever 2013” mod – where you get to ride a cool hoverbike around a cyberpunk city. Despite some annoying first-person vehicle platforming moments, this vehicle is an absolute joy to handle and, as someone who hasn’t used Steam since 2015, this segment also brought back memories of “Half-Life 2” (2004) too. Then there’s the graveyard filled with zombies. The retro-futuristic shopping mall. And a frickin’ volcano-base as well! This is such a cool game! Unlike the main game, none of the levels here feel like filler.

You remember the thing about “Skyrim” (2011) where, if you see something in the distance, you can actually visit it. Well, this only truly applies to this cool-looking volcano here but – well – who cares about distant cyberpunk cityscapes when you’ve got a volcano?

It’s a bit difficult to see in this gloomy screenshot, but there’s also a seriously cool – but easy – third-person perspective boss battle in the hoverbike level too 🙂 Like something from an old arcade game.

The gameplay is as frenetic and fast-paced as ever, with the expansion offering more of a challenge than the main game.

As well as introducing a plethora of tough new enemies – rapid-firing GDF soldiers, mini-gun robots, lava centipedes, exploding crawlers, more cyborg types etc… – the game isn’t afraid to throw tougher monsters at you from fairly early on as well. This is all balanced out with some excellent new weapons and power-ups.

Oh, and there are robots with flamethrowers and laser cannons as well. Three blasts with the shotgun seems to do the trick though…

For starters, one of my criticisms of the main game was that it didn’t include a rocket launcher. Well, this expansion introduces the “Homewrecker”, a ridiculously over-powered sci-fi rocket launcher which is an absolute joy to use.

FINALLY! An actual ROCKET LAUNCHER in this game! Seriously, I felt its absence very much when I played the original game four years ago.

Not only that, you’ll also get (very satisfying) exploding shotgun shells and (forgettable) gas grenades as well. The shotgun and grenade launcher are also now treated as separate weapons in order to cut down on ammo-switching time too.

There are a ton of new power-ups as well, with a time-slowing energy drink, an inflatable chair, a “golden weapons” thing (which, amongst other things, allows the mini-gun to rapid-fire grenades…), a “health-leech” type thing and a gadget that sucks in monsters before exploding (combine the latter two and your health will easily increase to well over a hundred in mere seconds...).

This expansion just feels so much richer than the main game in almost every way. Whether it is how the well-designed levels just have so many extra details to them. Whether it is a lot more hilarious dialogue lines from Heskel (my favourite is “Tisk Tisk Tisk! Turning to a life of crime already…”. Just the pompous way he says it), slightly more of a defined story, larger levels etc… Seriously, the general design of this expansion easily outclasses the main game. Literally my only design criticism is just how much of a total pushover the final boss – the “Magmatron” – is if you use the alternate fire on the “Homewrecker”.

Yes, it’s an awesome robot scorpion on a lava platform. But it is… very weak… to the rocket launcher’s alt-fire.

Also, whilst the new “photo mode” is probably useful for taking dramatic screenshots, the free-moving camera also doubles up as an extremely useful tool that allows you to scout ahead and see what you will be up against later in the level – almost like some sort of portable surveillance drone.

Still, if you’re taking screenshots, use the in-game tool (“F12”) because the game does not play nicely with Xbox Game Bar in Windows 10. If you need to find your screenshots in Windows 10, since they’re pretty well-hidden, just search for the “%appdata%” folder in the toolbar of explorer. Then go to the “Ion Fury” folder here and you’ll find them in there.

And, of course, there is a lot of humour too. It’s a 3D Realms game. Not only does Shelly have loads of extra dialogue lines, but there are also a ton of new comedic background details and pop-culture references throughout the game – as well as a few familiar ones from the main game as well. It’s a game with personality and a sense of humour. And, as far as I could see, no outdated shampoo bottles (except, apparently, in a secret area). Oooh! And be sure to check a walkthrough to find the “Silent Hill” (1999) parody area too – it’s amazing!

Woo hoo! It’s “Silent Hill”, in the Build engine 🙂 Yes, this is a ridiculous short hidden parody area – where you get to visit the kennel house – but it absolutely nails the atmosphere of the original game 🙂

There’s other bonus stuff too – such as an “arrange mode” for the main game. I only had a brief chance to play this at the time of writing but, as well as adding stuff from the expansion, Shelly is now blonde and the layout of the levels seems to have been mirrored and/or altered in all sorts of subtle ways.

Jarkko Rotsten’s new soundtrack is as awesome and retro-futuristic as ever, and the cartoon art during the game’s small number of cutscenes is also reasonably decent as well.

As for length, whilst this expansion is technically about half as long as the main game (containing about 14-15 levels), it almost feels more like a full-length sequel thanks to both the size/complexity of the levels and also their increased difficulty too. And, again, there isn’t really any filler here as well. This is an expansion which more than justifies the £10-12 that you’ll have to pay for it. Plus, the new “arrange mode” also adds a ton of re-play value to the main game as well.

This is the first level of the main game in “arrange mode”. Notice how the hole in the wall is in a different place, and how Shelly has also bleached her hair as well.

All in all, despite the game’s disasterous GOG launch, it’s good enough that I can forgive it. Seriously, if you love 1990s-style shooter games… then you’ve probably already played this expansion by now. If you haven’t, then play it! Yes, you’ll need the main game – but the expansion is good enough that the main game now just seems like a dull extended tutorial that you can use to get some practice for this expansion. Is THAT good 🙂 It’s a low-mid budget game that feels more spectacular, cool and fun than many “AAA” games do.

If I had to give it a rating out of five, it would get a very solid five.

How “Ion Fury” (2019) Balances Its Weapons

Well, I thought that I’d talk about the weapon balancing in the 1990s-style first-person shooter game “Ion Fury” (2019) today. This was something I ended up thinking about in mid-late October last year. All of the trendy people on Steam were enjoying the new “Aftershock” expansion, whilst we poor second-class citizens who use GOG were left with weeks of “coming soon”. A DRM-free gamer’s lot is a hard one.

Still, to get back in practice for whenever 3D Realms and/or GOG finally deigned to give us the expansion, I started re-playing the original game again and I noticed something very interesting about how the game balances it’s core weapons – pistol, shotgun and SMG. Yes, I’ll just be focusing on these traditional three here – because the game’s more creative sci-fi weapons are balanced in slightly different ways.

This is a screenshot from the very first – and coolest – level of “Ion Fury” (2019). Notice how the basic pistol is a gigantic hand-cannon with no less than three barrels.

One of the interesting things about these three weapons is just how much more powerful they feel when compared to most other shooter games. The basic pistol is a gigantic three-barrelled magnum revolver which is still a genuinely useful weapon, even fairly late into the game. The shotgun, which doubles up as a grenade launcher, is suitably bulky and thunderous. The SMG is loosely-based on a real-world gun in visual terms, but it fires ridiculously quickly and also sets enemies on fire as well. You can also dual-wield it if you find another one too.

These three core weapons – even the pistol – are usually powerful enough to defeat many basic enemies with a surprisingly small number of shots. Combined with the sound design and animation design, you feel like an absolute badass when you use them. But, how do the developers keep the game fair? How do they balance out these powerful basic weapons to avoid making the game feel too easy?

Unlike the older mid-late 1990s FPS games that “Ion Fury” takes inspiration from, it actually has modern reloading mechanics. Not only that, all three weapons are also fairly low-capacity too. Both the pistol and the shotgun only hold six shots, and the SMG has to be reloaded about every twenty shots or so. So, whilst you have all of this additional firepower, you’ve got to either carefully count your shots and manually reload during quieter moments or risk having to waste crucial seconds automatically reloading in the middle of a fight.

Whilst this makes narrative sense for the pistol – since it’s a revolver – there are valid practical game design reasons for this with the other weapons. The shotgun looks more like a “revolving” grenade launcher, and can also fire grenades, so this meant that the designers could save time by using the same sprite and animation for both weapons. Likewise, given how quickly the SMG chews through bullets, the small magazines also prevent you from wasting literally all of your ammo if you hold down the “fire” button too long. After a couple of seconds, you’ll reload and this will give you a chance to conserve the rest of your ammunition.

Still, the lower capacities are mostly there for game-balancing reasons. You get some seriously powerful weapons very early in the game, but – in the middle of a frantic battle – you have to think before shooting, because every shot matters. Given how one of the basic enemies – the red crossbow cyborgs – has a small chance of “one-shotting” you, even when you’re at 100% health ( it happened to me during the re-play I mentioned earlier...) and given the intensity of the game, you really don’t want to be reloading when you’re faced with more than one enemy.

Yes, you can switch to another weapon in the middle of a fight, but you still have to manually reload the other weapon later. So, there’s a very subtle resource management element – almost like a classic “Resident Evil” game – which balances out the sheer level of firepower that the game gives you within the first few levels. And the older “Resident Evil” games were clearly a subtle influence on “Ion Fury” (2019), given how the “Game Over” screen is a reference to the ones in those games.

But, yes, the game uses modern reloading mechanics and low-capacity weapons to allow the game to still be challenging, in addition to adding a mild strategic element, whilst also giving the player “power fantasy” weapons very early in the game. It’s surprisingly clever.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

Review: “Ion Fury” (Computer Game)

Well, since I’ve been distracted from reading the next book I plan to review (“Warhol’s Prophecy” by Shaun Hutson) for the few days before preparing this article, I thought that it was time the review the game responsible for this. I am, of course, talking about the one and only “Ion Fury” (2019).

This game was previously known as “Ion Maiden” but, alas, the best modern game referencing the best heavy metal band of all time was just too awesome for the miserable trademark lawyers of the music industry to handle. Hence the name change.

Anyway, when a new 1990s-style “Build Engine” game was announced a year or two ago, I pre-ordered a copy on GOG as soon as I had a modern enough computer (and, yes, “Ion Fury” has higher system requirements than actual 1990s games do) and played the preview demo more times than I could remember. And, even though the game’s release was delayed until August 2019, it was well worth the wait 🙂

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Note: Since I prepare these reviews very far in advance, this review will cover V1.00 of the game – since it is the one I played. So, although I’ll mention a technical bug I found (with the “chapter select” screen), it has probably been patched by the time that this review goes out. Even if it hasn’t, the presence of manual saves means that this small bug isn’t exactly game-breaking.

I also played the game using software rendering, rather than Open GL, since I’m using integrated graphics. So, if you’ve got a graphics card, the lighting will probably look better than the screenshots here.

[Edit (18th October 2023): I don’t know how I overlooked this when writing this review, but I should probably add a FLICKER WARNING for some parts of this game (such as when using the stun baton’s alt-fire on an enemy….).]
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Anyway, let’s take a look at “Ion Fury”:

Seriously, even the main menu looks really cool 🙂

“Ion Fury” is a spiritual successor to “Duke Nukem 3D”. Set in a vaguely “Blade Runner”-inspired cyberpunk future, you play as a bomb disposal expert for the Global Defence Force called Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison.

She is relaxing in a neon-lit bar when suddenly the window explodes and she spills her drink. Robed cyborgs suddenly start marching the streets. On a nearby viewscreen, the cackling face of the maniacal cyberneticist Dr. Jadus Heskel appears and announces that he is taking over the city. In retribution for her spilled drink, Shelly swears to spill Heskel’s blood.

Seriously, more games need to be set in cool-looking “1980s futuristic” cities like this 🙂

Yes! Heskel is an evil scientist who cackles and delivers moustache-twirlingly silly villain dialogue 🙂 This is so 1990s 🙂

One of the first things that I will say about this game is WOW! If someone made a FPS game specifically for me, it would look a lot like this one 🙂 In addition to lots of cool cyberpunk stuff, an actual personality and robed cultists like the ones from “Blood“, this game is a hell of a lot of fun to play too 🙂 Seriously, it’s so good to see a modern FPS game that is firmly focused around actual gameplay and old-school level design too 🙂

And what gameplay it is! As you would expect, the bulk of the gameplay revolves around combat and this feels suitably dramatic, responsive, fast-paced and impactful.

On the “Ultra Viscera” difficulty setting, the combat is also brutally unforgiving in the best possible way 🙂 Even the “weakest” cyborg monster is still a mortal threat to you, and you’ll need both quick reflexes and a tactical mind if you want to survive. And, wow, what a thrill ride it is 🙂 There is something inherently satisfying about getting through a tough battle by the skin of your teeth, relying on nothing but your own skills and quick thinking.

And, in classic 1990s fashion, this game has difficulty settings with cool-sounding names 🙂

But, if you haven’t played any actual mid-late 1990s FPS games before, then I would strongly recommend choosing one of the lower difficulty settings (“First Blood” or “Wanton Carnage”) for your first playthrough. These difficulty modes are probably what is considered “fair” by modern standards, with fewer enemies (who do less damage) and more supplies for the player. But, “Ultra Viscera” is closer to the “normal” difficulty settings of actual mid-late 1990s games like “Duke Nukem 3D”, “Shadow Warrior”, “Blood”, “Final Doom”, “SiN” etc…

This challenge is complemented by a brilliantly balanced health and ammo system. Unlike modern FPS games, there’s no regenerating health here and you’ll have about nine weapons (eight of which have separate ammo types). This adds a strategic element to the game, forcing the player to not only manage their resources but to balance caution and bravado too.

Unlike many modern games, the levels here (about twenty-seven of them), are complex non-linear things that require both exploration and backtracking 🙂 This is an integral feature of the game. Not only will you be required to search for switches and keycards in pretty much every level, but exploration is pretty much the only way to get a decent amount of health and ammo on higher difficulty settings too. Each level contains more than enough of both to see you through, but only if you actively go and look for them 🙂 In other words, there are lots of cleverly hidden items and areas that are there to both encourage and reward exploration 🙂

Literally the only criticisms I have of the level design are a lack of visual variety in some levels (for every cool-looking location, expect at least one extremely generic-looking “lab”, “office”, “sewer” or “industrial” level too) and a slight over-reliance on small spider-like robots that are difficult to hit. This aside, the level design here is absolutely superb 🙂

It’s an 1980s neon-lit sci-fi version of a 1990s shopping centre 🙂 This is so cool 🙂

And when the game actually shows you the world outside of it’s generic-looking factories, labs and underground bases, it is really amazing 🙂

In a vague concession to modernity, the game also includes an “auto-save” feature. But, fear not! There is no checkpoint saving here 🙂 Yes, the auto-saves function like checkpoints but – like in any proper computer game – you can also save literally whenever you want 🙂 Interestingly, the game also includes a “chapter select” feature – however, it didn’t work properly in the version (V 1.00. Again, I write these reviews very far in advance) that I played, but this might have been fixed by the time this review goes out.

In terms of weapons and monsters, this game is brilliant. Earlier, I mentioned how even the “weakest” monsters can be a serious threat and, as you would expect, there’s a decent variety of monsters to fight here.

Like in “Blood” and “Shadow Warrior”, the most common type are basic “soldier” enemies with different types of weapons. But, there are also small robot spiders, acid-spitting robot centipedes, two types of zombies and a variety of both larger monsters (including one inspired by the Fiend from “Quake”) and bosses to keep you on your toes. These all have different attack patterns and each one has an optimum tactic and/or weapon you’ll want to use to defeat them. Seriously, this adds a lot of depth and variety to the almost constant combat 🙂

Oh, and did I mention that the zombies actually attack in a proper horde at one point too 🙂 Seriously, this is so cool 🙂

The weapons are really good too – with even the basic pistol being a thunderously powerful three-barrelled revolver and the default weapon being a futuristic electro-baton that is literally called “The Electrifryer” that can also be used to recharge generators too. Although many of the other weapons are fairly standard “classic” FPS weapons (eg: Shotgun, minigun, SMGs, grenade launcher etc…), they still have enough quirks to set themselves apart from the crowd.

In addition to genuinely useful alternate fire modes and really dramatic sounds/animations, literally every weapon in this game is useful. Whether it is the “bowling bombs” that auto-target enemies or a seemingly useless flat grenade called a “Clusterpuck” – which suddenly becomes very useful when you realise how incredibly powerful it’s alternate fire is (provided that you’re far enough away to use it safely), the weapons here are really well-balanced.

Plus, the basic shotgun’s alternate fire is also the game’s grenade launcher, allowing for a lot of flexibility during battles.

Even the “boring” laser crossbow suddenly turns into something truly spectacular when you hold the alt fire button down for long enough. My only criticism of the weapon design is the lack of a rocket launcher. However, this limitation does make you play more strategically and also helps to focus the gameplay on more intense and frantic close-mid range battles too 🙂

As well as this great gameplay, this game actually has personality too 🙂 Seriously, I miss when this was an integral part of the FPS genre. Not only will Shelly shout out all sorts of hilariously badass one-liners during combat (including a couple of Offspring references and the “Yippie Ki Yay…” line from Die Hard 🙂 ), but Heskel’s villain monologues – voiced by none other than Jon St. John- are gloriously cheesy in the best possible way too 🙂

This humour also extends to the game’s visual design too. Like in “Duke Nukem 3D”, the lavish pixel art environments are absolutely crammed with small visual jokes, parodies and pop culture references. I’ve probably missed at least a few of them and there are far too many to even think about listing here, but almost everything in this game has some level of creativity or humour to it.

Yes, there are one or two outdated “jokes” that aren’t really funny (eg: the controversial “moisturiser bottle” sprite that appears in at least a couple of the levels) and may briefly lessen your enjoyment of the game. But, most of the time, the game’s humour works reasonably well.

Plus, so many objects in the environment can also be interacted with and/or are made from voxels (anyone remember those?) too. And, unlike “Duke Nukem 3D” and “Shadow Warrior”, there are a lot more voxels and interactive items thanks to slightly more powerful modern computers. Seriously, I’d love to see the parallel universe where this was the visual direction that “AAA” FPS games took 🙂

You can even play darts. Darts!

In terms of the music, this game includes lots of dramatic 1980s-style synth music which really fits in with the retro sci-fi atmosphere of the game. Whilst is it less distinctive than the famous music of actual 1990s FPS games like “Duke Nukem 3D” or “Doom”, it fits in really well with the game’s world and really helps to add some extra atmosphere.

All in all, although this game has a few flaws, these things are easily eclipsed by the sheer awesomeness of almost everything else. This is a modern 1990s-style FPS game that is filled with personality, humour, enjoyably challenging gameplay and creative level design 🙂 It is like “Blood” meets “Duke Nukem 3D” meets “Final Doom” meets “Blade Runner” meets “Ghost In the Shell” 🙂 It is a low-mid budget game that puts most “AAA” games to shame 🙂

If I had to go through the formality of giving it a rating out of five, it would get a very solid five 🙂