Ion Fury

What it is

Ion Fury sends Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison, a member of the Global Defense Force, through a cybernetically-augmented future city to stop a transhuman cult leader intent on world domination. Developed by Voidpoint and published by 3D Realms — the studio behind Duke Nukem 3D — it's built on the same Build engine that powered that game alongside Blood and Shadow Warrior, presenting itself as a genuine spiritual continuation of that era's shooter design rather than a nostalgic pastiche. It released on 15 August 2019 at NZD 35.99, later followed by a separate paid expansion, Aftershock.

Its review corpus, 4,387 in English, sits at a strong Very Positive 93.6% (4,108 to 279), and reading through it in depth reveals a game whose technical craft is rarely disputed even by its critics — this corpus's disagreement centers almost entirely on whether that craft sustains interest across a genuinely long campaign.

Level design and weapon feel that earn some of the genre's best praise

Longtime Build-engine fans are unusually effusive about Ion Fury's execution. "It truly is a next gen Build Engine game and by far the best ever made with the Engine," writes one detailed reviewer, praising the level design specifically. Another distinguishes it clearly from the broader "boomer shooter" revival: "this isn't just 'another boomer shooter'... Ion Fury stands out as an amusement park that allows for a ton of gameplay flexibility and experimentation," crediting the game with making "timing, precision, positioning, distance, and understanding enemy behavior" all genuinely matter in combat. A particularly detailed, structural review breaks down the specific improvements over older Build-engine titles: "graphics wise it's what you expect from a Build engine game, but has some improvements like voxels on lots of stuff like trash cans, levers, buttons," alongside meaningfully larger, more detail-packed maps than the genre's classics. The game's environmental interactivity draws its own specific, memorable praise, with one reviewer delighting in a fully flushable, lid-operable toilet as evidence of the sheer attention to detail throughout.

A large, detailed case that the campaign runs too long for its own content

Set against that technical praise, a substantial and specific critical thread argues Ion Fury's greatest strength — its sheer length — becomes a liability. "I started off enjoying the game quite a bit but eventually the 'new old school' feeling wore off," writes one reviewer. "The game becomes kind of a slog to go through after a bit as you're literally killing the same exact enemies over and over with the same couple guns over and over." A separate, especially candid review states the core problem precisely: "the combat is stiff and not varied enough. The enemy variety is disappointing — for a very long time you'll be fighting dudes with similar hitscan weapons and almost identical movements." A third reviewer specifically recommends restraint: "quick review — it's amazing, play it. But don't marathon it — it's longer than Half-Life. Seriously," treating pacing as the deciding factor between loving and souring on the experience.

Specific weapon and difficulty complaints

Beyond general repetition, several detailed reviewers name specific mechanical weaknesses. "The weapon arsenal is terrible. The revolver and shotgun are great, but the rest of the weapons not so much," writes one reviewer, specifically criticizing the crossbow as "extremely weak" and noting several explosive weapons "pretty much do the same thing." A separate reviewer raises a fairness concern rather than a balance one: "the enemies can track too well, and their projectiles travel too fast, so even popping and peeking" — standard tactical play in this genre — "doesn't reliably work," undermining the precise, positioning-based combat other reviewers praise. A third reviewer specifically identifies a structural weak point in the campaign's back half: "about halfway through, the game just starts to suck. The level layouts get confusing and not in a good way," a complaint echoed by others regarding navigation clarity deteriorating as the game progresses.

A fair, more measured middle ground

Not every critical account in this corpus rejects the game outright. "It's not that this isn't worth getting, or not worth a positive review," writes one reviewer offering a dissenting view amid pages of enthusiasm, carefully distinguishing what works — "fast-paced, bloody, and 'fun'" — from where "it falls apart... in the specifics," namely puzzle-like progression gating that occasionally frustrates more than it should. That kind of nuanced pushback is worth taking seriously alongside the aggregate score — several critical reviewers explicitly frame their complaints as coming from genre-loyal fans disappointed by specific shortcomings rather than newcomers rejecting the whole premise.

What the achievement data confirms about the campaign's length

Ion Fury's achievement curve shows an unusually steep decline for a well-regarded shooter: basic progress achievements start at a strong 87%, but drop quickly through the campaign's middle sections (43.6%, then 31.8%, 27.7%), and collapse to under 3% for full completion on the hardest difficulty. That's consistent with the "the campaign runs long and loses steam" critique documented above — a meaningful share of buyers engage with the early game enthusiastically before a substantial drop-off, plausibly tied to the repetition and pacing complaints raised repeatedly in this corpus.

Verdict

Ion Fury delivers some of the finest, most technically accomplished level design and weapon feel in the modern Build-engine revival, and its craft is rarely disputed even by its critics. But a real, detailed share of its own fanbase argues the campaign's considerable length outpaces its enemy variety and weapon roster, particularly in a back half several reviewers specifically call weaker and more confusing than the first. Play it in measured sessions rather than a single marathon, and it holds up as one of the genre's best modern entries.