Phantom Fury Xbox Review | Invision Game Community

Phantom Fury is the direct sequel to VoidPoints Ion Fury. This time, Slipgate Ironworks has taken over growth duties for the additional adventures of Shelley “Bombshell” Harrison on this retro-inspired boomer shooter. Shelley “Bombshell” Harrison hasn’t been having day. Woken up from a coma with a brand new bionic arm, she’s barely given time to acclimatise to what’s happening round her earlier than the power she is in, is attacked.

A brand new mission from her previous pal, has our newly woke up heroine gunning and punching for her life throughout the nice previous post-apocalyptic U.S. of A. With an increasing arsenal, an arm that may be upgraded and a complete boatload of troopers and mutants after her blood, Shelley might need she’d simply stayed asleep.

Now whereas retro-inspired shooters aren’t new to the market, what’s new is growing them on older engines moderately than our trendy, shiny behemoths. Wrath: Aeon of Damage was constructed on a modified Quake 1 engine whereas Iron Fury was constructed on the Construct Engine, which powered such classics as Duke Nukem 3D. If you happen to’re trying to emulate the video games of yore, why not additionally construct them on the know-how of yesterday and current all that edgy geometry and pixelated textures by way of genuine software program?

To this finish, Phantom Fury excels, showcasing design and visuals that appear to be it simply stepped out of 1990. Each the atmosphere and character designs are blocky and edgy whereas textures look pixelated with edgy black strains. The visible design is rarely messy although and there’s simply sufficient element within the environments, and objects to work together with to maintain the world from feeling static.

Personally I like the blocky visible design that comes from working in older BSP and sector-based engines. And Phantom Fury has this down pat. Certain you’ll be able to replicate that in trendy engines, however it doesn’t fairly have the identical really feel to it as video games made in older engines.

Phantom Fury’s fight can be par for the period. It’s a fast-paced sport that retains you in your toes by way of encounters. Enemies is probably not notably clever, however they’re competent sufficient to place you into the bottom early. After the preliminary opening, the small-scale encounters explode into bigger ones, typically with a number of factions preventing one another and also you. Phantom Fury doesn’t need you to face nonetheless. That’s a demise sentence. As a substitute, it’s designed to maintain you on the transfer by way of each encounter, making use of your ever-expanding arsenal.

Shelley’s repertoire of strikes can be par for the course. You’ll be able to run, dash, slide whereas sprinting and circle strafe with the very best of them. The arsenal of weapons at your disposal is of the standard selection, however there’s an improve system at play that allows you to mod the weapons. Every weapon has its personal improve, corresponding to incendiary rounds or cryogenic grenades, to combine fight up with.

Shelley’s different ace up the sleeve, so to talk, is her bionic arm. With it, you’ll be able to punch by way of rubble, grates and enemies with ease. There’s a brief recharge time connected to it however one punch gibs absolutely anything. The arm as nicely will be upgraded to be stronger, have a sooner recharge time and throw up a protect, amongst others. It doesn’t drastically alter gameplay however is a superb addition in later fire-fights if you’re attempting to weave between covers.

Regardless of these additions, Phantom Fury’s fight can really feel a bit of on the flat aspect at occasions. There are some impressed moments, corresponding to a struggle towards a gunship and a enjoyable prepare degree, however the sport’s rudimentary A.I. retains the fight from fully exploding out the best way that I hoped it will.

Not like most Boomer shooters, Phantom Fury is a little more story-focused, with degree design and story beats that take you between areas in a extra complete move. Don’t count on something ground-breaking in getting you from A to B or character development, however there’s a bit extra to this than the standard aliens blew up my journey bit.

As such, Phantom Fury feels much more like Half-Life and Excellent Darkish than it does, say, DOOM. There’s some Duke Nukem 3D in there as nicely, however the Half-Life essence permeates a lot of the sport.

Whereas Phantom Fury is a enjoyable journey, it’s additionally a bit of on the unremarkable aspect. That’s to not say it isn’t a nasty sport, as a result of it isn’t, however there’s a bit of spice lacking from the substances to make it nice and a few bugs that hamper the enjoyable, corresponding to the sport crashing to the dashboard and interacting with environmental objects been finicky.

The visible and degree design is nice and I appreciated the bones of a narrative tying all of it collectively, however Phantom Fury simply misses the mark of greatness with fight that, whereas quick, felt a bit of flat.