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Ion Fury |OT| Maiden Build
- Thread starter Mr. Tibbs
- Start date
I think the precision is fine in this game, at least I don't feel like I'm missing enemies that I should be hitting. Although I do think those annoying flying drones should have hitboxes the size of the screen.
But your point about enemies distances. There are many areas in the game (like the one in your screenshot) that are very open and you can find enemies that are very far from you. I died a lot in this particular segment because of those flying robots that shoot guided rockets. They can see you from very far and I felt like the game was hamstringing me. The Ion Bow is somewhat answer to that but I feel the game would really benefit from a sniper rifle in some form.
I wonder if they'll balance the game for consoles, or at least allow mouse/keyboard controls because playing the game with a gamepad isn't really worth it. I don't usually say things like this, I've played through Doom 2016 and Shadow Warrior 2 with a gamepad and it was fine, but Ion Fury just isn't built for it. I switched from gamepad to mouse/keyboard yesterday and it's crazy how much easier and more fun the game suddenly became.
I just played the first couple of levels and this game is amazing. Feels good to play an old style shooter with level design like this. I can see myself double dipping the Switch version when it releases.
I like the game so far. The level design is really impressive and I love exploring every last nook and cranny. Enemies and weapons are kinda weak and boring, though. I especially dislike how you can barely see most enemies before getting shot at by them (either because it is too dark or because they are too far away. Long distance combat is definitely not the Build Engine's strong point, so it's a somewhat bizzarre design decision to have so much of it in this game).
I noticed 100% Walkthroughs are being uploaded to this youtube channel (see links to timestamps in the video description), if you want to find those last pesky secrets. Damn, I could find barely half of those on my own, they are hidden a bit too well for their own good:
Damn, that's very disappointing to hear. Too late for a refund I guess.
I noticed 100% Walkthroughs are being uploaded to this youtube channel (see links to timestamps in the video description), if you want to find those last pesky secrets. Damn, I could find barely half of those on my own, they are hidden a bit too well for their own good:
Damn, that's very disappointing to hear. Too late for a refund I guess.
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aye... really regret refunding my early access purchase last year after all these good impressions. played it on a whim in a bad mood and wasn't feeling it.
if i pull the trigger i'll be down only 5 bucks (on top of what the EA price was, if i recall correctly) so it's whatever i guess
if i pull the trigger i'll be down only 5 bucks (on top of what the EA price was, if i recall correctly) so it's whatever i guess
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On to the seventh level and just loving the hell out of this. The gun play and movement just feels right on point. Little tip for those flying skull drones, in addition to the Lover Boy alt fire being good for them I also suggest using the Ion Bow if you get a good bead on them. And amusingly if a group of them are wailing on you they can be damaged with their own projectiles if they get in the way of each other.
Glad I'm playing this on Ultra Viscera because the difficulty just feels right to me (I have np with reloading saves if need be!).
Hail to the Queen baby!
Glad I'm playing this on Ultra Viscera because the difficulty just feels right to me (I have np with reloading saves if need be!).
Hail to the Queen baby!
I just finished the (mother fucker of a) mook rush and the end of Zone 1 and I am loving this game so far. The shooting is so good.
Managed to get a refund after all the transphobic and Lauren Southern nonsense from the developers, especially with them proceeding to dig their hole deeper. Too bad, the game looked super good and exciting. Hopefully they'll listen to the criticisms instead of doubling down, and then realize the errors of their ways
Finished the first episode. The revolver is such a strong weapon once you learn to move well and use its auto aim. The level design is incredible.
I really don't understand the complaints about the flying drones while Loverboy exists.
OTOH the Uzi goes through ammo so fast it's borderline unusable - I keep hoarding ammo for when I will really need it and then end up never using it.
It's kind of a shame that developers don't consider kb&m support for single-player-centric fps on consoles these days. It seems like neither Sony nor Microsoft care anymore. Maybe someone can pitch this to the team who's responsible for porting it?
What a game! The gameplay and level design are great! I've heard some criticism regarding the long-ranged combat, the lack of ammo and the poor variation of weapons, but so far I can't complain. I'm really loving Ion Maiden Fury and I couldn't recommend it more!
The game itself definitely is. After what's happened this week, I would have asked for a refund on principle due to being transgender myself, but I was well past the refund window after getting it during Early Access.
So, I'm just enjoying the game as it is, and it really does scratch that itch for a 90s shooter. I'm hoping the upcoming Wrath: Aeon Of Ruin manages a similar trick in filling the gap left behind by the Hexen series with more hub-based exploration, as that was always my series of choice in the FPS-wars of the time.
Man, I bought Ion Fury and Amid Evil at the same time and boy what a treat these two games are. Ion Fury is legit one of the best first person shooter games I have played in a very long time. Everything about it is nigh perfection. I'm glad that the current indie market allows games like this to be made and succeed, hopefully it inspires others to create more games in this niche.
There was a period of time after id software's DOOM in which FPS were still experimenting with the exploration of large 3D spaces. This era basically slammed to a close when Half-Life came out in 1998, with more realistic environments, its cinematic approach, and a more linear structure. There's a very clear divide from the post-Doom era(Blood, Hexen, Dark Forces) and post-Half-Life era (Call of Duty, Halo, F.E.A.R.). And as gaming continues to grow and evolve, those old school Post-Doom shooters have largely been left behind. If you wanted another game where you grab color-coded keycards through "gamey" enviorments at an unrealstic fast pace, you're kinda shit out of luck.
Ahh, but the democratization of game development means that somebody, somewhere, has nostalgia for that specific thing you miss. Enter IonMaidenFury, the first commercial game in 19 years to be created from the Build Engine. The Build Engine is a FPS engine used to create games like Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Blood, all post-Doom mid 90s shooters. Right from the start, this gives Ion Fury a level of authenticity that other old school revivals miss.
The engine isnt just for nostalgia sake. The developers are intimately familiar with the style of games, and have been working on improving the engine to modern standards, while also keeping that specific game design intact. The level design its the game's strongest asset. There's no procedurally generated junk here. Its all huge, hand crafted maps, each one containing hundreds of bad guys, secrets, and interactables. The game keeps a steady stream of varied aesthetics for its levels, from mad scientist labs, shopping malls, and moving trains. You move crazy fast through sprawling environments that only sorta resemble reality. Enemies are not limited to showing up in certain gated rooms or set pieces, but throughout the entire stage, respawning more combinations as you open new parts of the map and backtrack. Oh yes, there's color-coded keycards and gated doors, but the game is fair about placement. Almost all rooms containing the keys have a camera system so you can see the outside corridors and refresh your memory about where the door for this coordinated card goes. There are various Exit signs that remind you of the way forward without blatantly telling you on a minimap or some other invasive UI element. Hitting a switch almost always has a very clear cause and effect so players are rarely stumbled about where exactly they show go next.
And yet this is still a game where every major element is guiding you towards exploration and experimentation that's fallen out of fashion in current FPS titles. There's no regenerating health, that handy developer shortcut so the player goes into every playtested area at exactly the health you want them to be. Whatever damage or ammo spent in a prior room, you carry with throughout. You need to constantly move around for supplies or secret stashes, and often have to use various weapons since your favorite won't always have ammo. Luckily, all the weapons in the game are quite fun, and useful right up until the end. Every weapon has an alt-fire mode, like the Revolver that locks on to enemies(think Overwatch's McRee) or an laser crossbow that turns into Hot Machine Gun Death when fully charged up. Enemies are very distinct from the environment, with visual and audio cues for all their attack patterns. The game does a decent job of introducing new enemies and finding devious combinations to constantly keep you on your toes. And there's just enough modern conventions to lower frustrations. Autosaves after clearing a significant hurdle or grabbing a key are in place, so no starting over from the beginning of the map in case you forget to save. There's collectible med kits you can use that will cut down on that times where you saved with 32 health and zero armor right before a hard fight.
Ion Fury, at its frequent best, reminds players of how deeply satisfying the post-Doom formula for shooters were. Challenging combat and no obvious way forward forces you to really get to know the environments as maps and not just cinematic shooting galleries. It gives the most vague pretenses to narrative context, as you move faster than basically any modern shooter, which makes the backtracking an enjoyable process. Its well paced, with boss fights and unique environmental problem solving, providing an adrenaline rush that's hard to put down. I can honestly say it stands tall with the very best of the 90s shooters, building on what makes them work with a modern polish and flair.
Ahh, but the democratization of game development means that somebody, somewhere, has nostalgia for that specific thing you miss. Enter Ion
The engine isnt just for nostalgia sake. The developers are intimately familiar with the style of games, and have been working on improving the engine to modern standards, while also keeping that specific game design intact. The level design its the game's strongest asset. There's no procedurally generated junk here. Its all huge, hand crafted maps, each one containing hundreds of bad guys, secrets, and interactables. The game keeps a steady stream of varied aesthetics for its levels, from mad scientist labs, shopping malls, and moving trains. You move crazy fast through sprawling environments that only sorta resemble reality. Enemies are not limited to showing up in certain gated rooms or set pieces, but throughout the entire stage, respawning more combinations as you open new parts of the map and backtrack. Oh yes, there's color-coded keycards and gated doors, but the game is fair about placement. Almost all rooms containing the keys have a camera system so you can see the outside corridors and refresh your memory about where the door for this coordinated card goes. There are various Exit signs that remind you of the way forward without blatantly telling you on a minimap or some other invasive UI element. Hitting a switch almost always has a very clear cause and effect so players are rarely stumbled about where exactly they show go next.
And yet this is still a game where every major element is guiding you towards exploration and experimentation that's fallen out of fashion in current FPS titles. There's no regenerating health, that handy developer shortcut so the player goes into every playtested area at exactly the health you want them to be. Whatever damage or ammo spent in a prior room, you carry with throughout. You need to constantly move around for supplies or secret stashes, and often have to use various weapons since your favorite won't always have ammo. Luckily, all the weapons in the game are quite fun, and useful right up until the end. Every weapon has an alt-fire mode, like the Revolver that locks on to enemies(think Overwatch's McRee) or an laser crossbow that turns into Hot Machine Gun Death when fully charged up. Enemies are very distinct from the environment, with visual and audio cues for all their attack patterns. The game does a decent job of introducing new enemies and finding devious combinations to constantly keep you on your toes. And there's just enough modern conventions to lower frustrations. Autosaves after clearing a significant hurdle or grabbing a key are in place, so no starting over from the beginning of the map in case you forget to save. There's collectible med kits you can use that will cut down on that times where you saved with 32 health and zero armor right before a hard fight.
Ion Fury, at its frequent best, reminds players of how deeply satisfying the post-Doom formula for shooters were. Challenging combat and no obvious way forward forces you to really get to know the environments as maps and not just cinematic shooting galleries. It gives the most vague pretenses to narrative context, as you move faster than basically any modern shooter, which makes the backtracking an enjoyable process. Its well paced, with boss fights and unique environmental problem solving, providing an adrenaline rush that's hard to put down. I can honestly say it stands tall with the very best of the 90s shooters, building on what makes them work with a modern polish and flair.
Great write-up. Thanks for the impressions as well as the compare/contrast between classic vs. modern shooters.
After digging into the first couple levels, I restarted my campaign over the weekend switching from the 2nd difficulty down to the 3rd. It feels perfect for my playstyle. More enemies makes the stakes feel higher, with ammo/health conservation being very real. Feels like I'm making full use of all consumables on the map now. Super fun without feeling unfair or overwhelming.
Now I really, REALLY wanna see the soundtrack up for sale on the Steam store page. I haven't been this amped for thumping gaming tracks since Mick Gordon's Doom 2016.
This game is really good, but my god the framerate is terrible. The preview version was fine, but now every explosion tanks the framerate and some large areas do it too. Finding it impossible to defeat the
because of it.
rooftop gunship
My PC frame rate was terrible until I screwed around in the settings to Framerate limit up into the 200s. Now there's scenes with dozens of bad guys and it runs smooth. Weird!
I don't believe they have specific release dates, but people are expecting end of 2019, or early 2020. I'd imagine the latter.
I don't expect this to be PC intensive but I'll wait to play female doom killer whenever it comes down. Not sure if I can do 60 fps on my off the shelf laptop.
Used Banned (2 weeks): Trolling and antagonizing other members; past infractions for similar behaviour.
Thanks for the tip! It didn't entirely remove the problem but did help the framerate keep up long enough to beat the encounter.
Youve got a host of tweaks in the options menu. After I tuned down the scale of movement and erased more of the deadzones (not fully) the controls feel great on a DS4.
Duke Nukem 3D World Tour plays great on a controller, as did the 360 and PS3 versions of Doom 1 and 2, I finished 'em on Ultra Violence without issue (the new ports lack some better control options the previous ones had). A keyboard and mouse is ideal, but these games can play really nicely on a controller. As I get older and find I play more games on a console, I appreciate these ports of these titles more and more.
I really like Shelly's on liners. They are very goofy & I can understand why people don't like them but they never fail to entertain me. "Domo arigato Mr Roboto!"
I didn't really bother tweaking the controls much so that could help, but at this point I'll just keep using keyboard/mouse controls, I've managed to make it work on my couch using a blanket on my lap to give the keyboard some height, otherwise my wrists start hurting something fierce within minutes.
That's the main reason I do not use m/kb now. That shit hurts like hell. Don't see how people do that full time on twitch and shit.
If I had a proper setup I could probably do it, but my PC is hooked up the the TV and I'm sitting on a large couch, so the mouse is lower than it should be and my keyboard is on my lap if I type stuff. It works fine for that but it sucks for gaming.