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Who’d have thought we’d still be seeing more of Shelly Harrison this many years after the release of her first game, Bombshell? Did you even know that was her first game? It didn’t make much of a splash, after all. Harrison, a she-Duke Nukem polished for the modern age, is likely better known for her later appearance in Ion Maiden, later Ion Fury, an emblematic title for the modern revival of the classic “boomer shooter” FPS formula. As it goes in this industry, everything old is new again, and we’re steadily moving past the Build Engine era of FPS games to the heady days of Half-Life with Phantom Fury.
via YouTubeWe follow Harrison once again as she finds herself mixed up in a battle between human and demonic forces, neither of whom are particularly happy to see her. She’s got a new bionic arm and a vast arsenal of weapons backing her up, though, so the odds are definitely on Harrison’s side. Bad guys can be shot, blown up and bashed into smithereens with the aforementioned bionic limb, after all. Physics puzzles, though? Those require a little bit of thinking, and any problem that can’t be solved with liberal application of ammo is a real problem indeed.
As mentioned, Ion Fury and its expansion Aftershock were definitely boomer-shooters aiming to capture the crunchy Build Engine experience made famous by games like Duke Nukem 3D and Blood. Phantom Fury, on the other hand, is inspired by titles that came after, so the feel is primarily Half-Life and there’s maybe a hint of the original Deus Ex. Phantom Fury loves its setpieces, big honkin’ battle arenas where enemies come in large groups, chipping away at your health as you dive behind cover and peek out to pick them off. It also loves its physics puzzles and keycards, so much as in the classic Half-Life era games you’re going to go from one to the other, alternating between battling the hordes and crane-lifting wrecked cars to make impromptu staircases until the credits roll.
The combat side of things is pretty hard to argue with. The sheer number of weapons available to Harrison is already impressive and the fact that there’s upgrades really serves as the cherry on top. Pistols? Sure. Bombs? Got ’em. Missiles? Absolutely. The opposition isn’t nearly as intelligent as Half-Life’s legendary soldiers (and can be a little buggy), but the bad guys will keep you busy and offer a satisfying set of targets to unload on. Phantom Fury’s solid level design brings all of this together, as the chunks of each map used for battle are well-made and conducive to a variety of strategies, not to mention the secrets that are often hidden in and around the area.
Puzzle-wise, well…it’s nice that these things exist to mix up Phantom Fury, one supposes, but then one thinks back to DOOM 2016 and other modern shooters and realizes that a sequence of well-made battle arenas without any fluff in-between really isn’t such a bad thing after all. The biggest offender here is that Phantom Fury’s engine often just isn’t ready to deal with physics tomfoolery, and it’s wholly possible to get stuck, crushed, or stuck then crushed more often than is comfortable. Patches will likely take most of the bite off of this going forward, but every time it happens is a salty tear in Phantom Fury’s vast ocean of gory goodness.
At least it’s a nice-looking ocean, given Phantom Fury’s dedication to emulating the classic FPS games extends to its presentation. Save for some fancy modern graphical effects here and there, this could’ve been a Half-Life total conversion mod and nobody would have blinked an eye. Pretty much everything in Phantom Fury is just clear enough to make out and understand and just crunched enough into the engine to feel authentic. I didn’t try playing in one of the low resolutions common to the era, but it’s safe to assume that doing so would really nail the old-school feel. All we need is an ad for GameSpy online multiplayer and some Korn blasting on the stereo and we’re in business.
It’s not perfect by any means and could probably have used a few more months of polish, but Phantom Fury is still a solid example of the old being made new again. This is a game with impeccable timing, too, as the tide of old-school throwbacks starts to get a bit stale and the urge to take a couple steps forward starts to grow stronger. With Half-Life 3 nowhere to be seen, we might just have to look to retro-revival games like Phantom Fury to give us that classic narrative-shooter fix.