Out of the many, many, maaaaany retro-styled shooters (yep, still refusing to call them “boomer shooters”) released over the past few years, Ion Fury was one of the best of them all. 3D Realms’ attempt at rebooting the Duke Nukem franchise with the same engine and an even less sympathetic protagonist, it had great level design, challenging gameplay, and it perfectly managed to blend classic engine technology with modern sensibilities. How would the company follow up? How do you make a sequel to a spiritual successor to Duke Nukem? Do you make something similar on the Build engine? Do you make another spinoff? Nope, their answer was to make Phantom Fury… a spiritual successor to the failed first version of Duke Nukem Forever.

No, really. I don’t know if there is another way to describe what Phantom Fury is besides tying it to the handful of seconds of footage I’ve seen of the original version of Duke Nukem Forever, which would have been released at around 1998 and 1999. Back in that era, the hottest new things were Quake II and Half-Life, to the point that 3D Realms would restart development on the sequel to Duke Nukem 3D countless times, after seeing the impact those games would eventually cause on the PC gaming atmosphere. Phantom Fury feels like those games. Less absurdist than Ion Fury, but still dumber than Half-Life, all whilst resembling a game from that era in visuals and scope.

Gone is the Build engine, in favor of Unreal 4. Thankfully, the engine isn’t used to make a cutting-edge shooter. Instead, the folks at Slipgate Ironworks took advantage of the engine to make a game resembling what was achievable with the first iteration of the Unreal engine. Phantom Fury, in essence, looks like a more detailed version of Half-Life, as if you were playing it with a handful of mods meant to improve its aspect ratio, resolution and textural quality. It retains a vibe that was very speciic from that particular couple of years, with assets trying to look realistic, but with characters still being very blocky.

Environments were a bit larger, with a big emphasis on open-air spaces in order to wow players with those sexy skyboxes. Slight immersive sim elements were added, such as being able to use a melee weapon to destroy boxes containing ammo and health. The presentation was a bit more cinematic, with level progression being more linear, less arcadey, less exploratory. Phantom Fury retains all of those tropes, and yet I don’t know if that was for the best. As nostalgic as this game feels, it has some annoying issues.

First of all, we gotta talk about the protagonist. Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison is still even less interesting than the charisma black hole known as Duke Nukem. The amount of quips and dumb jokes she spills out throughout the game has been vastly reduced, and you can actually toggle the amount of one-liners (all half dozen of them) she’ll shout out throughout the game. The problem is that the game tries to be a lot more serious than its predecessor. It’s not like it tries to take itself too seriously, but again, Half-Life is its main source of inspiration. And I honestly don’t think that a quippy protagonist works in this situation. It made not care about the story at all.

I really liked the presentation, but I have two issues with it. One of them is the fact that, for reasons beyond my comprehension, the framerate fluctuates wildly. Phantom Fury is not a game that should exactly push the boundaries of an RTX 30 series GPU, but there were countless instances in which the framerate would dip to the mid-40s, just like that, from outta nowhere. The other issue was the sheer lack in level creativity. Sure, I loved the art style resembling a prettier Half-Life, but what did we get as a result? Bases, sewers, tunnels, a mine. The most clichéed levels one could come up with.

The combat was quite good, but just like the rest of the game, it featured some issues. I loved using Shelly’s revolver, the Loverboy, with an auto-aim functionality that reminded me of McCree’s special ability in Overwatch, and the shotgun packed one hell of a punch. That being said, the overall arsenal was just standard, and some of Shelly’s abilities, such as a charged punch, felt glitchy and undercooked. Even if the game itself is more methodical and less neanderthal than Ion Fury, the aiming felt twitchy and overly sensitive. I had to constantly tinker with the aiming sensitivity as it never felt 100% ideal. I almost resorted to playing with a controller at a point.

My overall feelings about Phantom Fury are mixed. It’s far from being a bad game, mind you. There’s quite a bit to like about it, such as its Half-Life-esque presentation and expansive levels. With that being said, it’s not as over-the-top, and as a result, entertaining, as its predecessor, which featured better combat sections and more replayability. It does scratch a very specific itch. If you want to play something that vaguely resembles the original Half-Life in scope and gameplay, I think that Phantom Fury can satiate said niche.

Graphics: 7.5 A more detailed take on Half-Life-esque, Unreal Engine 1 graphics, as if you were playing a shooter from 1999 with a few texture and resolution mods. For reasons beyond me, there are occasional framerate issues.	Gameplay: 7.0 The combat isn’t as fast-paced or absurdist as Ion Fury. It’s a bit more methodical, but the aiming and controls are a bit too twitchy.
Sound: 5.5 Not a lot needs to be said about the soundtrack, as Phantom Fury isn’t filled to the brim with music. The voice acting is not annoying and cheesy as Ion Fury, but it also makes the titular character even less of, well, a character.	Fun Factor: 7.0 It’s not as over-the-top, and as a result, entertaining, as Ion Fury, but it scratches a very specific itch. If you wanted to play something that vaguely resembles the original Half-Life in scope and gameplay, I think that Phantom Fury can satiate said niche.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Phantom Fury is available now on PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Phantom Fury was provided by the publisher.