Phantom Fury tells the story of Shelly Harrison as she is tasked with locating a very dangerous and legendary artifact called The Demon Core. The story takes place several years after the events of Ion Fury, sharing the same protagonist and universe between both games.
Phantom Fury roots the way it plays in a standard first person shooter fashion. Though rather than just being a run of the mill shooter, it takes a few points from games like Duke Nukem and Deus Ex. The way it does this is that you have various things you can interact with such as soap dispensers, toilets, bun-son burners, etc. Another thing the game does is allows you to interact and destroy things like boxes, crates, vending machines, just like the games I previously just mentioned.
Aside from the interactive elements that both serve as a break from the frenetic action, also serve as a means to solve puzzles in the game along with a means to heal yourself. Instead of picking up a generic health pack, you can eat a slice of pizza, or grab a can of cola from a vending machine. A slice of real live in a very polygon looking world.
You have a wide array of weapons at your disposal that are a lot of fun to take out opponents with. Though, be careful, as ammo isn’t all that plentiful. This forces you to be conservative when it comes to your ammo. You could always use your stun baton or your giant metal fist in the event you find yourself too low, or even out of ammo for your favorite gun. Yes, you have a giant metal fist that you can use to literally bash your enemies to mush.
Mission objectives are given to you on the fly and the game gives you a very large amount of freedom when taking on these objectives. While they are straight forward, how you get from point A to point B is entirely up to you. You could go in guns blazing, or you could attempt a pacifist approach and try to use stealth (though in some instances this is nearly impossible and the game forces you to fight your way through).
Much like the mission objectives in Phantom Fury, the story is told on the fly as well. As you’re going through the stages, the story is told through character dialogue that is completely voice acted which is a welcome element. Aside from the characters interacting with the main character, there are also small animated cut-scenes before each stage that really help to flesh out the story and give a nice presentation.
Each stage in Phantom Fury is presented in full 3D and looks really good. The game is meant to look dated and going back to the roots of 3D Realms. Couple the dated look of the game with the modern platform you’re playing on and you get a buttery smooth experience. Each of the enemies are presented in full 3D with each element of the environment and object having a sharp and jagged look to it. With the graphical aesthetic of the game, it can achieve a really high framerate making the game fast, fluid, and just plan chaotic.
As you would expect, the performance is spot on with zero issues, even the load times are not too long but not super fast either, instead in kind of a nice in between spot. I don’t see the game being as chaotically fast and performing as well had the developer gone for a more modern feel like that of say Halo or Call of Duty. The lack of realism helps to boost the performance to a point where the game is nearly perfect in every way.
Music in Phantom Fury has a harsh and metal feel to it, without it being hard to listen to. The choice in music really helps to bring out the futuristic tone the game was going for. It’s not repetitive or too upbeat, making it feel out of place. Though I half expected the developer to potentially do this as a joke, I am glad they didn’t as it really adds to the feel of the game. Sound effects the objects have as you interact with them give a real world vibe. There is just something about a sharp looking cola can rolling out of the vending machine and onto the floor with that aluminum sound, that just adds a level of realism that’s an unexpected surprise. Enemies will run around and yell at each-other to notify them of your position instead of just yelling nonsense, again something that was unexpected and nice to hear.
In conclusion, you don’t need to have played Ion Fury or any other FPS game to enjoy this game. For fans of 3D Realms other games, I think there are some nice nods and easter-eggs to be found that are neat and fun to see in this release from one of the original FPS developers. Phantom Fury really has something for everyone and is definitely a game I can wholeheartedly suggest you pick up on your platform of choice.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.