Incline Ion Fury (formerly Ion Maiden) - Build Engine powered FPS by Duke Nukem 3D mappers - now with Aftershock DLC

[geno]

They'll fix that bug in the next patch. I find the AI better than classic build games, at least they try to flank me and are competent enough to move throw the map.

 

[Curratum]

They'll fix that bug in the next patch. I find the AI better than classic build games, at least they try to flank me and are competent enough to move throw the map.

Key word is "try", then they shove their face in a corner and twitch there.

 

[Jezal_k23]

I agree about the AI being kind of dumb, but it's unfair to use this as a negative point against the game if you're comparing it to the Build games.

I don't remember Duke, Blood or SW ever having anything even resembling smart AI, in fact it was often horribly dumb. For instance, I still remember the Gargoyles in Blood getting stuck on the ceiling flying in circles because they can't reach you below them. I don't recall the enemies in Duke doing anything even remotely tactical, they just got in range of you and attacked. To be fair, enemies are supposed to die really quickly in these games, so you often don't give the enemies any time to act before you kill them.

 

[Durandal]

I agree about the AI being kind of dumb, but it's unfair to use this as a negative point against the game if you're comparing it to the Build games.

I don't remember Duke, Blood or SW ever having anything even resembling smart AI, in fact it was often horribly dumb. For instance, I still remember the Gargoyles in Blood getting stuck on the ceiling flying in circles because they can't reach you below them. I don't recall the enemies in Duke doing anything even remotely tactical, they just got in range of you and attacked. To be fair, enemies are supposed to die really quickly in these games, so you often don't give the enemies any time to act before you kill them.

I don't expect the enemy AI to do anything smart, but their pathfinding should be functional enough that when aggroed they can actually find a route where they can have an open line of sight on me, instead of moving towards me in a straight line regardless of the obstacles in place only to end up getting stuck in a foreign corner of the map where they can't do jack shit at all.

 

[Jezal_k23]

Differently from the previous Build games, the level design in Ion Fury makes it really visible when something wonky is happening with the enemies. Lots of little details and places for enemies to get stuck, lots of places where plenty of other areas of the map are visible with the enemies being unable to reach you. Given that they designed the levels that way, I guess they should improve enemy pathfinding going forward.

 

[Black Plague]

How many of you actually used the ion bow's all fire modes?

 

[Echo Mirage]

How many of you actually used the ion bow's all fire modes?

I do, it can shred bosses and is useful for the flying rocket turret...things.

 

[Black Plague]

The firing mode behind right click isn't 5-shot. Use the sound as your cue.

 

[orcinator]

How many of you actually used the ion bow's all fire modes?

How many used the primary mode, given how it seems to be good only for long range headshots from beyond the loverboi's lockon range.

 

[Valestein]

How many of you actually used the ion bow's all fire modes?

How many used the primary mode, given how it seems to be good only for long range headshots from beyond the loverboi's lockon range.

I used it as my primary weapon as much as possible, and the loverboy's alt slows you down too much for my liking.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.shacknews.com/article/113662/how-modders-brought-ion-fury-to-life

How modders brought Ion Fury to life
The Vice President of 3D Realms on how a community of modders helped create Ion Fury.

3D Realms is best known for their shooters that hit the market throughout the 90’s such as Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior. However, the company is still around and making video games today. We got to speak with Frederik Schreiber, the Vice President of 3D Realms about the creation and influences behind their latest title, Ion Fury.

Ion Fury is a prequel to 2016’s Bombshell. When designing the game, the team at 3D Realms thought it would be a neat idea to make Ion Fury look as though it came out before Bombshell. Because of this, they utilized the classic art style that’s synonymous with some of their greatest hits.They went to great lengths to ensure that the old school experience felt authentic, but Schreiber did admit that a 90’s era computer would probably blow up if it tried to run Ion Fury.

Help Wanted
When designing and programming Ion Fury, 3D Realms turned to some unlikely allies for help making the game a reality. “We reached out to a community of mappers and modders.” There are still groups of dedicated players making content for Duke Nukem and Shadow Warriors - Ion Fury would be their opportunity to finally work alongside 3D Realms.

Schreiber also tells the story of how the game was originally titled “Ion Maiden” after a weapon from Bombshell. However, a pending lawsuit from the popular band “Iron Maiden’ led them to change the title late in the development stage.

If Ion Fury looks like your kind of game, you’ll be glad to know it’s available now for PS4, XB1, PC, and Nintendo Switch. For more on the game, check out our review Make sure you subscribe to the Shacknews and GamerHubTVYoutube channels for more developer interviews.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

I finished the game on Maximum Fury, with a lot of time spent on finding the secrets. After spending hours and killing cultists in Blood, it wasn't that bad, as I've expected. There is an enormous numbers put against you, due to the respawns, when you take a keycard or do something important so the maps aren't really clean so to speak. We are quickly introduced to most of the enemies earlier on, and most of my deaths were caused by those silent floating skeleton things with rockets - Deacons. Sometimes they make those whispering sound, but many times they are just in the corner silently. The behavior of enemies is very random. Many times the soldiers with shotgun/grenade launcher would instantly kill me while moving through the map, but when they have stuck onto a chair or a glass wall, they would do nothing else. I really liked when they forced me to move from the cover and be more active. Every weapon is useful and you learn quickly not to rely too much on Loverboy, which for me became a backup weapon for those flying guys and skeleton spider. Ion Bow was more reliable, when it comes to enemies which could be killed only from big distance. As for the numbers, most of the levels have 200 to 300, but the stats are for every little thing that can kill you, so it's not so bad once you get used to the constant danger around every corner.

As for the enemies, special mention goes to :

- Wenteko, which reminded me of fiends from Quake with his attack from distance routine
- Archangel, who teleports, makes himself invisible and takes a lot of bullets to kill. Very dangerous in tight areas.
- Diopede, a mechanized centipide which divides itself into a smaller ones on impact. Bowling bowls / grenades are your best friend here. Reminded me of the Magic Carpet series.


Ion Fury has the best boss fights when it comes to Build engine titles, where you need to be on a constant move and use the environment to your advantage. Reformation Plaza with all the enemies showing up was fantastic, reminded me of Serious Sam. The last fight was awesome, but I was afraid that I will run off ammunition, since there is a couple of phases in which he adds more foes into the dome. But after many restarts I finally made it, and didn't overused the bowling bombs that were free. Very satisfying ending to a huge campaign.

The graphics and the new assets along with the voxels are looking great, and the soundtrack composed by Jarkko Rotsten has many memorable tracks. For a debut work, it really is great. Some of the secrets could be done much better, due to lack of signalling the player. The radar can help with that for the most of the time, but not always. One of my favorite is the one, where we need to start the generator, grab the double jump boots, and then find out the real secret stash. The piano melody with a purple key for a secret level gave me a headache though, I had to look up for some hints since I wanted to do a 100 % walkthrough. The room and the bathroom from old UK flick Hardware made me smile, because it was so fitting for the game.

Spoiler

Scene from "Hardware" unrelated to the previous pic, but it looked awesome so there you go.

Secret level, where we need to kill waves of enemies, and after that we face two Mechs.

Kawabunga!

 

[Darth Roxor]

I disagree with a bunch of things to a varying degree, but when it comes to this:

Ion Fury has the best boss fights when it comes to Build engine titles, where you need to be on a constant move and use the environment to your advantage.

We must be playing different games. The boss fights in this game are completely pathetic, there's not a single one yet that I wouldn't beat by just running in circles around the boss and unloading max crossbow autofire while they can't even attack back. Except the dropship, I guess, but that one instead had a Half-Life 2 style 'crate o' infinite ammo' which was just as bad.

Build engine games never had particularly good boss fights anyway, but I'll take cerberus or the werewolf cultists from Blood any day over this.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Build engine games never had particularly good boss fights anyway, but I'll take cerberus or the werewolf cultists from Blood any day over this.

Rated "Agree" for this bit, as the only Build-engine boss fight that actually presented a challenge is the cheesy fight with the Alien Queen in the Plutonium Pak-episode of Duke Nukem 3D.

But hey! At least the Build-engine bosses tried to be bosses, anyone remember the final boss in Blood 2? Aim minigun, unload, win game.

 

[Carls Barkley]

You can count the number of good FPS bosses on one hand.

 

[HansDampf]

Disagree on the final boss on Maximum Fury. A giant arena with lots of hitscanners, pure chaos, almost no cover, and silent enemies that can kill you in one second. As mentioned, the flying terminators are the worst offenders, often hiding in corners (wouldn't be surprised if it's a pathfinding issue), hard to see, and silently sending a deadly barrage of homing missiles your way. They are a high priority target and should have been made big, loud and flashy. I died too many times during this fight without knowing what even happened. Things seem to go smoothly and suddenly I'm dead. The best strategy for me - other than cheesing it from the air ducts - was to stay on the outer ring, kill everything in my path, and hope to spot the terminators before they attack me. Then clean up the rest below with bowling bombs. Repeat.

Otherwise it's mainly the first two episodes that I found a bit tiresome due to large open areas. The Loverboy is the most useful tool there. Problem is its secondary mode is not 100% reliable. Sometimes it won't get a lock, even over short distances. I'm not sure if there even is a distance cap. It feels janky. And I don't like the concept of it anyway. The office building and later the countryside episode with the mansion, garden and cemetery are my favorite parts of the game. They may not look as impressive as the first few levels, but the smaller spaces are more fun to fight in. And there are still lots of details, fake lighting effects, destructables, sunset and night skyboxes. Good variety. Most of the weapons remain useful, even the Clusterpuck. Just one in red mode can clear a room. The shotgun is still the worst, though. I mostly use it to clean up spiders and zombies. The Chaingun is also a bit weak for my taste, satisfying only in combination with Super Damage. And the bow is ... weird. Considering how powerful it is with its penetrating bolts it sounds and feels deceptively weak, like a cheap plastic toy. It's a problem with some of the other weapons too.

I tried to find more secrets this time. While many of them are cleverly hidden and sometimes satisfying to figure out, a few are either too cryptic or total bs. Like, go through this solid looking wall with no indication that you can to find one piece of SMG ammo. Thanks. I doubt anyone will find everything without a walkthrough. But you can always go back and dissect empty maps, if you really want to. Sometimes you have to progress further into the level to open a path back to a previous section. Points of no return are clearly marked. Just be careful re-entering Heskel's House of Horrors. There is currently a bug that could reset that level. And worse, if you then turn around and go back to Knee Deep again it will reset that map as well and lock the door.

Still a nice game overall. Feels like a genuine passion project.

 

[Black Plague]

The firing mode behind right click isn't 5-shot. Use the sound as your cue.

<sigh>
The ion bow's secondary mode is selective fire. You can shoot anything between one to five shots depending on how long you keep the button pressed. So far I haven't seen anyone use it like that except accidentally.

Thock-Thock-Thock-Thock-Thock - five shots
Thock-Thock - two shots

Got that?

 

[Boleskine]

 

[Darth Roxor]

this game sure loves fucking sewer levels i swear

 

[Lyric Suite]

But what about warehouses?

 

[Darth Roxor]

plenty of those too

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

So it will be a nude mod for shelly or not?

 

[Zombra]

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

Tommy Lee Jones would support a nude mod, you know.

 

[otsego]

I gotta echo what some posters have said here: playing on max difficult is the only way to play this.

I beat it on ultra violence and went back to the start on max fury and it's a totally different game. Gittin Gud has also helped; I am no longer creeping corner but rather running and gunning and using all weapons. And I'm basically at full ammo and armor count unlike on my first tries where I was struggling to keep the pistol full. It is so much more fun.

I do anticipate extreme bullshit in certain areas where they threw it on UV... but I digress.

Shitty boss battles but excellent game.