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

[hajro]

The only issue i have is that this was fuckin short, most of the dev must be working on something else.

 

[d1r]

The only issue i have is that this was fuckin short, most of the dev must be working on something else.

P-please play the Arranged Version of the original campaign!!

 

[axx]

Any more impressions? How long is it compared to the base game? A whopping 130 reviews on steam.

 

[destinae vomitus]

Any more impressions? How long is it compared to the base game? A whopping 130 reviews on steam.

About 3-4 hours long I'd say, I enjoyed it, overall found it "ogay". Ultimately it's just more of the same but with some vehicle sections and an emphasis on power-ups that, while being fun, mostly just serve to make the game easier, especially in arrange mode since encounters are hardly different. Out of those I found the new tome of power equivalent to be easily the best one since it somewhat makes up for the lack of additions to the arsenal. On that note the only new gun is a plasma cannon that's functionally more or less just a homing rocket launcher, and alongside it there's two new ammo types for the shotgun/grenade launcher (clusterbombs and gas grenades) that while useful felt a bit redundant. There's also new enemy variants, and excepting ones that shoot the aforementioned gas nades, to me they felt like a non-factor to the point that I wouldn't be able to say what was actually different about them. Last but not least there's hardly any "dour" maps like the latter half of the base game.

 

[Valestein]

Any more impressions? How long is it compared to the base game? A whopping 130 reviews on steam.

About 3-4 hours long I'd say, I enjoyed it, overall found it "ogay". Ultimately it's just more of the same but with some vehicle sections and an emphasis on power-ups that, while being fun, mostly just serve to make the game easier, especially in arrange mode since encounters are hardly different. Out of those I found the new tome of power equivalent to be easily the best one since it somewhat makes up for the lack of additions to the arsenal. On that note the only new gun is a plasma cannon that's functionally more or less just a homing rocket launcher, and alongside it there's two new ammo types for the shotgun/grenade launcher (clusterbombs and gas grenades) that while useful felt a bit redundant. There's also new enemy variants, and excepting ones that shoot the aforementioned gas nades, to me they felt like a non-factor to the point that I wouldn't be able to say what was actually different about them. Last but not least there's hardly any "dour" maps like the latter half of the base game.

There's three new legit enemies, the rollerskating GDF SMG trooper, the GDF chaingunner and a "dalek" robot that shoots lasers and has a flamethrower. Those and the new boss at the end that reminded me of a dr. robotnik boss fight(in a good way).

There is one noticable enemy variant i found, the grey hooded cultists that shoot a plasma ball. Sonama bitches melt my health and armor in no time on "Maximum fury".

 

[destinae vomitus]

Yeah I forgot to mention the new enemies. The troopers in particular are kewl and actually kind of dangerous but showed up way too late if you ask me, they should've been sprinkled throughout the first handful of maps as well.

 

[Luka-boy]

That survival horror part was pretty neat

 

[otsego]

Honestly surprised by the lack of splash this expansion has made on the Codex. I thought a lot of people in these parts were enthusiastic about Ion Fury... maybe not!
Aftershock was incredibly underwhelming. I loved the original game, played it through on the hardest difficulty a few times and couldn't wait for the Aftershock expansion. But all of the soul is gone, in my opinion. It falls down in every way compared to the original.

I realize this is Build but the AI vs. level design in this is even worse than it was in the OG. Shit getting stuck on boxes, items, and corners, so much more worse than it was. I swear even after all these years, DOOM maps still have more effective encounter design. And it took this long to make??? How did such an obviously unpolished product come out after this many months/years of delay? It feels like a classic case of "team A build amazing game, Team B will now try to emulate that and create part 2!".

I'm enjoying it more on my second playthrough, but the shortcomings are easy to see. Amid Evil's DLC suffered from the exact same issues.

Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[RapineDel]

Been playing through the expansion. It's a little hard to judge as it's been so long since I've played the original so I'm not sure exactly what the expansion introduces that wasn't there before.

For me it does seem a bit too "open". The levels are often massive and I got the sense the devs got tunnel vision. If you were building and testing the game for a long time, the levels probably seem fine but when first playing them, they feel a bit convoluted but not in a good way. It's like if you took all the interesting level design of the older build engine games and replaced them with maps that better resemble a multiplayer mode.

There are vehicle levels, while they're fun enough they aren't what I come to an FPS for, would of been better placed in their own game (can't remember if these were in the original?)

Memory is a bit hazy, but I feel like the original arsenal of guns were fine. In the new one there seem to be some new guns such as one that shoots toxic gas. The gas will just sit where you shoot it and will actually hurt you if you run through it yourself, it feels totally pointless.

Overall I think they left this expansion way too late. Its come out well after hype for the original has died down and the shadow drop makes me think they aren't very confident in it, it's got very low user reviews on Steam and if they were genuinely developing this between the release of the base game and now you'd think it has to be a massive flop.

 

[Zombra]

Honestly surprised by the lack of splash this expansion has made on the Codex. I thought a lot of people in these parts were enthusiastic about Ion Fury... maybe not!

I liked Ion Fury and I recommend it unreservedly, but once I finished it I was ready for it to be done. The idea of more of the same simply doesn't thrill me.

 

[geno]

I have to disagree with the last posts. I don't think the levels are bigger now, they are just more interconnected with an interesting use of backtracking. Comparatively, the originals were more linear and didn't give an intensive use of the available space like this does.
I firmly believe this is superior to the base game, basically what I said a month ago.

 

[hajro]

If you want big booba levels try supplice ep2, now thats some real mommys milk.

 

[RapineDel]

I have to disagree with the last posts. I don't think the levels are bigger now, they are just more interconnected with an interesting use of backtracking. Comparatively, the originals were more linear and didn't give an intensive use of the available space like this does.
I firmly believe this is superior to the base game, basically what I said a month ago.

Closer to the end of the game now. After the bike crashes and you lose it, the game gets significantly better, the Cemetery / Underground level is one of the best in an FPS campaign.

That said, the whole section with the bike is garbage, the level design sucks because of it (all areas have to be way too open to make the bike work) and it's way too overused. It would of been fine as a one off gimmick level but it's in about a third of the game.

 

[Zombra]

Arkham Knight Batmobile all over again

 

[Falksi]

Just popped up on my GoG list, not heard owt about it before but looks cool.

Is it any good and worth getting?

I see it upset the trannies, so that's obviously one of the reasons I'm considering it, but don't want to bother if it's a shite game regardless.

 

[Darth Roxor]

don't bother, it's shit

 

[Falksi]

don't bother, it's shit

Ah well, took a punt anyway. Ni mind.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Just popped up on my GoG list, not heard owt about it before but looks cool.

Is it any good and worth getting?

I see it upset the trannies, so that's obviously one of the reasons I'm considering it, but don't want to bother if it's a shite game regardless.

Of the boomer shooter boom titles I've played, its the best. Weapons are pretty good, the grenade weapon is a bit gimmicky, and you will need to use it to find secrets. You can really tell these guys understand the engine, and levels are just full to the brim with secrets. Perhaps too much so. I also found that the main character is pretty boring despite being intended as one of those Build Engine characters with attitude. She doesn't really have anything going for her beyond "I'm angry."

 

[Ivan]

Picked this up during the summer sale. Overall verdict: enjoyable, but it's not reaching the highs I thought it would

Pros:
it looks stunning, the playspaces are ridiculously detailed, a lot of love and care went into the level layouts
I like the sound design, particularly the cue they give the crossbow enemies. Once you hear them ready up, you know to get the fuck out of the way

Cons:
the scenery gets old fast, especially once you move past the city levels. It kind of feels like I'm replaying
arsenal tweaking: I think the grenade launcher sucks and should have been an alt fire instead of its own dedicated weapon
visual clarity/line of sight - it's quite often that enemies are placed in dark places that they get shots off on you. often resulting in a moment where you have to rush in, get bombarded most of the time by the revenants, then reload (playing on the ultra violence equivalent)
samey encounter design: not sure why, but the gameplay/encounters feel repetitious, perhaps it's the samey looking backgrounds (factory levels galore)
Not a fan of the revenant looking enemies in this game, they hit like trucks, but don't seem to have a big enough cue to mark their presence

I'm having fun most of the time, but not nearly as much as I was hoping for. I've just reached the most outdoorsy levels just now so I'm quite excited to explore these levels. Fuck the crawling enemies though, way too many of them and too frequently. Curious to see how the DLC shakes things up.

Thus far this is a balanced/solid for me.

 

[ArchAngel]

Picked this up during the summer sale. Overall verdict: enjoyable, but it's not reaching the highs I thought it would

Pros:
it looks stunning, the playspaces are ridiculously detailed, a lot of love and care went into the level layouts
I like the sound design, particularly the cue they give the crossbow enemies. Once you hear them ready up, you know to get the fuck out of the way

Cons:
the scenery gets old fast, especially once you move past the city levels. It kind of feels like I'm replaying
arsenal tweaking: I think the grenade launcher sucks and should have been an alt fire instead of its own dedicated weapon
visual clarity/line of sight - it's quite often that enemies are placed in dark places that they get shots off on you. often resulting in a moment where you have to rush in, get bombarded most of the time by the revenants, then reload (playing on the ultra violence equivalent)
samey encounter design: not sure why, but the gameplay/encounters feel repetitious, perhaps it's the samey looking backgrounds (factory levels galore)
Not a fan of the revenant looking enemies in this game, they hit like trucks, but don't seem to have a big enough cue to mark their presence

I'm having fun most of the time, but not nearly as much as I was hoping for. I've just reached the most outdoorsy levels just now so I'm quite excited to explore these levels. Fuck the crawling enemies though, way too many of them and too frequently. Curious to see how the DLC shakes things up.

Thus far this is a balanced/solid for me.

Why would you waste your time playing a 6/10 game?

 

[Sjukob]

The scenery gets old fast, especially once you move past the city levels. It kind of feels like I'm replaying

Samey encounter design: not sure why, but the gameplay/encounters feel repetitious, perhaps it's the samey looking backgrounds (factory levels galore)

These are the prime reasons I don't bother with any of the so called "boomer shooters" at all. They can't offer anything substantial over classic FPS games, which not only have decades worth of much more creative fan made content to back them up, but also offer a better foundation for that content to be built upon.

 

[Lemming42]

Fuck the crawling enemies though, way too many of them and too frequently.

I hated them too; iirc if you switch to the prod and alt-fire electrocute them it short circuits them and makes them blow up in one hit. It's still a huge pain in the ass but it's better than trying to hit them with the shotgun or w/e.

 

[Ivan]

I think the base campaign ends quite strong, my favorite levels were toward the end of the game: the Labs + the Outdoors levels. The final boss sequence was lame but at least the lasers weren't too bad to deal with. Soundtrack is great, I forgot to mention that on my previous post. Some favorites:

 

[Ivan]

Wrapped up the DLC. As others said, it's quite short, and it doesn't shake things too much from the OC, such that you can breeze by it using the same tactics. I didn't care for vehicle sections much, but I was very glad to see the variety of level art in the DLC. I still maintain that the spiders are annoying + I don't like the implementation of the flying rocket firing enemies. That aside, this was a solid experience. Not a favorite of mine, but I appreciate the craftmanship that wen into this. It's certainly a looker and exploration is fun and rewarding, especially on the difficulty I played on.

Onwards to HROT

 

[ghardy]

If this is a Build engine game, can it run under a source port?