Phantom Fury

It's actually better than Ion Fury.

4/10 "We have Half Life at home." Half Life at home: Nonsense story, confusing and dull level design, dull combat, dull exploration, weak weapons, uninteresting and boring enemies. At least it looks and sounds quite good but overall it's... Bad. And I came to this game with an open mind hoping for a decent early 2000-style shooter. I expected it not to be great but Phantom Fury confused the hell out of me with borderline incomprehensible storytelling (Why am I here? Why are those guys shooting me if I work for them? Why did they not shoot me when I entered the pub, and then started shooting me once mutants appeared?) slapped onto maze-like nonsensical levels (reaching a drop pod location that is right in front of you requires a 30-minute detour through underground bunkers) filled with totaly uninteresting combat. I'll try to force myself to finish this game but I have a nagging feeling I will drop it halfway through.

No.

Overall, I enjoyed the game, but it’s a prime example of the whole being less than the sum of its parts. There is plenty to like here, including great vibes, punchy weapons, and clear homages to classics like HL1. However, there are some annoying issues that others have pointed out, like a lack of direction, sometimes not always. Worse, even if you do figure out where to go, the game won't let you progress unless you do it exactly how it was scripted. For example, in one open area, the protagonist has to leave using a transport. Because I took an alternative route to the extraction point, the transport wasn't there. I had to turn back and walk down the "supposed" road just to trigger the enemy spawns and make the vehicle appear. It was incredibly annoying. In short: grab it on sale for the vibes. I leave thumbs up just to nudge it up a bit as it already has mixed reviews.

I think this game was really fun. I don’t really understand why it got such lukewarm reviews. It’s not like the first game, which is really good too and more of a tribute to Duke Nukem and similar games. The second one is more like later 3D shooters, they’re just good in different ways.

The game feels... stiff as ♥♥♥♥ in every way.. Encounters are scripted in such a way that the triggers for enemy spawns become incredibly obvious, the enemy AI behavior also leaves a lot to be desired as well. Sometimes when i was fighting hordes of enemies, I would walk backwards where I came from while shooting the approaching horde, which then, on multiple occasion - led to the horde crashing into invisible walls that had been put there to keep the enemies in these sort of pseudo-arenas, while the level design has the design philosophy of a linear boomer shooter I.E - Ion Fury, Cultic, Hrot, Dusk etc. This hybridization design choice was so odd and poorly executed that it just put me off the game completely. It's like the game is trying its hardest to ruin your immersion. The fact that this game is (sort of) a sequel to Ion Fury is laughably sad. If you came from Ion Fury and wanted more, which is understandable as it is some of the best that the genre has to offer... Then don't bother with this one.