''Ion Fury'' (originally titled ''Ion Maiden'') is a 2019

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyber ...

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

video game developed by Finnish studio Voidpoint and published by

3D Realms 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller (entrepreneur), Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game ' ...

. It is a

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...

to the 2016 video game '' Bombshell''. ''Ion Fury'' runs on a modified version of

Ken Silverman Ken Silverman (born November 1, 1975) is an American game programmer, best known for writing the Build engine. It was most notably utilized by ''Duke Nukem 3D'', ''Shadow Warrior'', ''Blood'', and more than a dozen other games in the mid- to la ...

Build engine Build Engine is a first-person shooter engine created by Ken Silverman, author of ''Ken's Labyrinth'', for 3D Realms. Like the Doom engine, ''Doom'' engine, the Build Engine represents its world on a 2D computer graphics, two-dimensional grid usin ...

and is the first original commercial game to utilize the engine in 20 years, the previous being '' World War II GI''. An expansion, ''Ion Fury: Aftershock'', was announced in 2020.

Plot

In ''Ion Fury'', the player assumes the role of Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison, a

bomb disposal Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous Explosive device, explosive devices are rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functi ...

expert aligned to the Global Defense Force. Dr. Jadus Heskel, a

transhumanist Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Transhuma ...

cult leader, unleashes an army of cybernetically-enhanced soldiers on the futuristic

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

n city of Neo D.C., which Shelly is tasked with fighting through.

Development

''Ion Fury'' is built on '' EDuke32'', a fork of the Build engine which supports modern operating systems while also implementing a broader range of features. The

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

of ''Ion Fury'' is part of the ''EDuke32''

source port A source port is a software project based on the source code of a game engine that allows the game to be played on operating systems or computing platforms with which the game was not originally compatible. Description Source ports are often cr ...

Name change

In May 2019, it was announced that the band

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...

would be suing

for $2 million for " hemisappropriation and use of a virtually identical imitation of the Iron Maiden trademark". 3D Realms quickly responded on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, stating that these are "frivolous claims anyone who has played ''Ion Maiden'' would find more over the top than Shelly's 'Loverboy', her signature 18-round triple-barreled revolver". The lawsuit claims that Ion Maiden "has the same look and feel" to the Android/

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

game ''Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast'' previously released on July 5, 2016. It also lists several alleged similarities, including the name "Ion Maiden", the font used for the game title, the main character Shelly 'Bombshell' Harrison and Steve Harris, the skull symbol, and the

Eddie Eddie or Eddy may refer to: Science and technology *Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle * Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Lin ...

character. However, several of the allegedly similar elements cited in the lawsuit were present in a previous 3D Realms game, '' Bombshell'', released on January 29, 2016, including the main character name and the skull symbol. According to Scott Miller, founder of 3D Realms, "The name ''Ion Maiden'' comes from the basic weapon used by the same female hero in her first game, ''Bombshell''." On July 11, 2019, 3D Realms announced that the title of ''Ion Maiden'' was changed to ''Ion Fury.'' Also announced was that voice actor

Jon St. John Jon St. John (born December 19, 1960) is an American voice actor, former radio personality and ordained minister. He is best known for his voice roles such as Duke Nukem in the ''Duke Nukem'' video game series and Big the Cat and E-123 Omega i ...

, best known for the character

Duke Nukem ''Duke Nukem'' is a video game series named for its main character, Duke Nukem. Created by the company Apogee Software Ltd. (now 3D Realms) as a series of video games for personal computers, the series expanded to games released for various co ...

, was confirmed to be voicing the game's main villain.

Reception

Critical reception

All versions of ''Ion Fury'' received positive reviews on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

gave the game a score of 7.5/10, saying it "authentic throwback to ''

Duke Nukem 3D ''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by 3D Realms. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem'' and ''Duke Nukem II'', published by 3D Realms. ''Duke Nukem 3D'' features the adventures of the titular Duke Nuke ...

'' that certainly hails to the king but can't quite dethrone him."

PCGamesN ''PCGamesN'' is a British online video game magazine focusing on PC gaming and hardware. It has a full-time team of over a dozen writers and is the oldest owned-and-operated site within publishing group Network N. History Parent company Netw ...

's Chris Capel called it "probably the best

game ever" and "challenging, funny, cleverly designed, and shockingly attractive."

GameRevolution ''GameRevolution'' (formerly ''Game-Revolution'') is a gaming website created in 1996. Based in Berkeley, California, the site includes reviews, previews, a gaming download area, cheats, and a merchandise store, as well as webcomics, screenshots ...

's Alex Santa Maria called it "an updated take on ''Duke Nukem 3D'' that goes above and beyond nostalgic pandering to become one of the better first-person shooters in recent memory."

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...

's Javy Gwaltney called it "everything that I've wanted from a modernized take on the arcadey shooters of the 90s. The pitch-perfect movement, the enemy variety, creative weaponry, and fantastic level design all add up to a superb shooter campaign."

Awards

''Ion Fury'' won "Player's Choice Indie of the Year 2019" at

IndieDB Mod DB is a website that focuses on general video game modding. It was founded in 2002 by Scott "INtense!" Reismanis. As of September 2015, the Mod DB site has received over 604 million views, has more than 12,500 modifications registered, and ...

. The soundtrack won the "Outstanding Achievement for old school composing techniques" award at Game Audio Awards 2020.

Controversy

On August 16, 2019, less than a day after the official release,

Discord Discord is a VoIP and instant messaging social platform. Users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers".The developer documenta ...

chat logs from members of Voidpoint were shared, displaying purportedly

transphobic Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...

remarks by the developers. Following multiple requests for a comment on the situation by gaming news sites and retro gaming-focused

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

personalities, Voidpoint and 3D Realms apologized and pledged to institute a zero-tolerance policy on "disparaging language". They also pledged to remove two lines of in-game text. Additionally, $10,000 of Ion Fury's initial sales were donated to

the Trevor Project The Trevor Project is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1998. Focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, they offer a toll-free telephone number wher ...

. The developer response yielded mixed reactions, including a considerable increase in negative reviews on the game's Steam page, many of which accused the developers of censorship. On August 26, 2019, the developers reversed their stance and stated that they would only remove one of the messages, containing a slur, but no other content.

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

cited the increase in negative reviews as basis for the reversal. Voidpoint and 3D Realms issued a joint statement that they would not remove further content from ''Ion Fury'' or any future games, stating their opposition to the censorship of creative works of any kind.

Expansion and sequel

An expansion pack for the game was announced at the Realms Deep 2020 event with a 2021 release date. It was revealed in 2021 as ''Ion Fury: Aftershock'' for a release that same year. The developers announced that the expansion would feature thirteen new levels, a new weapon and inventory items, and several new enemy and ammo types. Arrange Mode introduces "an amped-up remix of the entire original campaign with mirrored levels and modified enemy and item placement". The expansion has since been delayed indefinitely. In September 16, 2022, 3D Realms announced the sequel titled '' Phantom Fury'', to be released in 2023.

References

External links

*
Official source code repository
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