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''Ion Fury'' (originally titled ''Ion Maiden'') is a 2019
cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
video game developed by Voidpoint and published by
3D Realms 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game '' Kingdom of Kroz''. In the ...
. 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 (game engine), Build engine. It was most notably utilized by ''Duke Nukem 3D'', ''Shadow Warrior'', ''Blood (video game), Blood'', and mor ...
's
Build engine The 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 ...
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 released in October 2023.


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 devices are disabled or otherwise rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated fun ...
expert aligned to the Global Defense Force. Dr. Jadus Heskel, a
transhumanist Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the human enhancement, enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cogni ...
cult leader, unleashes an army of cybernetically-enhanced soldiers on the futuristic
dystopia A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...
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 or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...
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 ...
.


Name change

In May 2019, it was announced that the band
Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...
would be suing
3D Realms 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game '' Kingdom of Kroz''. In the ...
for $2 million for " hemisappropriation and use of a virtually identical imitation of the Iron Maiden trademark". 3D Realms quickly responded on
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, 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, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
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 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, best known for the character
Duke Nukem ''Duke Nukem'' is a video game series and media franchise created by the company Apogee Software Ltd. (now 3D Realms). The franchise follows the titular Duke Nukem as he battles against a military or extraterrestrial force. Originally a serie ...
, was confirmed to be voicing the game's main villain.


Reception


Critical reception

All versions of ''Ion Fury'' received "generally favorable reviews" on
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
.
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming 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 district and is headed by its former e ...
gave the game a score of 7.5/10, saying it "authentic throwback to ''
Duke Nukem 3D ''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a 1996 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by 3D Realms and published by FormGen for MS-DOS. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem (video game), Duke Nukem'' and ''Duke Nukem II'', published ...
'' that certainly hails to the king but can't quite dethrone him."
PCGamesN ''PCGamesN'' is a British website with articles about PC gaming and hardware. History Parent company Network N was founded by James Binns (formerly of Future Publishing) in late May 2012. ''PCGamesN'' launched the following month. PCGamesN ...
's Chris Capel called it "probably the best
Build engine The 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 ...
game ever" and "challenging, funny, cleverly designed, and shockingly attractive."
GameRevolution Mandatory (formerly CraveOnline Media) is a lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company Evolve Media, LLC. Mandatory focuses its contents into the male ...
'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'' is an American monthly Video game journalism, video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and video game console, game consoles. It debuted in August 1991, when the video game reta ...
'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. 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 an instant messaging and Voice over IP, VoIP social platform which allows communication through Voice over IP, voice calls, Videotelephony, video calls, text messaging, and digital media, media. Communication can be private or take ...
chat logs from members of Voidpoint were shared, displaying purportedly
transphobic Transphobia consists of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender or transsexual people, or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger towards people who do not conform to social ...
remarks by the developers. Following multiple requests for a comment on the situation by gaming news sites and retro gaming-focused
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
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 for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, they offer a toll-free telephone number where con ...
. 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 made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...
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 was released on October 2, 2023 for PC. A sequel titled ''Phantom Fury'', built on
Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter video game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of ...
, was released on April 23, 2024.


References


External links

*
Official source code repository
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