Phantom Fury (PC)

Phantom Fury is the newest release from the Bombshell franchise. Technically not a sequel but a spin off of 2019’s Ion Fury, Shelly returns to hunt down the Demon Core, a lethal artefact with unimaginable power. Slipgate Ironworks, who’ve been very busy this year, are at the helm here, so let’s see how they’ve done.

Let’s be honest, Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison is pretty much the equivalent of Duke Nukem we’ve always wanted; she’s got that sass, she kicks ass, and she’s the spiritual Duke. Ion Fury previously was a great game, and it’s great to see her back in action. Phantom Fury takes place several years after Ion Fury, and as mentioned, we’re on a hunt for the Demon Core. Shelly and her GDF counterparts are on the case. 

Phantom’s engine build from Ion Fury has gone out the window, and we’ve moved forward to the next evolution of gaming: a fully 3D shooter. Stylised like a Half Life or Duke Nukem’ Forever (2001) shooter, we have a slightly more fleshed out shooter, visually Phantom has that pseudo early 3d shooter style, like the aforementioned titles, everything is blocky and chunky and ripped right out of the era with some other aspects being shown as 2D sprites like shrubbery, I actually like this, it does give a me a feeling of nostalgia of playing shooters back in the day.  Menu-wise, it all looks good and has a certain schlock about it most of the time. Weapons look good, and levels also have a decent look to them and mostly have a realistic, as much as the aesthetics will allow, style to them. 

My main issue with the visuals is the lack of variety in character models. All enemies have the same skin, so undead look all the same, and bigger enemies all look the same. There’s a lack of variety here, and when you’re killing a lot of the same enemy, it feels a bit lazy. Animation can be a bit chonky at times; this is mechanically a bit rough, but the animations suffer for it. Sometimes the lighting effects is the lack of variety in character models. All enemies have the same skin, so undead look all the same, and bigger enemies all look the same. There’s a lack of variety here, and when you’re killing a lot of the same enemy, it feels a bit lazy. Animation can be a bit chonky at times; this is mechanically a bit rough, but the animations suffer for it. Sometimes the lighting effects are a bit lacking; for example, if I get my stunbaton out, there’s a lack of light in the area as I try and shock someone. Stuff like this I’d expect back in 2001, and especially so now.

Unfortunately, the audio department suffers a bit here too. The effects and noises are more than adequate, but the score is a real letdown, where even in combat, the music just seems so blasé that it feels unimportant or just not as exciting as the music just doesn’t match the gameplay. Shelly is the best bit about the audio in Phantom; her constant quips and her being the lead in the game make everything somewhat better. Valerie Arem puts in a good shift and betters the game for it.

Gameplay wise, there’s nothing new here that’s not been done before, combat is pretty standard, but there’s some returning weapons from Ion Fury, Loverboy, Bombshell’s trusty pistol returns, another return is the crossbow, both of these do come equipped with an alternative fire, as do the rest of the weapons, however some of these don’t feel as good. The other main return are the fan favourite bowling bombs, unfortunately the throwing of these can feel a bit off, throws can sometimes bounce really randomly off scenery or just miss totally. A bit of balancing on these wouldn’t go a miss. Combat can feel a bit off, due to how the enemies react, and it seems to be a bit clustered when there’s a larger number of enemies. Zombies for example can full of panic when Shelly encounters a few, some will stand still and not know what to do, whereas groups all try and throw the few moveable bits at you, roadcones, or barrels, it can get a bit messy.

Levels are a bit hit or miss, where pacing definitely could have done with some refinement, the train level especially feels long, I get it’s a train but you can reign it in a bit. Other bits feel a bit forced too, some on rails sections, or even just a lot of padding, some puzzles don’t need to be a thing anymore, like using cranes to move items to build a bridge, or finding 4 digit codes on computers, if you don’t know what you’re doing some of this can add vast amounts of time trying to find something simple. I definitely wandered around the first level not knowing what I was trying to find, and I missed a tiny vent I could shoot.

Phantom Fury, despite my gripes, obviously has a lot of love involved in it, and I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Shelly. However I think Phantom Fury is a little bit of a let down, or something you’d pick up if you’d exhausted a few other options, I think with a bit of refinement there’s a fun game, but as it stands it’s not as bad as Kingpin: Reloaded, BUT there’s many more better shooters like this that are fighting for your time. But if you’ve rinsed Turbo Overkill, or Strafe, or even another run through of Half Life, Phantom Fury can be fun, sometimes.