Just over a month after debuting on Steam, Phantom Fury’s ideals of reliving the glory days of the first-person shooters from the mid to late ‘90s (think Half-Life or Duke Nukem 3D) have exploded their way over to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and GOG. Let me go ahead and rip the band-aid off right from the get-go. I truly wish I could be telling you that my time with this game was a bundle of nostalgia-infused bliss, but a lack of any significant charm factor, coupled with a litany of technical issues in all shapes and sizes, put a serious damper on any optimism or enthusiasm I held for the title.

A spin-off of developer Voidpoint’s 2019 title, Ion Fury, players once again assume the role of Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison as she sets out on a long and winding journey across the United States in a race to keep the ominously titled Demon Core device out of the hands of those who would exploit it for their own nefarious, planet-threatening purposes.



While that brief plot overview sounds breathtakingly enthralling on paper, the actual in-game narrative and storytelling is barely there. This might turn those expecting a somewhat decent story off in a major way, but it should come as no surprise to fans of classic shooters - where exposition and proper character development take a backseat to the core gameplay loop of blasting everything in sight to smithereens and inhaling every bit of ammo and body armour you’re able to get your hands on.

While that brief plot overview sounds breathtakingly enthralling on paper, the actual in-game narrative and storytelling is barely there.

And you’ll be doing a lot of that, don’t you worry. You’ll also be searching for keypad codes and collecting a bunch of colourful keycards to unlock new areas – a true staple of the classic FPS, although exploration and level progression definitely feel more linear here than in the titles Phantom Fury pulls inspiration from.



Unfortunately, aside from the decent weapon variety and gunplay, which can be quite enjoyable and arcade-y (particularly with weapons like the Loverboy revolver, SMG and shotgun), Phantom Fury has very little going for it in the fun and technical polish department. Almost every single explorable area or map, with a few notable exceptions, feels generic, and the highly touted environmental interactivity rarely comes across as anything other than a pointless gimmick.

The issues don’t stop there. Upon loading back into a game, you’ll often be able to see almost every single asset pop into existence, or a pile of crates “drop” onto the map – as if they had, up to that point, been briefly suspended a few inches above the ground. Voice acting is all over the place, as well, with some of the worst (and unintentionally amusing) examples occurring during an early-game sequence set at a roadside bar – featuring plenty of exchanges between NPCs with seemingly zero prior conversational context given at the time of recording.



The AI isn’t exactly fantastic, either. Every now and then, an enemy would come to a total standstill mid-fight, often accompanied by a constant string of combat voice lines – my personal favourite containing a reference to taking damage despite me being nowhere near them, or not having started attacking them at all yet. The autosave-only system can also become problematic. If the inconsistency in checkpoint distribution wasn’t bad enough, you can actually end up in a situation where, after dying and loading your last checkpoint, you’re locked into a few seconds of instant and nigh-unavoidable damage thanks to a nearby enemy.

Upon loading back into a game, you’ll often be able to see almost every single asset pop into existence, or a pile of crates “drop” onto the map...

Speaking of enemies, the variety of foes you’re up against here isn’t anything especially noteworthy, obviously increasing in toughness as you get further into the game. Some examples include your standard gun-wielding armoured military men, electric foam-spraying military men, object-hurling mutants, lunging mutants, and invincible snipers who you’re only meant to sneak past and cannot damage at all. From around the third “level” onwards, whether it be due to a larger than usual number of these enemies appearing on screen at once or as a result of the more open nature of the map layout (perhaps both, even), there is a very noticeable increase in frame rate drops. The first time this happened it genuinely caught me off guard with how jarringly bad it was, before more or less stabilising.



At various points throughout the story, you’re able to use terminals to upgrade Shelly’s weaponry and cybernetics with collected nanites (which seem to be pretty easy to come by). While reducing the cooldown on her robo-arm’s melee strike or unlocking a protective energy shield is nice and all, the enhancement options for your arsenal seem seriously lacking – feeling like more of an afterthought than a feature you’re supposed to pay attention to or think about for more than a few seconds. As a result of the limited choices on offer, these upgrades could just as easily have been pickups earned via story progression, in my opinion.

Phantom Fury is at its absolute best when you’re up to your neck in enemies and letting the lead fly with reckless abandon. It’s a real shame that, outside of the combat, there simply isn’t much to get excited about on the plot or exploration front. The technical issues that permeate throughout nearly every single facet (combat included) of gameplay, while not exactly what I’d call game-breaking, only makes matters worse - aside from a few exceedingly rare instances of unintentional comedy by virtue of the jank.

*PS5 Review code provided by 3D Realms | Reviewed by Ryan Pretorius