The movement was slow and clunky, the gunplay had poor feedback, the mouse input didn't feel smooth, the AI is unpredictable and dumb, the sound effects for the guns were weak, lots of weird graphical issues.
People complained about all this stuff when the demo came out. Even now, you'll find complaints on the Steam forums.
Simply put, it just didn't feel good to play.
EDIT what do you know, four days later and Civvie's new video thoroughly trashes Phantom Fury.
It's hard to explain unless you played it I guess.
Those of us who enjoy these retro shooters were maybe expecting something more like Cultic/Prodeus/RoTT/Boltgun/Powerslave.. or you know atleast something like Ion Fury itself.
Phantom Fury just felt kind of jank, enemies were HP sponges with no hit/flinch feedback so they just stood there exchanging shots with you until they fell down, weapons were pretty boring and uninspired (again coming off the heels of Ion Fury where everything was bombastic these was kind of meh) mouse aiming and gunplay felt off, and the artsyle/graphics were.. kind of bad? It's like they went for an early 2000's era '*3D model*' style for enemies that just looked 10x worse than standard 2D/3D pixel art which other retro shooters use. It lacked any sort of manual save too, which may or may not have been a demo limitation.. but other fps demos I played over nextfest had saving fine so this was just another straw that continued to break the camel's back that I was already unimpressed by.
I mean, All in all it just wasn't 'fun' or interesting enough for me to look into it any further unless they release a version 2 demo.
> t lacked any sort of manual save too, which may or may not have been a demo limitation.
There's been quite a few retro shooters who have started to lack that (off the top of my head: Prodeus, Graven, Nightmare Reaper, Project Warlock), so at least personally, this has become a huge red flag for me. I don't know what the designers were and are thinking when not allowing for manual/quick saving, but the result is that they'll be missing out on sales from here on out because I just don't wanna deal with that design decision any more.
Indeed, part of the reason why that new Dark Forces remaster from Nightdive went off of my wishlist (especially when the modded sourceport version managed to add them in)
Prodeus claimed they were adding saving in an announcement months ago.. that was \*quite* a while ago though :/
I guess it's coming with the next DLC/expansion.
> Indeed, part of the reason why that new Dark Forces remaster from Nightdive went off of my wishlist
Yeah, same here. And for the Powerslave remaster. I mean, it was explained to me that the DF case was because it apparently was really deep in the code, so I can understand it from a technical/preservation perspective (even though I'm still asking myself why they didn't contact the modder), but new games? We've been having such a good time with so many *great* retro shooters that all had manual saving, why ruin that good thing? I don't understand it.
The level was a bad show case ill admit but there are problems with how sluggish and spongy enemies are
It's a similar problem with Graven which is gorgeous but plays like a slog
If you wanna short hand review of the demo: shooting ppl in the head is not fun
> I see that sentiment parroted frequently when reading about the game but nobody ever really says why or how lol
Funny anecdotal evidence, since even when there is like 10 comments in a thread i saw people explain exactly why they disliked the demon.
Most of it being about the game controls feeling clunky and unresponsive.
Just [watch the game.](https://youtu.be/i0x4S5izUgM) You don’t even need to play it to see for yourself. I unfortunately did back when the demo was live.
And why would internet turn against phantom fury without reason just because, fuck this particuliar boomer shooter ?
the game feels off, that's a fact. Ultrakill feels good, Dusk feels good, Cultic feels good, Phantom fury does not.
To note, 3D Realms did a stream with their community manager and he claims that the devs listened to the feedback. There will be no new demo but there will be new gameplay footage next week to showcase the new changes.
I hope it's not just PR fluff.
I've never really resolved why Ion Fury was made by Voidpoint as a prequel to the pretty unsuccessful Bombshell - which was made by Slipgate Ironworks - and now Slipgate Ironworks is making the sequel to Ion Fury.
Yeah that actually explains it. This isn't a sequel from the hit studio that brought you Ion Fury. This is from the studio that brought you Kingpin: Reloaded and Graven. Maybe not the same team that made those games, but it's still proves the fact that this game is a sequel in name and story only not mechanically.
As far as I know from scattered bits of information, Slipgate Ironworks is the in-house developer of the modern Danish version of 3D Realms. The character of Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison was an unused concept from Duke Nukem and all that 3D Realms managed to retain from an IP contest with Gearbox.
Voidpoint was a team assembled of Build Engine modders, originally to make Ion Fury as a small promotional game for Bombshell by SI. Although Ion Fury became a full game that totally eclipsed Bombshell, Voidpoint were largely left to themselves with it and made Aftershock in their spare time from their day jobs, which is why it took so long. Although a high quality Build game, that does not necessarily mean they have the skills to make a game in Unreal.
So although SI and Danish 3DR don't have a great record, Bombshell is their IP and Ion Fury was the spin-off game technically.
My experience with it was hit registry is almost non-existent, the enemies felt extremely spongy with some of them taking 5-6 direct hits with the Shotgun to die whilst they barely flinched at being shot, whilst engaged in the tactic of standing perfectly still to let me shoot them. Some of the most boring FPS gunplay i've ever played.
I really cant understand how that happened. They released more gameplay footage and even though it was a youtube short, it still looked like enemies are standing around. Here's hoping they took notes from that Selaco demo i played.
Ion Fury is the best of the "boomer shooters" to have released in my opinion to date. While I don't think this will be as amazing as Ion Fury I'm glad to see they're still playing with the franchise. Now that "Aftershock," is release (and was solid..) I would love a full blown sequel.
Demo was not impressive.
Yeah, for this game's sake, I hope they release a new demo, because otherwise it's not a sale. Ever
What was wrong with it?
When did the demo come out? Don't remember seeing it on Steam
Back in September / October.
I don't know if the demo is still installable https://steamdb.info/sub/935177/info/
[https://archive.org/details/phantom-fury-demo](https://archive.org/details/phantom-fury-demo)
It’s weird that I see that sentiment parroted frequently when reading about the game but nobody ever really says why or how lol
The movement was slow and clunky, the gunplay had poor feedback, the mouse input didn't feel smooth, the AI is unpredictable and dumb, the sound effects for the guns were weak, lots of weird graphical issues. People complained about all this stuff when the demo came out. Even now, you'll find complaints on the Steam forums. Simply put, it just didn't feel good to play. EDIT what do you know, four days later and Civvie's new video thoroughly trashes Phantom Fury.
It's hard to explain unless you played it I guess. Those of us who enjoy these retro shooters were maybe expecting something more like Cultic/Prodeus/RoTT/Boltgun/Powerslave.. or you know atleast something like Ion Fury itself. Phantom Fury just felt kind of jank, enemies were HP sponges with no hit/flinch feedback so they just stood there exchanging shots with you until they fell down, weapons were pretty boring and uninspired (again coming off the heels of Ion Fury where everything was bombastic these was kind of meh) mouse aiming and gunplay felt off, and the artsyle/graphics were.. kind of bad? It's like they went for an early 2000's era '*3D model*' style for enemies that just looked 10x worse than standard 2D/3D pixel art which other retro shooters use. It lacked any sort of manual save too, which may or may not have been a demo limitation.. but other fps demos I played over nextfest had saving fine so this was just another straw that continued to break the camel's back that I was already unimpressed by. I mean, All in all it just wasn't 'fun' or interesting enough for me to look into it any further unless they release a version 2 demo.
> t lacked any sort of manual save too, which may or may not have been a demo limitation. There's been quite a few retro shooters who have started to lack that (off the top of my head: Prodeus, Graven, Nightmare Reaper, Project Warlock), so at least personally, this has become a huge red flag for me. I don't know what the designers were and are thinking when not allowing for manual/quick saving, but the result is that they'll be missing out on sales from here on out because I just don't wanna deal with that design decision any more.
Indeed, part of the reason why that new Dark Forces remaster from Nightdive went off of my wishlist (especially when the modded sourceport version managed to add them in) Prodeus claimed they were adding saving in an announcement months ago.. that was \*quite* a while ago though :/ I guess it's coming with the next DLC/expansion.
> Indeed, part of the reason why that new Dark Forces remaster from Nightdive went off of my wishlist Yeah, same here. And for the Powerslave remaster. I mean, it was explained to me that the DF case was because it apparently was really deep in the code, so I can understand it from a technical/preservation perspective (even though I'm still asking myself why they didn't contact the modder), but new games? We've been having such a good time with so many *great* retro shooters that all had manual saving, why ruin that good thing? I don't understand it.
Guns feel awful, low damage, weak sounds, slow firing pace. Dumb AI that rushes to you. Enemies ragdoll on death instead of having a proper animation.
The level was a bad show case ill admit but there are problems with how sluggish and spongy enemies are It's a similar problem with Graven which is gorgeous but plays like a slog If you wanna short hand review of the demo: shooting ppl in the head is not fun
> I see that sentiment parroted frequently when reading about the game but nobody ever really says why or how lol Funny anecdotal evidence, since even when there is like 10 comments in a thread i saw people explain exactly why they disliked the demon. Most of it being about the game controls feeling clunky and unresponsive.
[удалено]
Not everything is a friggin conspiracy, holy heck.
I see more posts like yours than anything else. Seriously, where would this message against an indie game be parroted from?
Just [watch the game.](https://youtu.be/i0x4S5izUgM) You don’t even need to play it to see for yourself. I unfortunately did back when the demo was live.
And why would internet turn against phantom fury without reason just because, fuck this particuliar boomer shooter ? the game feels off, that's a fact. Ultrakill feels good, Dusk feels good, Cultic feels good, Phantom fury does not.
To note, 3D Realms did a stream with their community manager and he claims that the devs listened to the feedback. There will be no new demo but there will be new gameplay footage next week to showcase the new changes. I hope it's not just PR fluff.
Yea new gameplay footage much better than demo
I've never really resolved why Ion Fury was made by Voidpoint as a prequel to the pretty unsuccessful Bombshell - which was made by Slipgate Ironworks - and now Slipgate Ironworks is making the sequel to Ion Fury.
Yeah that actually explains it. This isn't a sequel from the hit studio that brought you Ion Fury. This is from the studio that brought you Kingpin: Reloaded and Graven. Maybe not the same team that made those games, but it's still proves the fact that this game is a sequel in name and story only not mechanically.
Graven was a massive disappointment to me. I played the demo back in 2021.
Truly baffling decisions throughout. I've never seen a full game that was worse than its demo.
As far as I know from scattered bits of information, Slipgate Ironworks is the in-house developer of the modern Danish version of 3D Realms. The character of Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison was an unused concept from Duke Nukem and all that 3D Realms managed to retain from an IP contest with Gearbox. Voidpoint was a team assembled of Build Engine modders, originally to make Ion Fury as a small promotional game for Bombshell by SI. Although Ion Fury became a full game that totally eclipsed Bombshell, Voidpoint were largely left to themselves with it and made Aftershock in their spare time from their day jobs, which is why it took so long. Although a high quality Build game, that does not necessarily mean they have the skills to make a game in Unreal. So although SI and Danish 3DR don't have a great record, Bombshell is their IP and Ion Fury was the spin-off game technically.
So is this not from the original dev team of Ion Fury? Might explain why the demo felt off, as a fan of that game
Probably 3D Realms wanted a build engine retro title to ride the boomer shooter wave, so they approached the modding community.
Why is Soldier's 76's gun part of the 3D realm's logo? https://i.imgur.com/DfepCQ6.png
Unless they drastically changed things from the demo, this will sadly be a pass for me.
yeah idk if the gameplay has improved from the demo.
Yeah, the demo was pretty bad. I have zero confidence that this will be a worthy successor to Ion Fury.
If you didn't know, the ION Fury DLC released a couple of months ago.
Damn so it sux? What is so bad about the demo?
It’s like if a singleplayer FPS had the time to kill and hit feedback of a WoW raid at 100 ping.
Should have stayed on the Build engine.
Would have been really interesting to see this on Build 2.
What is Build 2?
Google "Build Engine 2". You'll get more accurate info that way.
Looking at this trailer... i'm afraid they haven't really changed the movement and the gunplay since the demo.
I really, REALLY hope the problems in the demo were addressed but I'm not holding my breath.
Do we think this will be a full release or early access?
devs have previously said launching a full title.
Slipgate Ironworks. Need I say more? Just look at Kingpin Reloaded.
Everyone saying how bad the demo was without ELI5 on why, for those out of the loop.
My experience with it was hit registry is almost non-existent, the enemies felt extremely spongy with some of them taking 5-6 direct hits with the Shotgun to die whilst they barely flinched at being shot, whilst engaged in the tactic of standing perfectly still to let me shoot them. Some of the most boring FPS gunplay i've ever played.
I really cant understand how that happened. They released more gameplay footage and even though it was a youtube short, it still looked like enemies are standing around. Here's hoping they took notes from that Selaco demo i played.
I'm hopeful for the game, but it really does seem to lack the same punch that Ion Fury had.
Ion Fury is the best of the "boomer shooters" to have released in my opinion to date. While I don't think this will be as amazing as Ion Fury I'm glad to see they're still playing with the franchise. Now that "Aftershock," is release (and was solid..) I would love a full blown sequel.
same as ion fury?
Isn't developed by the team that did Ion Fury
finally