The bombastic first-person shooter world of Ion Fury is making an explosive return next month with the release of Phantom Fury for PC. Publisher 3D Realms and developer Slipgate Ironworks have announced that the highly anticipated sequel will blast its way onto Steam and GOG on April 23rd.
Picking up many years after her battle against villain Jadus Heskel, the game follows Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison as she awakens in a new reality, pulled from a coma by a former colleague. Now equipped with a powerful new bionic arm, Bombshell embarks on an intense cross-country journey to secure a dangerous artifact known as the Demon Core, her personal demons in tow.
While the PC version has a locked release date, Phantom Fury is also slated to bring its old-school flavored mayhem to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch, though launch timing for the console ports has not yet been revealed.
Like its acclaimed 2019 predecessor Ion Fury, Phantom Fury fuses retro aesthetics with modern gameplay flourishes. Though leaving behind the original’s iconic Build engine, the sequel maintains a distinctly turn-of-the-millennium visual style reminiscent of an era when Duke Nukem was king.
According to the developers, Phantom Fury will ramp up the extreme interactivity that was a hallmark of Ion Fury’s environments. Players can look forward to usable computers, pilotable helicopters, playable arcade machines, and a vast assortment of over 20 unique weapons to diagnose hurt feelings.
Fan-favorite armaments like the Bowling Bombs make a return alongside new additions such as armor-piercing shotguns, foam electrifiers, and deployable drones. Weapon customization also lets shooters mod their arsenals with new functionalities tailored to their playstyles.
Beyond the gunplay, Phantom Fury lets players upgrade Bombshell’s bionic augmentations, unlocking abilities like powered melee strikes and rechargeable energy shields to lay the smackdown on the game’s sadistic cybernetic foes, mutant horrors, and boss encounters.
As Shelly’s violent reprisal tour rages from the streets of Chicago to abandoned Los Alamos facilities, Phantom Fury promises an “intense mixture of bombastic action and road movie” thrills.
While the fate of 3D Realms remains uncertain amid corporate reshuffling, Phantom Fury’s imminent launch reinforces the enduring appetite for a bold, self-aware return to the unvarnished shooter mayhem of gaming’s adolescent years – now refined with all the high-impact ferocity modern hardware can muster.
