Phantom Fury Review: Can’t Stick the Landing

Reviewed by Ravindu Weerasinghe

 

Phantom Fury is a fast-paced, road movie-inspired, first-person shooter that hooked me in with flashy trailers, bombastic action scenes and a promised return to classics such as Half-Life. Unfortunately, it fails to live up to this promise. Playing Phantom Fury was a struggle; every time the game was picked up, it was put down even faster. 

 

A continuation of 3D Realms’s 2019 release Ion Fury, Phantom Fury sees the player taking control of Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison. Pulled out of a coma with a brand new bionic arm, she must escape the facility she’s being held at in what should be an action spectacle. Phantom Fury starts deceptively strong, showcasing the main mechanics in a controlled environment. Shelly’s new bionic arm is great for both punching faceless goons, and managing environmental puzzles.

 

The core of the shooting is solid. There’s a wide variety of guns available, with a personal favourite being Shelly’s signature six-barrel pistol affectionately called ‘Loverboy’ that can lock-on to targets for easy shots. Attacks feel impactful with a solid sense of recoil and weight, helped by strong sound design that helps each weapon feel unique. Each weapon also has a distinct ‘alt-fire’ for added variety.

 

 

But the uniqueness is quickly lost as each gun does the exact same type of damage, meaning there aren’t enough reasons to prefer one weapon over another. Tactical use of each weapon is also limited. I tried forcing myself to use different weapons, but even that was futile as I ended up gravitating towards the shotgun or assault rifle for almost all situations. For a game billing itself as an action spectacle, Phantom Fury’s gunplay just falls flat. I wish it either incorporated more modern features such as Aim-Down-Sights(ADS), or went all-in on the road movie genre, with more bombastic effects for the weapons while keeping the old-school aesthetic.

 

 

Phantom Fury also fails to capture what made its inspirations so great. It draws from Half-Life, which gives players a safe area to encounter different types of enemies and learn attack patterns and what weapon from your extensive arsenal is effective. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case in Phantom Fury. The game struggles to teach players how enemies function. It’s frustrating to see a new enemy jump out of nowhere, giving you no time to figure it out before dying. The game forces you to rely on brute force and mindless shooting to learn how to defeat enemies, which creates an unfulfilling experience. A prime example is a big hulking enemy with strong leaping attacks and high health. In your first encounter, it jumps from around a tight corridor, getting in your face and leaving no room to kite. I was able to defeat it after an embarrassingly high number of attempts, but not by clever use of my weapons and environment. 

 

 

In the tradition of ‘boomer shooters’ (like the aforementioned Half-Life), Phantom Fury also includes puzzle-solving elements. With no guides, no maps and no objective markers, you are left to navigate the levels on your own based solely on the mission’s objective. However, like the game's unsatisfying action set-pieces, it quickly became frustrating. The first time you’re required to use a computer terminal, a major gameplay element, there are no in-game guides that direct you. I ended up having to consult a provided review guide to figure out how they work. These terminals are integral for progression but, much like combat, aren’t properly taught to the player.

 

Take for example the final boss of Act 1. The previous area was a great set-up for a climactic finale. Shelly scrambles through a runaway train, starting in an underground station, sweeping rooms for goons with the long train carriage making an excellent setting for a firefight. As you move through the train, it finally makes its way to the surface and you end up on the roof of a carriage, facing a menacing Helicopter trying to take you down.

 

 

Armed with a swivel machine gun turret, you try to shoot down the helicopter. But it begins to fall flat as you realise there’s no permanent cover - all you have are boxes that inevitably break, leaving you exposed. Eventually, you’re forced into the open but lose access to the turrets, which makes the rest of the fight frustratingly slow. After unloading bullet after bullet into the helicopter, I made my way towards the end of the level. Only to become soft-locked, forcing me to do the fight all over again.

 

Phantom Fury had such great potential. The retro art-style is fantastic, but the game fails to deliver on the promise of over-the-top action and tight firefights. Instead, it delivered a frustratingly slow experience. The lack of proper tutorials, unfulfilling combat and bizarre navigation, complete with technical issues, meant the game went out with more a whimper than a bang.

Phantom Fury was reviewed by Ravindu Weerasinghe using a provided review copy for PC