Sorry for not responding to all comments as I usually do! But things have been a bit wild lately! So what happened is that Discord Slipgate/3DR talks were leaked. The studio behind Phantom Fury. They could not cope with me and other creators criticizing Phantom Fury and pointing out it's obvious flaws. So instead of taking it as feedback to improve they called me and others idiots, they said that I started my stream a few hours after the embargo dropped so I could be as negative as everyone else. And their shit talk keeps on going which has occupied a lot of my time. Firstly my review was written and done before the stream, secondly I start all my streams the same time due to life and kids, it had nothing to do with other reviews dropping. There is even proof of this which is ridiculous it even has to be. Non the less, this has occupied my brain and time quiet a lot, but you guys freaking ROCK! and I will not let a shit thing like this change anything about me and the channel! Just need to finish processing it in the little brain office and I'll slowly get to answering all comments
Maybe they're too drunk off their own koolaid. Hoping faux 3D realms and sh*tgate meet a swift demise now, won't be getting anymore of my money that's for sure. Regret buying Ion Fury (TWICE) and ghostrunner, crossing cultic off the list. Sad too this one could've been my fave retro fps had all the trappings.
Thanks for the Bears in Space shoutout Zlim! Really disappointing to see that Phantom Fury is still just not up to scratch. Hopefully they can take all the feedback they've been getting and turn it around. Keep up the awesome videos, you're a legend!
Found this from that big thread going around of the shit that 3DR Members are saying about creators trying to defend this game. I'm really sorry you had to deal with this shit. Great video, by the way. Subscribed.
After Rise Of The Triad 2013, Graven, Kingpin Reloaded and this, I think it's time to start avoiding Slipgate Ironworks. They are only releasing undercooked mediocre games sugar-coated with Nostalgia.
It's such a shame because there is a clear display of talent and vision at the studio but they never give the games enough time in the oven to realize that potential.
The thing about tackling the Half-like genre is that it requires far more time to cook. Level designs can indeed be open ended, instead of going for the Half-life's linear structure, but you have to be a master of sign posting something that Half-life, Time splitters and many other good late 90's and early 2000's shooters absolutely nailed. Combat also has to feel meaty. Yes you're still fast and nimble but this era tends to lean more towards you being either a glass cannon or bruiser-esq. You're not exactly as durable as a standard early to mid 90's shooter protagonist.
In the last months I heard from other developers that as a developer, you should stay away from 3D Realms.. I don't really know anything about them, I don't know all their games but it actually seems to me that whenever 3D realms is involved, a problem is lurking around. And your "review" even deepened this negative vibe for me.
I think it's a brilliant homage to period gaming, specifically Blood 1 & 2. What do we have? An amazing, super fun sprite/voxel/polygon game, with a fully 3d sequel that was rushed and half-baked.
Saw all of this mentioned briefly on Kirk Collects and while I don't know the full story yet, I instantly paused his video, looked you up & subscribed just to show some love & support. I hope others do also and I appreciate the fact you are not just kow-towing to their nonsense. Far too many studios try to bully creators and/or reviewers when it's something they don't like hearing, even when it's the truth. Respect from Glasgow, Scotland. I look forward to more of your content.
Thank you a ton Steve! It means a lot to me reading this. It was a really rough week last week when it all went down, but in the end it made the community as a whole and me a lot stronger :)
thanks for this sad and true words. Strange and not cool thing that new "3d Realms" take name of old "3d Realms" - marketing in worst meaning of this word
It so funny how now 3dr calling youtubers idiots and clowns for "going with a trend" and yet slipgate is the sole reason why people hate and avoid their games nowadays
Thank you for highlighting the difference between 3D Realms back then and the one we have now. You know me, Zlim, I usually hide nothing. 3D Realms layed off most of "her" staff....now it is like Blizzard. Blizzard North created great games. 3D Realms did the same thing....but now we are..now. Blizzard North is no more. 3D Realms is no more. Black Isle Studios....oh wait. Thank you for this video.
Watching this made me panic- I could have sworn I bought this in a sale and was regretting it, saying "I wish I found this video before I found the Steam special
Gotta say the metal cutting saw is bad ass 12:15 i think you do really well at presenting info to gamers tho, and that is what reviews really are for no? You play the game and then share what you thought. And we value your honesty which is most important i think. Getting unbiased insight is what i watch a game review for and i get that from the channel! Don't worry about the label too much. Like you say in video, it will get there one day brother
12:00 Honestly, the fact that you do not consider yourself a "professional reviewer" yet, whatever that means, is what draws me to your channel. Your videos are well-made and clearly you understand what makes a game good or not so good... but it just feels like you're a regular Joe who enjoys playing video games in his free time and sharing your impressions about them. That is not really something I get from most other reviewers - even those I really like.
Come to think of it, a "professional reviewer" is a totally made-up-make-believe construct. Because, the lion's share of everything that goes beyond the core gameplay mechanics - is entirely subjective, which automatically leads to biased, ignorant or post-ineptly-played reviews. Even the said core gameplay's evaluation - is also subjective, since in the end, it boils down to the ability of the "reviewer" to understand and appreciate creative aspects (if any), technical and design competence (if any), gameplay potential (if any), but most and MOST importantly - being able to discern between "this game is good/not good" and "this game is good/not good FOR ME". And that last part in particular, is a commodity too hard to come by.
Appreciate you for being honest about this game and criticizing it. Too many reviewers are willing to take a sponsorship and tell viewers that a game is great just for a quick buck.
Damn man, I had this on my wishlist in hte hopes they'd iron out the kinks. I had no idea the devs were slating people for honest feedback. And your feedback was from a place of love too as you'd been hyping this game for so long. I'm never touching Slipgate again!
I take Rambling from Zlim over Reviews anyday. Other than that? Well.. It's already been said, I have nothing to add, other than; Keep Rambling Zlim. Already looking forward to the next one
Thanks for the feedback, yet I already saw your stream yesterday so my opinion about this game was already clear. I love you, I'm like you, not too complicated, I can get easily pleased as long a game is fun, works, even if it is basic. I love Supplice although a lot complain about the game beeing too close to a doom 2 megawad/total conversion but this game is fun. Here, Phantom Fury is so messy, glitchy to the point there's no pleasure playing it.
My Steam Review: "Played the grand canyon facility multiple times, loading from checkpoints and restarting the level, it always softlocks going in to an elevator. The elevator doors close then nothing happens. Can't jump in there either. Guess I'll come back to this when that gets patched, unsure how it's even made it through debugging. You did debug this game before releasing it, right? What's worse is when you restart a level instead of loading a checkpoint, all your unlocked upgrades are gone, such as the shield wall your arm can create making the particular level with the softlock elevator almost impossible. Seriously, did you debug this game before releasing it? Paid for a game, not a pisstake. 10/10 players prefer a polished playable experience not a rush job they're compelled to leave their first scathing review about." So I suffered from a softlock that sees me need to start a new game since a playthrough's worth of unlocks are lost to restart a level that needs unlocks to pass some sections. What a doozy of a bug. 3D Realms mediocre list of games on Steam: Hocus Pocus (1994), Death Rally (1996), Shadow Warrior (1997), Wacky Wheels (1994), Stargunner (1996), Word Rescue (1992), Paganitzu (1991), Realms of Chaos (1995), Mystic Towers (1994), Math Rescue (1992), Major Striker (1993), Bombshell (2016), Rad Rodgers (2016), Graveball (2018), ZIQ (2018), Ion Fury (2019), Ghostrunner (2020), Cultic (2022), Ripout (2023), The Kindeman Remedy (2023), Kingpin: Reloaded (2023), Graven (2024), Wrath: Aeon of Ruin (2024), Phantom Fury (2024) You're not an idiot dude, takes a lot to run a gaming channel & community. If 3D Realms and Slipgate can't cop criticism for releasing half-baked trash (that's one of their major brands) then they should be prepared for it, when they treat their audience like cash cows and not gamers worthy of a good product. If they can't afford to polish their games, I don't want them. If they keep doing it, they should leave the retro fps space so there's room for others to release quality works the community deserves.
Man that soft lock sounds like no fun at all, It's crazy how they manage to have multiple often occurring soft locks in every single slipgate developed game... It's an achievement just that. Your so right, I thank you for the support and from everyone, this did affect me a lot more then I had initially thought it would, but in the end it made me a stronger mentally being a public figure :) And the games you mention only these are from the modern Danish based 3DR: Bombshell (2016), Rad Rodgers (2016), Graveball (2018), ZIQ (2018), Ion Fury (2019), Ghostrunner (2020), Cultic (2022), Ripout (2023), The Kindeman Remedy (2023), Kingpin: Reloaded (2023), Graven (2024), Wrath: Aeon of Ruin (2024), Phantom Fury (2024) And almost every single one that has not been completely broken has been co-developed with another studio, the broken ones have been developed internally by slipgate.. The rest are from the old Scott Miller USA Based 3DR :)
@@ZlimBratSki New achievement unlocked lol... Yeah it's tough when an entire company acts like a child but hey, makes you a more reputable person knowing you're looking out for your audience and how they spend their time based on your opinions. 3DR lost their main franchise Duke Nukem to Gearbox! It's been this way for quite a while with them. Civvie did a pretty funny video on 3DR's recent releases and attitude, I enjoyed it.
A lot of what you described having issues with here are all things I'm happy to fix myself (assuming it's easy to get into the game files to mod it.) The good parts you mention (the world building and the gameplay mechanics) are all enough to convince me to try it... ...even if I have to finish the dev's job for them 😁
It's a noble intention, for sure, but i have a strong feeling that you just might find out that this rabbit hole goes way deeper than you initially thought. I guarantee there isn't going to be an easy fix, but at least several months of work, merely to give this one some basic game crutches, let alone cyber-implants.
played recently Phantom Fury and Selaco, and oh boy what a big quality diffence. And Selaco is still in Early Accsess.. Phanton Fury is so unfinished and needs so much more polishing.
Your Phantom Fury stream made me start to reply Ion Fury lmao I was a bit underwhelmed by IF initially, I love Build engine games but it just didn't click with me. I'm enjoying it more 3rd time around. Bears In Space is a v good effort from a small team.
It's very simple. The "designers" put empty boxes into the levels, when they are either A) - incapable of creating something interesting and putting it into the levels as a proper step in decorative design, or B) - realize, but are too lazy to do the right thing the right way, as it is indeed A LOT more work; and finally - C) - small, limited minds who think something like: "it worked in Doom, so it will work here too". No,🙄it didn't work in Doom, it was just tolerated, cause Doom had many other winning cards to make up for megatons of awful art-direction. And sometimes, it's just comes down to "What's 'decorative design', Precious....?!' The better question is - why make insane quantities of boxes that are NOT empty? Tenfold so, when opening them is further slowed down by some redundant animation or switching weapons so not to waste ammo. Such as Dead Island and the similar kind. A fidget spinner (or clicker, in this case) disguised as a first person shooter🤣? That is one way to send any game downhill, and fast.
As bad as it is, and it is inexcusable, I would still have waited to see how things may have improved in the future. However now that we have seen the publisher and their minions attacking you and other reviewers for daring to be critical, as well as finding out how they fired so many devs of this game, I'm forgetting about ever playing this game. Your impressions were spot on Zlim and you have the evidence to back up what you're saying. If Slipgate wants to scream and cry about it and throw hissy fits, then can go ahead and humilate themselves doing so.
I never see anyone acknowledge the voice actor for Bombshell. Her one liners in Fury and Aftershock are incredible! Does anyone know it this is the same person? Sounds similar but i'm used to hearing her voice in game on pc. Im watching this on phone
IDK, after the timeless voice of Stephan Weyte and the repertoir of jokes and liners in "Huntdown", i thought she was rather generic, Walmart dime-a-dozen kind of quality.
Thanks for the honest opinions there, i'll skip this one for now and get it on sale whenever it happens, maybe they'll fix some things by then, I really loved Ion Fury and Aftershock btw
Great review as always Zlim. Shame, I enjoy the look of this game, but for now I'll be waiting for a hopeful update that addresses some of your points.
Oh man, how sad. Ion Fury is my favourite of all the new-ish boomer shooters, it encapsulates this 80s/90s B-Movie cyberpunk feeling just so well, and the gameplay was pure and good. And now this.
The fate of this character and this series is truly unfair and the problem is the creators themselves. With Bombshell you could also turn a blind eye also because it was the second Slipgate Ironworks game and therefore you couldn't expect a big budget and a lot of manpower but damn after all these years I still wonder how slipgate is still alive. and it's a shame because the artistic side of the game is there and it's really strong (at least in phantom fury) at least that's what we saw from the gameplay glimpses in the review (I really like that sense of old but new style). Thanks to Ion Fury and After Shock which gave the character some justice (hoping for a future console version tho!). seeing the first trailer I was even hoping for a console version too lmaaao apparently the ''duke nukem forever'' style is truly cursed and perhaps it is right that it remains dead and buried as much as it pains me to admit it 🥲
The weapons are still suffering from that issue in the demo where despite sounding crunchy, the enemies just don't react to being shot, it's not as bad with the shotguns if you're close enough and can see the impact graphics but for mid-long range weapons i'm often second guessing whether the shot I fired actually hit the dude or has he got kevlar on or something? The game is good, i'm playing it right now and yeah it's pretty good, but it could've been so, SO much better. The AI enemies are also absolutely gormless, like... half life 2s enemy ai was better than this..
I personally really liked the graphics of this game, is a mix of old school and modern Picked up and hope they address most of the problems you have encountered
Good review, Zlim. You don't need to preface that you're just giving your opinion. That's all any reviews are. Just cause ign pays their reviewers, doesn't mean their reviews are somehow more valid than smaller channels.
IGN reviews are the worst way to find out about games. They usually misinform, lie, embellish useless nonsense and omit important details. Smaller channels are automatically better, although it pays off to hear multiple such reviews to view the picture from different angles.
@@j85grim4 Frankly, can't say much about this one, - it sounds like something modern, and i don't play modern games, unless they are retro-styled. But 7 is something above average, so who knows what's going on there. If IGN had to review a defective washing machine, they would undoubtedly stick to the pitch that it can always double as a small desk.
@HexenStar Lol. Normally people complain IGN gives big budget games Iike Starfield made by a company used tp getting 9's and 10's too high a score. So for Starfield to only get a 7 means they aren't complete sellouts. Wow man. You really are isolating yourself by not experiencing modern games. I like both retro and modern, if they are good.
Great video Zlim. Now I'm good to go without that title and safe some money. The steam reviews are also not good, so one unfinished game (no rest for the wicked) is enough for me right besides all of my unpolished and unfonished early access titles. Thx for your work. 🤗
Im over 3 hours in with no complaints thusfar. Not having any problems with AI or finding a way to go. The combat feels amazing and i love the scenery. Maybe it will get worse but the first 4 levels so far are worth every penny
@@ZlimBratSki That's right. The only good thing about it is Stephan Weyte (the guy who voices Caleb). Almost everything else sucks. Nothing in common with the first game. I wish there was a mod that increased one-liner frequency for Blood, taking the ones from Blood 2 as well. Unfortunately, no such mod..
Devs should appreciate constructive criticism - Take it on board and release a patch to improve the game. Attacking reviewers is bad form and only hurts the game. Shit in you bed, you gotta sleep in it.
It just seems that the better games from 3DR are ones that aren't developed by Slipgate Ironworks. Evidently you struck a nerve for them to insult you but that's what some reviews are in the end, if they're all gushingly positive.. well, they'd hardly be called that anymore.
I just watched the Gman's review of this game, and he has all the same complaints and agrees the game isn't that great. So, I think you are spot on again with your review Zlim.
Likely it will take a LONG while, they have a GOG page up for it, but are trying to take it down because they want to focus on the "steam" version only. Them then porting this to console when they haven't even with the announced Aftershock yet. Yeah you will have to wait
i love ion fury and was pumped to get another go with the weapons and shelly and all that stuff, and to know its so fucked AND 3d realms is burning alive as we speak, a company ive trusted since i was literally 9, and now 28 years later its more of a shit show than i couldve ever imagined. if something like this happend to ID software id have a breakdown and be in a psycheward in no time.
yeah I feel that man, altho modern 3DR is not the good old we used to know. This is a completely different company that simply uses the name, based in Denmark. But I feel ya, I was rooting for them from their start, to now this.. it just sucks through and through
And yet, in "Dusk" enemies absolutely don't flinch when you shoot them, and everyone and their grannies is ready to kill for that game. I am not defending "Phantom Fury", haven't tried it (didn't really like "Ion Fury" no matter how hard I tried). I am saying enemies not reacting to your shots is almost a deal breaker for me, it's not nitpicking. That's why I didn't like "Dusk". Really didn't get what was the big deal about it.
I dont think Dusk is the best but they are two completely different games. This ones tries to be competent and slower, more half like. Dusk is fast with deliberate stupid enemies for you to dance around.
Now that you mention it, you're right in regards to Dusk's enemies. Even my favorite boomer-shooter: Dread Templar - is guilty of this nonsense with many of its enemies. And yes, it is not a good thing. The iconic Skaarj could endure continuous fire from different weapons and not bat an eye - something that proved all the more that behind the pretty lens-flares and colors - can be a turd with water pistols, LOL. Having that said, it can be made to work. When you are as mobile as you are in Dusk/DT, and have all these super-powers (Dread Templar only) and weapons that insta-kill most enemies, - and you can even insta-switch weapons a la Doom Eternal...then it doesn't really matter if they react or not. Before they reach for the trigger - they're already dead. However, in the games where your character is slower, and does not have all that - damn right it is a deal breaker. That's why all the competent games of this genre have that. Excluding the turd with the pretty lens-flares.🤣
The only two decent games made by Slipgate Ironworks are the first Ghostrunner and Wrath: Aeon of Ruin. This and Graven (Graven especially) were both very undercooked. I had a problem with Graven last time I played it where I could not progress through the game at all. Phantom Fury I heard from other reviews can be beat in comparison to Graven but PF still has it's issues with bugs from being rush making it the Blood 2: The Chosen to Ion Fury's Blood 1. I'm going to wait for PF to be patched up for the better as well as go on sale before thinking of buying it. They are bigger and more expensive PC title releases that I expect to be better than PF when they have their releases.
And the first Ghostrunner was developed with another studio, and Wrath was developed by Killpixel :D But yeah I agree their record for releasing finished games is not good.
IDK re Wrath. It has some pretty segments in the levels, for sure, but the gameplay feels like space tube food, whereas Quake is a good ol' home-cooked meal.
IIRC Half-Life, or was that Hal-Life 2, had boxes with stuff marked with a log that was missing from empty boxes, so you didn't need to bother with destroying the empty ones for disappointment. Well, at least, once the bugs get fixed, it should become a fun game ... right? Or would it just get on the same level of meh as Duke Nukem Forever?
Played like 5 hours before it hit me I was playing the sequel to Ion Fury, my favorite retro shooter, and now I'm just sad. Its not even got a bad baseline or anything, everything just feels half baked.
Did you play only on normal? Most games are pretty boring on normal accept like frogmonster. I feel like these modern retro shooters are especially made to be played on hard. Turbo overkill basically makes fun of you with how easy normal is but hard is hard but satisfying. I might have to try this game a try especially since when I played wrath the reviews were just wrong because hating on 3d realms is popular to reviewers. That one was great
@@user-we1ri yes and it's worse on hard than normal, the enemies become unfair in many ways. And it has nothing to do with the actual game being boring, I never say that. It's out right broken and rushed. Hating on 3DR has never been a thing at all, it's not reviewers fault they release games that in the review copies offer bad experiences. And thats to say this is my first negative 3DR review.
@ZlimBratSki you may be biased for voidpoint. When they apologized for comments they made ion fury got mixed reviews so they went back on it and the reviews changed that's why I am not trusting of current reviews of 3d realms. Ion fury was pretty meh.
Great video as always! I think the game would be better if Ion Fury didn't exist! It still doesn't make it a great game, but it still doesn't have to stand up to comparison!
@@HexenStar Not necessarily! Something new doesn't make the old worse! So the old remains exactly the same - nothing changes! but the new just has to measure up to the old and either be better or at least just as good
@@ommeknakrich1107 That would be so, if the subjects were completely unrelated. But related they are. Just like the world of Tolkien would've been kept pristine, if the abomination "rings of nonsense" didn't exist. The " 'new' doesn't make the 'old' worse" - only if it is of equal value. Otherwise, over time, step by step - people forget what a proper standard is. And we get the Emperor's New Clothes - digital edition.
the demo I did not like the enemies were Bullitt sponges I hope they clean it up I will get it on PS5 when it comes out my Lap top is 16 gigs of memory but I have a 4 gig card
Hach, i want to play that game and have fun with it without the bugs and the terrible AI. Let's see how it fares in a few months, when it leaves early access 😌And as i said in the stream yesterday, i can't praise their graphic artists enough.
Say what...??? I never half liked the half of Half-Life half the way it deserves...🤣but it is a few hundred light years away from this irredeemable turd. No comparison whatsoever. That is beyond obvious.🤣
@@MisterPickle. I beg to differ. The levels are not the same. Half-Life was very good with its levels and scripted events at creating a great suspense atmosphere with some well-crafted horror overtones. This one, looks as if at any moment Sonic the Hedgehog is gonna pop up and scatter gold rings around. I never liked the mundane office-and-corridor levels, to me they are the epitome of design impotence, however, - i did play all three chapters of the original Half-Life, and even though it didn't make me a fan - i enjoyed all three, and even replayed Opposing Force. Precisely because of the reasons above. Valve had created an interesting and atmospheric world with HL levels, the kind which even a staunch persecutor of anything not set in the deep past or far future, - would not resist entering all the same. Phantom Fury has ZERO chances of achieving that. Even if it takes place aboard a Star Destroyer, with Alien and Predator in tow. Because, if SGIW happened upon a missing Botticelli, they would most likely use it as a table cloth. And their levels show just that.
@@MisterPickle. Actually, Chex Quest is very well made and is surprisingly creative, which can not be said about its remake. ID-Tech1 always was a solid piece of software. Nothing that was originally made on this engine ever played bad. Come to think of it, there is indeed a parallel between Chex and Ion/Phantom Fury "evolution" arc.
Great review, as usual. And I am now catching up on all the b.s. from what the developers said about the stream from yesterday. I wish I could say, "don't let it bother you", because it's not easy to do that! They obviously do not know you. Look how many positive things you had to say about this game. Hell, I have seen you review games that were total stinkers that you still found many positive things to say. I have seen you give good reviews to games that a lot of others have trashed. You do your own unique spin on things and do not follow trends... fuck these guys. They don't know you and its their loss. You could easily ask your followers to not support 3DR, but you are better than that. You just want a good game. I am sure if they patch it and make improvements, you are going to be the first to let everyone know because you are Zlimotherfuckin'bratski, dammit.
@@HexenStar Even games from 2000 had smooth textures without those giant pixels. I hate how they are going purely for a Doom aesthetic despite the many games immediately after having actual realistic graphics. If the graphics looked like Doom 3 or Half Life 2 it would look fine, Instead they hamfistedly make 1998 era textures for the sake of making it a ''boomer'' shooter. This doesn't even make sense because that generation isn't even boomer, it's Mellenial or Gen Z.
@@Based_Stuhlinger Well, Doom-3 actually has the most crazy detailed level set pieces in FPS game history, so good luck to anyone measuring up to that, let alone someone like SGIW. But as for textures, Doom-3 textures only withstand up to 1024x768 resolution on a monitor that goes about the same high. Sure, you can crank it higher in-game, - but then the textures start to rapidly lose quality and become blurry. Playing Doom-3 nowadays - requires a texture pack, precisely for that very reason. Otherwise it's just one big blurry cringe. I worked quite a lot with Doom-3 modding: finalization, polish and enhancement, fixing a ton of ID's blunders, so Doom-3 ins and outs are very familiar to me. To have textures as detailed as those in the Doom-3 upscale packs (though not all of them are good), is quite a lot of work - and work seems to be SGIW kryptonite. As for pixels, - pixels are good, i love pixels - when they are crisp and form coherent, skillfully made images - like in the golden days (or like in Project Warlock, Huntdown, or Slain!). When the textures are properly drawn, with a proper color flow - and especially when combined with software rendering to get that unique software shadowing effect (Blood via Dosbox). Done. A classic banger. The problem arises when the textures themselves are too simplistic, using few and unnatural colors (like for toddler toys), no detailing - and everything starts to resemble plastic. Instead of using multiple shades of the same (and adjacent) colors, - they hope to hide the lazy slop under some form of automatic filter. But, it doesn't work like that. The source material needs to be good to begin with. And it ain't.
@@HexenStar Fair enough, I just know when I play the source engine for example I will always get timeless graphics with virtually no bugs. You compare HL2 graphics to the games around the same time and there is no comparison.
@@Based_Stuhlinger Half-Life-2 was considered top of the line at the time. It garnered a lot of praise for its graphics and facial animations in particular. Because it was properly made. Within a couple of minutes in-game - you already knew that some serious effort went into that. I don't know how well it aged (cause i am not a fan) and whether gamers use texture update packs for it or what, but i'd wager that it would not be easy to maintain this kind of quality standard. To recreate something able to compete with HL2 - would be an impossible task. A bona fide wild goose chase, in the case of Phantom Fury. Though i think that their problem was not as much in the graphics, as in not really knowing what are they making. Dropping all the pointless and maladroit vehicle sessions, and instead focusing on creating proper mechanics of a single themed clear-cut shoot-em up, - would've been a solid step toward success. Licensing an existing classic engine, could've been another good move for creating a retro-FPS, instead of rehashing Graven assets, which i believe they did...🤪
Na, you were right. Phantom Fury looks good, but its gameplay is garbage. I went into it with a very open mind too and I still uninstalled it after an hour.
Sorry for not responding to all comments as I usually do! But things have been a bit wild lately!
So what happened is that Discord Slipgate/3DR talks were leaked. The studio behind Phantom Fury.
They could not cope with me and other creators criticizing Phantom Fury and pointing out it's obvious flaws.
So instead of taking it as feedback to improve they called me and others idiots, they said that I started my stream a few hours after the embargo dropped so I could be as negative as everyone else. And their shit talk keeps on going which has occupied a lot of my time.
Firstly my review was written and done before the stream, secondly I start all my streams the same time due to life and kids, it had nothing to do with other reviews dropping. There is even proof of this which is ridiculous it even has to be.
Non the less, this has occupied my brain and time quiet a lot, but you guys freaking ROCK! and I will not let a shit thing like this change anything about me and the channel! Just need to finish processing it in the little brain office and I'll slowly get to answering all comments
Zlim, i stand by you. I think, we all do.
As a great band sang: "Stripes on a tiger don't wash away..."
Zlim your not alone! The only Positive reviews are Tyler McVicker and Big Fry. Both paid sponsorship vids.
wow, this is really unprofessional, they should remind themselves of Phil Fish and the devs behind The Slaughtering Grounds.
@@afd19850 The one on Gamingbolt
is also full of absurdity and lies.
Maybe they're too drunk off their own koolaid. Hoping faux 3D realms and sh*tgate meet a swift demise now, won't be getting anymore of my money that's for sure. Regret buying Ion Fury (TWICE) and ghostrunner, crossing cultic off the list. Sad too this one could've been my fave retro fps had all the trappings.
Thanks for the Bears in Space shoutout Zlim! Really disappointing to see that Phantom Fury is still just not up to scratch. Hopefully they can take all the feedback they've been getting and turn it around. Keep up the awesome videos, you're a legend!
Pleasure was all mine! More humans in the world needs to know about the bears!
Thank you Garth 🤜🤛
just get ion fury + Aftershock dlc bundle.
Yupp much better alternative
My absolute favorite boomer shooters.
Idk why they didn’t just add more levels/weapons and flesh out aftershock into an even larger dlc
This needs pinned
Best comment
I thought it's lame. Like way more interactive games in gzdoom. Play supplice or hedon bloodrite
Found this from that big thread going around of the shit that 3DR Members are saying about creators trying to defend this game. I'm really sorry you had to deal with this shit.
Great video, by the way. Subscribed.
in the steam forums there’s a lot of unprofessional behavior going on there too, already didn’t think too highly of Not-3DR but this made it worse
Hey Trav! Thanks for the support man, means a lot to me 🤜🤛
Been subbed to you for a long while, so that's a huge honor for me :)
"Undercooked as a salmonella chicken" 😂😂😂😂😂
haha it's true xD
After Rise Of The Triad 2013, Graven, Kingpin Reloaded and this, I think it's time to start avoiding Slipgate Ironworks.
They are only releasing undercooked mediocre games sugar-coated with Nostalgia.
It's very sad but true..
Dont forget Bombshell too
It's such a shame because there is a clear display of talent and vision at the studio but they never give the games enough time in the oven to realize that potential.
The thing about tackling the Half-like genre is that it requires far more time to cook. Level designs can indeed be open ended, instead of going for the Half-life's linear structure, but you have to be a master of sign posting something that Half-life, Time splitters and many other good late 90's and early 2000's shooters absolutely nailed. Combat also has to feel meaty. Yes you're still fast and nimble but this era tends to lean more towards you being either a glass cannon or bruiser-esq. You're not exactly as durable as a standard early to mid 90's shooter protagonist.
13:50 Being stuck in an elevator the wrong way be like:
lmao😂
yeah I thought that was hilarious! - the elevators look so dangerous xD
Haha
3D Realms: If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Zlimsky! - Great to see you again and this review - the live stream was a lot of fun :)
Sam! Always great to see you as well man!
In the last months I heard from other developers that as a developer, you should stay away from 3D Realms.. I don't really know anything about them, I don't know all their games but it actually seems to me that whenever 3D realms is involved, a problem is lurking around. And your "review" even deepened this negative vibe for me.
Their rumor is def dying fast in my opinion, I cant remember the last time I saw anything positive from them. Check the Discord for a lot more
3D Realms are an idiot!
I think it's a brilliant homage to period gaming, specifically Blood 1 & 2. What do we have? An amazing, super fun sprite/voxel/polygon game, with a fully 3d sequel that was rushed and half-baked.
@evanmckinley9154 Thank you for taking my inane post so seriously.
Saw all of this mentioned briefly on Kirk Collects and while I don't know the full story yet, I instantly paused his video, looked you up & subscribed just to show some love & support. I hope others do also and I appreciate the fact you are not just kow-towing to their nonsense. Far too many studios try to bully creators and/or reviewers when it's something they don't like hearing, even when it's the truth. Respect from Glasgow, Scotland. I look forward to more of your content.
Thank you a ton Steve! It means a lot to me reading this. It was a really rough week last week when it all went down, but in the end it made the community as a whole and me a lot stronger :)
thanks for this sad and true words. Strange and not cool thing that new "3d Realms" take name of old "3d Realms" - marketing in worst meaning of this word
Agree man
It so funny how now 3dr calling youtubers idiots and clowns for "going with a trend" and yet slipgate is the sole reason why people hate and avoid their games nowadays
They dress up these games with nostalgia but the gameplay has no polish at all.
Ill avoid them
They are literally the same company.
What clowns.
Bonkers... Breaks my heart a bit, cant lie
The glitch where you said, "your character can be randomly shot off into space!" 🌌🚀Like A cannon...
Yeeeeehaw!! 😁
that's an AWESOME time to be a subscriber and member of your channel, bratski.
Hell yeah!!
Thank you for highlighting the difference between 3D Realms back then and the one we have now. You know me, Zlim, I usually hide nothing. 3D Realms layed off most of "her" staff....now it is like Blizzard. Blizzard North created great games. 3D Realms did the same thing....but now we are..now. Blizzard North is no more. 3D Realms is no more. Black Isle Studios....oh wait. Thank you for this video.
haha my pleasure! Figured it slipped a few people :)
Watching this made me panic- I could have sworn I bought this in a sale and was regretting it, saying "I wish I found this video before I found the Steam special
Glad I could help man! Thank you right back at ya! :D
Gotta say the metal cutting saw is bad ass
12:15 i think you do really well at presenting info to gamers tho, and that is what reviews really are for no?
You play the game and then share what you thought.
And we value your honesty which is most important i think. Getting unbiased insight is what i watch a game review for and i get that from the channel!
Don't worry about the label too much. Like you say in video, it will get there one day brother
The cutter is cool! But not so usefull :( It's for puzzling mainly.
Thanks Thommy
12:00 Honestly, the fact that you do not consider yourself a "professional reviewer" yet, whatever that means, is what draws me to your channel. Your videos are well-made and clearly you understand what makes a game good or not so good... but it just feels like you're a regular Joe who enjoys playing video games in his free time and sharing your impressions about them. That is not really something I get from most other reviewers - even those I really like.
Thanks man, very glad to read that! Thats exactly how it is 🤜🤛
Come to think of it, a "professional reviewer" is a totally made-up-make-believe construct.
Because, the lion's share of everything that goes beyond the core gameplay mechanics - is
entirely subjective, which automatically leads to biased, ignorant or post-ineptly-played reviews.
Even the said core gameplay's evaluation - is also subjective, since in the end, it boils down to the
ability of the "reviewer" to understand and appreciate creative aspects (if any), technical and
design competence (if any), gameplay potential (if any), but most and MOST importantly - being
able to discern between "this game is good/not good" and "this game is good/not good FOR ME".
And that last part in particular, is a commodity too hard to come by.
Just dropping In to say you are not an idiot dude, definitely don’t listen to those half baked developers lol
Thanks man ❤️
Great review Zlim and thx for the warning. I won't be jumping in anytime soon.
Thanks for checking it out brother!
*Sigh*… we all saw it coming, but I don’t think we ever wanted to admit it.
I had a really hard time to, but it got to hard to deny it :(
3DRealms and SLOPgate Ironworks ain't beating the MID SLOPPY allegations
Appreciate you for being honest about this game and criticizing it. Too many reviewers are willing to take a sponsorship and tell viewers that a game is great just for a quick buck.
Yeah, no that aint gonna happen here, I like most things so overall pretty positive, but sometimes Its just not fun and ill let everyone know :)
A really fair and well balanced review that 3D Realms should have been glad to receive.
Thank you John
Damn man, I had this on my wishlist in hte hopes they'd iron out the kinks. I had no idea the devs were slating people for honest feedback. And your feedback was from a place of love too as you'd been hyping this game for so long. I'm never touching Slipgate again!
Such sad turn of events for sure. :/ But eh there are a ton of fire games in the horizon :)
Thanks for the honest review man!
My pleasure man!
Don't apologize for honestly reviewing a game and expressing an opinion.
Spot on!
I take Rambling from Zlim over Reviews anyday. Other than that? Well.. It's already been said, I have nothing to add, other than; Keep Rambling Zlim. Already looking forward to the next one
Love to hear that Maggie
Thanks for the feedback, yet I already saw your stream yesterday so my opinion about this game was already clear. I love you, I'm like you, not too complicated, I can get easily pleased as long a game is fun, works, even if it is basic. I love Supplice although a lot complain about the game beeing too close to a doom 2 megawad/total conversion but this game is fun. Here, Phantom Fury is so messy, glitchy to the point there's no pleasure playing it.
haha I love Supplice as well! can't wait for episode 3 :D
Great review Zlim, still keen to check it out in the future. Really dig the art in the open areas.
Thanks man, I hope you enjoy it :)
My Steam Review:
"Played the grand canyon facility multiple times, loading from checkpoints and restarting the level, it always softlocks going in to an elevator. The elevator doors close then nothing happens. Can't jump in there either. Guess I'll come back to this when that gets patched, unsure how it's even made it through debugging. You did debug this game before releasing it, right? What's worse is when you restart a level instead of loading a checkpoint, all your unlocked upgrades are gone, such as the shield wall your arm can create making the particular level with the softlock elevator almost impossible. Seriously, did you debug this game before releasing it? Paid for a game, not a pisstake. 10/10 players prefer a polished playable experience not a rush job they're compelled to leave their first scathing review about."
So I suffered from a softlock that sees me need to start a new game since a playthrough's worth of unlocks are lost to restart a level that needs unlocks to pass some sections. What a doozy of a bug.
3D Realms mediocre list of games on Steam:
Hocus Pocus (1994), Death Rally (1996), Shadow Warrior (1997), Wacky Wheels (1994), Stargunner (1996), Word Rescue (1992), Paganitzu (1991), Realms of Chaos (1995), Mystic Towers (1994), Math Rescue (1992), Major Striker (1993), Bombshell (2016), Rad Rodgers (2016), Graveball (2018), ZIQ (2018), Ion Fury (2019), Ghostrunner (2020), Cultic (2022), Ripout (2023), The Kindeman Remedy (2023), Kingpin: Reloaded (2023), Graven (2024), Wrath: Aeon of Ruin (2024), Phantom Fury (2024)
You're not an idiot dude, takes a lot to run a gaming channel & community. If 3D Realms and Slipgate can't cop criticism for releasing half-baked trash (that's one of their major brands) then they should be prepared for it, when they treat their audience like cash cows and not gamers worthy of a good product. If they can't afford to polish their games, I don't want them. If they keep doing it, they should leave the retro fps space so there's room for others to release quality works the community deserves.
Man that soft lock sounds like no fun at all, It's crazy how they manage to have multiple often occurring soft locks in every single slipgate developed game... It's an achievement just that.
Your so right, I thank you for the support and from everyone, this did affect me a lot more then I had initially thought it would, but in the end it made me a stronger mentally being a public figure :) And the games you mention only these are from the modern Danish based 3DR: Bombshell (2016), Rad Rodgers (2016), Graveball (2018), ZIQ (2018), Ion Fury (2019), Ghostrunner (2020), Cultic (2022), Ripout (2023), The Kindeman Remedy (2023), Kingpin: Reloaded (2023), Graven (2024), Wrath: Aeon of Ruin (2024), Phantom Fury (2024) And almost every single one that has not been completely broken has been co-developed with another studio, the broken ones have been developed internally by slipgate..
The rest are from the old Scott Miller USA Based 3DR :)
@@ZlimBratSki New achievement unlocked lol...
Yeah it's tough when an entire company acts like a child but hey, makes you a more reputable person knowing you're looking out for your audience and how they spend their time based on your opinions.
3DR lost their main franchise Duke Nukem to Gearbox! It's been this way for quite a while with them. Civvie did a pretty funny video on 3DR's recent releases and attitude, I enjoyed it.
Nice dude , and i'm super happy to see ur succes grow up :)
Thank you
A lot of what you described having issues with here are all things I'm happy to fix myself (assuming it's easy to get into the game files to mod it.)
The good parts you mention (the world building and the gameplay mechanics) are all enough to convince me to try it...
...even if I have to finish the dev's job for them 😁
I'm rooting for you all day every day! Send me the build later 😁🤜🤛
It's a noble intention, for sure, but i have a strong feeling that you just might find
out that this rabbit hole goes way deeper than you initially thought. I guarantee
there isn't going to be an easy fix, but at least several months of work, merely
to give this one some basic game crutches, let alone cyber-implants.
Welcome to the club, I guess.
you're not an idiot, you're just insane
played recently Phantom Fury and Selaco, and oh boy what a big quality diffence. And Selaco is still in Early Accsess.. Phanton Fury is so unfinished and needs so much more polishing.
The game should have stayed with an American dev... this is what happens when you give it to a Euro
You're right, even though I think you're making a joke.
@@doozledorf7036 I'm not joking at all
Bullshit.
Devs from "Flying Wild Hog" or from "People Can Fly" - would've made a fine job.
And most likely outdone any competition.
They fooled me with Graven and Wrath, not any more. Screw 3DR and Slimegate.
Your Phantom Fury stream made me start to reply Ion Fury lmao I was a bit underwhelmed by IF initially, I love Build engine games but it just didn't click with me. I'm enjoying it more 3rd time around. Bears In Space is a v good effort from a small team.
Hey glad to hear your enjoying it now! Aftershock is just a snippet better even so you got more to look forward to :D
Zlims Chrismas PTSD of empty boxes! Why are all these boxes empty!?
I DONT UNDERSTAND!!!
It's very simple. The "designers" put empty boxes into the levels, when they are either A) - incapable
of creating something interesting and putting it into the levels as a proper step in decorative design,
or B) - realize, but are too lazy to do the right thing the right way, as it is indeed A LOT more work; and
finally - C) - small, limited minds who think something like: "it worked in Doom, so it will work here too".
No,🙄it didn't work in Doom, it was just tolerated, cause Doom had many other winning cards to make
up for megatons of awful art-direction.
And sometimes, it's just comes down to "What's 'decorative design', Precious....?!'
The better question is - why make insane quantities of boxes that are NOT empty? Tenfold so,
when opening them is further slowed down by some redundant animation or switching weapons
so not to waste ammo. Such as Dead Island and the similar kind. A fidget spinner (or clicker, in this
case) disguised as a first person shooter🤣? That is one way to send any game downhill, and fast.
hey zlim, i appreciate your videos a lot, please dont stop being critical about things you need to be because of company pushback.
Thank you ✊
As bad as it is, and it is inexcusable, I would still have waited to see how things may have improved in the future. However now that we have seen the publisher and their minions attacking you and other reviewers for daring to be critical, as well as finding out how they fired so many devs of this game, I'm forgetting about ever playing this game.
Your impressions were spot on Zlim and you have the evidence to back up what you're saying. If Slipgate wants to scream and cry about it and throw hissy fits, then can go ahead and humilate themselves doing so.
Thank you UB, just reading this helps clear my mind a lot
@@ZlimBratSki Glad to have helped you feel better Zlim!
you made the slipgate ironworks devs cry 🤣🤣🤣🤣
There is very little of "iron" and even less of "work" in that bunch.
Maybe it's time they re-branded themselves into "Random Slop".
I sure did :p
I literally did, they called me an idiot and clown in their Discord lol behind closed curtains. But it got leaked
@@ZlimBratSki Wow...that's a new low for the gaming industry, especially
the indie side of it. They are literally asking for people to boycott them.
@@HexenStar "Slopgate Cryingworks"
I wanted this to be good, but after realizing it’s not the ion fury devs and 3d realms releases lately and I was prepared for this outcome.
I never see anyone acknowledge the voice actor for Bombshell. Her one liners in Fury and Aftershock are incredible! Does anyone know it this is the same person? Sounds similar but i'm used to hearing her voice in game on pc. Im watching this on phone
IDK, after the timeless voice of Stephan Weyte and the repertoir of jokes and liners
in "Huntdown", i thought she was rather generic, Walmart dime-a-dozen kind of quality.
Actually not sure if it is or not. I for various reasons think it's not tho
Yes it's the same person - Valerie Arem - who voiced all 3 games as the Shelly Harrison character (Bombshell, Ion Fury, Phantom Fury).
@@TheKottontail appreciate you
Thanks for the honest opinions there, i'll skip this one for now and get it on sale whenever it happens, maybe they'll fix some things by then, I really loved Ion Fury and Aftershock btw
Ion Fury and Aftershock are excellent!
Great review as always Zlim. Shame, I enjoy the look of this game, but for now I'll be waiting for a hopeful update that addresses some of your points.
Thanks man, yeah I agree the looks are still good despite it's flaws. But it wont save a bad gameplay :/
Oh man, how sad. Ion Fury is my favourite of all the new-ish boomer shooters, it encapsulates this 80s/90s B-Movie cyberpunk feeling just so well, and the gameplay was pure and good. And now this.
Yeah Ion Fury is just a weeeeeeeeeeee bit better then this on all levels :)
The fate of this character and this series is truly unfair
and the problem is the creators themselves.
With Bombshell you could also turn a blind eye also because it was the second Slipgate Ironworks game and therefore you couldn't expect a big budget and a lot of manpower
but damn
after all these years I still wonder how slipgate is still alive.
and it's a shame because the artistic side of the game is there and it's really strong (at least in phantom fury)
at least that's what we saw from the gameplay glimpses in the review (I really like that sense of old but new style).
Thanks to Ion Fury and After Shock which gave the character some justice
(hoping for a future console version tho!).
seeing the first trailer I was even hoping for a console version too lmaaao
apparently the ''duke nukem forever'' style is truly cursed and perhaps it is right that it remains dead and buried as much as it pains me to admit it 🥲
Yeah it's all just so saddening, they were cooking on something really great here, the potential was insane. But nope :(
Still playing Ion Maiden's old build before they rebranded.
Sweet! :)
Hey Zlim, just enjoying being here and not "calling you an idiot because im insecure about my product"
Thanks brother ❤️
Damn when laughed at my question he having fun if that was foreshadowing he wasn’t.
The weapons are still suffering from that issue in the demo where despite sounding crunchy, the enemies just don't react to being shot, it's not as bad with the shotguns if you're close enough and can see the impact graphics but for mid-long range weapons i'm often second guessing whether the shot I fired actually hit the dude or has he got kevlar on or something? The game is good, i'm playing it right now and yeah it's pretty good, but it could've been so, SO much better. The AI enemies are also absolutely gormless, like... half life 2s enemy ai was better than this..
Yeah agree on everything you say here!
I personally really liked the graphics of this game, is a mix of old school and modern
Picked up and hope they address most of the problems you have encountered
The graphics are really nice! no complaints on that, it's pretty much everything else
You def need more subscribers
❤️❤️
Good review, Zlim. You don't need to preface that you're just giving your opinion. That's all any reviews are. Just cause ign pays their reviewers, doesn't mean their reviews are somehow more valid than smaller channels.
IGN reviews are the worst way to find out about games. They usually misinform, lie,
embellish useless nonsense and omit important details. Smaller channels are
automatically better, although it pays off to hear multiple such reviews to view the
picture from different angles.
@@HexenStar Well, they did give Starfield a 7. So they can't be completely bought.
@@j85grim4 Frankly, can't say much about this one, - it sounds like something
modern, and i don't play modern games, unless they are retro-styled. But 7 is
something above average, so who knows what's going on there. If IGN had to
review a defective washing machine, they would undoubtedly stick to the pitch
that it can always double as a small desk.
@HexenStar Lol. Normally people complain IGN gives big budget games
Iike Starfield made by a company used tp getting 9's and 10's too high a score. So for Starfield to only get a 7 means they aren't complete sellouts. Wow man. You really are isolating yourself by not experiencing modern games. I like both retro and modern, if they are good.
haha just wanted to make it clear due to a lot of discussions outside of YT :)
Yeah after Graven i'm not giving them a Free Pass with Low Effort anymore.
Nah they blew their chances imo
Great video Zlim. Now I'm good to go without that title and safe some money. The steam reviews are also not good, so one unfinished game (no rest for the wicked) is enough for me right besides all of my unpolished and unfonished early access titles. Thx for your work. 🤗
My pleasure as always preddie :)
Im over 3 hours in with no complaints thusfar. Not having any problems with AI or finding a way to go. The combat feels amazing and i love the scenery. Maybe it will get worse but the first 4 levels so far are worth every penny
Glad to hear that!
Great review, Zlim, as usual. Ignore the butthurt manchildren at "3DR"/Slipgate that can't handle criticism.
I will do my best
I see that Phantom Fury is currently sitting with a mixed rating on Steam not a good sign
a day later and it still is
Thanks!
Npc scientist dude animation reminds me of scientist from Blood 2 The Chosen.
haha I haven't played that but I heard it's not the best out there
@@ZlimBratSki That's right. The only good thing about it is Stephan Weyte
(the guy who voices Caleb). Almost everything else sucks. Nothing in common
with the first game. I wish there was a mod that increased one-liner frequency
for Blood, taking the ones from Blood 2 as well. Unfortunately, no such mod..
Devs should appreciate constructive criticism - Take it on board and release a patch to improve the game. Attacking reviewers is bad form and only hurts the game. Shit in you bed, you gotta sleep in it.
Attacking reviewers is definitely wrong, but attacking reviews(!) may indeed have validity.
(Not related to Phantom Fury).
For some reason they showed very little of this game for two years, just two trailers and some screenshots.
Yeah the marketing has been weird to say the least
Phantom fury is the new blood 2 😂
It just seems that the better games from 3DR are ones that aren't developed by Slipgate Ironworks.
Evidently you struck a nerve for them to insult you but that's what some reviews are in the end, if they're all gushingly positive.. well, they'd hardly be called that anymore.
So very true!
I just watched the Gman's review of this game, and he has all the same complaints and agrees the game isn't that great. So, I think you are spot on again with your review Zlim.
I hope it comes to Xbox and PS5
They announced it
Likely it will take a LONG while, they have a GOG page up for it, but are trying to take it down because they want to focus on the "steam" version only. Them then porting this to console when they haven't even with the announced Aftershock yet. Yeah you will have to wait
@@ZlimBratSki Thanks for the answer, but I'm not in a hurry, I'll just be happy when it comes one day. I'll have fun with Wrath: Aeon Of Ruin soon.
@@ZlimBratSki
I'll wait until it comes to GOG. Maybe it'll be more polished by then.
@@AndrewD8Red all fingers crossed ❤️
i love ion fury and was pumped to get another go with the weapons and shelly and all that stuff, and to know its so fucked AND 3d realms is burning alive as we speak, a company ive trusted since i was literally 9, and now 28 years later its more of a shit show than i couldve ever imagined. if something like this happend to ID software id have a breakdown and be in a psycheward in no time.
yeah I feel that man, altho modern 3DR is not the good old we used to know. This is a completely different company that simply uses the name, based in Denmark. But I feel ya, I was rooting for them from their start, to now this.. it just sucks through and through
And yet, in "Dusk" enemies absolutely don't flinch when you shoot them, and everyone and their grannies is ready to kill for that game.
I am not defending "Phantom Fury", haven't tried it (didn't really like "Ion Fury" no matter how hard I tried). I am saying enemies not reacting to your shots is almost a deal breaker for me, it's not nitpicking. That's why I didn't like "Dusk". Really didn't get what was the big deal about it.
I dont think Dusk is the best but they are two completely different games. This ones tries to be competent and slower, more half like. Dusk is fast with deliberate stupid enemies for you to dance around.
Now that you mention it, you're right in regards to Dusk's enemies. Even my favorite boomer-shooter:
Dread Templar - is guilty of this nonsense with many of its enemies. And yes, it is not a good thing.
The iconic Skaarj could endure continuous fire from different weapons and not bat an eye - something
that proved all the more that behind the pretty lens-flares and colors - can be a turd with water pistols, LOL.
Having that said, it can be made to work. When you are as mobile as you are in Dusk/DT, and have all
these super-powers (Dread Templar only) and weapons that insta-kill most enemies, - and you can even
insta-switch weapons a la Doom Eternal...then it doesn't really matter if they react or not. Before they
reach for the trigger - they're already dead.
However, in the games where your character is slower, and does not have all that - damn right it is a deal breaker.
That's why all the competent games of this genre have that. Excluding the turd with the pretty lens-flares.🤣
Who did the motion tracking for the NPCs? Michael J Fox?
hahaha
You can't elevate the fps genre when completely failing the fundamentals
Precisely!👍
So true!
Brother Jimmy Zlimmy, any ideas for new and fun Retros?
Not much retros so far this year, but if you haven't I can't recommend Bears in Space enough man
The only two decent games made by Slipgate Ironworks are the first Ghostrunner and Wrath: Aeon of Ruin. This and Graven (Graven especially) were both very undercooked. I had a problem with Graven last time I played it where I could not progress through the game at all. Phantom Fury I heard from other reviews can be beat in comparison to Graven but PF still has it's issues with bugs from being rush making it the Blood 2: The Chosen to Ion Fury's Blood 1. I'm going to wait for PF to be patched up for the better as well as go on sale before thinking of buying it. They are bigger and more expensive PC title releases that I expect to be better than PF when they have their releases.
And the first Ghostrunner was developed with another studio, and Wrath was developed by Killpixel :D
But yeah I agree their record for releasing finished games is not good.
Yeah this and Kingpin needed way more time. Kingpin is still messed up after all these months, so not holding my breath with this getting a proper fix
IDK re Wrath. It has some pretty segments in the levels, for sure, but the gameplay
feels like space tube food, whereas Quake is a good ol' home-cooked meal.
the A.I ruined this game for me. i waited so long to play this game .
IIRC Half-Life, or was that Hal-Life 2, had boxes with stuff marked with a log that was missing from empty boxes, so you didn't need to bother with destroying the empty ones for disappointment.
Well, at least, once the bugs get fixed, it should become a fun game ... right? Or would it just get on the same level of meh as Duke Nukem Forever?
Played like 5 hours before it hit me I was playing the sequel to Ion Fury, my favorite retro shooter, and now I'm just sad. Its not even got a bad baseline or anything, everything just feels half baked.
Yeah half baked is the right word for sure!
Ngl Turbo Overkill is 💯 times better than this GARBAGE 🚮
Bombshell deserves much better
Another reason this isn't Halflife it isn't customizable like that game was
Sad that they couldn't be bothered to deliver on this one
Really sad :/
What difficulty? Maybe ai is different
The recording is on Normal "the intended difficulty" as the game says it. The A.I is unfortunately not different :/
Did you play only on normal? Most games are pretty boring on normal accept like frogmonster. I feel like these modern retro shooters are especially made to be played on hard. Turbo overkill basically makes fun of you with how easy normal is but hard is hard but satisfying. I might have to try this game a try especially since when I played wrath the reviews were just wrong because hating on 3d realms is popular to reviewers. That one was great
@@user-we1ri yes and it's worse on hard than normal, the enemies become unfair in many ways. And it has nothing to do with the actual game being boring, I never say that. It's out right broken and rushed.
Hating on 3DR has never been a thing at all, it's not reviewers fault they release games that in the review copies offer bad experiences. And thats to say this is my first negative 3DR review.
@ZlimBratSki you may be biased for voidpoint. When they apologized for comments they made ion fury got mixed reviews so they went back on it and the reviews changed that's why I am not trusting of current reviews of 3d realms. Ion fury was pretty meh.
@ZlimBratSki someone with your experience is playing normal on mouse and keyboard. 99% of fps would be boring this way
Great video as always! I think the game would be better if Ion Fury didn't exist! It still doesn't make it a great game, but it still doesn't have to stand up to comparison!
Thanks man, and your absolutley right on that! Ion Fury is a little too good haha
I'd say it's the other way around. Ion Fury would be a lot better
off without this turd floating around and tarnishing the legacy.
@@HexenStar Not necessarily! Something new doesn't make the old worse! So the old remains exactly the same - nothing changes! but the new just has to measure up to the old and either be better or at least just as good
@@ommeknakrich1107 That would be so, if the subjects were completely unrelated. But related they
are. Just like the world of Tolkien would've been kept pristine, if the abomination "rings of nonsense"
didn't exist. The " 'new' doesn't make the 'old' worse" - only if it is of equal value. Otherwise, over time,
step by step - people forget what a proper standard is. And we get the Emperor's New Clothes -
digital edition.
called it...
You sure did haha
I really wanted this to be good😭
Same here.. same here..
This all is very sad. I'm hoping they will fix at least some of the complaints, because the game looks so beautiful.
Day one patch seems to have done very little it seems like :/
@@ZlimBratSki I'm afraid we need year one patch...
Boxes in Graven were not empty though, they had plenty of resources you could get easy by lighting fires.
The majority were empty, apparently there was a way of seeing if one was empty or not, but still the over usage is silly
Thief 2014 compared to PF, is a brillant game.
Are these the same developers as the awesome Ion fury game? Unfortunate how this game turned out... :(
Nope, Ion Fury games was developed by Voidpoint, this game is from Slipgate Ironworks
the demo I did not like the enemies were Bullitt sponges I hope they clean it up I will get it on PS5 when it comes out my Lap top is 16 gigs of memory but I have a 4 gig card
It's a little bit better but far from what it should be
Hach, i want to play that game and have fun with it without the bugs and the terrible AI. Let's see how it fares in a few months, when it leaves early access 😌And as i said in the stream yesterday, i can't praise their graphic artists enough.
Haha early access, you funny joke you funny 😁❤️
Its ALOT like Half-life and I'm not just say that because Gman did. To be honest I turned it off and just played Half-life.
Say what...??? I never half liked the half of Half-Life half the way it deserves...🤣but it is
a few hundred light years away from this irredeemable turd. No comparison whatsoever.
That is beyond obvious.🤣
@@HexenStar bro.... The levels are pretty much the same. Even the boxes with the green tarps on them are similar.
@@MisterPickle. I beg to differ. The levels are not the same. Half-Life was very good with its levels and
scripted events at creating a great suspense atmosphere with some well-crafted horror overtones.
This one, looks as if at any moment Sonic the Hedgehog is gonna pop up and scatter gold rings around.
I never liked the mundane office-and-corridor levels, to me they are the epitome of design impotence,
however, - i did play all three chapters of the original Half-Life, and even though it didn't make me a fan -
i enjoyed all three, and even replayed Opposing Force. Precisely because of the reasons above. Valve
had created an interesting and atmospheric world with HL levels, the kind which even a staunch
persecutor of anything not set in the deep past or far future, - would not resist entering all the same.
Phantom Fury has ZERO chances of achieving that. Even if it takes place aboard a Star Destroyer,
with Alien and Predator in tow. Because, if SGIW happened upon a missing Botticelli, they would
most likely use it as a table cloth. And their levels show just that.
@@HexenStar Cool bro. Chex quest.....Chex quest.
@@MisterPickle. Actually, Chex Quest is very well made and is surprisingly creative, which can not be
said about its remake. ID-Tech1 always was a solid piece of software. Nothing that was originally made
on this engine ever played bad.
Come to think of it, there is indeed a parallel between Chex and Ion/Phantom Fury "evolution" arc.
Ion fury was absolutely amazing, ill be skipping this, dont want to get a worse experience
Totally agree, Ion and aftershock are fantastic!
Great review, as usual. And I am now catching up on all the b.s. from what the developers said about the stream from yesterday. I wish I could say, "don't let it bother you", because it's not easy to do that! They obviously do not know you. Look how many positive things you had to say about this game. Hell, I have seen you review games that were total stinkers that you still found many positive things to say. I have seen you give good reviews to games that a lot of others have trashed. You do your own unique spin on things and do not follow trends... fuck these guys. They don't know you and its their loss. You could easily ask your followers to not support 3DR, but you are better than that. You just want a good game. I am sure if they patch it and make improvements, you are going to be the first to let everyone know because you are Zlimotherfuckin'bratski, dammit.
Thank you man, really thank you! Brutal Bratski's for motherfreaking life man
I only wish they would have just gone with the Half Life thing, this feels half done.
The way they use a newish engine but put a pixel filter over it makes it look like complete garbage.
Bingo! Like a mobile phone game, right?
There are no substitutes for good old work. No shortcuts.
@@HexenStar Even games from 2000 had smooth textures without those giant pixels. I hate how they are going purely for a Doom aesthetic despite the many games immediately after having actual realistic graphics. If the graphics looked like Doom 3 or Half Life 2 it would look fine, Instead they hamfistedly make 1998 era textures for the sake of making it a ''boomer'' shooter. This doesn't even make sense because that generation isn't even boomer, it's Mellenial or Gen Z.
@@Based_Stuhlinger Well, Doom-3 actually has the most crazy detailed level set pieces in FPS game
history, so good luck to anyone measuring up to that, let alone someone like SGIW. But as for textures,
Doom-3 textures only withstand up to 1024x768 resolution on a monitor that goes about the same high.
Sure, you can crank it higher in-game, - but then the textures start to rapidly lose quality and become blurry.
Playing Doom-3 nowadays - requires a texture pack, precisely for that very reason. Otherwise it's just one
big blurry cringe. I worked quite a lot with Doom-3 modding: finalization, polish and enhancement, fixing
a ton of ID's blunders, so Doom-3 ins and outs are very familiar to me. To have textures as detailed as
those in the Doom-3 upscale packs (though not all of them are good), is quite a lot of work - and work
seems to be SGIW kryptonite.
As for pixels, - pixels are good, i love pixels - when they are crisp and form coherent, skillfully made images -
like in the golden days (or like in Project Warlock, Huntdown, or Slain!). When the textures are properly drawn,
with a proper color flow - and especially when combined with software rendering to get that unique software
shadowing effect (Blood via Dosbox). Done. A classic banger.
The problem arises when the textures themselves are too simplistic, using few and unnatural colors (like for
toddler toys), no detailing - and everything starts to resemble plastic. Instead of using multiple shades of the
same (and adjacent) colors, - they hope to hide the lazy slop under some form of automatic filter. But, it
doesn't work like that. The source material needs to be good to begin with. And it ain't.
@@HexenStar Fair enough, I just know when I play the source engine for example I will always get timeless graphics with virtually no bugs. You compare HL2 graphics to the games around the same time and there is no comparison.
@@Based_Stuhlinger Half-Life-2 was considered top of the line at the time. It garnered a lot of praise for its
graphics and facial animations in particular. Because it was properly made. Within a couple of minutes in-game -
you already knew that some serious effort went into that. I don't know how well it aged (cause i am not a fan) and
whether gamers use texture update packs for it or what, but i'd wager that it would not be easy to maintain this
kind of quality standard. To recreate something able to compete with HL2 - would be an impossible task.
A bona fide wild goose chase, in the case of Phantom Fury.
Though i think that their problem was not as much in the graphics, as in not really knowing what are they making.
Dropping all the pointless and maladroit vehicle sessions, and instead focusing on creating proper mechanics of
a single themed clear-cut shoot-em up, - would've been a solid step toward success. Licensing an existing classic engine, could've been another good move for creating a retro-FPS, instead of rehashing Graven assets, which i
believe they did...🤪
Na, you were right.
Phantom Fury looks good, but its gameplay is garbage. I went into it with a very open mind too and I still uninstalled it after an hour.
Glad we agree :D