Phantom Fury

Phantom Fury is quite easily one of the most refined boomer shooters in the market today. It combines classic action movie tropes and 90s shooter gameplay with more modern visual technology and level design, making for a fun rampage across America.

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Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison is back in this highly interactive mix of first person action and road movie adventure. Embark on an adrenaline-fueled journey around the USA. Use an enormous arsenal of weapons and skills to battle treacherous soldiers and vile mutants, all while trying to save mankind.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

59%

Audience ScoreBased on 325 reviews

story16 positive mentions

stability34 negative mentions

The game features strong and satisfying shooting mechanics, with a variety of weapons that feel engaging to use.
The level design is generally well-crafted, with interesting environments that evoke nostalgia for late 90s and early 2000s FPS games.
Shelly is a fantastic protagonist, delivering humorous one-liners that add charm to the gameplay experience.

The game suffers from numerous bugs and performance issues, including AI glitches and inconsistent hit detection.
The story is poorly executed, lacking depth and coherence, which detracts from the overall experience.
There is no quick save feature, making it frustrating to replay sections after dying due to the game's punishing checkpoint system.

story
78 mentions
21 % positive mentions
68 % neutral mentions
12 % negative mentions
The story in the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it generic, predictable, and poorly executed, often feeling disjointed or lacking clarity. While some appreciate the attempt at a more cinematic narrative, others criticize it for being forgettable and filled with clichés, leading to frustration in navigation and understanding objectives. Overall, the story serves as a basic framework for gameplay but fails to leave a lasting impression on most players.
- “Intense story, workable firearms, interesting plot twists.”
- “Yes, I know, 'who cares about the story in a retro shooter?' Well, I do – and evidently, so did the person at Slipgate Ironworks who decided that Phantom Fury should be a much more story-driven experience, with in-game cutscenes and an entire flashback dream sequence in the middle.”
- “The story was good though a little predictable to me at least; it was nice seeing some old weapons return, especially the Loverboy revolver, which is my favorite.”
- “The story is not clear; everybody wants to kill you and you don't know why. Also, sometimes you don't know what to do or where to go.”
- “The story is pretty much non-existent; it's all so unconnected it feels more like a set of random set pieces than an actual story for a game.”
- “The story is poorly written and is strangely disjointed.”
graphics
74 mentions
46 % positive mentions
50 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received a mixed but generally positive reception, with many players appreciating the retro aesthetic that combines early 2000s visuals with modern lighting effects. While the art style is often described as beautiful and engaging, some users noted performance issues and occasional graphical bugs. Overall, the visuals are seen as a strong point, successfully evoking nostalgia while maintaining a fresh look, though they may not reach the polish of AAA titles.
- “The good: the game looks amazing! I took so many screenshots; I just love this enhanced pixel art style so much. Even though a lot of the levels are facilities, it still feels so varied level by level, and every level sticks out in my mind having its own style and feel.”
- “The art style is spot-on for something that tries to mimic the graphics of the late 90s and early 2000s, with some modern lighting and effects work on top.”
- “The graphics, while not cutting-edge compared to other modern shooters, have a very pleasing style clearly trying to emulate Half-Life 1's chunky and pixelated look, but with modern tweaks such as dynamic shadows and volumetric fog that all look great.”
- “I almost didn't buy it because of the old school graphics and mixed reviews.”
- “The art style attempts to mimic games of the 2000s, but the textures, models, maps, and the entire art direction are very ugly and inaccurate, to be honest.”
- “I also had some performance issues with the game, which shouldn't be happening with a game that has retro-like graphics.”
gameplay
66 mentions
38 % positive mentions
56 % neutral mentions
6 % negative mentions
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it fun and satisfying, particularly praising the solid shooting mechanics and variety in combat and exploration. However, several critiques highlight issues such as sluggishness, poor level design, and a lack of polish, leading to a janky experience with frustrating AI and navigation challenges. Overall, while the game offers enjoyable moments and retro aesthetics, it suffers from execution flaws that detract from its potential.
- “Very fun and satisfying gameplay.”
- “On the good side, shooting mechanics feel solid and enjoyable, weapon variety is good, levels are mostly well designed, pleasant to look at and to explore, with a good combination of beautiful 7th gen-like lighting, ambient occlusion, and stylized early 2000s graphics aesthetics while paying homage to games like Sin, HL1, DNF 2001, and Halo.”
- “The gameplay has a lot of variety and it really never gets boring, although it took me around 10 hours to finish the game.”
- “I was expecting an arcade shooter, but got something that seemed to push you towards melee with the new robo-fist attack, but doesn't mechanically benefit you unless you get some upgrades far later in the game.”
- “The game has good ideas, but executes them poorly, one of the biggest being the illusion of having multiple ways to approach a set-piece; a lot of the map is plagued with invisible walls and areas that look like shortcuts being complete dead-ends. Gameplay and design-wise, everything just has a very undercooked feel to it; this game needed more time.”
- “It's bad, very bad; it's not even finished at so many points. Gameplay is boring, buggy, and the AI makes me want to pull my hair out.”
stability
37 mentions
8 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
92 % negative mentions
The game's stability has received mixed feedback, with many players reporting significant bugs and glitches that affect gameplay, such as AI issues, physics problems, and graphical errors. While some users experienced minor cosmetic bugs and found the game enjoyable overall, others described it as an unfinished and rushed product, with game-breaking issues and frustrating performance. Overall, the consensus suggests that while the game can be fun, its stability is a major concern that detracts from the experience.
- “Runs great, even in VR using uevr.”
- “The game runs great for me so far; I haven't encountered any real bugs.”
- “I'm having a lot of fun so far; it runs great on the deck if you lower the shadows a bit.”
- “It's bad, very bad, it's not even finished at so many points, gameplay is boring, buggy, AI makes me want to remove my hair.”
- “A buggy, seemingly rushed and unfinished mess.”
- “There are some later areas that feel outright unfinished, with lamp-posts floating in the air, haphazardly placed enemies that don't react to you consistently, and major glitches that can remove your upgrades and powers.”
music
32 mentions
25 % positive mentions
53 % neutral mentions
22 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some praising its composition and quality, while others find it underwhelming and lacking intensity. Many players noted that the soundtrack is often too quiet or absent during gameplay, leading to a lifeless atmosphere. Overall, while there are moments of good music, it fails to leave a lasting impression and is seen as a significant drawback for the game.
- “The music was very well composed and full of high-quality ambient tracks and battle themes.”
- “Excellent soundtrack.”
- “Awesome soundtrack.”
- “The soundtrack lacks intensity in my opinion and my biggest problem is just that it feels almost like a copy of Half-Life 2.”
- “The music just kind of sucks.”
- “Soundtrack is just boring and completely not memorable.”
optimization
23 mentions
17 % positive mentions
65 % neutral mentions
17 % negative mentions
Overall, the optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players experiencing significant performance issues, including frame rate drops and stuttering, particularly in areas with numerous enemies. While some users reported smooth gameplay without problems, the consensus suggests that the game requires further optimization and bug fixes to enhance performance, especially given its retro-style graphics. Despite these challenges, the shooting mechanics and level design have been praised, indicating that the core gameplay experience remains enjoyable for fans.
- “On the good side, shooting mechanics feel solid and enjoyable. Weapon variety is good, levels are mostly well designed, pleasant to look at and to explore, with a good combination of beautiful 7th gen-like lighting, ambient occlusion, and stylized early 2000s graphics aesthetics while paying homage to games like Sin, HL1, DNF 2001, and Halo. The environment is quite interactive in the vein of Source engine games and runs smoothly, except for short frame-rate drops three times during the whole playthrough.”
- “The game has had 2 patches since launch, and they have improved the game quite a bit in regards to the bugs and sometimes spotty performance.”
- “This game is far from perfect - it needs better optimization and a lot of fixes... but that being said, I have enjoyed it.”
- “So some pretty bad optimization in some sections where there are a lot of enemies.”
- “I'm not running a high-performance system by today's standards (5900x and 6800 XT, 32 GB of RAM) and I've seen frames hit 7 FPS in areas with nothing going on, so that's a thing.”
- “The game sure has its problems though, like the lack of quicksave/load and huge performance issues - CPU and GPU being utilized to 30-40% at max (doesn't seem to be a bottleneck anywhere) and I'm getting 50 FPS in some places, it's weird.”
humor
10 mentions
90 % positive mentions
-20 % neutral mentions
30 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, with some players appreciating the dark humor and amusing physics interactions, such as enemies throwing objects with comical results. However, many reviewers found the overall humor to be forgettable and unremarkable, lacking clever one-liners or memorable moments, which detracted from the experience. While some glitches and animation issues provided unintentional humor, they were often seen as signs of poor polish rather than intentional comedic design.
- “Great level design, made with care, here and there pieces of funny lore.”
- “She has a bit of a darker sense of humor in her comments, which I do enjoy.”
- “During those opening levels, it felt like the animations for walking weren't even synced up with how they were actually moving, and soldiers had a strange tendency to suddenly zip around corners and obstacles at lightning speed, sometimes so blazing fast that they were actually sliding around which was certainly hilarious, but not a sign of polish.”
- “The humor falls flat, relying too heavily on outdated references and recycled animations that feel more like a cheap imitation than original comedy.”
- “The jokes are so forced and unoriginal that they often miss the mark, leaving players cringing instead of laughing.”
- “It's disappointing how the humor tries to be clever but ends up feeling stale and uninspired, making the game less enjoyable.”
atmosphere
6 mentions
50 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is generally praised for its beautiful level design and strong world-building, offering a variety of settings that create engaging moments. However, some users note inconsistencies in the level design and occasional shortcomings in sound, which detract from the overall atmospheric experience.
- “I really liked the ambience and level design, which is beautiful and features a wide range of different layouts, settings, and atmospheres.”
- “I really like the atmosphere and world-building of the levels I've played so far.”
- “It's a shame because there are a lot of good atmospheric moments here that are kind of wasted.”
- “Level design isn't always perfect; it feels a bit too random and lacking in terms of atmosphere, or sometimes even feels like there's sound missing.”
- “Feel and atmosphere?”
- “I really liked the ambience and level design, which is beautiful and has a wide range of different layouts, settings, and atmospheres.”
grinding
4 mentions
50 % positive mentions
-25 % neutral mentions
75 % negative mentions
Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a mixed experience; while the keycard-hunting progression is less tedious than in similar titles and benefits from ample save points, some criticize the level design as uninspired and formulaic, leading to a sense of monotony. Additionally, there are calls to reduce the grind associated with health management.
- “The levels are decently made, and the keycard-hunting style of progression wasn't as tedious as in some games in the genre.”
- “There are enough save points, and in this case, no manual save is a good thing; it keeps the tension alive, and most levels are not tediously long-winded.”
- “Make health less grindy; it's a general problem.”
- “The level design is tedious and uninspired, encounters are formulaic, and there are no secrets to find.”
- “The sound design is abysmal.”
monetization
3 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game is criticized for being unremarkable and forgettable, with no engaging advertisements or clever marketing strategies to enhance the overall experience. Users express disappointment in the lack of creativity and originality, suggesting that the promotional efforts fail to address the game's shortcomings.
- “But finally, what really disappoints me most is how forgettable and unremarkable this game is in absolutely every possible aspect: no one-liner made me laugh, no advertisement poster that had a clever punch, no remarkable weapons and no memorable enemy designs, no game mechanics that we haven't seen a hundred times before and last but not least a completely uninteresting and bland storyline.”
- “The PR/advertising department.”
- “Blue checkmark ChatGPT advertisement on Twitter to combat the negative YouTube videos?”
emotional
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Users express frustration with traversal and environmental interactions, noting instances where they felt stuck or misled by level design. These issues detracted from their emotional immersion in the game, as they encountered obstacles that disrupted the intended flow and experience.