Publisher 3D Realms is back doing what they do best – first-person shooters. In tandem with developer Slipgate Ironworks, the company that brought us Rise of the Triad 2013, Phantom Fury is in good hands. With both companies not unfamiliar with the genre, I was excited to play the demo of Phantom Fury to see what was on offer.

The demo doesn’t give anything away with the story as it is completely focused on actual gameplay. The little story I did get was from searching the internet. You play as Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison who has been awoken from a coma at the request of a colleague, and once awake, you find one of your arms is now bionic. As you journey around the United States, you are tasked with securing a highly dangerous artefact called The Demon Core to save mankind.

The Phantom Fury demo is a 90s-styled first-person shooter, with some modern additions. The demo is a singular mission of you being on a runaway train tasked with stopping it, so you are to make your way to the front of the train, fighting past all the resistance in your path. The resistance is not just enemies with firearms shooting back at you, so you’ll also need to do some platforming and some environmental problem-solving.

With no actual context as to how you got into this situation, you can completely focus on the approximately ten-minute mission.

Personally, I played it three times, each time becoming more familiar with the controls, which can be played on a gamepad or with a keyboard and mouse, and each time, becoming more fluid with my movement and more familiar with the half-dozen odd starting weapons. I was soon running and gunning with precision with a big grin on my face.

With further internet research, I found it boasts over 20 weapons, upgrades, and mods for those weapons, as well as your bionic arm and your suit, so I am excited to play more. Without being fully featured yet, what has been given to play with is really exciting.

With the graphics as previously mentioned being styled from the 90s, the pixel look still maintains a very detailed appearance, and it’s able to maintain a high frame rate, which is perfect for the fast-paced running, gunning, sliding, and jumping the demo has to offer.

Audio is fitting as the music keeps pace with the action, and all the environmental sounds, gunfire, and explosions are everything you’d expect from this style of game.

The action of the demo of Phantom Fury has my interest and I am certainly excited to play more. The story, from what I have researched so far, sounds interesting, and I am looking forward to uncovering what is really happening in Shelly’s tale.

Written by: Ashley Barnett-Cosgrove