In the past few years, Dusk, Amid Evil, and Ion Fury have formed a pleasant little pile of neo-retro FPSes, games that revive the mazey structure, speed, and simple gunfighting of what we played circa 1993. Retro or not, it's rare that we get singleplayer FPS campaigns these days, so these indie efforts have helped to maintain a classic genre.
Today publisher 3D Realms keeps that trend alive with the announcement of Ion Fury: Aftershock, an expansion to the 2019 FPS. Due to arrive this summer at $10, it'll require ownership of the base Ion Fury, which is currently $25. "Aftershock continues Shelly’s story in the best way possible: with rockets and high-speed chases,” says Mike Nielsen, CEO of 3D Realms.
Yes, the new Hover Bike vehicle is one of the standout bits in the short trailer above. At another moment we see the vehicle on water, evoking Half-Life 2's infamous Water Hazard level. The trailer doesn't reveal a ton—3D Realms and developer Voidpoint say to expect "multiple brand-new zones to explore, new dangerous enemies, new armaments to destroy them with," but we only see a couple in the new trailer: I spot a version of the shotgun that fires some kind of explosive pellets. At other points in the trailer, clouds of green gas hang in the air. Hopefully some completely-new weapons will expand the arsenal beyond this.
One revealed detail I'm happy about is the addition of "Arrange mode," which will integrate some of the new stuff Aftershock adds (like weapons and enemies) backward into the original Ion Fury campaign. A nice incentive to replay this charming FPS, which I called "the best thing that's ever happened in the Build Engine" in my 2019 review.
Note: A previous version of this story misstated Aftershock's price. It will be $9.99, not $24.99 at launch.
