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3D Realms' new but old-school FPS Ion Maiden on Steam Early Access now

Run to the hills!

Ex-Duke Nukem owner 3D Realms has released a new game and, coincidentally enough, it looks quite a lot like Duke Nukem. But it isn't!

This retro first-person shooter is called Ion Maiden and it's made by a team called Voidpoint, with 3D Realms as publisher. It's on Steam Early Access now with a full desktop release planned for the third quarter of 2018.

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Ion Maiden is actually a prequel to another 3D Realms game people would rather forget: Bombshell, a cruddy shooter/action-RPG from 2016. Ion Maiden stars Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison from Bombshell and was once a digital extra included with Bombshell (as listed on a QuakeCon 2015 poster spotted by NeoGAF). But as the "retro FPS prequel" grew into something bigger and standalone, Voidpoint decided on a new name - one that might put a bit of distance between it and Bombshell.

Plus which, the two games look very different. Bombshell was a modern-looking shooter/RPG with a zoomed out, angled down camera, whereas Ion Maiden is indulgently retro and first-person. Voidpoint has great pedigree too, comprising a bunch of people who've been in the Duke Nukem 3D porting scene (EDuke32) for yonks.

In other words, Ion Maiden looks quite good. It's $20 on Steam.

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