Bombshell

My first honest reaction to Bombshell was: this should not be as rough as it is. The bones are there. You get an isometric action-RPG with a weapons roster you can actually upgrade in meaningful ways, a heroine with a weaponized robotic arm, four distinct planets to blast through, and a hard-rock soundtrack that punches well above the game's overall quality. When a tight firefight forces you to cycle between the shotgun's stun alt-fire, your rocket launcher, and Shelly's arm-mounted abilities, there are real sparks of something worth playing. That shooter core is the game's single strongest asset, and it is legitimately fun for the windows when it gets room to breathe. The problems stack up fast everywhere else. The level design across those four planets sprawls in the worst way: enormous maps filled with dead ends, locked doors that demand you locate six crystals or deactivate a shield somewhere off-map, and side quests that send you backtracking for rewards you were already carrying. The isometric camera, fixed and relatively tight, means you routinely run into enemy fire before you even register it on screen, and the mini-map ends up doing more of the navigation work than the actual view of the level. There is platforming, somehow, over pools and floor gaps that kill you instantly. It is not good platforming. The engine (Unreal 3) shipped with collision bugs that drop Shelly through the geometry, enemy AI occasionally loses interest in the fight entirely, and some launch-era patches did not close all the holes. The writing compounds the frustration. Shelly Harrison has potential as a character, and voice actress Valerie Arem does solid work with what she is given. What she is given is a loop of combat barks so relentless and so on-the-nose that they become a running joke within the first hour. One-liners referencing her destroyed jeep arrive for roughly the next twenty levels after the jeep is gone. The story itself is pure B-movie alien-invasion pulp, which could work if the game leaned into the absurdity, but the tone keeps hedging, landing somewhere flat rather than entertainingly dumb. Context matters here. Bombshell started life as a Duke Nukem isometric spinoff before a Gearbox lawsuit forced a complete character swap and partial redesign. That origin shows in the seams: a game that was retrofitted rather than designed from one clean creative vision. If you came here after playing Ion Fury, the 2019 retro-FPS prequel starring the same character, be aware that Bombshell is an entirely different genre, a much rougher product, and only loosely shares DNA. Ion Fury is the better game by a wide margin. Bombshell is more of a historical artifact, the rough prototype from which a better franchise eventually grew. Who is this for at this point? Collectors in the 3D Realms universe, players who want to see where Shelly Harrison came from, and action-RPG fans with a high tolerance for jank who can extract value from the upgrade system and weapon variety. At a steep discount, there is a functional, if flawed, isometric shooter here. At anything close to full price, the bugs and pacing problems make it hard to justify.

Alex · Scout Team

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