Duke Nukem Forever – Review
Platform | Release Date
PC | June 10, 2011
PS3 | June 10, 2011
X360 | June 10, 2011
Developed by 3D Realms/Gearbox
Published by 2K Games
The Pitch:
Put on your shades and prepare to step into the boots of Duke Nukem, whose legend has reached epic proportions in the years since his last adventure.
Duke Nukem was and will forever be a gaming icon, and this is his legend.
Much like the development process of Duke Nukem Forever, this review has been a long time coming. Released back in June, Duke was met with a veritable shitstorm in the gaming press, barring a few exceptions. Complaints about sexism, rape jokes, misplaced humor and a general feeling of dated-ness flew from hands and mouths. Hell, even I had walked out of a PAX East demo room spitting my own amount of bile. But here we are and of course, being a longtime fan of Duke 3D, I had to see for myself just how terrible the final product was.
Having previously played on an Xbox 360, I felt the game had muddy textures, terrible load times, and generally felt like trash. About the only positive thing I could say was “Wow, I got to play Duke Nukem Forever.” The platform may very well have made the big difference because my overall experience on the PC was much more positive. This game isn’t anything special, it does feel dated, but it’s not overly offensive and is certainly not one of the worst games ever made.
I doubt Duke would have ever been a real game changer as 3D Realms et al, along with their “make everything interactive“ mantra, decided to cherry pick hot features from the flavor-of-the-year. You’ll quickly notice the weapon and shield system of Halo, vehicle and physics puzzles from Half-Life 2, and even a taste of Modern Warfare with the multplayer. Complaints about a two weapon system were addressed recently with a PC patch, granting an ‘expanded inventory’ of four weapons which is quite sufficient. I played roughly half of the campaign using this option and it was certainly preferable to the initial two.
For the most part, the developers have attempted to keep the game feeling modern though some pacing issues, underwater levels, and first person platforming awkwardness peek out to remind you that yeah, this game has been a long time coming. While some may mock the Levelord trademark ‘forced perspective’ areas, I’ve always had a soft spot for levels that had me running around a kitchen the size of a rat. Only one instance of that truly failed and saw mini-Duke platforming through a set of moving gears. This was probably the single most frustrating part of the game.
Jon St. John reprises his role as Duke Nukem, complete with plenty of context sensitive one-liners from movies, games, and pop-culture past and present. Accompanying the player character are plenty of 80’s metal guitars and forgettable anthems that only serve to ensure it’s not completely silent. The music will kick up when you’re in some serious action, then after you’ve dispatched the Pigcop or Impregnator threat, a power chord will sound indicating you can take a breather. It works, but isn’t anything special. What didn’t work however was my 5.1 audio. To this day there are still plenty of reports of users not getting full surround without a Soundblaster card.
To cap off the package, there’s a somewhat limited multiplayer component with only four mode types: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill (Control Point), and Capture the Babe (CTF). I kind of wish there were more inventive modes for multiplayer because the set of weapons are still a lot of fun to shoot your friends with. You can still grab a jetpack and rain death from above with the Devestator, or throw trip mines and pipe bombs while your enemy advances or camps. Classic fun, though it could have used a little bit more. To entice the player to keep going, you’ll level up by getting experience points for killing players and completing challenges. These are aesthetic upgrades for your Duke. Each level will also earn unlocks that allow you to decorate your in-game penthouse with posters, trophies, and more babes.
Throughout the campaign, I rarely found anything outstanding or abhorrent. Duke Nukem Forever feels like an updated version of Duke 3D, and that’s kind of what I was expecting it to be. Judging by the fairly decent sales, this should pave the way for Gearbox to bring a more timely, updated Duke to the table. I’m certainly interested in seeing what a more modern development cycle can do for the King because what they have now isn’t half bad.
The Duke shotgun is still my favorite video game shotgun of all time.
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Look! He actually posted it!
Art, your question came in too late. Yes, the game does set itself up for a sequel in a sense. There’s a post-credits reveal that’s short and to the point. As for DLC, there’s an option in the menu for it and the “Hail to the Icons” parody pack was announced recently for later this year.
Fun fact: I’ve been to the Hoover Dam, and stood in the same spot as that third screenshot. It looks like that. Realism!