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Duke Nukem Forever PC Review July 29, 2011 |
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Summary: It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum... and I'm all outta gum!
Duke must have been working through a whole damned carton of Stride or something, as it took him the better part of two decades to make a comeback, following the release of his last game all the way back in 1996. The long, long, long, long-awaited release of Duke Nukem Forever marks the end of the most drawn-out, dramatic, and publicized development process in video game history. That means we can no longer make jokes about the irony of the title or the likelihood of it coming out before the end of the century, the millennium, the world, etc. (Though we still have Half-Life [2: Episode] 3!)
The game itself has met with a very mixed reception among critics and fans alike, with many insisting that it did not come close to living up to its own legacy, or that of its now defunct creator, developer 3D Realms. Others are so offended that they'd rather gouge their own eyes out with sporks that play it all the way through... A more rational stance to take is to recognize that it never could have lived up to the hype and simply enjoy it for what it is. Find out whether or not you should expect "what it is" to be worth the price of admission in today's review!
 Introduction/Retrospective | Page:: ( 1 / 5 ) |
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Lo, what a long and winding road hath been tread! Duke Nukem Forever was finally released last month, which must be pretty surreal for anyone even remotely involved in the most drawn-out and convoluted development cycle of a game, ever. In case you don’t know, or are unsure on the details, here’s the long and short of the tale (provided by the handy development timeline from the Extras menu in-game):
- Development of “Duke Nukem 4Ever,” another 2D side-scroller, began as soon as Duke Nukem 3D was released to massive success in May 1996
- The Quake engine was licensed for the game in December 1996, presumably leading to its becoming a first-person shooter instead
- Duke Nukem Forever was officially announced in April 1997 with a tentative release scheduled for 1998, oh, and it will be using the Quake 2 engine instead
- Randy Pitchford and Brian Martel left 3D Realms in May 1997 and eventually founded Gearbox Software
- First screenshots of DNF were released in the November 1997 issue of PC Gamer
- First reveal trailer for DNF was shown at E3 in May 1998
- 3D Realms decided to use the Unreal Engine and announced this in June 1998
- Megadeth covered the theme song for DNF in 1999 (it was not used in the final release)
- DNF was on another cover of PC Gamer with the subtitle “Miss Me?” in November 1999, new screenshots of the Unreal Engine version were shown
- Take-Two interactive acquired the publishing rights for the Duke Nukem franchise in December 2000
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- A new trailer for Duke Nukem Forever is shown at E3 in May 2001 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the franchise
- 3D Realms announced a new physics system for DNF in September 2004
- Many employees left 3D Realms in August 2006, most of them joined their peers at Gearbox
- A Duke Nukem Forever video teaser was released in December 2007 with snippets of in-game footage
- DNF screenshots were included as an easter egg in the re-release of Duke Nukem 3D and discovered in September 2008
- 3D Realms released their last official screenshot of the game in December 2008
- 3D Realms laid off the Duke Nukem Forever development team in May 2009 and entered a legal battle with Take-Two over the publishing agreement for the game
- Triptych Games was formed by several ex-3D Realms employees in June 2009 and began work to complete the single-player campaign of DNF
- The game’s script was completed in August 2009, and original Duke Nukem voice actor Jon St. John was hired to reprise his role
- The DNF campaign was content-complete as of November 2009
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- By the end of 2009, Gearbox Software finalized an agreement to purchase the Duke Nukem franchise, as well as Duke Nukem Forever from 3D Realms
- Soon thereafter, Gearbox negotiates with 2K Games and Take-Two to publish DNF
- Triptych relocated to Gearbox’s offices in February 2010 to continue working on the game alongside them and Piranha Games, porting to consoles, adding multiplayer, and polishing
- The first playable build of Duke Nukem Forever is shown at PAX in September 2010, at which point Gearbox announces they now own the franchise
- More than 11 years later, PC Gamer has another DNF “Miss Me? Cover in December 2010
- A new trailer accompanied the announcement of a May 3rd release date in January 2011
- DNF was delayed one last time in March 2011, for good measure, making the final release date June 14th
- Duke Nukem Forever went gold in May 2011, heralding cries from the world over that Hell hath officially frozen over
- A playable demo of the game was released to First Access Club members in early June 2011
- DNF released on June 10th (internationally) and June 14th (in North America) to mixed reviews -- apparently, it didn’t live up to the hype
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So, I’m sure those of you that were really looking forward to this have already played it; after all, it’s been more than 15 years in the making. The rest of you have probably already seen and heard a lot of opinions of the game already, but I’m here to present you with one that is as fair and balanced as I could manage. And based on the PC version of course, which is actually not represented in the majority of the mainstream reviews. So read on, friends, and enjoy!
| Gameplay | Page:: ( 2 / 5 ) |
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Being one of the people that had their first taste of Duke Nukem Forever at the beginning of June when the demo was released, I would say that those of you that weren’t in the First Access Club and had to wait are actually better off. I talked about this at length in the most recent Firing Points, but the way that Gearbox handled this demo business was lazy and haphazard at best. Not only was it an old build of the game (the same one shown at PAX last year), the level choices were not good ones at all. I guess I can understand including the very first level of DNF, which is a remake of the final boss level in Duke 3D, but the second was one of the dullest and poorly designed in the entire game. Despite that somewhat souring my expectations going in, I found myself enjoying the real thing immediately after beating that Cycloid boss for the umpteenth time. My suspicions of the demo not offering a fair glimpse into the game were confirmed and I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.
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Unlike previous Duke Nukem games that drop you straight into the action, there’s actually a rather lengthy introduction/tutorial sequence that you go through before you even receive your first weapon. Along the way, there’s a wide variety of things to play with, including light switches, food and drink, toilets, water coolers, eager fans and admirers, microwaves, rats, etc. Some of the more unique actions will serve to boost your Ego, which is a meter that represents how much damage you can take before actually being in danger of being injured and seeing blood haze on the screen. Basically, it’s like a shield, so when your Ego is hurt, you’re supposed to take cover behind something and wait until it regenerates. If you do get injured, you will recover from that over time, too. There are no health packs in DNF.
There are a few mini-games of various depths throughout the game, such as a bona fide pinball machine and a dry erase whiteboard that you can draw on. It’s actually all of the random interactions sprinkled throughout the game that give DNF its unique flavor and really stick out in your mind when you’re done. Such attention to detail throughout the game and a plethora of easter eggs to stumble upon reward you for taking the time to explore the environment, which is definitely an element that’s missing from most games these days. Stopping to smell the roses may seem somewhat counter-intuitive for such a straightforward run-and-gun shooter, but that’s a part of the Duke charm.
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The action itself is about what you’d expect from an old-school FPS: you run around, shoot bad guys that either stand around waiting for you or arrive in dropships and the like, and then kill a boss at the end of every level. Doing the latter automatically (and understandably) boosts your Ego, so you will become more durable over time, even if you’re not exploring. My favorite parts of the game are when Duke gets shrunken down to about the size of a G.I. Joe; one segment has you driving an R/C car through a ruined casino, then becoming full size and fighting your way back through the same area, but the best is when you’re tasked with traversing a fast-food kitchen above a flooded and electrified floor. You’re having shoot-outs with shrunken pig cops among the jars of hilariously-branded condiments and canned goods, jumping across hamburger buns on a stove to avoid getting burnt, or even riding a waffle being ejected from a toaster like it was an elevator!
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The two weapon limit has to be the most annoying thing about Duke Nukem Forever, especially with the low ammo limit on some guns. There are only rare occasions that you are in danger of running dry though, with ammo crates and weapons lying around all over the place. Even if you do find yourself short on traditional munitions, you still have a whole range of objects in the environment that you can pick up and toss at a bad guy to do some decent damage. Overall, combat is rendered to be much too easy when you have a Halo-esque recharging shield, even on the highest difficulty setting.
| Multiplayer | Page:: ( 3 / 5 ) |
Honestly, I didn’t spend any time playing the multiplayer, but it’s there if you want it. You have classic game types like deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and king of the hill, which are playable on ten different maps with up to eight players. (By the way, you can use jetpacks in multiplayer, despite their absence from the campaign.) There is some persistent player progression, meaning you can gain experience and level up, either through regular play or by completing challenges such as “Get 150 kills with the pistol.”
Fortunately, the rewards for leveling up are strictly cosmetic, serving to customize your Duke and differentiate him from all the rest of the clones online, or will help you deck out your personal club house. Notable unlockables for your “digs” include bronzed babe statues, unique art to hang on the wall, and a variety of interactive arcade games, like air hockey, pool, pinball, and video poker. It was just recently announced the first DLC for DNF will feature new maps that parody other popular multiplayer games (Call of Duke, 2Forts1Bridge, etc.), and it will be free for First Access Club members.
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Consolitis
Though Duke Nukem Forever was created first on PC (indeed, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 didn’t exist until after the game’s last overhaul), it was certainly influenced by the prospect of being ported to other platforms. The linear, highly-segmented level design is a clear indication that they struggled to make the game fit the consoles’ memory restrictions, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there are exactly 4 inventory items this time around. Of course everyone’s favorite, the quick-time event, is present throughout the game, requiring you mash a key repeatedly to open some doors or avoid being gored by a berserk pig cop that gets a little too close. The worst bit of all, to be sure, is definitely the checkpoint-only save system that invariably serves to frustrate you, despite how frequent they sometimes are.
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Graphics
To put it nicely, DNF’s visuals are dated. I’d say it looks to be about five years old overall, but it’s not exactly an eyesore; there are plenty of games from the past few years that look worse. Animations are clunky (see Duke’s jump technique) and models are rough around the edges, but textures are mostly above-average. That’s unsurprising when you consider that a lot of the gags and other environmental attractions depend on the textures offering crisp text or imagery. Outdoor levels suffer from some bland landscapes, though, and you should definitely turn off the post-processing effects to disable the horrible motion blurring and depth-of-field action. The difference is practically night and day when you do that, for the better.
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| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 4 / 5 ) |
Pros
Classic FPS action. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
Duke’s one-liners are intact. As inappropriate and unapologetic as ever.
Interactivity and easter eggs galore. Exploration in shooter games is a lost art these days.
Old-school extras. Like unlockable cheats, art gallery, etc. when you beat the game.
Cons
Mostly linear level design. Some areas even loop back on themselves.
No quick saving. Checkpoints? Pfft!
Regenerating health. It’s just not Duke’s style.
Weapon-carry limit. Same as above, plus it’s an actual hindrance to gameplay.
| Final Verdict | Page:: ( 5 / 5 ) |