Duke Nukem Forever
For years this game has been the butt of many jokes, as well as a substitute for the term “when hell freezes over”. After 15 years, 5 companies, 4 game engine changes, a few legal disputes, and way too much hype, hell has frozen over. Duke has returned, but after all the time and changes that the game went through… I can’t honestly say it was worth it.
There was no way that this game could deliver on anything that was shown (especially the rather lavish 2001 trailer for the game). Were the game decent, I might have let it pass, but instead it just feels bereft of life. We once again take control of Duke and play through a remake of the final level of Duke Nukem 3D. The enhanced graphics, added NPCs, and scripted events do nothing to cover up that this game feels stale. In fact, there are elements in this that have been shown in videos that were released in 2008. It’s hard not to feel as though the game lost much in the way of production quality over the course of it’s journey to completion.
No, I’m not saying that this is a bad game, I’m just saying it’s not a great game (it’s hardly a good game, decent is more befitting). In many ways I’ve had more fun playing the original game. The main detractors are: Duke can only carry 2 weapons at a time, that the levels feel even more linear than the first game, Duke’s one-liners are far more flat (and repetitive), and that the enemies are as dumb as they are tough. There are more grating things to list, but i don’t want to fill the whole review up with such a list. Had this game released before Half-Life 2, or any number of good FPS games since Duke Nukem 3D’s release in ’96, it might be easier to swallow. But the fact remains that it still had a lot of hype to live up to. It still would have fallen on it’s face.
I honestly can’t suggest this game to even the most diehard Duke Nukem fanboy (though I’m sure they’d still love it, poor gits that they are). There are far better games out there that came out several years ago and many more recent FPS games that would easily beat this as well. If you happen to get this game for free, you might enjoy it.
