Duke Nukem Forever1517 views

by Solvesoul January 8th, 2013

The Duke is back for more action after a development cycle of 12-13 years!. Yes, many people around the world have been waiting WAY too long on this steroid-filled adventure. Most of us know about the things that happened during the development of this game. And after 12 years finally being released in 2011, the game should be super awesome, right? The answer to that question however is: "You kind of tried, didn't you Gearbox?" Many people started ranting on the internet on how they hated this game so much. Some Duke fanboys then stated they liked the game so much. So, opinions are mixed but let's get the facts straight here.

Back in the days, Duke Nukem 3D wasn't only very successful, it went hand in hand with Wolfenstein, Doom & Quake for being the foundations of the FPS genre. Remember, many games you play today use elements of these games! After the success of Duke Nukem 3D came many Duke spinoffs but they all failed to make an impression like Duke 3D did. However, they announced that the follow-up of Duke 3D would be Duke Nukem Forever. This is where the legend began.


After years of switching developers, being cancelled and being revived again came Gearbox and they announced that they will continue where other developers like 3D Realm left off. Of course, being about 13 years later the expectations of the fans were already very high. The trailer went live, the game was launched and after a few weeks the internet was filled with hate.

The best part of all this is that you shouldn't look at this game and say it's been released in 2011. People should picture this game being released about 2 years after the release of Duke Nukem 3D. Of course the graphics wouldn't be that good but the gameplay would remain the same and that's where the real problem is. This kind of linear FPS adventure isn't what gamers are looking for anno 2011. They want multiplayer shooters with some maps to choose from and very few still want an adventure shooter with a storyline.

This being said, let's actually review the game! The game starts off with a nostalgic boss battle we all know and love from Duke 3D. After that, the story begins. Aliens are invading and are abducting the (hot) women so they can use them to breed. Duke's life consists of steroids, asskicking and hot babes, so he doesn't agree one bit and takes on the aliens to save all earth's babes from certain doom.


As you continue the story you'll notice there are always some shooting and action-packed moments followed by a time where you can take a rest and look at all the details they put into the game. Play a game of pinball, pump up your ego by lifting some dumbells or just check out a naughty DVD. This is a good thing because, it brings variety to the game and gives you the needed time to prepare for the next encounter with babestealing aliens.Every now and then you'll encounter a boss, and these bossfights needed some more work. Some of them are way to easy and others are so hard you want to smash your keyboard/controller after your 100th attempt. (Yes, I'm talking about the one on the dam). Of course, it depends which difficulty you chose but everyone who wanted a fair challenge would be disappointed.

Now about the weapons and gadgets... They did a really good job remaking the older weapons. Also, the gadgets are well done. Being able to play as a mini Duke is certainly a lot of fun. But where they dropped the ball is really simple... You can only carry two weapons at a time. This is THE Duke Nukem we're talking about, right? He should be able to carry a whole arsenal of weapons! Sure it's not realistic but who cares? Hell, he could do it in Duke 3D, why couldn't he now? It's a game and it's the Duke so you should be able to carry more than two oversized guns. For instance, you start with Duke's Golden Desert Eagle and if you come at a point where you have to decide to pick up another gun because you're out of ammo? Duke would never throw away his Golden gun. This would have been a simple adjustment to the game that would have made it so much better. I have to note that a patch came out in which you could enable "4 weapons at once mode". If you enable this Duke will be able to carry 4 weapons at once, but this patch was for PC only. This was definitely a step in the right direction and also shows that Gearbox listens to the feedback.

In short: The expectations were way too high, the game was overhyped, but in the end, it wasn't that bad.