![]() There’s nothing fancy, just Duke themed versions of the standard deathmatch, king of the hill and capture the flag, no silly perks system or anything like that. When the story is over and the world is saved there’s always multiplayer to add a few more hours of fun, and it is as old school as it gets. It all makes for a nice blend of gameplay that never gets stale along the way, and leaves you feeling nicely satisfied when it all comes to an end. ![]() Boss battles are of course plenty, and varied, with the aliens throwing some massive monsters at you. There’s also vehicles to drive to break things up a bit, which act as a nice change of pace if you’re jumping canyons in a monster truck, or running over aliens in a fork lift. You’ll also find some first person platforming thrown in to the mix at points, and unlike some games of yesteryear it works quite well here. There’s quite a bit of variety to the gameplay other then the obvious shooting and puzzles. But I guess they have to do something to appease fans of more modern shooters, we should be thankful these are the only things they’ve changed really. It would have been nice if they were features you could switch on and off in favour of the traditional schemes instead of making them mandatory. These don’t hurt the game too much though, and it retains most of its old school feel. ![]() The Duke Nukem franchise has some of the best weapons in a game ever, it seems silly to put a limit on them. Another concession to modern gameplay is a limitation on how many weapons the Duke can carry, two is just not enough. This acts as a recharging shield, and whilst it’s appropriate for the Duke to use his ‘ego’ as a shield, and clever that it would actually be something that would replenish by not being shot, it detracts slightly from the old school feel of the game. This brings us to one of the concessions to the modern shooter that has been added to the game, instead of a health bar the Duke has his ‘ego’. There’s loads of these littered throughout the game, from pinball machines to girly mags, all of which give you a little ‘ego’ boost when you use them. And exploration is a must really, not just to find objects to solve some of the games puzzles, but to find the many ‘ego’ objects that you can interact with. For the most part the game is some good old fashioned run and gun gameplay, quite linear, but there is a little exploration to be done. So, it’s straight back to the action for the Duke, time to save the world, and more importantly its women. Now the Duke is pissed, those aliens have not only ruined his big night, but they are kidnapping all the worlds women too, not a smart move. Meanwhile the Duke is all set to appear on the biggest chat show in town, an appearance that is cancelled right at the last minute because the aliens have kicked off. And it’s as big a cliché as the Duke himself, the aliens are back, but this time the President is attempting a peaceful outcome through diplomacy, like that’s ever going to work. The game certainly isn’t afraid to poke fun at itself, as well as plenty of other big gaming franchises, and shows a character and humour that is so often lacking in games these days.įollowing the self referential intro there is a lull in the action to set the story up. None of it was real, it was just the Duke playing his new game that he’d been waiting twelve years for. Take the big fella down, and kick his eyeball across the stadium for a field goal and you’re treated with a little twist. The game starts in typical Duke fashion, with a big fuck off boss battle – not a tough one, they’re saved for later – but something to give you a taste of what’s to come. Duke Nukem Forever may suffer in the areas I just mentioned, but it is fun, and lots of it if you are willing to overlook its technical issues. To me fun is far more important than quick loading times, a consistent frame rate or realistic character models. Technical performance isn’t everything though, I could list a number of recent games that were technically excellent, but no fun whatsoever. It’s a twelve year old game that’s had a bit of work done now and again, and it just doesn’t match up to games being released these days, not technically anyway. This was never going to be that game, and anybody who thought otherwise was just kidding themselves. Anybody who was expecting some revolutionary new shooter is going to be seriously disappointed and should just walk away now. The first, and probably most important to some people, thing I have to say is that technically it’s not good. The game has been so long in the making it passed in to legend, there’s no way the finished product could ever live up to the legacy it has earned. ![]() Part of me didn’t want to review Duke Nukem Forever, I don’t know what I was thinking when I volunteered for the job.
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