Duke Nukem Forever has turned one of the industry's favorite heroes into a laughable joke.
THE GOOD
-Fun arsenal of weapons
THE BAD
-Awful writing
-Terrible shooting mechanics
-Boring boss fights
-Tedious and boring puzzles, driving, and platforming breaks up the pace
-Frame rate and other technical annoyances
After a long hiatus, the gaming industry finally witnesses the return of the iconic Duke Nukem. Burdened with a myriad of development issues, this sequel to the 1996 classic Duke Nukem 3D has finally come to fruition. Fitting to the development schedule, Duke Nukem Forever takes place over a decade after the events of its predecessor. During that time Duke has been living life like a king. Eradicating the previous alien threat has rewarded this hero with fame and fortune. Resting in his towering luxurious mansion, this international superstar has all the benefits and more of the world's elite. Unfortunately, this is all about to change as a plethora of alien ships start popping up all of a sudden.
At first the aliens seem to be peaceful. Even the president of the United States is fooled by this gesture of good faith and argues with Duke to stand down from any forceful engagement. In obvious scripted fashion the aliens surround Duke's home and their nonviolent facade turns to vengeance against their long time nemesis. Knowing that it'll take more than a small handful of troops to take down their archenemy, the aliens also focus their aggression in a way they know will hurt him the most; capturing beautiful women.
Alright so fans of the series shouldn't find it surprising that this story isn't going to win any awards. However, it was rather shocking to see a top-notch developer like GearBox vomit out such a terrible script. The overall plot is forgettable, the sexual innuendos are way over the top, and the rest of dialog really isn't that humorous at all. Duke Nukem Forever tries way to hard to be inappropriate and by doing so makes the protagonist of this train-wreck look desperate. Instead of laughing at Duke's clever antics you'll almost cringe in pathetic disbelief every time he speaks. Throw in gratuitous nudity and you'll wonder whether this game was written by a bunch of adolescent boys.
Duke Nukem Forever is a first person shooter by definition. Sadly, the shooting mechanics feel a bit outdated. Non-lethal shots have almost no stopping power or sense of impact. When you do strike a fatal blow the rag-doll physics look unrealistic and laughable. Even the boss battles are uninspiring because they all require the same formula for success. This includes taking cover, finding explosives, and use explosives; rinse and repeat.
The only saving grace this game has in the shooting department is the arsenal. Even though many of the guns are repeats from the series past, they are still fun to use. The Freeze Ray and Shrink Ray are two standouts that let you freeze and shrink your opponents, respectively. Unfortunately, with small ammo capacity and the ability to only carry two weapons, this shining aspect is quickly tarnished.
About half the time is dedicated to shooting baddies and progressing the story. The other half, for some strange reason, focuses on puzzles and platforming. Any sense of pacing is quickly brought to a halt on multiple occasions, which is really irritating. The last thing you want to do after murdering a few dozen enemies is sit through a long-drawn-out, boring, and tedious brainteaser. The platforming segments are demoralizing mainly due to Duke's awful jumping ability. The most notable time waster that befalls Duke is the desert driving experience. On his way to the Hover Dam, Duke hops in his 4x4 monster truck and traverses many, many miles towards his destination. Along the way he'll run out of gas and have to search on foot for gas cans. The gas mileage on Duke's vehicle rivals the Model T and gasoline is some how in abundance out in the middle-of-nowhere. Long story short, this entire portion along with the many other detours in the game waste way too much of your time.
In addition to this poorly developed game there are a multitude of technical blemishes. Topping the list is the frame rate issue. It doesn't take much to happen on screen to slow this game down. The online multiplayer is absolutely crippled by this defect on top of the atrocious server lag. To add to the technical annoyances, the load times are way to long spanning not seconds but minutes.
The multiplayer offers the typical modes like Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and King of the Hill; with a Duke Nukem twist. There is a neat leveling feature where your performance helps you unlock various doodads for your character. However, with many technical issues and lackluster gameplay mechanics, the multiplayer has absolutely no staying power.
When you step into Duke's world for the first time you're likely to comment on the ugliness of the visuals. The rendered graphics look generations old and the pixelated backgrounds are a real eye sore. The abhorrent lighting further emphasizes the bland textures all throughout this game. Overall, the graphics almost seemed like an after thought.
As a fan of the series I came in not with high but reasonable expectations. Sadly, what's offered is complete and utter garbage. The entire development team has destroyed the Duke Nukem series. The juvenile story is terribly written, the gameplay is outdated and boring, and there are plenty of technical annoyances. Duke Nukem Forever took an unusually long time to develop and in all honesty should have never been released.