Pure Puken = The epitome of FPS stupidity
You wanna know why Duke and Doom were so popular back then? Because there were no other shooters. So playing the first ever 3d shooter while constantly sprinting and blasting at warhogs while carrying tons of weapons as well as having an occasional laugh at what the Duke or his enemies were doing was a blast.
But on the other hand, how do you make an FPS interesting wherein you simply mow down rows of enemies? I don't know, Serious Sam did it and that game had co-op. Bulletstorm did it. To tell you the truth, when I was watching the gameplay trailers I was trying not to think: "what? that's IT?" because for some reason I was believing that there was something more to the gameplay and the game itself that was being kept secret, some spice. That was denial at its best. The game turned out to be a mix of Quake 1, Serious Sam (minuses various and funny enemies), some random kindergarten puzzles thrown in the mix and.....that's pretty much it. And sorry devs, Duke's supposedly hilarious quotes and outburst just don't cut it. Sure, there are some non-cliche moments in the game but they usually last a couple of seconds.
However, at least you can only carry a couple of guns at the time, which is supposed to add more realism - if only that was not overshadowed by so many other things. For instance the AI is either charging at you or simply standing still and shooting you from afar (think Killzone 2,3 and how smart your enemies were, the smartest AI in all gaming in fact). The driving stages are okaish, except you are always confined to carefully crafted small areas that are either canyons or areas blocked off by garbage and other nonsense. The Big boss battles are the same: keep on moving, shooting, collect ammo drops, keep running in circles and the enemy won't hit you. No tactics required.
The aliens of course are kidnapping the white blonde hot-bodied chicks only. No other ethnicity apparently exists on Earth at the time. The whole sexism and overt insecure alpha male heterosexuality shows with almost each one of Duke's outbursts, but I guess there just has to be one game that has its own niche to fill. So I can't comment to negatively on this, I'm just glad that it's only one game that does this sort of thing.
Some things I can't complain about however. You actually CAN see your legs and you DO cast a shadow and you DO have a voice, and what a voice that is! if only all shooters had those extra three things I usually ask for. But in this case, this rare treat is absolutely wasted on this horribly pretentious game.
I bet that new Serious Sam (which only took a few years to develop, I reckon) is going to have a similar run'n'shoot hordes of enemies premise, however I think it's going to be pulled off better than this Puke.
Ultimately, most of us have grown and matured since 1998, some of us didn't. Some jokes aren't as funny anymore. If this game were released the mere years after the last game, then the similar age-minded audience would clap in awe. I understand the whole old-school nostalgia thing which CAN be delivered with so many recent 2-D platform remakes of the old NES classics. However this game is not a re-make nor does it feel like Duke Nukem part 4 or 5 or whatever. I'm not sure if this is a re-boot either because I doubt any more Duke will be made.
Rest in Peace, Duke. It wasn't the aliens, it was the fanbase killed the Duke.