DNF manages to throw in a few good laughs and some decent set pieces, but it is really showing it's age.
Upon hearing this game was about to be released, I was kind of psyched due to hearing so many good things about the series, and figured it would be fun to see what the fuss was all about. And does it succeed? Of course not.
That said, DNF can still be a rather entertaining game, with quite a lot of crude but funny jokes and stabs at other video game series, and the shooting is also really fun on occasion. Unfortunately, the game repeatedly falls in a rut, and uses a lot of the same gameplay ideas as the games it is trying to make fun of.
Graphically, it looks aged. Not terrible, but aged. And not very well optimized either, with low FPS every now and then for no reason. Textures and animations often look very sub-par, but at times they almost look like any other shooter released recently. Almost.
Sound quality is decent at least. Duke sounds great, and his voice actor is really the only thing breathing life into this game. Weapons and aliens both sound good, but a lot of the sounds sound recycled from other games (I could swear that's the same shotgun sound as in Counter-Strike...).
Gameplay feels rather... meh. Not bad, there is a decent amount of variety, mini-games, puzzles and driving segments to break up the action, but unfortunately these are not always so well-paced and usually drag on for far to long.
The shooting itself isn't all to great either, it feels very simplified, with weird aiming and slippery movement. Very 90's though, which would be all good and fun if it hadn't been for two reason: regenerative health and 2-weapon limit. I can live with the regenerating health, but a better way would have been to gain health by inflicting damage (rather than hiding in a corner sucking your thumb waiting to get better), which would have been more fitting for Duke. They did use this when you execute foes, but most of the time you will just be in hiding, not feeling so bad-ass.
However, the 2-weapon limit is a real downer. in a game that is supposed to be anti-realistic, why have a 2 weapon limit?! It's no fun having to go around scrounging for ammo and new weapons all the time, i just want to kick ass with everything I got, all the time!
Story wise, it's certainly nothing special, nor does it try to be. Aliens are invading again and Duke must save the babes (and thereby the world) once more. The first 3rd of the game was really entertaining most of the time, with a lot of fun jokes and dialogue, but somewhere after that, it all goes silent. Very few jokes, very few characters, only Duke spouting the same one-liners and solving annoying jumping puzzles for several hours. Sigh...
All in all, the game is a real disappointment. While it has a decent amount of variety in the levels, it never really pops, and what you are left with is essentially an undercooked meal that has been in the oven for over 12 years. I guess they forgot to turn it on...