Still worth a play for the hero's notoriety and charisma though one might be tempted to hope that it won't last forever
However, instead of showing the effects of a twelve-year workout, Duke Nukem in some aspects seems to having been just staying behind, above all in its visual layout which frequently is just disgusting especially when seen too close, or in the gameplay mechanics having hardly anything new to offer.
The most striking is the curious juxtaposition of highly enjoyable, well-elaborated episodes stuffed with funny ideas, and others ugly in setting and uninspired in level design with infinitely the same actions to perform and the same type of foes to kill, a contrast that might be due to the game's prolonged becoming. The problem is only that also the good ideas here tend to be excessively reiterated until getting tedious: worthy are the miniature Duke scenes in the Casino (The Lady Killer) and the Duke Burger kitchen, and worthwhile are the off-road truck driving and Western-style skirmishes in the Ghost Town chapter with carefully designed details like toaster or roller coaster each, only that even these scenes become too long when overly repetitive.
Yet straight out bad since endless-seeming are the episodes of balancing over or crawling through pipes or greyish-wet tentacles and up and down identical ladders, a Half-life déjà-vu also in its low resolution, like in The Duke Dome or Underground chapters, or the Freudian dream-like voyage through the organic alien Hive suggesting a sex maniac confronted with the monsters of his own subconsciousness rather, crowned through the abominable Alien Queen in what is probably the ugliest of the many boss fights the game has to offer. And there are a lot, even for a shooter the game on the other hand seems avoiding to be: almost sandbox-like episodes in the initial Duke media building (Duke Lives) or the under alien attack seemingly deserted Stripper club (T**ty City) quite ingeniously help to increase Duke's health bar Ego through interaction with the different objects part of the Duke cult (pinball, pool, poker, punching bags and weights, microwaves, pin-up calendars and magazines, condom and can distributors...), while others require using the brain rather than playing with (steel) balls or muscles in order to proceed, for instance, using a teleguided buggy, his own oversized statue, or weighty blue barrels to collect.
The Ego-enhancing minigames and sexy distractions along with several of the more extraordinary weapons and objects at his disposal –Beer, Steroids, Holoduke, Shrink ray, Freeze ray to help him out of the more embarrassing situations, for instance, the Holoduke to distract some giant foe while miniaturized, the steroid-doped melee against the pigcops' aggression when out of ammunition, the rays to shrink or freeze enemies before finishing them off, and the beer to make his defense stronger despite some temporal disorientation– are certainly some of the strengths of Duke Nukem.
The technical and visual flaws, on the other hand, are the most obvious weaknesses of the game, probably due to its extended development phase requiring several changes in order to adapt to newer technology standards: the monsters' and the structures' blurred textures when seen close-up, yet in striking contrast to the clear visibility of ad or porn posters and machine displays, uneven frame rates causing frequent stops and stutters, button prompt-lagging as to weapon pick-ups together with their being out of scale, and nerve-wearingly long loading screens... The music while waiting though not really bad is but not less repetitive than the rest of the game, either. The (few) acting persons other than Duke himself – the President, the Captain, the Holsom twins...– perform stiff and unconvincingly, though one might say something in favor of the dreadful (muscled) alien pigcops that gruntingly frame the game with a not too bad enemy AI, together with the insidious Assault Captains, dangerous Octabrains, and numerous bosses (Battlelords, Enforcers, Octaking, Energy Leech, Emperor Cycloid...)
So, what the game might be played for in spite of all the flaws described? – Above all, the Duke's own charismatic personality: one cannot really deny the fact of him being heroic after going through this all alone – against the odds of a president who scorning him even in the final battle scene pretended resolving the alien problem through simply negotiating with the evil Emperor Cycloid...; Duke's cool phrases and cultish objects within (and around) the game to be found and tried out along the different stages of the adventure insuring that someone of his self-esteem can only be the winner: "I am the one with the gun..."; and some of the episodes including buggy, monster truck, mine cart, forklift, scissor lift-driving, making this really a somewhat more unorthodox shooter when employing those very vehicles also as weapons against enemies: one achievement is obtained through flattening 15 aliens with the monster truck (Road Rage), another for forking 6 pigcops with the forklift (Fork the Pork). Duration also is longer than in comparable game titles though one might prefer levels being shorter rather than repeat the same design over and over again.
And there is also the multiplayer mode where one might choose Quick Match in order to get right into action, Custom Match, allowing to create a lobby with one's own rules, or likewise to join that of somebody else by means of the Game Browser, and one of the different maps taken either from the single-player campaign or specifically designed at that purpose (Sausage Factory, Erection Site, Highway Noon...). Match types here are the Duke Match (deathmatch), Team Dukematch, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, and the level upgrades one does get through the experience points apart from showing off in the progression charts and leaderboards also permit further apartment customization (My Dig) as well as to change hat, face, or other body items (Change Room) to be worn during the matches. However, as might be expected, the multiplayer mode suffers from the same technical problems as the single-player campaign due to the frame rates what may make it well less enjoyable.
So while it might still appear worth a play for all the notoriety the game's hero enjoys after so many years, one might feel tempted to paraphrase the very Duke Nukem as to potential future revivals: Rest in Pieces...