The Duke is back, reminding us all of his awesomeness.
The awesome nature of this game starts as soon as you get to the entrance screen. You can hear the Duke's voice saying, in it's amazing epicness, "It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I am all out of gum", added in with the awesome Duke Nukem theme music in the background. It literally sends shivers down my spine for it's high amount of greatness. It makes me want to go out and get myself a Duke Nukem costume and be kick-ass. The menu consists of all the different modes. You have the single player mode, the online mode, the usual options and the user clips. Now user clips is something new aswell, which we will get back to later.
Now, to the single player. Singleplayer consists of four different episodes which have a range of 6-11 levels. Each level has it's own theme. The first episode, L.A Meltdown has Duke's ride being shot down by aliens, and you shoot yourself through a city infested with nothing but evil-minded aliens and prostitutes. Yeah, the babes have been spared to entertain the aliens. Those bastards. Lunar Apocalypse brings Duke to space, Sharpnel City takes him back to the city, and The Birth is a continuation of the story. When Duke is on vacation...the aliens rise again...
For starters, you who are completely new to the Duke Nukem series, and have missed this enourmous wave of entertainment... Duke Nukem was a 2D scroller action game before Duke Nukem 3D, which was their first FPS game in the series. The whole objective of the game is to get through the level, which usually consists of finding different colored access cards throughout the level which opens doors to new areas. At the end of the level, you will have to break a "Duke Nukem Symbol" which looks like a warning sign for something radioactive. At the end of each level, you will get an evaluation on how the level went, and a final "metascore" which is decided based on your completion time, how many secrets you have found and how many monsters you have killed. Levels are usually quite short, and you can compare your time at the end with a Par time, and a 3D realms time. 3D realms complete each level from about 1-4 minutes. At the end of each episode, you face off a big alien boss, which is a lot, lot tougher then your average alien. Talking about average aliens, the monsters you will face in the game can be everything from light-brown aliens, pig cops, big battlelords and other hideous creates just aching to feel the boot of the Duke. Health is measured up to a hundered, but with the help of boosts like Atomic Health, it can go up to 200. The health does not regenerate, and can only be restored with medkits found around the level.
The game is split up into four different difficulties. The easiest one is Piece of Cake (Which I found to be quite a challenge), Let's Rock which is the normal difficulty, Come Get Some is the hard difficulty and Damn I'm Good which is a real toughie. What's special about Damn I'm Good is that enemies can come back to life, and if you try to cheat, you will get the message "You are too good to be cheating". Hilarious, isn't it?
The level graphics are made out of early 3D, whilst some objects and every opponent is made in 2D. It's nice to see that they have changed nothing in the game like that, but it sure does make me dizzy when the monsters spins around even when they are dead. That's retro for you! However, I think the graphics are really nice and any change would have made the game lose it's retro goodness. However, the objects are well-rendered, even if they are quite pixilated, and you won't need to use your full imagniation to make out what they have been trying to create.
The sounds are just epic. The old Duke Nukem tune, the voice of Duke Nukem, all in it's former glory. Some of the monsters make real creepy noises, such as the Assault Commanders who give out this creepy moaning noise, just like a zombie. He also says some few lines with this deep, dark voice, and you know hell is about to be unleashed when you meet this bastard. Also, a noice you will have particular sensitivity for after you have finished this game is the sound the Protozoid Slimers make. They are small, green slimes which crawls around on the ground, and their only goal is to suck on your face. They are the only enemies I found to be quite scary in the game, as when they attatch themselves to your face, you will only first notice when the slimer begins crawling onto your screen. A giant big blob with teeth is nearing and nearing the center. Scary. So their squishy noise is something you will pay good notice too. Now, about the level music. Every level has it's own distinct tune tune, which is catchy, and the tune fits very nicely with the level in question. I have throughout the game found these tunes to be neither repetetive or dull.
The controllers for this game is responsive and the accurancy is of no annoyance. The only thing I have found annoying was how you change weapons. You who played this game on the PC know well that changing a weapon would only have to press a numeric button form 1-9 for the weapon that you want. Here, you will have to cycle through all the weapons with your RB and LB buttons, and every weapon has to be equipped. It can be quite annoying when you realize that you are being ambushed by something, when you were planning to shoot something long range with your RPG. But that is the only complaint I have found about the controller.
As we are on the subject of weapons, let me give you a quick overview of the 9 (10) weapons which are in the game. The first weapon you will encounter is an automatic fired pistol. The pistol is with you from the first level of the game to the very last. other weapons you will encounter throughout the game is the Shotgun, the Ripper (three-barrel SMG-like weapon), the RPG, the Pipebombs (Grenades with a remote detonator), the Shrinker/Expander (Two weapons in one, the Shrinker makes the opponents go smaller and harmless and can be stomped on for an instant kill. The Expander does the exact opposite and makes the enemy explode), the Devastator (Dualwielded automatic rocketlauncher, capable of firing many rockets in a small amount of time), the Freezer (Will turn the enemy to ice after a few shots) and the tripbombs (Bombs which you stick a wall, and they emit a laser beam, and if this wire of laser is walked through..boom..). Also, Duke will have a number of different gadgets with him, ranging from the jetpack, protective boots, portable medkits, scuba gear, steriods and holographic images of himself.
Death in the game is handled in a very unique way. Your whole progress throughout the level is recorded. At the time of your death, you will have to choose a place to start playing again over a timeline. So you can chooose to start either in the beginning of the level, maybe around 0.30, or anywhere else throughout the level.
User clips are recordings of everything you do in Duke Nukem. They record every map you play and every piece of multiplayer. If you are looking at a singleplayer clip, you can enter the level the clip has been recorded from just by pressing the X-button. These clips are not really editable, but you can share them with friends and such to show off your awesome Duke-skills.
The multiplayer in Duke Nukem 3D consists of two different modes. One of these is a free-for-all deathmatch, where you and three others run around on a level picked out from the single player and kill eachother after a target score. Just regular deathmatch, with all the weapons and toys from the game. The other game mode is One-on-one. Basically the same as the first, only now it's just you against someone else. But the multiplayer is sadly the biggest dissapointment in the whole game. Granted, I did not have very large expectations for the multiplayer, since I was more out after the singleplayer, but from my perspective, I found it very poor. The first problem I encounter is that the game is very quick, which fits the single player, but in multiplayer, it makes it real hard to hit your enemy. And this is if you are like me, not very quick when it comes to aiming and such, if you are a headshot pro then maybe it will fit you. But then it leaps onto it's next problem. The delay. I have a fairly good internet connection (24mb down, 1mb up), and my latency on the game was good, the meter indicated, but still all of my shots were delayed by at least half a second, at least noticeable.
The game has 200 Gamerscore worth of achievements, most are pretty easy to get. There are a few multiplayer achievements, if you can bear to play through those, but other then that it's all singleplayer. And no "Complete the game on Damn I'm Good" either.
In conclusion, the game is still the epic classic. They have managed really well to not improve the game too much, meaning, that it has not lost it's retro feel. No improved graphic, the music is classic and the gameplay is awesome. The multiplayer can have been better, but I feel that the multiplayer is just an addition to the single player game, which I think is the main reason people will be buying this game. Don't get yourselves thrown off because of it (Which I don't think anyone will be, but hey), because the main game is just as awesome. Duke Nukem 3D is one of those games, which just has the pure gamer feel to it. I want to dim down my lights, get into some sloppy clothes, take out a bowl of snacks and a drink, and just play. It makes you feel like a pure gamer, all over again. Duke Nukem. He's back to kick ass and chew bubblegum.
And he is all out of gum.