In 1996, Duke Nukem entered the vastly unknown realm of the three dimensional first person shooter. He gave us witty one liners, great action, and some fun multiplayer thanks to weapons that allowed you to not only shrink your friends, but stomp on them like vermin. More importantly, Duke Nukem 3D had personality; something which was brand new to the genre. Sure, most of his quotes were heavily referential to Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams in Army of Darkness, 1993′s comedy horror epic. Duke even took a stab at leading shooters DOOM and Quake, and alongside these quips and pokes of the competition were women. Babes, he called them. You could tell them to shake it, throw dollar bills their way- it had never been done before. Mr. Nukem then had a sequel on the way, announced in 1997. Duke Nukem Forever. Long story short, it’s now 2011, and we’re only just seeing the release of Forever thanks to the game now being in the hands of Gearbox Software.
What do you get when you have a game that has been in the making for over twelve years? A lot of hype, a lot of expectation, and a lot of excitement (particularly in my case). What people need to understand is that a game can’t possibly meet the standards of people who have been waiting that long, unless they’re realistic. I’m sure you’ve seen the bad press this game has been getting, and if not? Well, it’s been getting ratings like three out of ten, 2 out of five, all sorts. Fair enough. But before you read my review, and others like it, know this- Duke Nukem Forever is a sequel. A sequel to a twelve year old plus game. It can’t reinvent the Duke wheel, it won’t. Forever had to stay true to what 3D was, and its unfortunate that it had to do just that in the year 2011. I believe that if this game had come out in 2002/2003 instead, it would have done a lot better, and it would have spawned future games that did what Forever is trying to do now a hell of a lot better. Now, let’s get to it.
Twelve years after the events of the first game, Duke is now the most famous man across the globe. He saved the world from an alien invasion, the world’s women in particular. In Forever we find him playing a video game (called Duke Nukem forever, funnily enough) in which he relives the final battle found in Duke Nukem 3D versus the alien Cycloid Emperor. From there, it appears the aliens have invaded once more, and after appearing peaceful at first, Duke gets a bad feeling…and with good reason. They’re attacking Earth once more, and stealing their women all over again. It’s time to kill for Mr. Nukem. This is all well and good, with the story and what’s at stake (mainly Duke’s babes) being a perfect fit for the character, but it isn’t memorable at all. You’ll go from one environment to the next, shooting pig cops and other aliens including the classic Octabrain straight from Duke Nukem 3D, but its over rather quick. I don’t mean it’s short in length, quite the opposite. It took me around eight hours on hard to complete, which is the average, but I’ve heard it take many people more than ten hours to complete, which is a pretty good run. When I say its over quick, I mean that before you’re expecting it, you’ll reach a load screen that will say “Final Battle”, and off you go. Final battle time.
Throughout Forever’s campaign, you’ll run and gun, as well as many of your other ‘classic’ FPS mainstays such as the good old turret sequence, some platforming, and bosses with life bars that have distinct attack patterns. The game isn’t trying to reinvent the genre, it’s merely bringing the old into the new. It’s all definitely Duke, especially the weapons. Bar a few new additions like the Enforcer, everything you remember from Duke 3D is here, including the Ripper, your Shrinker, and the appropriately named Devastator. The whole ‘old into new’ isn’t without its drawbacks, though, as Duke now has regenerative health called Ego and a two weapon limit. These aren’t anything to cry over, as some fans would have you believe, but they definitely detracted something from the Duke Nukem experience I was expecting. Duke Nukem doesn’t hide behind cover, he destroys it, and whether or not you can believe Duke having nine or so weapons shoved down his jeans doesn’t matter- that’s the way they did it back in the day.
You’ll also get behind the wheel of a monster truck named ‘Mighty Foot’, an homage once more to Duke 3D, in a few levels while you traverse through the Nevada desert. These segments aren’t particularly interesting, and don’t really add much to the game as it requires you more than once to get out of the truck at specific times to find gas to fill up the tank. I wouldn’t call it an annoyance, but its passable. Hand me a version of Forever without those couple of levels in, and I don’t think I’d be too upset. Another driving sequence or two places you behind the wheel of a much smaller vehicle: a remote controlled car.
Both in Duke’s casino, The Lady Killer, and in a Duke Burger will you find yourself shrunk much like you might in the multiplayer. The aforementioned RC car that you drive is done in said Casino as you try to get from A to B to rescue a babe or two, navigating through small gaps under doors and and flying through the air only to hit an alien in the head. A lot of your time spent while shrunk will involve platforming, which never gets particularly tricky, but there are moments when you look into a room and see that it isn’t exactly clear where you need to go. That, or it is clear where you need to go and you just can’t find it. You’ll only be stuck for a moment or two, but it helps detach you from the experience enough to look back at your jumping across burgers and sinks to say “Well, that definitely wasn’t a highlight”. You’ll be taking leaps of faith, and like I said, it isn’t hard and you won’t be stuck long, but it could easily be replaced with something a little more engaging. Getting shrunk is just a Duke thing, I guess.
There’s a lot in this game for a Duke fan, though, which brings me onto the following statement- chances are, if you don’t like Duke Nukem 3D, you don’t like Duke Nukem Forever. If you don’t know much about Duke Nukem 3D, or don’t care enough about Duke Nukem 3D, then you won’t enjoy Duke Nukem Forever as much as, say, I did. I’m not trying to say that the game is one big ‘in’ joke, and that you have to be part of some special club to appreciate all that Duke has to offer, but it certainly helps. The universe is one that is centred around this one man and his previous endeavours, and so if you don’t know him, love him, or at least know the history of the man and his troubled development cycle, then the universe is, well, flat. Meeting a soldier who says to you “Hey pal, what’re you going to do, save the world all by yourself?” is all well and good, but it’s particularly funny (to me, at least) if you saw the trailer featuring that very line from E3 2001. That’s right, 2001. Playing with the Balls of Steel pinball machine to hear it say “Now I DO have time to play with myself.” won’t really make you chuckle unless you’d tried to play the Duke Nukem arcade game in Duke Nukem 3D to hear ”Hmm, don’t have time to play with myself.” See what they did there?
Now what is interesting, is the multiplayer. I’m not saying that this is the next Call of Duty- chances are the multiplayer may even be dead in a month or two, but it has progression that isn’t like anything I’ve seen. Sure, it has Call of Duty-esque challenges, but with those challenges and their completion comes items. Items of clothing, to be exact. New vests, shades and such, as well as…hats! That’s not really the interesting part though, that’s just fun I guess and would probably be better if everybody wasn’t running around as Duke, but hey, deathmatch is called Dukematch, so it works. What is kind of cool is what you get after leveling up. Through a multiplayer menu, you can visit Duke’s ‘digs’ which, as you level up, will had more and more stuff unboxed like trophies, arcade machines, and even babes. You can walk around it like you would any other level in the singleplayer, and although you can’t run around guns blazing, you can still interact with everything you’d expect. You can’t do anything like invite your friends to come have a look, but overall, it’s different.
The game ships with ten multiplayer maps, with one being a faithful recreation of the very first level of Duke Nukem 3D, complete with secret areas and aliens in the toilet. Well, he’s not actually there, but he’s there in spirit as a cardboard cut out. Not one weapon is missing, shrinker and freeze ray included, with the addition of items like the jetpack being multiplayer exclusives. It works like your typical deathmatch FPS, with players running around trying to get their hands on the biggest guns before their opponents do, then blasting one another apart. It’s not groundbreaking, but I’ve had an awesome time with it so far. Here’s a tip if you intend to give it a go- find the Devastator, and let no man on Earth but yourself get their hands on it. Then you’ve pretty much won.
The game isn’t great with its visuals, thanks to the tech being years old by now (heavily modified Unreal Engine 2), and with the game only recommending a Geforce 8800 GTS (the 8800 series having been released in 2006) you really don’t need to be out buying the latest graphics card to power Forever like you may believe. Sure, Nvidia is packaging Duke Nukem Forever with their new-ish GTX 560 for a limited time, but you definitely don’t need it. The game actually looks pretty awful in spots, with poor quality textures bombarding your screen at every turn. Though looking at very specific parts of the game, like Duke’s player model, I’m assuming I’m looking at one or two pieces of work from Gearbox Software as opposed to 3D realms who did 95% of the game. That might just be me, I don’t know, but that’s just an observation. Bottom line is, the game doesn’t look too great, and it doesn’t sound it either.
Jon St. John is here to reprise his role as Duke Nukem, and that’s probably the best part about the sound design. Sadly, I can’t say I’ll be quoting this game much like I have Duke Nukem 3D over the years, though. Other than a line I previously mentioned (that being the pinball machine one), all the other quotes are already in Duke 3D, with Forever not really bringing anything new to the table. The music isn’t particularly memorable except for the Grabbag theme we all know and love featured in the intro movie, and other sound coming from the weapons and explosions are pretty flat. Voice acting is particularly bad in spots too, making the pretty bland story a little worse that it first appears.
I’m sure this review might seem like a list of negative comments, particularly in spots, but I do like Duke Nukem Forever a lot. Like I said, having played Duke Nukem 3D really helps, and you’ve also really got to take Forever for what it is and not expect a mind-blowing, game changing first person shooter experience. Sure, the development cycle was long, but that isn’t going to make any game perfect. Was it worth the wait? Maybe, maybe not- it depends how you look at it. I’m glad I had the chance to play the game after all this time, and I don’t regret spending £40 on my Balls of Steel Edition. I proudly sit at my desk with my bust of Duke Nukem sat atop it, and I won’t stop preaching the word of Duke Nukem. Forever needed to come out. With Gearbox Software now owning the Duke Nukem IP, and with Forever out on store shelves, they can focus on something new for Duke Nukem. That’s why this game had to come out, and regardless of its quality, I call it a success just because it allows for a new game to be made. You may have gone down in other peoples estimations, but not in mine, Duke.
Hail to the king, baby.