The third installment of the Duke Nukem series is probably the best of them all, even more than 20 years later. Unlike the first two games, which are action-platformers, this one is a first-person shooter. Originally, it featured online multiplayer through TEN, now you can get it through the GOG/Steam/ZOOM Platform editions or Duke Matcher; as of 2024, ZOOM Platform frequently updates the Atomic Edition with some new additions. The game would receive an updated version, the Atomic Edition, as well as some source ports based on its engine and numerous re-releases, such as the Megaton Edition and 20th Anniversary World Tour, which this review mainly covers, in the following years. Interestingly, this game has way more re-releases and expansions than Doom and Skyrim combined. In fact, several expansion packs are pretty much all freeware now.
First of all, the incredible iconic box art. Look at it closely and you'll see it perfectly resembles the Army of Darkness iconic poster. Even better, the game is filled to the prime with references to movie and video game franchises. These include: Evil Dead, Star Wars, They Live!, Terminator, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Aliens, Easy Rider, Pulp Fiction, Doom, Quake, Indiana Jones, Full Metal Jacket, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Predator, Fantastic Four... you get the picture. Most of them are quotes said word-for-word by Duke himself.
And speaking of Duke, he is now a rugged, badass, tough, pop-culturing referencing guy with a ton of quotable one-liners, which are as such: "Somebody's gonna friggin' pay for screwing up MY vacation!", "I'm getting too old for this shit!", "Damn! Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride!", "Nobody steals our chicks... and lives!" Combine those with the great voice acting from Jon St. John whose deep, grimy, and charismatic voice helps bring Duke to life. Even now, this makes him one of the most memorable characters in video games history ever yet.
The plot is very innovative: after defeating the Rigelatin aliens, Duke returns to Earth in hopes of taking a vacation, only to find that it is being invaded by another alien army and decides to stop them. That army consists of a wide variety of enemies, including extraterrestrial aliens, mutant police officers, and mechanical robots. There are five boss enemies, one at the end of each episode. These are:
- The Battlelord, equipped with a massive chaingun and mortar launcher
- The Overlord, who is found on the Moon and has two rocket launchers mounted on its back
- The Cycloid Emperor, found in a football stadium has mechanical rocket launcher claws for hands
- The Alien Queen, an underwater creature that spawns offspring and fires a powerful electrical blast
- The Protozoid Slimers, despite being the weakest enemies out of all as they take one hit, are also nightmare-fuel enemies as it has that extremely creepy sprite where it bites Duke's face off, that happens when it gets close to the player, it's even worse in the High-Resolution Pack mod, luckily these can be removed using a mod.
The game has a depth of interactivity, which sets a new standard for first-person shooters. Interactive objects include light switches, drinking fountains, strippers, surveillance screens, bins, toilets, pool tables, telephones, explosive barrels, fire hydrants, and a photocopier. Some of these objects perform multiple functions.
The map gives both an outline of the level and a fully rendered version of the level, which makes it a lot easier to get an idea as to where you are. In addition to this, there's a built-in, easy-to-use map editor/maker.
The visuals are amazing for the time that pioneered realistic location designs with vivid colors and lighting. This was enhanced more in the 20th Anniversary World Tour and nearly on the same level as Quake ((almost) the first truly 3D FPS game) from the same year. The 20th Anniversary World Tour even has a few new additions:
- A new episode with 7 new levels designed by the original 3D Realms team each with new musical scores.
- New easter eggs such as a new Serious Sam reference in the "Giza" level.
- A new Weapon: Incinerator.
- A new Enemy: Firefly.
- And a returning feature from the XBLA version: Replay/Rewind Function.
The game has an inventory system just like Heretic, which features a series of items that can be acquired and deployed throughout the game. These items include:
- Portable Medkit, which can be used to recover Duke's health at any time
- Steroids, which cause Duke to move more quickly and to deal greater melee damage
- Night Vision Goggles, which allow Duke to see in poorly lit areas
- Holoduke, which projects a hologram of Duke that distracts enemies
- Protective Boots, which allow Duke to traverse dangerous terrain, such as toxic waste or lava
- Scuba Gear, which allows Duke to swim underwater for longer periods without drowning
- Jetpack, which allows Duke to fly freely around the environment, sometimes to reach otherwise inaccessible areas
- Additionally, there are tons of weapons that are all fun to use, including the Mighty Foot, which is a basic melee attack, a pistol, a chaingun cannon, pipe bombs, and guns that shrink and freeze enemies
The 20th Anniversary World Tour version, despite its new additions, also has some flaws:
- It replaced the Megaton Edition on Steam after Gearbox Software acquired the rights to the franchise and they forced all other Duke Nukem games to be pulled from sale everywhere, to sell this version of the game, lucky it can still be bought in the ZOOM Platform store, not only that but it also gets frequently updated.
- It has none of the original expansion packs that were on the Megaton Edition (Duke It Out In DC, Life's a Beach, Nuclear Winter, etc.)
- Forced mouse acceleration.
- Running is slower.
- New bobbing effect when falling from even the shortest heights.
- Broken cloud saving.
The Duke!Zone Trilogy is not even safe to be considered to be the worst expansion because of the bad-level designs. The Nuclear Winter expansion, while not entirely bad, is considered the weakest as it's very short and doesn't include new weapons and voice lines like other expansions, aside from a few changed sprites and new levels. Speaking of which, the first two levels are the base levels played in reverse.
Many of the ports to other consoles have also been disastrous:
- The Tiger Game.com version. In fairness, it was one of the most advanced handheld games of The '90s; there was just no way to replicate the Duke Nukem 3D experience on hardware barely equivalent to a Game Boy.
- Less so the Mega Drive port. It does have a pretty decent framerate, considering how big the "first-person view" screen is, compared to other FPS games on that console, not to mention the save system which allows you to backup everywhere. Nothing else makes up for it properly, though: the whole port consists of 9 new levels, very loosely based on the Lunar Apocalypse episode, all done in a Wolf3D-like perspective, all peppered-up with barely audible music and slightly messy controls. Oh, and it didn't help that shortly after the game was released in Brazil (the only country that received a Mega Drive port), the whole thing got banned. Despite this, it isn't the fault of the Brazilian devs; the game is pretty good for what it is and had plenty of effort put into it. The console simply couldn't handle the game.
- Downplayed in regards to the Nintendo 64 version known as Duke Nukem 64; It is still a good port because its great gameplay and controls are intact, it has a fun 4-player multiplayer mode, the blood hasn't been censored due to Nintendo being more lenient with blood than they were in their NES/Early SNES days, and being able to rescue women trapped in alien pods instead of killing them (not that it's possible to kill them in this port) is a welcome change. That being said, it has no in-game music (due to limited storage capacity on the cartridge), there is a minor audio glitch where, sometimes, when a player uses a Jetpack or Plasma Cannon, the item sounds get locked into a permanent loop that cannot be fixed unless you reset the game, and there's also some weird Expander sprite glitches strewn throughout the levels, which could have easily been corrected if anyone were paying attention during the porting process. However, while the Nintendo 64 port may be heavily censored, it features some new weapons such as the Akimbo MP5 SMGs, the Grenade Launcher, the SPAS-12 with the option of explosive rounds, the Missile Launcher, and the Plasma Cannon which functions similarly to the Plasma Rifle and the BFG 9000 from Doom. Duke is also able to rescue women trapped in alien pods in exchange for being immune to damage.
- Duke Nukem Total Meltdown on PlayStation has frame rate issues encountered during the game, grainy graphics, and limited control customization options. While there's in-game music, a hyped combination of bespoke and rearranged from the PC original it drones over you after several minutes becoming repetitive to listen to. Also, unless everyone has their own PlayStation console with a copy of the game, playing multiplayer is greatly limited because of the lack of split-screen support like in the Nintendo 64 version. Due to these factors, some fans consider the PlayStation port to be the worst of all the ports together.
- The PlayStation version did have a few upsides. It received praise for the much-upgraded music and sounds in general. It also updated the cinematics and added unique ones on each stage's completion which were not in the original game (although some cutscenes were shorter). The console-exclusive Plug N' Pray episode was also highly praised and eventually received a complete conversion to PC (something that takes a lot of effort to do perfectly and was done by dedicated fans). It also had a quicksave feature which was unique for consoles at the time since you could do it at any time. There was a Sega Saturn and Sega Genesis port which weren't able to handle the effects of Duke 3D well at all, understandably so for the Sega Genesis version. The Saturn port did have unique lighting effects with its engine though.
Although this game takes awhile to get going, it's well worth the effort. If you're a fan of FPS, or you just like good, different, entertaining video games: play it. It's nifty.