Time has not been kind to this ground-breaking FPS
Some games age better than others. FPS's can be separated into 2 visual categories: Pseudo-3D and Full 3D. Games like Goldeneye are fully 3D, while games like Doom 1 are pseudo 3D (they have 3D levels but 2D characters).
Pseudo 3D games do not age well, and Duke Nukem 3D is a stunning example of how a game can become a victim of changing conventions.... So lets begin the review!
Visuals: 2/5
Duke Nukem 3D looks absolutely dreadful. The world is rendered entirely in 3D, but the low level of detail and low resolution texture-work make this game look extremely bland and boring. The 2D enemy sprites change as you rotate around them, which looked good at the time of the game's release, but can cause a myrad of depth problems and ultimately will leave modern gamers rolling their eyes or simply laughing at the cheesiness of it all. To the game's credit, the 2D sprites are from very good pre-rendered 3D models, so they look very realistic, untill you move and notice that they are again just flat pictures.
Sound: 2/5
The sound quality is awful, there is really no way getting around it! The background music is nothing special, and the sound effects are a joke. What saves the sound in this game is Duke's banter. The Duke is an epic quote generator, it seems, because everything he says is downright memorable! The voice actor is perfect, and you will constantly press on through the game, just to see what he will say next.
Control: 4/5
The control is not really an issue, because you can customize the keys in a variety of ways.
Gameplay: 3/5
While fun at times, Duke Nukem is standard old-school FPS fare. Find a keycard, kill some bad guys, and find the switch that you have to press to beat the level. Yawn. what saves this game from getting a lower score is the guns, which are very imaginative, although some tend to be utterly pointless. The standard guns like the mini-gun and rocket launcher work well and actually feel pretty sweet. One gun allows you to shrink enemies down, allowing you to step on them and squish them with your size 12's. Another one lets you freeze enemies, allowing you to shatter them with a quick kick. On that note, more enemy variety would have been nice, although all the bases are covered here. Unfortunately the AI is quite dumb, they have absolutely no sense of self-preservation, and will take the quickest route to you and fire blindly at you. It doesn't make for engaging tactics.....
Story: 1/5
The game has no story....
Overall Score: 2.5 / 5
When I first played it, back in the day, I would have given this game at least a 4/5. Unfortunately, times have changed, and the stagnant and explicit FPS has become tired and cliche.
