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    Duke Nukem Forever

    Game » consists of 14 releases. Released Jun 14, 2011

    After approximately fourteen years of development, the heavily infamous sequel to Duke Nukem 3D was finally released, in which the macho Duke must damper yet another alien invasion.

    zdarkmessiah's Duke Nukem Forever (Xbox 360) review

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    Duke Nukem Forever Review: Fail to the King Baby

    After 14 years in development and becoming a long running joke, Duke Nukem Forever has actually released and is on store shelves. Its been a long time since 1997, so how has the icon of shooting games that was Duke transitioned into the modern scene? Sadly the answer is horribly. 

     
    This should have been a fun fight
    This should have been a fun fight

     The story of Duke Nukem Forever is simple: the aliens Duke defeated years before are back under suspicious circumstances, and it quickly becomes apparent that they want our women. Clearly only Duke is entitled to own the women of Earth, and so begins his quest to stop the aliens again. Aside from this outline there is no story. You go from location to location as if by accident, blundering your way through the areas the game takes place in. The cast consist of a few recurring soldiers, some civilians and the President and a General. The aptly named holsom twins, Mary and Kate, and Duke himself round out the roster. There is no narrative to follow, no clear scope or perspective on events. Its just Duke killing enemies in a mindless orgy with some naked women at points. The game does do a funny job of establishing Duke as the pre-eminent world figure at the start. He has his own Vegas penthouse, a pair of twins who are his sex slaves and is by all accounts a sex god. 


    Duke Nukem Forever is an ugly game. The graphics are very poor, with resolutions being outright bad and textures completely lacking detail and pop-in is rife. The character models are animated in an archaic way that reminds me of games I played on the N64 in the 90’s. The game lacks colour throughout, being primarily brown, metallic and dark corridor environments, none of which are visually appealing. To make matters worse, the screen looks like it is covered in grease for most of the outdoor scenes. All improvements made to lighting effects in games in the last 5 years are absent here. Explosions look like dull fireworks and particle effects are absent. The environmental interactions also animate poorly. There is nothing impressive or meritorious about the visuals in Duke Nukem Forever. 


    The sound design is poor in the game, with the sounds of weapons akin to toys. The enemies all sound awful, failing to imitate anything like living creatures or seeming to pose a threat. The music is ok for capturing the over the top image of Duke, but its nothing special. The soundtrack is forgettable and comes no were near helping to redeem this game. 

     
    I hope you like turret sequences
    I hope you like turret sequences

     Voice acing is very poor, with only Duke himself being ok. He is suitably cheesy, but all the other characters are awful. Duke says a lot of one liners aimed at objectifying women, talking himself up, increasing his ego and some comments at current games. The game pokes fun at Valve, Halo and Gears, though funnily enough its far worse than any of these. A lot of the script Duke has is just not that funny, with a lot of the decent lines being ruined by the adverts for the game. The rest of the lines are not even jokes, just direct quotes from films that are completely out of place and not entertaining. For example, Duke says “America, fuck yea” after his commanding officer mentions America. Its not an intelligent parody of the films line, its just a direct insertion. Its bad writing, and creatively is bankrupt. 


    The core gameplay is even poor. Its a linear corridor shooter, but includes some modern shooter aspects that are roughly rammed into the game. Your ego serves as your regenerating health bar, you can only carry 2 weapons and there is some dual wielding. So, instead of staying true to its legacy, Duke Nukem has sold out on the mechanical front. However, the shooting is unsatisfying. Enemies fall apart in janky animations when you blow them up. There is a lot of cover use when it really does not suit this game. The way you progress through levels is very poor, with too much back tracking. The weapon selection is decent, with some fun weapons like the shrink ray and freeze gun. However, because the games bosses can only be hurt by explosives and you are limited to 2 weapons you will rarely get to use the fun weapons. 


    There are a lot of padding sections in this game. You are forced to do first person platforming. At times Duke is shrunken down and made to jump from box to box and solve physics puzzles in a game that has a terrible physics engine. There are lengthy driving sections, and an entire level that you spend swimming. Its an archaic and unfocused design, and it makes you feel it. Turret sections are also common, grinding any fun that you were having to an abrupt halt. Its a linear game and all that these sections do is serve to prolong the pain. There are numerous times that you can interact with the environments. This includes playing pool, throwing poo from the toilet, pissing into cubicles and playing pinball or drawing on white boards. I think that the developers would have been better spending their time making the core game work rather than making all these side activities half work. 


    The game is crippled by its HORRENDOUS load times. Expect to spend 40 seconds to 1 minute on a load screen between every level and after each death. Frame rate issues and pop-in are rampant, and even screen tearing rears its ugly head. Duke Nukem Forever is a long game, running at around 10 hours. The problem is its too long, and much of this is artificial padding. The side stuff is all bad, and the variety in levels is poor. The multiplayer is minimalistic, with 10 maps and only the most basic modes available. It is also destroyed by technical issues, and will quickly die in terms of its community. The game had huge potential for boss fights, but they are all boring and repetitive. The last boss is a harder version of the first, and the ending is a slap in the face, and the game knows it as Duke even says “what kind of shit ending is that”. 

     
    The Holsom twins know their place.....
    The Holsom twins know their place.....

      

      At the end of the day, Duke Nukem Forever is a monotonous and linear game. It has frustrating and unsatisfying combat. The enemies are the exact same as the last Duke Nukem game. The game really feels like it suffered an unfocused development cycle, with very different teams working on it. It never really settles on a single tone, wildly jumping between themes and moods from area to area. Its a disjointed mess of a campaign, and its clear that the best parts of the game are the ones that were carefully chosen for demo to the public, and the rest are close to broken. This game should have been left cancelled, and at its best moments it only reaches average. If this series is continued then the next game needs to be a lot more creative and playable than this disaster. I think that the worst condemnation I can give this game is that for a game aiming to be so bombastic and over the top, its a chore to play and is just boring. 


     

     
    Pros: 
    • Some funny scenes and moments
    • It actually came out
    • Music is good for capturing the absurdity of Duke
    • The interactions with whiteboards etc are a nice touch
     
    Cons: 
    • Load times are HORRENDOUS
    • Weapons feel like toys
    • Abandons carrying multiple weapons
    • Enemy variety is poor
    • Most of the jokes are poorly used quotes from films, and are not funny
    • Too much pointless padding
    • First person platforming is horrible
    • Level design is absurdly linear
    • Animations are archaic
    • Lighting and sound design leave a lot to be desired
    • Multiplayer is poor
    • Unfocused game that fails to stick with a tone for its campaign
    • Boss fights are bad
     
    Wtf: 
    • Christian Bale jokes and the soon to be infamous rape chamber
     
    Score: 
    • 3/10
    Really should have had more polish and basic functionality. 

    Other reviews for Duke Nukem Forever (Xbox 360)

      Duke is Back, and He's Gotten Old 0

      I'm sure there's a joke about size not mattering I'm missing here. Duke Nukem Forever is finally out. That is a statement that most gamers thought they would never hear. After being stuck in development limbo for 14 years, becoming a running joke in the gaming world, and even being cancelled at one point, the long awaited sequel to Duke Nukem 3D is available on store shelves thanks to Gearbox Software picking up the reins from former developer 3D Relams. Unfortunately, the tale of the game’s bi...

      6 out of 10 found this review helpful.

      Well, it's a game. 0

      Duke Nukem Forever excels at one specific thing: Making the act of alien genocide fun as hell. All of the weapons have a great feel to them, and even the starting pistol packs a punch. Unfortunately, Duke Nukem Forever really wants you to do things other than shoot aliens, and that's it's biggest downfall.  12 years after the events of Duke Nukem 3D, Duke is now a mega-celebrity. Girls want him, guys want to be him. About 5 minutes after pressing start, aliens invade earth, steal our chicks, and...

      3 out of 4 found this review helpful.

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