Duke Nukem Forever

A million years ago in 1996, an fps came out of nowhere to change the rules and shake everything up, Duke Nukem 3D. The Duke brought with him: swearing, comedy, and nudity - all things greatly lacking in fps’s of the day. Of course the game became a cult classic and legions of fans began pulling at their hair day in and day out for a sequel.    

Fast forward to 2011 and Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) is just now hitting the shelves, and well, it isn’t the best game ever... it isn't the worst either, mostly its just too bad the game didn’t release a lot earlier. Without further ado, Let's Rock!    
   

The Bad:

• The graphics and character animations, especially for Duke are severely outdated
• On the PC it defiantly has frame-rate issues in heavy load situations, with lots of enemies and or explosions
• Logic or Physics puzzles that have been done to death by other games
• It's so over the top "Duke Nukem" it feels like 1996 again 

The Good:   

• Gaining Ego (shield) points by doing "Duke Actions"  
• Customizable Duke Penthouse for multiplayer, gain levels in MP to unlock furniture, babes, and artwork.
• It's so over the top "Duke Nukem" it feels like 1996 again.  

It's hard to talk about Duke Nukem without completely slamming it, you can have a good time with it, probably 10-15 hours for single-player, depending on how hard you try to get all the Ego boosts.   The level design can be a little confusing. Most of the actual game play sequences are fun but not well paced. The game is liberally peppered with turret, or driving sections, few are frustrating in spots but not challenging. The spots where you play as a shrunken Duke are hit or miss, you might find it funny or you might not. Bosses are not interesting, they feel repetitive and only mildly satisfying.  

So much of the game falls into the middle, I keep coming back to the thought that Duke Nukem Forever is somehow less than the sum of its parts. In some ways it’s wonderful fun to be Duke, but it’s really like playing the bad character in an RPG, unless you really are that person in real life (hope not!) you'll have to bend quite a bit. Duke is extremely offensive, degrading, objectifying... he is Duke Nukem.    

If DNF had been released 5 or more years ago, we would forgive its problems in a heart beat. We would praise its debauchery and lewdness (I know some still will and there’s nothing wrong with that). We would line up shouting “Hail to the King, Baby”. 

Here and now in June of 2011 DNF is mostly a middle of the road, rehashed shooter that is largely either bad or at best straight up forgettable. It can fun to be Duke, but that’s really about it.