During my somewhat unfavorable review of Duke Nukem Forever, I compared the game a few times to Duke Nukem 3D. I was pretty adamant in my assertion that Duke 3D was a far better game than DNF. However, after that review hit, I couldn't help but wonder how much of my opinion was based on the merits of the game and how much was based on nostalgia. With that in mind, I'm playing through Duke Nukem 3D once more. While I'm using a source port ( EDuke32), I'm keeping it on software render in order to keep the experience as faithful to the original DOS version as possible. I'm playing on Come Get Some difficulty, which is the level which I played DNF.

Anyway, I've just completed the first episode of four, and here are my impressions. Lots of enemies to shoot keeps the proceedings busy, and Duke is nice and talkative. However, owing to the "collection of mazes" design idea of the time, it's easy at times to get lost. Thankfully, the environments are vibrant and colorful for the most part, so it's not critically boring until the last level of the episode, which mostly takes place in a mountain. The boss battle was actually quite simple, owing to the generous amount of RPG and Chaingun Cannon ammo in the chamber, though it may have been more of a pain in the ass if not for that nice portable medkit. Overall, Episode 1 was a good experience, living up to the fond memories.

I'm going to be doing blog posts about the other three episodes as I complete them, so as to keep my observations as fresh as possible, and finishing off with a full-on review of the game. Those of you who'd like to join me can pick up EDuke32 via the link earlier in the blog, and grab the game at GOG.com. Alternatively, the XBLA version of the game is the full Atomic Edition, so that one will work as well. Looking forward to seeing what you all think.