Duke Nukem Forever – in 3D!
Duke Nukem Forever – Dissecting the Game
Dissecting this game is something that no reviewer should do. Duke Nukem Forever was so delayed in development that it has become a parody of itself. Fortunately, it absolutely does not take itself seriously. The player should also attempt the same suspension of critical disbelief to enter the Duke’s anachronistic world of the 1990s and to simply have fun with it even though the game intends to offend – although in a juvenile non-malicious way, poking fun at everything (including itself).
As a “mindless over-the-top” shooter, it succeeds in many ways as the older games it also pays homage to. It is similar in many ways to the Serious Sam “Stone” series where the over-the-top action is the draw leading the player on through the game world maps – blowing up enemy NPCs that are also incredibly over-the-top with some heavy duty fire-power wielded by You the Hero. And there is usually quite a bit of satisfaction by dispatching NPCs in various ways as you execute, run over or blow them up.
Sometimes it requires that you execute your enemies, up close and personal. Tap ‘space’ repeatedly is often used to break free or to punch when up close to an enemy.
As you are hanging over the city of Las Vegas, you must continuously punch your enemy.
The execution is satisfying and in 3D Vision, the bits splatter right at you much more effectively than in 2D; if you want gross, it is amplified in S3D. And of course, the Duke – ala Riddick-style – uses his now dead enemy to cushion the landing shock and to ride into the next map and into the next challenge in the Duke Diner. As you can see, the Duke is now a popular action figure in his own fast food franchise.
The game settings are varied enough to retain the player’s interest and the objectives are usually quite clear. And of course, the ever-present (although well-hidden) arrows pointing you in the right direction and glowing golden objects to interact with make solving puzzles generally quite easy.
Duke Nukem Forever also rips on other games – especially the Half Life series. When our hero encounters a puzzle which involves moving pipes to direct steam away from the safe passage, he snarls in a double entendre, “I hate Valve puzzles”. And of course, there are forklift puzzles and rides. The comical twist with the forklift is that you are now encouraged to mow down your heavily armed enemies in your path with it.
Of course, the adventure getting to the dam would not be complete without a 4-wheel monster truck rampage reminiscent of Borderlands driving and turbo-jumping sans shooting weapons (with the twist that the truck is the weapon), and you have an alien worm hole to deal with that is spawning enemies.
Remember Half Life 2’s wormhole (top)? Duke Nukem Forever is not to be outdone; you need to close it by blowing up Hoover dam!
Of course you get there in Duke style – with the monster truck, Mighty Foot – it is itself a weapon that crushes heavily armed enemies in its path, clears major obstructions, turbo-jumps gorges, and it spins on a dime. The Mighty Foot controls are excellent and it a a high point of the game. And one of the truly funny parts of the game is when you run out of gas and you then have to quest for a 5 gallon can of gas; unfortunately, the devs repeat the joke at least three times which spoils the fun.
There is an alien shrinking device and you get the perspective of being very tiny where you must also avoid being stepped on by the (to you) now giant aliens. There is also a puzzle element built in and you have to know when to be big and when to be small to solve objectives. However, none of the puzzles are hard. Notice the shark; a nod to BioShock, perhaps.
One annoyance is that a clever theme is repeated – over-and-over, as with the vehicles. Driving the big Mighty Foot is fun, but racing along inside the casinos in a RTC is tedious in comparison. And of course, you also have to remotely control a RTC to solve a puzzle.
Forcing open a door by tapping space repeatedly is logical once or twice – but doing this for every stuck door borders on irritation.
The game setting – Sin City.
Duke Nukem Forever has turned out to be a recreation of a franchise of one of the most popular licensed PC games ever created. Because of its legal troubles and hence incredibly long development cycle, it is very much caught in a 1990’s time warp and it attempts to make the best of it while still remaining true to its roots as a first person over-the-top heavy-action (mindless) shooter in the tradition of the earlier Duke games.
The continued Las Vegas setting is brilliant and it makes full use of it as “Sin City”
Part of the joy in playing Duke Nukem Forever is in its attention to the smallest of details. When you go on a very adult dream quest for a stripper – which lampoons the silly quests (as well as dream sequences) in other games – you not only have to get popcorn for her munchies, you have to actually wait for the popcorn to swell and pop in the microwave oven before you can deliver it. Afterward, the reward is a lap dance which is “enhanced” by Nvidia’s 3D Vision. It is a definite “guilty pleasure” and adult only.
The pinball machine is a game in itself and you can interact with it to boost your ego if you do well; if not, it’s “Balls of failure” for you in the Duke’s words. And there is also a fully functional pool table and there are working slot machines in the casino that can be addictive.
The settings for Las Vegas are quite varied, from the spectacular views of Duke’s penthouse and interior detailing to destroyed Las Vegas. There is a lot of toilet-type humor that is popular in modern youth-oriented films. This scene might just remind you of the opening of Half-life 2. Perhaps not.
The interiors are detailed nicely.
The Duke eschews body armor (“Body armor is for pussies”, he growls to a special forces guy in full body armor) in favor of his giant Ego acting as a shield for him. Instead of the health system, Duke Nukem Forever employs a system involving an ego meter represented by a segmented bar. The ego bar depletes when Nukem is attacked; once it is fully depleted, Nukem is susceptible to damage. If the player avoids further damage the ego bar is restored, as is Nukem’s health.
The player can increase the size of the ego bar (thus increasing the amount of damage Nukem can take) by interacting with certain items throughout the game (including the toilet, a mirror, weights, pool table and pinball machine), and by defeating bosses. The game employs a saving system that is solely based on checkpoints which are placed reasonably often.
The game doesn’t give you much choice how to proceed; most of the action is to “Rambo” and rush the enemy alien NPCs, and occasionally they will take you down by sheer numbers – not brilliant AI – the first time until you learn their sequences and you will probably have to start over from the checkpoint. It is not a difficult game on easy or normal and checkpoints are numerous and spaced logically. Best of all, you can skip cutscenes. Loading on the PC version is very quick and you are back into the action in no time when you die and respawn.
The Story and the Gameplay
Duke Nukem Forever’s setting takes place about twelve years after the events of Duke Nukem 3D. Duke is now a worldwide icon, and has achieved great fame from his heroism in saving the planet. There is even a museum dedicated to him and his deeds at his Las Vegas hotel headquarters.
Duke Nukem Forever opens by sampling a video game based on the Duke’s past heroics (the game you are playing as Duke is actually a remade version of the final level of Duke Nukem 3D)
After reliving past glories and being appreciated by your pop star girlfriends, the Holsom twins. you travel through your penthouse and interact with a rich environment including the (well done) pool table and later a pinball machine you can tilt and there are even slot machines to play in the casinos you visit. Some of these interactions will boost your ego and will help you take less damage from enemy NPCs as your Duke’s giant ego absorbs the blows.
The pool table is quite playable and it can give the player as much diversion as they wish. The same thing can happen with the pinball machine and with slot machines.
Part of what makes Duke Nukem Forever likeable is the interaction in the opening chapters. You have a whiteboard to write on and can do the same thing in autographing your fan’s book about you.
The books opens and you can write on it much as you did on the whiteboard and you get to see that same fan later on and will meet his mother
You will even get to save who looks to be her sister in an elevator puzzle.
Hearing the NPC’s humorous comments about you and listening in on them in their daily conversations provided many laugh out loud moments as this one compliments your insane strategy.
There are mothership battles and battles with enough different types of enemy NPCs and enemy bosses to keep the action varied and interesting,
Duke Nukem Forever is an action-oriented first-person shooter – with the emphasis on action. Players take control of the Duke as they navigate through the levels. The gameplay is similar in some respects to the first-person shooter games of the late 1990s and early 2000s, with each level finishing with a battle in which the Duke has to fight and kill a large alien boss.
Duke Nukem Forever gameplay is relatively varied for a shooter. There are over a dozen enemies and a half dozen unique bosses. Weapons are also varied, well over a dozen to choose from – from the pistol (and you can get achievements by using only the pistol) to the RPG (rocket-propelled grenade launcher) and freeze and shrink-ray weapons with the caveat that you can only carry 2 weapons at a time and you must pick up ammo as it is depleted. Pipe bombs and laser tripwires are not limited by this weapons restriction.
Items that have an effect on the Duke are picked up by the player. These items include steroids, beer, and a holoduke. Steroids increase the strength of the Duke’s melee fist attacks and for a limited time he takes no damage. Beer makes Nukem more resistant to damage, but it blurs the screen and makes it difficult to see. Another of Duke’s weapons is the holoduke which creates a hologram of Duke Nukem that distracts the enemy. While the holoduke effect is working, Nukem becomes invisible and the NPCs do not attack him, instead focusing on the hologram. The holoduke even has some of the Duke’s even more twisted sayings and the jetpack is seen only in multiplayer.
There is also DukeVision which allows the Duke to see in pitch-black areas very much like Riddick in his Escape from Butcher Bay series.
It’s time to wrap it up and conclude our evaluation of Duke Nukem Forever – in 3D.
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