Well, after clocking in 10 hours of game time, I have finished Duke Nukem Forever’s single player campaign. What did I think of it? Well despite all the negativity surrounding the game, I fucking loved it.
Great plan Duke!
Surprised?
If you know me you wouldn’t be; I’ve been anticipating this game –if you’ll pardon the obvious choice of word here- forever. To have it finally in my hands and playable is amazing in itself. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the game though; after 14 years of development hype was high, and the question of whether the game could live up to it was on everyone’s lips.
With fourteen years of development, many people are expecting a marvel of technology that will redefine first person shooters and gaming itself. If you’re in that group, you’re going to be supremely disappointed. If you’re looking for the next story in Duke Nukem’s testosterone-soaked saga, I think you’ll enjoy this game.
The dumb bits.
As I said above, I love the game. However, that isn’t to say there isn’t anything wrong with it.
It seems that being in development for fourteen years, the game picked up some things it was never able to shake off. As an example, the animation of some non-player characters is unbearably stiff, and for me there was an extremely noticeable lack of iron sights on weapons, with only primitive aiming in it’s place. Also, it seems the developers have an inability to animate a jump that doesn’t look ridiculous.
While I’m sure some of these and more problems will be ironed out with game updates and user mods, it’s surprising no one looked at the game during it’s final stages of development and thought, “Hmm, maybe we should make some part of Duke’s upper body move when he leaps into the air.”
There are a few other things too.
The first part of the game is a rehash of the final boss fight from Duke Nukem 3D, which is understandably there to link the two games, and create a nostalgic feeling in fans. This all worked, but it also gave us an unfortunate taste of what every single boss battle would be like.
I remember how games used to be. You’d encounter the boss, and he’d only have one specific weak point for you to exploit, and you’d have to find it. Additionally, you’d have to use every single weapon at your disposal to try and eliminate him, often running out of ammo in the process. It was really hard, but fun.
It seems though, that as time has gone on developers have felt the hold our hands through these things and make them as easy, and in effect boring as possible. In Forever, you’ll find multiple rocket launchers lying around just before and during a boss fight. Additionally, there is almost always at least one crate of infinite ammo lying around nearby for use during the battle. Finally, all you need to do is keep firing at said boss enemies until they fall to the ground, at which point you run up and start what can only be called an “interactive cut scene”. Pressing space bar then spamming the action key will execute the boss in some particularly gory way. However, this cut scene just seems to kill any chance of immersion, as it feels like I’m simply watching someone else play the game for me.
Random out of context screenshot for your eyes to behold.
Fans shouldn’t care.
I’m sure there will be many many people who will glance at this game and sneer, before turning back and continuing their game of Medal of Infamous 2: Black Ops. However if you’re like me and a fan of Duke Nukem’s glory days, you’ll probably sit down and have a very different -and positive- reaction to the game.
The classic Nukem humour is there, with sexual innuendos wherever they can fit. Additionally, Duke takes every opportunity he can to poke fun at pop culture and other game franchises. My personal favourite is during a puzzle involving aligning pipes to eventually put out a fire by turning a valve and spraying water, to which Duke comments halfway through the process, “Oh man, I hate Valve puzzles.”
There are also a few inside jokes, but they’re more likely to have you smiling rather than on the floor laughing. When you stumble across the -fully functioning- pinball machine and start playing it, Duke says, “Now I have time to play with myself!”, which is a call back to Duke Nukem 3D, in which when you touch the -static- pinball machine, he proclaims, “Don’t have time to play with myself”. Jolly good.
Level design is the cliché style for running and gunning, giving us large areas with plenty of cover for large fights, and using the usual tricks for guiding the player through to the next area like arrows on walls and blocking off other routes with locked doors or debris.
The best levels though, were those that were more passive. Exploring Duke’s apartment and the strip club were some of the more immersive fun experiences. In these areas we encountered the distracting mini games like a game of pool, air hockey, pinball, and an odd variation of whack-a-mole called Alien Abortion. Surprisingly, it was these mini-games which held my attention the longest. Being able to play on a fully functional air hockey table against some random -computer controlled- character proved exceptionally fun, and losing at pinball while Duke proclaims loudly “I’ve got balls of fail,” was far too entertaining.
In retrospect, it’s these little things that help make the game great; the attention to detail. In Duke Nukem 3D, you were able to destroy toilets, bottles, hydrants, and pretty much every other piece of the environment that wasn’t a wall. While in Duke Nukem Forever there is far less things to “interact” with, those things that you can, are done so well with so much detail that it makes up for it. Basically, it annoyed me I couldn’t smash a pint glass, but I loved being able to play a complete game of pool, even if it was done somehow without the use of a pool cue.
Final thoughts.
When it comes to story, it’s there. However, it’s not necessary or important to know what’s going on. It’s the usual B Grade movie plot of aliens attacking and the one sexually charged hero standing up to them. Story isn’t what it has going for it. What it has going for it is a generally fun run and gun game with great one liners and scenes that will have you smirk in good humour, and sometimes in bad taste.
While I don’t agree with the $80 price tag, I do suggest playing the game when you can. Hopefully this isn’t Duke Nukem’s final outing, and we get another game. One that doesn’t take 14 years to be released.
Coincidently, someone I know has also written about Nukem, and you can read that here.
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