Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever went on sale in Steam this week and I was able to snag the game and all of the DLC for just under $10. I always loved the series in my teens. Despite how awful the Duke Nukem games have been since Duke 3D and the horrible reviews Forever received, I decided the $10 was worth the risk. After being sucked into the game for at least two hours I realized that I should have never taken the reviews too seriously.


It turns out that Duke Nukem Forever is every bit of Duke Nukem I had hoped it would be and perhaps a little bit more. I would even be so bold as to say review critics and the general population of first person shooter aficionados judged the game way too harshly. I suppose due to the length of time it took for the game to finally release (something like 12 years) people could have expected something bleeding edge. I will give the critics so much as to say that it's not "next generation" quality. It is pretty damned close, however. The quality is more than adequate for what it is and the engine runs really well on my modest desktop. Perhaps people have been spoiled by the current bleeding edge market and have lost touch with games that do not take themselves too seriously. It's either that or people just don remember the original Duke 3D game well enough to recall what it was actually like front to back.

The game takes place 12 years after Duke's last major adventure. As the story unfolds you discover that Duke is now a celebrity and the Cycloids are visiting Earth for the first time in over a decade. Though they alledgedly come in peace, the Cycloid's ruse is inevitably blown when the visciously attack Duke's place of residence. Duke is thereby thrusted into another crazy alien blasting booby filled adventure.

While progressing through the game you can expect to find a myriad of pop culture references, crass (and sometimes downright rude) humor, babes and a familiar arsenal of weaponry. The large opposition of Cycloid enemies are easily identifiable with the baddies in Duke Nukem 3D. Granted, the use of the same guns of goons we've seen in the past is fairly unoriginal. The nostalgic value of mowing down pig cops with your ripper, however, is still extremely satisfying. To suppliment the classic elements in the game there are a number of new features such as the ego bar, minigames and (more) puzzles.


Your ego bar is essentially a shield. The more you get hurt, the more your ego is bruised. If you get pelted too many times without any ego left to sustain you then you will be defeated. Like most newer shooters, if you take cover for a long enough period of time your ego will replenish. Your maximum ego can be increased by finding easter eggs (most of which are amusing) or doing well in some of the minigames. Duke gets a fair bit of max ego for boss victories as well. Some of the more classic powerups are included in Duke Nukem Forever as well. These powerups include your night vision (built right into your sunglasses), holoduke, steroids and beer.

While the campaign is challenging enough, it can feel a bit too easy at times. Most of the puzzles make sense but a few of them feel a bit too obligatory. If you beat the campaign, however, you get to unlock an entire library of development photos, videos and even a nifty little timeline. I was actually really surprised to see that there wasn't really one game developed over the decade of production, but rather, several nearly complete games that were scrapped and started over. Overall the game is fairly action packed and filled with many cool, sexy, funny and epic situations. While this game is definitely not for everyone I highly recommend Duke fans give Duke Nukem Forever a try.