[NightFright]

OK, wrapping up 13 years of waiting in a few lines. That will be difficult. But I will try, anyway.

PLAYTIME:
First of all, I really took my time with the game. Didn't rush through, started on "Piece of Cake", tried to get as many achievements/EGO as possible etc. According to Steam, that sums up to 15 hours. Deducting ingame breaks, passages where I died often and when I just looked for more things to get achievements, I guess we can say it was about 12-13 hours. People who did it in half the time most likely haven't seen everything. I think all in all, playtime duration was decent, even if I had expected a little more.

TECHNOLOGICAL STUFF (GRAPHICS/SOUND):
I knew the visuals wouldn't be the greatest, and actually I didn't care about that so much. OK, it has to be admitted the quality of the visuals is mixed, with some textures being highres, many others pretty blurry. There weren't many different NPC models, you could see clones of them quite often. Also, the DOF effect was a pain. On the other hand, the game had some really nice and/or impressive areas, e.g. the strip club, the underwater level or the dam destruction sequence. Guess it is fair to say the visuals do their job, and personally I can say while it could have been much better, I also know it could have been much worse if they had not switched from the Quake 2 engine to Unreal. I liked the enemy models, and if some complain about their animations or whatever, all these should go back and play Duke3D with sprites.
Regarding sound, I thought the game didn't have 5.1 surround in the beginning. Really had to turn up my speaker volume and increase ingame volume as well to get the sound I needed. It somewhat got better later. Anyway, the Duke sayings were what really mattered to me, and they didn't disappoint. Still the same attitude, and excellently performed again by Jon St. John. ^^

EQUIPMENT:
The weapons are nice in general, even though I found myself using some more than others (Shotgun, Ripper, RPG), others less (Railgun, Shrinker, Freezer, Devastator --> not so often to be found, anyway) and some hardly at all (Trooper rifles, pistols). Trip bombs and pipe bombs only got rarely used by me, have to try them more often in the next playthrough. At least the important weapons look good, while the alien weapons are somewhat standard and IMHO not so needed. A great idea was to indicate thrown pipebombs, especially from enemies. In dark areas, it is hard to see them, and this helpful indicator surely saved my butt a few times by telling me it was indicated to run away.
Speaking of extras: The DukeVision was cool, especially since it is unlimited in usage (unlike in Duke3D where it ran out), the HoloDuke is a classic and fun to use, even though I just used it 2x in the whole game (could have done it more often, and will do next time), the Steroids are far more useful than before, while the Beer makes you stronger (but at the cost of blurred vision). These bonuses make sense and become more important on higher difficulty levels, they are certainly not pointless.

PLOT/ATMOSPHERE:
It was clear it was basically about Duke vs. aliens, so it's a miracle they bothered wrapping a story about this at all. After all, it serves its purpose, even though it is not really stuff for Hollywood. But we all know it isn't mean to be, it's about entertainment. Blowing up ugly aliens. Babes. Beer. Gambling. Blowing up more ugly aliens. The switch between battles and quiet exploration is well done. It's probably less action than in the previous Duke game, but this is not Duke3D any more - which should always be kept in mind.
The level design is cool, completely ignoring the linearity and anything people complain about. There are lots of different places to see and many opportunities to interact with the environment. Speaking of which, I enjoyed finding the stuff with which you could boost your EGO. It was also a nice idea of the designers to actually give you the opportunity to get the EGO you had eventually missed earlier on once more in a later level. Good thinking! I also found the achievements motivating and contributing to the overall gameplay experience. Some things I probably would not have done without them.
Atmosphere is great, shifting between some dark, almost Doom 3-like areas (The Hive even reminded me a little of HL2: Ep.2 when you gotta go into the Ant Lion lair), bright and colorful ones (e.g. the Lady Killer sequence) and pure fun sequences (the Titty City passage and the Duke Burger shrinkage fun being the most memorable ones). When the game goes underwater, it feels underwater, when you are sitting in a truck, it feels like a truck. There is so much you can do, and it is always fun to do it. The turret gun fights are a bit overused maybe, but they are in there to bring some variation into the otherwise straight-forward shooter movement. I found the idea to take a break from the action about mid-game with the strip club absolutely ingenious, giving you the opportunity to boost EGO, check out more babes and have a look into Duke's somewhat simple mind. To sum it up, I liked the way the game is presented to you.

LIMITATIONS/PROBLEMS:
Many people say they are bothered by the two-weapon system and want to carry all weapons. Well, problem is the game wasn't designed that way. If you are able to carry everything, you can for example have the Shrinker ready at any time to fight off Assault Commanders easily. But if you have to conserve ammo or have to look for the Shrinker first to have it ready when you need it, that is much more rewarding. I didn't mind this limitation, and it is not like you are not given enough ammo. There is lots of it actually. The other thing, the lack of a proper saving system, also didn't bother me. Checkpoints are fairly set, you are usually not thrown back much after having died. There were only few passages where I died frequently at first, e.g. in Underground Pt.2 with all the little Octabrains coming at you in the underwater turbine. Took me quite some time to find out how to beat that, but once you realize how it's done, it's easy. Finding cover to recover health is sometimes difficult, especially in the heat of battle, but often it doesn't take you more than a few tries to figure it out.

VERDICT:
Personally, I cannot say I have been disappointed by the game. It delivered, even though in a different way than I expected. It has a slower pace than its predecessor, it is more straight-forward and less strategic (considering the lack of keycards for example). But as I wrote above, this is not Duke Nukem 3D any more. It is a new title, and it is supposed to do things differently - otherwise we wouldn't need it! And we do. Ignore the technical aspects and just enjoy this. I don't want to give a rating for this since that is ridiculous IMHO. Like all of you, I have been waiting for this for a very long time, and I was basically glad I got to play it after all! I love it, and you should do the same. Additionally, there is apparently coming up more Duke our way, so we can hope for more to enjoy.

[Kathy]

The Hive sequence was pretty much a Prey clone. It even had ball to open alien doors as Prey had.

[JayceR]

A apologize for sounding bitchy in this post, but these are my honest opinions. After paying $60 for this game, I believe I am entitled to my own opinion. I realize that this might not be the most popular position on this site, and I am open to constructive debate here.

That being said...

Twelve fuckin' years my ass... this game was doomed to failure in 2009, surpassed in both graphics, gameplay, and wit by other games years before it. Its opportunity for success disappeared years ago with better puzzle-shooters like Half-Life and Portal on the market, as well as changing social attitudes on what is accepted as funny. What was laugh-out loud funny with the boys in the 90s is incredibly immature and sexist today, probably for good reasons. I know the game isn't Politically Correct by any means, and that's not a bad thing, but I'm sure not even today's 12-year olds (Who wouldn't know about the franchise anyways) would laugh at some of the "Humor" in this game... Cheap One-Liners ripped from 80s movies, Calling Master Chief a Pussy because he wears Armor, 69-bullet weapons, Throwing Feces, Subservient Sex-Slave Women, etc.

Gearbox knew the only reason people would spend $60 on this game is because of its reputation and hype. 3D Realms left them with an outdated Unreal Engine game that missed it's opportunity to innovate back in the early 2000s. According to the leaked plot documents from 2007, they cut roughly 1/3 of the single player out of the game, removing the character Bombshell entirely. They pieced together what was complete to form a somewhat-coherent plot, extending levels where needed.

Spoiler

They cut the game short after the Hoover Dam to battle a boss you already killed and the game ends with an ironic Nuclear Explosion death for Duke Nukem, in a 4-years-late Call of Duty 4 parody, as well as a 20-second Prerendered movie of Duke warping reality to bring himself back to life in order to run for president. No witty dialogue, no sexy party, very unsatisfactory.

When I was playing the game, there seemed to be a stark contrast between the 2 demo levels and the rest of the game.

Look at this shit, this wouldn't have been considered visually pleasing in 2006. It's true that graphics don't make a game, but they're still part of the whole package. This game uses the outdated Unreal Engine 2, which explains a lot, really. (UE2 was released in 2002) I've seen better-looking UDK freeware out there. To me, a company saying they don't care about graphics means they just didn't try, as shown here. Better graphics make for a more immersive experience and demonstrate technical progress and creativity. Good graphics don't have to render every hair on duke's head, in fact, Borderlands, another game by Gearbox, has a unique graphic style achieved through cel-shading, it pleases the eyes even though it's not that much of a technical achievement. I can't say the same about Duke Nukem Forever, where environments come in one of three flavors: Gears of War Brown, Sickly-Green, and Purplish-Gray. That's really all it comes down to, we don't even get to see the bright lights of Las Vegas at night, hell, it barely feels like Vegas at all. I've been there in real life, and aside from the Bellagio and Stratosphere parodies, I could hardly recognize "Las Vegas" as presented by this game. Also, there was this persistent screen flicker in the level "Vegas in Ruins", nothing too game-breaking, but it particularly annoyed me.

And before any of you "Unique Gameplay and Humor" people rage in this thread, I think the gameplay sucks too. The ego bar sounds like a cheap gimmick, but it's sadly the only unique thing to this game... and it sucks. As the escapist pointed out, you regain ego through cowardice, as in waiting for blood to dry off your face. This game is supposedly an attempt to break out of the formula that shooters have fallen into today and return to the glory days of Doom and Blood. Instead, it combines the worst of both worlds... retarded AI, 2 weapons at a time, scripted as hell, puzzles that are there to make the game feel longer, and frustrating first-person platforming. Boss fights are either circle-strafing fests or a reliance on some sort of unclever gimmick. The weapons are mostly satisfying to use, but most of the time you'll be using the unrealistically overpowered shotgun. To be fair, that was the case in 3D as well.

The story and humor, possibly this game's only saving grace, is an outdated mess of cliches, missed opportunities, and unfortunate implications. After the somewhat-entertaining remake of DN3D's stadium at the beginning, I'm being blown by two ditzy bimbos, a 12 year old's fantasy. You guys are gonna hate me for this, but after actually playing this game... I actually wish this game was boycotted by the Wal-Mart feminists. Women in this game are objects, badly rendered by UE2 of course... this game's only somewhat-human female, Bombshell, was removed from the game. I can't imagine her being too deep of a character, though. The only character I like in this game is Graves... not that this game had that many characters.

In the Duke Cave at the beginning, the president makes an interesting remark: Duke is a relic from another time who destroyed Los Angeles killing aliens with a strong sense of insecure machismo. Predictably, this doesn't fit in with our age of sophistication, rational thinking, and political correctness. This idea is never visited again, Duke being as infallible and one-sided as ever. The problem with this type of narrative is that with no formidable opponents or weaknesses the story starts to play out like an embellished Mary Sue fantasy. It's like a bad fanfic of Duke Nukem 3D.

I haven't played the multiplayer yet, but I've heard it's nothing special aside from "My Digs".

In conclusion, I am not satisfied with this game. I believe that Gearbox released whatever 3DR finished of DNF, cutting a lot of corners to make a quick buck. The only thing selling this game is nostalgia and the hype accumulated over its infamous development time. This is one of the worst non-shovelware games I've played since Sonic 2006. There's no possible way this game could live up to expectations, but it's much worse than that...this game is simply bad... in my opinion this game would've been better remembered as mysterious vaporware if it were to stay dead, but I guess curiosity killed the cat here.

[Mikko]

I agree with many of your points except these:

JayceR, on 14 June 2011 - 03:10 PM, said:

I'm being blown by two ditzy bimbos, a 12 year old's fantasy.

Lol, any grandpa would want that, not just 12-year olds.

Quote

You guys are gonna hate me for this, but after actually playing this game... I actually wish this game was boycotted by the Wal-Mart feminists. Women in this game are objects, badly rendered by UE2 of course...

So what if women are objectified in this game? There's no such a thing as politically correct Duke Nukem. Besides, isn't Duke himself a pretty sexist ideal of a man? I don't see men's rights groups objecting the game's portrayal of male characters.

[JayceR]

Lol, I didn't realize how gay I sounded saying that, no offense.

One more thing... this game's humor reminds me of a Seltzer and Friedberg movie. (Those terrible [Insert Genre Here] Movies)

[The Albino Ape]

The Hive level is brilliant, the atmosphere is creepy, and the Octabrains look awesome.

[Ronin]

Bam050196, on 14 June 2011 - 09:21 PM, said:

The Hive level is brilliant, the atmosphere is creepy, and the Octabrains look awesome.

Damn right it is, creeped me out big time, enjoyed it even more the second time on hard.

[Ronin]

JayceR, on 14 June 2011 - 03:10 PM, said:

The ego bar sounds like a cheap gimmick, but it's sadly the only unique thing to this game... and it sucks. As the escapist pointed out, you regain ego through cowardice, as in waiting for blood to dry off your face.

Not exactly if you are losing energy and you execute an enemy the ego go up making it worth it to run in and go Rambo. If you dont like it fair enough, but many do.

[YicklePigeon]

Okay, I completed the single player campaign a couple of days ago and the big question is "is it fun?" and the answer to that is "not quite".

The reasons why its "not quite" is because it does have its shining moments, the driving sections are mercifully short and whilst they are linear, you are never lost and the pace is kept up. The "Titty City" level is appropriately placed using the same plot mechanic (the main character is knocked into an unconcious state and goes into a dream world that is particular to their own lives/world, as a point of reference, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's third season episode "Distant Voices", the same plot mechanic is employed) as after all the fighting that the player has gone through, a break is deserved with the ability to interact with the games etc.

As for the oft-mentioned two weapon limit, just to get it out of the way, it is certainly in need of reworking to allow for melée combat (fists and boots, ala F.E.A.R.) and Duke's pistol to be permanent with two extra weapon slots for use as you see fit. That would work and would mean you would always have weapons at your disposal that are powerful in their own right. But that, for me, isn't my main concern.

My main concern is the way that a simple enough plot was mishandled (aliens fool the President, launch attack to get Duke out of retirement - for why we don't really know, just to tick him off doesn't seem good enough - take the babes, Duke only rescues one from peril in the entire game and that wasn't from the aliens, take on final boss, what's next? Why did the attack happen? It wasn't the world they were attacking, just places near enough to Duke to make him work for a living but not require him to use his frequent flyer miles), and yet what we were presented with was badly written dialogue (can Captain Dillon Tourettes be any more "wannabe hip" with his constant profanity? Something for the 14 year-olds of this world clearly) that rarely entertained (hence the term "badly") and either was terrible (e.g. conversational barks such as "Bitchin' threads maaaaaaaan!" geez...) or just about moved the plot along (e.g. General Graves' lines).

Do keep in mind that on here and on my Gamasutra blog I wrote similar, but different in tonality and purpose, articles-of-sorts before release. I wasn't expecting a great game by any means, but nor was I doing a Tim Buckley of Ctrl+Alt+Del fame with his DNF-related entry and to quote from his related news post:

[quote name='Tim Buckley]I can only imagine that the legend of the game... the stigma surrounding it's development saga is the only thing fueling the hype' date=' and ultimately, will be the primary thing that sells any copies of this game. Point of fact, that's why I bought it, expecting full well it would be trash. It's been such an industry joke for over a decade, myself guilty of making jokes about it, that it was mostly a morbid curiosity to see the thing to its conclusion, for better or worse.[/quote']

I don't have to agree with his sentiments but I can understand them. But his problem is the same as those expecting DNF to be a great game, Buckley expected it to be trash and it was for him. Others expect it to be great and it was great. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

For me, I didn't bother reading reviews as I was too busy playing the game itself. Ultimately, I felt like I was playing a mish-mash of shining moments and true brilliance mixed in with content that otherwise would have been cut or heavily remodelled. I can see the vision of sprawling levels with a linear progression as regards the story combined with a non-linear progression as regards the levels, the players being given choices on how to go about playing the game, problems not puzzles, a high-quality script with full dialogue trees integrated seamlessly into the action, the ability to actually save the babes instead of giving them mercy kills, the reinstatement of Gus and Bombshell, plotholes eliminated and a save system that actually is effective at saving the entire state of the current level and game!

Although most of that has been covered by a game released 11 years ago this month (and for the forum necromancer's out there, its currently June 2011 at the time of posting if you come to this thread many months later) and that game? Why of course its Deus Ex. And let's not forget the God Concept and Auto-Dynamic Difficulty being present in both Max Payne games and yet not in DNF when clearly the spikes in level difficulty and design required them, given the complaints of dying and reloading repeatedly and it was something I done too. And of course these bits of game design wisdom come straight from Scott Miller himself who, quite frankly, is a genius.

Then again, Starcraft 2 had a lot to live up to and that failed to a degree, especially with the continuity of the story from Starcraft: Broodwar. That being said, it wasn't a rumour of what was cut from Starcraft 2 and it suffered for it in my opinion (such as the removal of many a dialogue choice and only remnants of a possible mutiny being present on Raynor's ship by the time the final game shipped). But this is about DNF and not Starcraft 2.

All I can say for the single player campaign of DNF, is three things: play it anyway as there is fun to be had, lessons learned if you're coming at it from a game design standpoint and finally? Let us at the tools so we can fix this!

But what about multiplayer? Is that fun? Yes it is actually. It's very easy to jump into a game, start playing and learn the maps, and speaking of the maps, its almost impossible to camp for any real length of time because another player will kill you even with the pistol (which is a permanent fixture, if you run out of ammo you go to fists and you only have one spare weapon slot). All the weapons are powerful and all of them work best depending on the situation, but all are good to use regardless of the situation.

I can also see for why George Broussard has kept out of the limelight for the most part, not for the obvious speculation of having "failed" but because he knows the game could have been far more than what it was when Gearbox taken over and indeed, the game as it has turned out to be. Also, it should be said that I also bought Ghostbusters for the PC and why do I mention this? Because I bought it two days before the release of DNF and was playing it on Thursday 9th and even when I had DNF finally in my hands and actually playing the game, when I would get bored of it I would go play Ghostbusters and have my mind refreshed with well-written dialogue and solid enough gameplay that, whilst not brilliant, was very entertaining.

With regards,

Yickle

[blackandbright]

My review will become proper once I acually finish the game, but my opinion of it has been expressed elsewhwere.

So just for the moment by review will contain only postive little comments and nitpicks.

Referances, nods and winks for fans is so far the best part of the game.





Quick question: Can you at any point use an in-game PC to send real e-mail like the preview once said?

[YicklePigeon]

blackandbright, on 17 June 2011 - 05:05 AM, said:

Quick question: Can you at any point use an in-game PC to send real e-mail like the preview once said?

Nope, 'fraid not. Also, the vending machines - as you've more than likely noticed - don't have the touchscreens like they did in the 2001 E3 trailer, which is annoying shortcoming (for me anyway) given how many other working touchscreens there are.

Regards,

Yickle

[Malgon]

I remember when we were first told about the email thing, and thinking it was pretty impressive. Shame it didn't make it into the final version.

[randir14]

Sounds like what happened is you hyped DNF so much in your own mind that there was no possible way it could live up to your expectations. That's probably the same thing that happened to many of us, but now that the game is released we can all take it for what it is and either enjoy it or hate it. And I don't agree with some of your complaints, such as saying the enemies are worse than Duke3D. They're exactly the same for the most part, but with more abilities and better AI. For example Pigcops are now something to be feared especially on the harder difficulties. They can throw pipe bombs, retreat behind cover, or go berserk and charge you, kicking your ass if they get in melee range.

[Yatta]

Caine, on 19 June 2011 - 06:57 PM, said:

2001, wow this one blew everyone away i guess, fast paced action like we all expected and the promised crap GB told us (more on him later, he doesnt get respect from me just for his old work!) interactivity and so on. wow!

GB deserves not to be respected anymore for all his lies and bullshit, with his wrong promises. he just had a nice time in the past but i think DNF should have been better made a myth or be delayed again until they would have made a worthy successor.

I agree to the extent that he shortcomings of this game are George Broussard's fault.

I am grateful to Gearbox and the Triptych team, along with the old 3DR ex-employees, for the work they did to get this game out the door, but it could have been so much more if George Broussard hadn't been an asshole and didn't keep telling his employees to redo everything over and over again.

In short, I am happy to know that GB no longer controls the Duke franchise. The folks at Gearbox are amazing and we're lucky to know they'll be working on Duke 5. For the relatively short time that Gearbox got to work on DNF, they delivered something amazing that no one else could have created out of the alpha-level scraps George Broussard left behind for them.

In conclusion, George Broussard will go down in gaming history as one of the biggest fuck-ups of the industry. Also, the beauty of this forum is that you can rebuke me all you want if you disagree with my views on GB. I won't mind. I dislike George Broussard. Period.

[tryppy]

Obviously we don't have the same opinion on all fronts. Your personal opinion is your own but in no way am I disappointed in this game. What you need to accept is that this game is been in the making for years and give credit where credit is due. Most of us never thought we'd see the light at the end of the tunnel. There was always hope but really? Duke Nukem Forever? Most of us dreamed of this day. Coming from a hardcore Duke Nukem fan like myself, having played the originals before 3D and all mods/user maps I've been able to get my hands on, I can say that this game is great. It may not live up to all the hype but it's clearly a great duke game. I had fun playing it and have beat it twice already. On hard and INSANE. Beat it on INSANE and tell me this game is easy. Repetitive boss fights.. yes. But none the less, enjoyable.

I won't play you and say this game isn't without some flaws & the PR behind but they can be easily overlooked considering the development process and all the comedic and nostalgic factor is there. Remember that this is 3D Realms vision. Maybe you'll prefer the Gearbox adaptation once it's released. Maybe we all will. Though this game, is iconic in it's own way.

The main gripe i have about this game is that there's no modem sounds when connecting to multiplayer. ( I kid, I kid)

I miss my old 14.4, 33.6 and 56K modem tones

If I can say one thing about DNF it's that I have not, or will not ever regret buying this game and supporting Duke Nukem.

Balls of Steel baby.

[Yatta]

I should add that I agree completely with Tryppy. I don't understand the hate this game gets despite its flaws. It's still a good game.

I believe that all hatred and negativity should be directed at George Broussard rather than the game itself. To quote Tryppy, we should "give credit where credit is due."

[Draythianna]

I really don't understand why this game is rated so low. God has none of these reviewers played something like Ubersoldier or Mortry 2. The 2.5 rating is lower then the atari game ET got that ended up in mass landfills, I don't see that happenining with duke, so i think some people have some biased or rediculous expectations. I rather liked it, a few improvements wouldn't be hurting but its a good game not a POS!

[MetHy]

This game is fucking awesome.

I already beat it twice, both on Come Get Some, second time doing the Gunslinger achievement which is the only interesting achievement of the game.
and now I just started my third playthrough on Damn I'm Good this time.

Yes the game is modern : modern health and weapon system, modern level design.
But it's still everything that makes Duke awesome.

When you think about it DNF is to modern FPS games what Duke3D was to FPS of the early/mid 90's. Duke3D was copying the gameplay of Doom while being the Duke and a lot of awesome things like interactivity, and being in a alien, city, or canyon theme maps, strippers, humour, kicking alien asses, etc. The same applies to DNF except that you gotta replace "Doom" by [insert-modern-FPS-name-here]

So, to summarize once again, DNF is to modern FPS what Duke3D was to FPS of the early/mid 90's, and the only reason why DNF isn't as good as Duke3D is because modern FPS just aren't as good as FPS of the early/mid 90's.

In other notes :
- freezegun >>>>>> freezeray (the freezeray shouldn't even exist in the first place, what were they thinking?!)
- I love the mirror mode
- the battles with turrets again battleships are way too unforgiving on Damn I'm Good
- the action is much better after the first playthrough, when you know weapons and enemies better so you need to take less cover and can more jump in the action.
- I love the minigames and the driving parts
-I hope there is DLC and I hope it takes place in space

My expectations were really low yet now I'm on my 3rd playthrough in a row (it's pretty much the only thing I've been playing since it came out) and I just can't get bored of it.

[Sinisterambo]

^ Troll?

[MetHy]

After reading most posts in this thread, what I understand the less is the nitpicking about graphics. People say it's not technically up to date, that level design is very uneven, etc

Once again the same applies to DN3D. Technically speaking DN3D was a lot inferior to Quake and even games that were released YEARS before like Terminator Future Shock which was already in full3D and had HUGE levels.
Level design is very uneven in DN3D as well, lot's of places are a lot less detailed than others, and DN3D is filled with things such as misaligned textures everywhere.

That doesn't prevent both games (DN3D and DNF) from looking great.

Besides kick-ass Doom-like gameplay, what made DN3D awesome was the interactivity, the themes of levels, the humour, the aliens, the babes, etc
DNF has all of the same, except the Doom-like gameplay, and instead it has modern FPS gameplay, which obviously doesn't kick as much ass.

[Mikko]

MetHy, on 22 June 2011 - 12:32 PM, said:

Once again the same applies to DN3D. Technically speaking DN3D was a lot inferior to Quake

This comparison would have a point if Duke3D had been released several years after Quake. It was released a month before; Quake revolutionized graphics after Duke3D had been released.

Duke3D also had interesting urban levels that stood in stark contrast to Quake's generic medieval locations. DNF does not excel in the level design department at all.

[Fox Mulder]

Malgon, on 17 June 2011 - 05:41 PM, said:

I remember when we were first told about the email thing, and thinking it was pretty impressive. Shame it didn't make it into the final version.

The touchscreen animation and some texture for the mail thingy it's still in the game. In one of the podcasts it was mentioned something like they removed it because some developer used it to joke spam the hell out of other DNF developers.

[X-Vector]

Mikko_Sandt, on 22 June 2011 - 12:45 PM, said:

This comparison would have a point if Duke3D had been released several years after Quake. It was released a month before.

More like six months, actually:

http://www.mobygames...3d/release-info
http://rome.ro/smf/i...8&topic=4374.15

[Mikko]

X-Vector, on 23 June 2011 - 03:44 AM, said:

More like six months, actually:

http://www.mobygames...3d/release-info
http://rome.ro/smf/i...8&topic=4374.15

Yeah, if we go by the shareware version's release date.

[kaisersoze]

Here's my review/opinion/take on Duke Nukem Forever.

I have finished the single player campaign for "Duke Nukem Forever" and have waited a few days to let the experience sink in.

Here's my setup:

Gateway DX desktop running Intel Core 2 quad cpu 6600 @ 2.4ghz
64 bit Windows Vista Home Premium
6 gig ram
Nvidia GTX 460
Viewsonic VX2250 22" LED Full HD 1080p monitor
Razer Deathadder gaming mouse
Razer Lycosa gaming keyboard

Played the game at everything max settings.

This will be my review of the game.

2 major things bothered me with the final game. I bet you know what they are.......or do you?

The best way I can sum up the experience with Duke Nukem Forever is that we expected too much and we were promised too much(and then much of what was promised or talked about was *NOT* delivered). Mash this together and you get a fairly straightforward, fun game that could have been so much more. Make no mistake, the game is *fun*. It's just nowhere near revolutionary and that's the problem. It was touted as the "next big thing" in what a fps would be capable of and instead we got a fairly standard fps with the Duke character.

One of the keys features touted that would have made "Duke Nukem Forever" revolutionary was the "insane interactivity" that was promised. This was *NOT* delivered. Yes, you can play a fully functioning pinball game. You can play pool albeit *not* with a cue stick but an odd interface with you simply hitting a button to launch the balls.You can play air hockey. You can play slot machines and poker machines. You can flip light switches, turn faucets on and off and look at yourself in the mirror. You can pick up frisbees to throw. Check answering machine messages. Newsflash: You could do almost all of that stuff in "PREY" that was released a few years back as well.

So where does that leave the interactivity? You can find a rat or popcorn to put in a microwave to cook. That's pretty much the "deepest" interactive feature of the game. You can't even turn on the coffee pots! You can go up to a computer and look at racy pictures and view videocamera feeds.

During the development process, George Broussard said that one of the reasons the game was taking as long as it was, was due to the "insane interactivity" in each level. It's already been quoted elsewhere but we were basically told that if you could see it in a level, you could probably shoot it, operate it, destroy it, pick it up, etc.

This is nowhere near the case sadly. I ran into garbage cans that couldn't be moved or picked up. I couldn't pick up a cue stick for a game of pool even though you see them on the wall! I couldn't shoot poker chips or even move them !

During the development process, players could access in- game computers and send out an email to a real life computer/person. This was sadly scrapped and never made it in game. That's an example of revolutionary interactivity!

Insane interactivity-a broken promise?

Another area of the game I found unneccesary was the graphic sexual stuff. I simply don't need or care for having to find a stripper's dildo or condoms(especially when Duke just stuck his junk in a gloryhole to get blown by some unknown woman). I don't need to see *** stained couches, Duke dropping constant f-bombs, incestuous lesbian sisters wiping ***/saliva off their mouths....it's just over-the-top and goes full porno which 3drealms said they weren't going to do. Maybe it's because I'm months away from turning 40 and I'm a cranky "old guy" but I don't think the graphic stuff is needed.

Anyways...

Another broken promise?

Sure, Duke3D had "adult" content but it was playful innuendo and hints. The graphic sexual stuff harms the
Duke character imo. We know he loves women. That's been established long ago.

I'd much prefer to hear Duke say "I'd bang that out!" and get a laugh out of it rather then see him getting sucked off in a first person viewpoint or gloryhole. It's not needed.

So those were my two major issues with the game. The extremely limited interactivity and the sexual stuff.

Thought it was the 2 weapon carry limit and ego health? While I don't like the idea of the 2 weapon carry limit for Duke(it simply doesn't fit his character...if he can bench press 600 pounds, he can carry all those weapons! haha) I didn't find the system *that* bad during the course of the actual game. I'd prefer a weapon wheel(it's Duke Nukem-I want to USE ALL THE WEAPONS I COME ACROSS) but the 2 weapon at a time limit is nowhere near a deal breaker for the game imo. Same with ego health. I do think it makes you run away from enemies which again doesn't fit Duke's character but it still wasn't a deal breaker. I'd have preferred med packs or med stations to heal.

Now the good stuff. The gunplay is great. I had a ton of fun fighting the pigcops, octabrains, bosses, etc. Animation is superb here. Really top notch stuff imo. The AI for the most part does the job but there were times when I encountered what seemed to be broken or glitched ai pathing where enemies were running in place or simply not moving because of a trigger not going off....I don't know.

The graphics on the PC version of the game are just fine. Turning "post processing" off actually seemed to give a better look to the game. While this is a review of the PC version, the Xbox 360 port is pretty crappy imo. The texture work, framerate issues and such really don't do any favors for the game and I suspect this is why the game is being slaughtered in the reviews.

Trust me, the difference between a maxed out DNF at 1080p on my computer next to my Xbox 360 DNF is night and day. The PC version simply destroys it.

It runs great, has rock solid, high framerates and some really nice graphic touches. While we aren't getting Crysis 2 type visuals, the game gives us some good stuff to look at.

Attention to detail seems pretty good. I love the Duke artwork on the pottery/vases in the casino. The presidential emblem on the cigars(wink to Clinton) etc.

The single player campaign is a good size for a fps. My steam stats say it took 11.7 hours to finish it. Obviously, your mileage may vary.

The game's story is pretty straightforward. I wasn't going into this expecting a "Heavy Rain" type script. Aliens attack. Duke fights them. It works for me.

I actually think the flow of the levels seems fine. There's been critcism of the game feeling like it was just "thrown together" with random levels "glued together". I call bullshit. The story ties in with the levels and everything progresses just fine. I'm sure this is where Gearbox had to step up to get it all together but their job here is commendable. I had no problems following the story and each level made sense. Well, except for "Titty City" but I guess 3drealms had to throw strippers in the game somewhere. It's Duke Nukem afterall.

Sound effects, music and voice acting is fine. Nothing groundbreaking but it gets the job done.

Most of the humor was great. I loved seeing the pigcops playing in mud, the pigcop shutting an automatic door on another pigcop accidentally killing him. The lizard troopers using Duke's punching bag and lifting weights. That's classic stuff there and totally nails what a Duke game should feature.

Boss fights are fun and there are some good set pieces.

Overall, it was a fun game but didn't deliver what I and many others thought it would-a revolutionary gaming experience.

Spoiler

7/10

Utmost respect to Triptych for not giving up! You guys rock! Mad props to Gearbox/Randy for stepping up to rescue Duke. I expect BIG things out of your next Duke game Gearbox!

Kudos to George, Scott and 3drealms for simply not giving up and cancelling the game when that would have been the easy way out.

Thanks to everyone else who took the journey with us over the course of 14 years.

And so we BEGIN AGAIN. The wait for Duke Nukem 5.........

:dukeking:

[Kathy]

kaisersoze, on 23 June 2011 - 09:57 PM, said:

I don't need to see *** stained couches, Duke dropping constant f-bombs, incestuous lesbian sisters wiping ***/saliva off their mouths....it's just over-the-top and goes full porno which 3drealms said they weren't going to do.

Oh, come on. Full porno is dick going into cunt. DNF didn't have neither of those. But I do agree that there shouldn't have been glory hole and blow job. Nudity is ok, but not the actual sexual actions during the play. Yet it was not that of a big deal for me.

[Mikko]

kaisersoze, on 23 June 2011 - 09:57 PM, said:

Another area of the game I found unneccesary was the graphic sexual stuff. I simply don't need or care for having to find a stripper's dildo or condoms(especially when Duke just stuck his junk in a gloryhole to get blown by some unknown woman). I don't need to see *** stained couches, Duke dropping constant f-bombs, incestuous lesbian sisters wiping ***/saliva off their mouths....it's just over-the-top and goes full porno which 3drealms said they weren't going to do. Maybe it's because I'm months away from turning 40 and I'm a cranky "old guy" but I don't think the graphic stuff is needed.
...
Sure, Duke3D had "adult" content but it was playful innuendo and hints. The graphic sexual stuff harms the
Duke character imo. We know he loves women. That's been established long ago.

I'd much prefer to hear Duke say "I'd bang that out!" and get a laugh out of it rather then see him getting sucked off in a first person viewpoint or gloryhole. It's not needed.

You're missing the fact that the sexual content in Duke3D that seems pretty harmless today ("playful innuendo and hints") was a lot more "shocking" back then. No doubt they wanted to shock again, which necessitated them to up the ante. The same bag of trick would've seemed lame and stale. The fact that you reacted to it the way you did is evidence that the more aggressive content worked the way it was supposed to. I'm definitely glad they went nearly overboard with sexual content.

[Hank]

Done. 39 hours of fun and entertainment. 50/39 = 1.3 dollars per hour of play. It was worth it methinks. The catch, I'm old school, and I am not too keen on linear game play, so I won't play it again until I'm in the mood for it.

Should I give a blow by blow what is so cool? Well, no. It would spoil another one's experience. Try the demo, see it for yourself. - It's Duke; wacky, perverse, funny and deadly. There is no other game like it.

No rating. I have no other game to compare it with, to be honest.

[Fox]

Overall you can have fun playing Duke Nukem Forever, but there is something strange. Here are the cons I have with the game:

The gameplay isn't memorable mostly because of the linear levels. There is always only one path. It's impossible to fully explore a level, since you are always reduced to an specific area.

The level design seems rather an disappointment for a sequel of Duke Nukem 3D. The levels mostly consists of small corridors. You quickly get bored of tech bases of slime themed locations. And even when you are in an open area of a city, you are limited to a specific road (which feels a lot like a corridor by the way). There isn't any real gameplay involving a city building nor there are space levels. At some point the maps began to look very generic, with the same steel boxes over and over...

While Duke Nukem 3D had plenty of puzzles, they were just part of the fun, Duke Nukem Forever instead keep you most of the time solving puzzles rather than killing aliens. Besides, the game seems too easy, even on the hardest skill level.

I would like to ask what is the deal with the self-healing health. Why are there so many "Ego" increasing interactive objects if you can heal yourself? Perhaps I am missing something. But the impression I have is that the self-healing stuff was a decision made in the last hour, and maybe that's why the enemies looks so tough, to maintain the balance.

Talking about the strength of the enemies, at first the monsters seems too tough, one melee hit of a Pigcop and you are near death. However the monsters are also very out-numbered. Usually you will face a group of 2 or 3 enemies in the worst case. The boss fights aren't a challange either.

The weapon system is very odd. If the 2 weapons limit was meant to make the game more realistic, it failed on that, since now we have tons of weapons behind each rock on middle of a desert. Besides I don't understand why you must switch beetween the primary weapon using the same key, this causes too much confusion while a default keyboard can handle 10 key assigned weapons. For me it seems like that was meant to work for consoles and they keep the same for the PC.

Talking about consoles, it seems like the game would work much better in a console. Unlike PC shooters, the game don't focus much on aiming at the enemy in real-time while you try to dodge his attacks (unless you are against a 30 feet tall alien). Instead the game drives you to some kind of trick to kill the enemies (i.e. using the Plasma Rifle at long range). The boss fights looks more like a hide and seek game. And that's very weird since Duke Nukem was born in PC.

The loading time takes too long. It wouldn't be such a problem wasn't for the graphics supposedly being out-dated (not that I care myself much about that), and that's some very strange result. It becomes a real problem to die in the game, since whenever you jumped at the wrong time you must wait 2 minutes to restart.

My conclusion is that the game could be epic, but there have been some very wrong choices and lack of planning in the development (despite the decade it took to develop).

[Tea Monster]

I was approaching this game in the attitude that it was not going to be cutting edge, that it, in no way, shape or form could live up to all the hype and expectation that had been generated over the last 14 years. I even thought that it might be a complete clanger - it dosen't go through 14 years of developement without there being something seriously wrong with the production.

Was it worth 14 years of waiting? Hell no. Was it fun? Yes. Was it good? With reservations, yeah.

It felt very unfinished. There were loads of strange little glitches, the animation on the monsters and on Duke was just dire. Why can't the President look you in the eye, even though he's screaming at you? Not just straight in the eye, but sort of 20 degrees to the left of where you are standing. The 2-weapon thing didn't really bother me. It didn't work, as it was strange and didn't seem to affect the gameplay at all. I played loads of games on consoles and they have more than two weapons. No idea whatsoever why they did this. Part of the fun of the old Duke was that you had a variety of choices on how to dispatch an enemy.

Another strangeness is the save-game system. Yeah, modern games have save points, but modern games don't have long and involved processes to kill bosses like this game does. This really pissed me off more than anything else. It's like nobody play-tested the game in 14 years. They got a load of stuff from modern games and just jumbled it in without thought of making it fit into the game, or how it affected how the game played.

A lot of stuff felt borrowed, not just adapted, but directly copied. Everytime I came across a Physics puzzle, you could almost see someone at 3DR playing Half Life 2 and saying "This is so cool, we've got to have this in Duke!" I was writing a shopping list in my head of all the different bits of different games that they had put into DNF. The really big problem was, that as I was playing the game, I realized that in looking for great things in other games, over the 14 years, they had lost sight of what made Duke3D great in the first place. A lot of the fun was gone, replaced by Over the top soft porn. The whole tone and feel of the game is right off. The empregnated women are more realistic now, they are no longer 64 pixels wide and for Duke to say 'There's nothing I can do for you now baby' and shoot them feels very very wrong. The level design is completely lacking as well. There is nothing like 'The Abyss' in DNF. Nothing even remotely like it, and that is sad.

Putting all that to one side, I do have to say that the gameplay generally was a lot of fun. The Boss fights were very old school and some of the hardest I've played. It was great to play some new Duke. The game was a challenge and had a lot of good laughs on the way. I thought that the 'story' seemed to play out pretty well. This is a shooter after all, and isn't going to win any storytelling awards.

The new monsters play well. The Fat Commander's slicing attack is pretty cool and the way Octos chuck stuff back at you is very entertaining. Chuck a pipebomb at an Octobrain, see it thinking "Yeah, you ain't gonna like this meatbag" as it winds up for the pitch-back. Detonate pipe-bomb. Repeat. It never gets old.

Recap:

GOOD:
- Challenging gameplay
- Loads of fun on the journey
- New Octos rule.
- Old-school monster battles

BAD:
- No secrets or adventures on levels
- This is a shooter, not a soft porn flick.
- Bad choice of 'modern game features' included
- feels unfinished

Rating: 7/10