Welcome back Quacken! Looking forward for your rest write-ups, especially the Nuclear Winter one!
Speaking of which, yesterday was the 25th anniversary of
Duke: Nuclear Winter (NWINTER.GRP is dated 15/12/1997) and have been playing through all 3 versions (DOS, Megaton, NW+) as of lately, just to give an in-depth review.
Introduction
Nuclear Winter is the second of the big three Duke Nukem 3D addons/expansions, released in December 1997. The first one is Duke It Out In D.C. (released in February/March 1997) and the third one is Duke Caribbean: Life's a Beach (released in January 1998).
I will not repeat myself with stuff I've already stated previously, so I will describe a couple things about the addon and the versions available.
Nuclear Winter was strictly designed for Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition (v1.5 recommended). It includes a special launcher (screenshots included) that will launch the game and it actually manages to remove episodes 3 and 4 from the menu (leaving only L.A. Meltdown and Nuclear Winter to be selected in the original DOS version). This only happens if the original Atomic 1.5 demos are left playing in the background, as if you choose to remove them and allow the new demos exclusive to NW to play in background, then you get 5 episodes listed in the menu! That's right, you can check the screenshots below if you don't believe me.
In that case, Episodes 3 and 4 will remain invisible in the menu but still selectable (as has been the case with other mods/TCs that remove episodes from the menu, such as LR&WB and JJDuke) and the new User Map episode (which normally shows up in vanilla Duke3D v1.4/v1.5 only when running an User Map), will show up with the choice to play the same map as the current demo running. It seems a bit strange but my guess is when they recorded the demos, they played them as user maps instead of playing them as levels found in the episode.
There are two new cutscenes (intro and ending), as well as a new intermission screen (with Duke staying in front of a Christmas tree) and a new ending screen based off the original Episode 2 ending. In original DOS version and source ports, the intro cutscene is the first thing that is displayed when the game is starting but in Megaton Edition, the intro cutscene plays immediately after you start a new game.
There are three new demos included (in the NWINTER.GRP, they only play after you delete the original demos from your NWINTER directory), the first demo shows E2L6 (Christmas Village), the second demo shows E2L2 (Where It All Began) and the third demo shows E2L1 (Deja Vu). All demos end with the player dying/getting frozen, although the first demo seems to end up shortly after the player already dies, so it may have gotten desync. One of the demos also showcases one of NW's faulty con changes, Duke's jumping/falling sprite getting replaced with a TV dancing babe texture. This probably still happens in Megaton and was only fixed in NW+. There are a lot more issues about NW that will get explained later. Now I will explain the new content:
There are 8 levels in total (E2L1-E2L8), the first 7 are the main SP maps and the 8th map is a short DM map (meant for the Santamatch mode) that was actually recycled from Duke Zone II's E1L7. It's normally inaccessible but with command line parameters or DNSCOTTY208 cheat, you can access it. The demo version of the addon includes a modified version of the first level (without a proper exit) and also the DM level which is probably the same as in the full version, so as a small curiosity, you can check the demo version for a slightly different first level. Unlike Duke It Out In D.C., the demo version of first level is NOT included in the full game's data, so it has to be downloaded separately.
There are a couple new enemies and destroyable decorations, such as Christmas trees that spawn a random item if you are lucky. Only some Xmas trees are destroyable and they can spawn the following (from worst to best): Shit, Steroids, Armor, Atomic Health. They appear in most levels and it is highly encouraged to smash them because the extra health and armor will always be appreciated, while steroids will come handy against a certain enemy introduced later on (or rather a rare variant of it, see below for more information).
The new enemies exclusive to NW include: Grunt, Groan, Snowman, Flying Frosty, Frosted Battle Mobile and Santa Claws.
Most of the other enemies are reskinned vanilla Duke3D enemies, some are wearing different outfits/santa hats and have different sprites/attacks but there are some brand new ones as well. Some of these new ones don't actually replace existing enemies, even though some of the original Duke3D/Atomic enemies are absent (Mini Battlelord and Protector Drone for example). The pig cops now use different tiles and if a pig cop (tile 2000) was originally placed in the map, he gets converted into the SANTA boss, so to make the existing maps functional, other Pig Cop tiles are used instead! This was changed/fixed in NW+ and I am not exactly sure why they insisted on using Pig Cop's main tile as the Santa boss.
The reskinned commander (Flying Frosty) is now firing freeze rays at the player and he fires them in quick succession, so they can deal heavy damage. There are some important notes regarding this enemy:
-If you get frozen, you will have 1 HP left and provided enemies don't fire at you during that time to destroy you, you will most likely get frozen again or even killed after thawing. Not to mention the player's armor (if any) will disappear upon getting frozen, so it's not worth continuing the game like that. Consider yourself dead and reload the last saved game. In NW+, if you get frozen and the flying frosty is near you, he will smash you with its melee attack!
-If you care about getting 100% kills, THEN PLEASE DO NOT USE THE FREEZETHROWER AGAINST THEM! Although you get the freezer later in the episode, you should keep this in mind. If the enemy gets hit by too many freeze rays (whether it's your attack or theirs), then the enemy will become
INVINCIBLE and unaffected by any of the weapons! It may still be crushed by a door, though I haven't personally tested this. And don't forget that their own freeze ray attacks can also turn them invincible (due to shots bouncing), so try killing them as fast as possible! If you got the glitch with the invincible Flying Frosty, then reload your saved game or if you don't care about 100% kills, ignore him entirely. Hopefully he won't chase you through the whole level. This was thankfully fixed in NW+.
-One of the death frames is missing, which results in him disappearing for a split-second. This was fixed in NW+ which now contains a new unique frame added to his death.
-In NW+, the Flying Frosties are a lot more aggressive and instead of just firing 1-2 or even 3 projectiles, they fire up to 5 in a quick succession, so they can deal a shit ton of damage to you. They were already a bit of a pain by default, so don't underestimate them!
The reskinned pig tank (Frosted Battle Mobile) is nearly identical to the original Pig Cop Tank, even including the self-destruct "button" on the back (just push when they are their backs turned at you). The only difference is they now sometimes drop a snowman instead of a pig cop, for obvious reasons. Oh and this self-destruct trick was removed in NW+, so this trick is only useful if playing the original version of Nuclear Winter (DOS, Megaton, etc).
The new elves are packed with rapid-firing uzis (doing as much damage as the enforcer's chaingun) or with shotguns (nearly doing as much damage as the pig cop's shotgun). However, there exist rare variants of the uzi elves that fire rapid fire SHRINKERS at you, so be careful! These rare variants are mostly found in the penultimate level but they also seem to appear on levels 3 and 5. The two types of elves are described below:
-The Grunt is the one firing dual uzis at you. They have 35 health and sometimes drop presents upon death, which when unwrapped, can contain either a Shotgun (10 shells) or a Chaingun (50 bullets). In the original version, they deal only 5 damage (comparable to the enforcer) but in NW+, they deal 8 damage, comparable to the player's chaingun, so keep that in mind!
-The Groan is the one firing shotgun at you. They have 50 health and sometimes drop presents upon death, which when unwrapped, can contain either a Large Medkit (30 health) or a full armor pickup (100 armor). Their shotgun seems slightly weaker overall in the original release but in NW+, their shotguns are on par with the pig cop's shotgun in terms of damage output.
The snowman enemy (which also appears as the story teller in the intro and ending cutscenes) is more of an annoyance than anything, he has 70 health (usually killed with a single full shotgun blast) and is stationary but he throws snowballs at a rapid firing rate. Every time you get hit, you lose 10 health and the view shakes a bit (this annoying effect is removed in Megaton and NW+, Megaton entirely removes the fall damage effect too).
The new Santa Claus boss (aka Santa Claws) has 2500 health and a variety of attacks (Quick Kick, Shotgun, Chaingun and RPG). More details later in the last level.
I will not mention where most secrets are found, as it is already covered right here on Steam:
https://steamcommuni...s/?id=141417357
I will mostly provide a short walkthrough, tips and other interesting trivia. Let's begin with Nuclear Winter review!
Deja Vu
The first level begins with a remixed E1L2: Red Light District from the original game. This time, it is played backwards and most of places should already be familiar with you.
When you first start, don't forget to get the nearby Medkit secret as well. Grab the shotgun, flip the switch and prepare for two ambushing enforcers (one will jump towards you, the other will be inside the main room). As usual, kill the bastards, collect all the goodies and the secrets.
Before you get out of the room, I highly advice you to break the Xmas tree. It will spawn a random item. It can be either poop (worst outcome), steroids (it's better than nothing and will especially be useful later in the episode), armor (very much needed in this case when you have no armor at all) or even an atomic health (always appreciated). But since there are plenty of atomic healths, what you really want now is to get an armor because while you get two armor pickups later in the level, you need one ASAP! If you don't mind saving/loading a bit, you can always save before breaking the Xmas tree and then load if you get a result you don't like. You should get a different thing spawned each time, though obviously the better rewards have a lower chance to spawn, so it may take a couple tries.
After finishing with this room, now visit the rest rooms and kill the aliens. In the bar, there is now a new atomic health secret with that machine. I recommend saving here, so you don't get trapped inside (though it hasn't happened as of lately, it happened in past). Getting this secret will spawn three troopers in the other room. Kill them and the two pig cops waiting near yellow card door (pray you get some used armor if you didn't get lucky with the Xmas tree), then go back and grab the yellow card behind the barricade. Go towards the slime tunnel, grab the goodies (jetpack, etc) and kill the slimers. Then submerge in acid to get the extra atomic health. You will have to endure the slime damage because the Protective Boots are NOWHERE to be found in the entire episode! Go back with your jetpack and now prepare to insert the yellow card to access the outside area. You should have around 180-200 health at this point (whether you have any armor or not, is pretty much luck based at this point). Have your medkit selected and SAVE!
What you are about to encounter in the next area, are tons of snowmen of all types and there are plenty of them! They do a shit ton of damage and even with lots of health, you will probably get low on health quickly. You can try getting behind the snowmobile and activate the non-existent self-destruct button, which works in original DOS version and Megaton Edition but this doesn't work in the NW+ version. Have your RPG ready and pray you don't take too much damage or else you are screwed! Armor will be a very big help but still doesn't guarantee easily making it out of this battle if you are careless and tank too much damage. And the reasons is that the snowmen are very accurate with their snowballs, which makes the "headbob" effect when you get hit by them (though this effect was removed from both Megaton and NW+ as stated above). Although they only do 10 damage, they do it in quick succession, so don't go near them, they don't attack you at long range but if they are nearby, they seem to hit you even through doors/walls.
And finally, you've got to deal with the reskinned commander, Flying Frosty. He fires freeze ray projectiles, which will obviously freeze you if you get hit at low health. The worst thing is that your armor (if any) disappears completely and in NW+, they even fire multiple projectiles at you and have a melee attack added that will smash you if they get close to you while you are frozen (in vanilla and Megaton, they will simply wait until you get unfrozen and then attack you again). But the worst thing is that there is a glitch where they will become INVINCIBLE upon taking too many freezer hits and yes this applies to their own projectiles as well that get bounced back at them. This happens rarely but if it happens, then you are screwed, as that enemy becomes invincible and nothing will affect him, except maybe crushing him under a door. This glitch was thankfully fixed in NW+ where they are immune to Freezethrower by default. Yes I had to mention this again as it's a game breaking bug!
Anyway, after clearing the entire area with the evil snowmen, collect that armor pickup (or if you are quick, grab it before fighting, using the jetpack as soon as you unlock the door) and advance. The bookstore section is also a bit tricky with many pig cops and enforcers. There is another xmas tree you can break here and another one upstairs after taking the hidden elevator inside the bathroom. After that, there will be some explosions, kill the enforcers, grab the red key and go to unlock the exit.
If you want to get all the kills, make sure to backtrack as some enemies may have spawned in some areas near beginning, if you happened to miss one or two. And don't forget that there is a pig cop that is unreachable normally. He is found at the very end, at the other side of the building, requiring 1-2 RPG shots to take him out with splash damage. This is because part of the next level was copied but they forgot to remove the pig cop and other unreachable items. Another silly mistake, I know. It was most likely fixed in NW+.
The DEMO version of the level doesn't feature an actual exit, instead you get that panel/sign that tells you to buy the full version. I don't think there are any other changes in the level compared to the full version.
Overall, it was an interesting take of Red Light District with a snowy theme but it could have been done and balanced much better, with introducing the flying frosty and the snowmobile in the next level.
Where It All Began
As you may have expected, the next level is now inspired by the original E1L1: Hollywood Holocaust. And sure enough, it's as good as the previous level, actually no, I think this level is slightly better and I think revisiting E1L1 in a snowy theme was a lot more interesting overall, so why wasn't this the first level? It was more interesting and much better balanced. Plus you get to fight those little elves wielding uzis and shotguns, which were completely absent in the first level and would have worked better as low/mid tier enemy compared to those tough snowmen. They can do a moderate amount of damage but they also sometimes drop presents when killed. The uzi elf drops a present either containing a Shotgun or a Chaingun. And the shotgun elf drops a present either containing Armor or Large Medkit. Oh and you can find carolers that you can kill and Duke will say "Damn, that was annoying!" which while funny, it seems a bit odd that Duke would kill random civilians just because he found them annoying. Seems a bit out of character here.
Anyway, kill the evil snowmen, explore the buildings, find secrets and the exit, which as you guessed, it is located where you originally started Hollywood Holocaust. It requires a jetpack though and you can find two inside secret areas (technically the first one is now part of the level progression and the second one isn't inside an actual secret area and it requires you to first use an existing jetpack to reach it) and a third one given right here to finish the level. However, in NW+, the third jetpack is changed into a different variant containing 10% fuel (from what I read recently in the Nuclear Winter Plus topic, it was a planned feature in original NW). But make sure to NOT grab it if you already have a jetpack (or grab it and then grab another full jetpack) because IT WILL REPLACE YOUR EXISTING JETPACK WITH THE 10% ONE!!! It is consumed quickly and if you fail to get to the exit, you will be unable to exit the level. Of course, the same can be said if you run out of fuel from the regular jetpacks as well but I find it annoying that a jetpack with 10% fuel will replace your existing jetpack that can have a lot more fuel (even a full 100% one apparently). It's quite odd.
Also in NW+, I noticed that fence inside the theater has disappeared, while in vanilla/Megaton it is present. EDuke32 r9297 (latest 2020 build) bug or NW+ bug? I will have to test this later in different EDuke32 builds without NW+ loaded and report to the NW Plus topic if needed.
Inside the theater, don't blow up the Christmas tree if you want to reach one of the secrets, though jetpack will still help you get there (it was tricky to reach in EDuke32 r9297 due to clipping changes, turning off the jetpack helped reach inside). Oh and inside the room where you originally found the shotgun, you will instead find THREE Trip Mines (weapons) which are the ONLY ones you will find in the entire episode. Not that the trip mines are any help but this had to be mentioned anyway.
There is a switch on the other side of the fence (where you get the red card) that will open/close the curtains but also glitch the current opened door, so don't mess with that switch!
Once you explored the whole map, use your jetpack to fly to where the start was originally found to advance to the next map. Also it appears there were only two atomic healths and I happened to grab one earlier, so I didn't have 200 health for the next level in the DOS playthrough. Oh and don't forget that the armor secret in front of theater expects you to jump inside that window to register the secret!
Overall, it was an interesting take of the original Hollywood Holocaust and I wonder what it could have been if Nuclear Winter was just a repurposed Episode 1? Would it have been better received or still be criticized as a lazy excuse?
Land of Forgotten Toys
This level starts you under attack from a few snowmen and one elf, so be prepared! After taking them out, don't forget to grab the nearby Chaingun secret, which is the ONLY secret available in the map. There are a few other "unofficial" secret (or hidden) areas that will be mentioned here.
After clearing the starting area, go underwater, kill a few sharks, resurface into the next area, take down the elves and now you have FOUR paths to choose. One path that leads to the next part of the level, requires ALL THREE ACCESS CARDS, which as you may have guessed, are into the three other areas. It doesn't matter what order you take them. I would personally suggest going from hardest to easiest:
1) Go the path that leads to pig cops and other enemies. Then go right but WATCH OUT FOR TRIPMINES! Approach them and wait until all of them are activated. Toss a pipebomb and then step back in case the pipebomb gets detonated by the trip mines. I recommend saving before and after. Then approach slowly the next area which is tricky. From the above, a few troopers, a Flying Frosty, a turret and pig cop will be waiting for you. Kill them and jump on those steps. In the next area, TWO Snow mobiles and a bunch of elves are awaiting you. Take your RPG or try approaching those snowmobiles from behind to destroy them quickly (vanilla/Megaton). Watch for the extra snowmen that will appear if they survive the explosion. Collect the atomic health on roof (or save it for later if you want to start next level with 200 health), now approach the next part carefully because ANOTHER set of tripmines are awaiting you. Again, wait until all tripmines are activated. Now throw a pipebomb and stand back just in case. After that, approach the door, kill the uzi elf and grab the Red Card.
2) Go to Mediocre Linguini Land (Linguini was fixed into Linguine in NW+). You have to drop down some tubes, inspired by E3L10: Tier Drops. Kill the enemies (both in the main room and the ones situated on each floor) and use the jetpack to minimize the fall damage. You must choose the right pipe to advance or else you get sent to either the initial room or the exact same room. Use your AUTOMAP to look at the pipes you've already visited. Once you reached the bottom, you will see Mario playing Mario Kart and the Blue Card sitting next to him. Grab it and three troopers will spawn. Then drop down to reach the starting area. As a bonus challenge, try to explore all tubes. Again, use your AUTOMAP to see if you've explored each one. There are 10 tubes in total if I'm not mistaken.
3) Go to the teleporter to access a place inspired by DOOM E1M1. Only half of the level is "playable", so just kill the sentry drones, turrets and elves, grab the Yellow Card, jump outside the window to fight more elves and to collect your first Shrinker (and Expander ammo).
After you've done that, go to the fourth path, kill more enemies, insert all 3 keys and prepare for the next trickier parts. There will be some elves that even shoot SHRINK RAYS at you (just like in one later level), so kill them with RPG from far away before they approach you. Then you've got to wait for about 3 hiding Flying Frosties. These are bastards and I even got on my most recent NW playthrough (in DOS) the glitch with invincible flying frosty. I had to load the saved game because goodbye 100% kills and I won't allow this to happen. There were no doors either to try to squish them, so at this point just load your saved game.
After you cleared the entire area, you can drop down to grab a full jetpack and more goodies. You can use the jetpack to fly over the waterfall and collect some extra Shrinker ammo. This path was blocked off in NW+, so you can't grab the Shrinker ammo anymore. Looking in Mapster, there seems to be an atomic health located there as well but due to being assigned a pal 21, it doesn't appear in Single Player. Thankfully, there is another atomic health later on that's spawned into the map, which allows you to complete the level with 200 health. Oh and armor is only available in the DOOM E1M1 Easter Egg room, though you can get more armor pickups if you are lucky with the pig cops/shotgun elves dropping some for you.
After crossing the bridge, kill the enemies, then take the elevator, grab the Devastator but also watch out for SIX enforcers that will spawn in! Select your chaingun and start shooting them. You will notice a large medkit spawned near you and on the other side of the tunnel, an atomic health spawned (again, it's best kept for the end if playing continuously). Kill another bunch of enemies in next room and the level is done. Backtrack if needed to grab all supplies.
Overall, the level was kinda meh but definitely had some neat Easter Eggs and some great ideas that could have been executed better. At least there is continuity to the next level.
Santa's Corporate HQ
Probably one of the most interesting levels in the episode (but still by no means perfect and has a few flaws as well), this one will give you some enjoyment. But I must warn that this level is quite difficult, due to being packed with many enemies and it's not generous on armor pickups. The only armor you will get is dropped from pig cops, contained inside presents dropped by shotgun elves or contained inside SOME BREAKABLE XMAS TREES! Not all Xmas trees are breakable in this map, for better or for worse. This minimizes your chances to get some extra armor/health and if you are really unlucky, all you will get from those few trees are shits and steroids, none of which are any help in this map (there are no Shrinker elves and Steroids aren't helpful to be used anywhere in this map). At least the level is generous with health pickups, though some are contained nearby each other that is difficult to avoid picking up an unneeded one by accident (e.g. grabbing two medkits at 60% health). The Portable Medkit will come handy when there is no health around nearby.
As for the actual level, I don't have much to explain about it because it is difficult to write a walkthrough, so I will only point some highlights:
-There are two sneaky pig cops shooting behind the curtains at some point in the map. They are located near the locked door requiring the blue card, in the corridor with the reflective floors (which is a nice detail). Use your RPG to quickly get rid of them to avoid having a surprise when approaching the curtain.
-There are three atomic healths present in the map, one at beginning, one at halfway point in the map (near the waterfall containing a secret with Devastator inside) and one near the exit.
-When inserting the yellow card, you will see four switches. I believe only one or two are required for progression, though nothing stops you to push them all. Just be warned that each one spawns an Uzi Elf behind you, so every time you press a switch, turn around and kill that pesky spawned elf.
-When grabbing the red card, THREE Flying Frosties will spawn nearby. Have your Shrinker selected to get rid of them quickly.
-When approaching one of the places containing a Portable Medkit, FIVE enforcers will spawn in the nearby room.
Oh and a note for completionists, it is IMPOSSIBLE to get ALL kills in the original version of NW (DOS and Megaton) because there are seemingly two non-existent enemies out there. You should get around 68-69 kills maximum but also two missed enemies somewhere. I remember reading an explanation about this before but I can't find the topic right now (I couldn't find anything mentioned in the Duke Nuclear Winter Plus topic) and I know for sure it was fixed in NW+ because in that playthrough, I had no enemies missed.
Overall, it is probably the most interesting level in the entire episode, mostly because of the nicely looking interiors but the annoying bugs/glitches and the combat leaves a bit to be desired. Also there seems to be a little bit of continuity to next level.
The Backdoor
This is probably the weakest level in the entire episode. It feels unfinished and has some really annoying bits. Oh and there are two inactive Flying Frosties at the beginning of the level, though thankfully they don't affect the kill count and they were fixed in NW+ (so they can be fought), alongside adding a 10% jetpack at the bottom which didn't exist in vanilla/Megaton.
As for the actual level, you have to look out for trip mine traps. There are plenty of traps in the whole level and one of them is right at beginning when getting to the shotgun. Just approach them, wait until all activate, throw a pipebomb and detonate them. They should also detonate some more hidden trip mines inside the actual secret place (containing RPG and Atomic Health). Oh and don't forget the first secret at the very beginning, a Scuba Gear! It is the only scuba gear in the episode and it's only effective in this level due to having to do quite a bit of swimming and fighting enemies underwater.
When you are ready, drop down and fight a few more pig cops. There is a switch that will help you reach the third secret (an atomic health), though you can easily reach it with the jetpack. Look around in the room and inspect the corners, as there is an armor pickup misplaced and easy to miss. Afterwards, submerge into water and kill the sharks and octabrains. There is a hidden Portable Medkit in a dark corner. Looking at Mapster, they intended to tag this secret but due to not being possible to tag secrets underwater in Duke3D, it is not registered as an actual secret but you can see they tried when the sector is tagged 32767,2. For reference, underwater tags are set to 2 and secret tags are set to 32767. I'm guessing they set the HiTag to 32767 and the LoTag to 2?
Anyway, go to the next corridor and you will find the first Freezer + ammo. I suggest not using the Freezer right now, keep it for later because you can only find limited ammo for it (if you never use it, you will have 99 ammo for it). I wish the Freezer was given earlier and more ammo for it. After all, this episode is supposed to be winter-themed, right?
Now when surfacing, be careful of elves waiting for you but ALSO Trip Mine traps. As before, just surface and then immediately submerge. Most of them should have already been killed by trip mines. Be careful when surfacing as other trip mines may detonate too.
After clearing this corridor and grabbing the shrinker, go to the next area. There are a bunch of elves and going around the corner, you can find the last secret: a drunken elf and a Portable Medkit. The drunken elf is hilarious because when you kick him, he dies and makes the same noise as a trooper dying.
After that, go back and go upstairs but watch for a single trip mine being set up. Detonate it and then advance by clearing the corridors with enemies. You will also come across a Christmas tree (there is another one slightly later in this map). Break the tree and hope you get something nice. After that, continue going until you come across a Shrinker ammo but DON'T GRAB it yet as there is yet another trip mine trap (3 trip mines). Blow them up carefully and continue going. Eventually you will reach the top with a bunch more enemies and another Xmas tree you can break. Afterwards, go to the next corridor with the shark tank and blue card but DON'T GRAB THE CARD YET! I actually highly recommend stepping back quickly because these four trip mines will detonate themselves for some reason. Also it seems you can't kill all the sharks in the tank, I was able to kill 3/4 at most (the two in front and barely managed to get the one in rightmost), can't kill the one in the leftmost side (I can't tell if I managed to) and he disappears upon seeing me. Anyways, grab the card, kill the next two elves (watch out for that elf with the shrink ray!), kill more enemies, press the switch and go back to the beginning (where you originally dropped down). Press on that big door and it will now open. Kill all the enemies in this maze, go for a swim, kill more enemies, backtrack for supplies if needed and eventually you will reach the exit.
Overall, I found this level annoying and somewhat weak. I thought it was somewhat out of place for Nuclear Winter. At least there's continuity to the next level.
Christmas Village
Another interesting, yet flawed level. Most of the enemies encountered are the NW enemies (snowmen and elves), though you also get to fight a couple pig cops and one turret. Oh and there are plenty of elves with shrink rays, so be extremely careful! If you are lucky, those Xmas trees may drop extra steroids for you that will come in handy, though you should just dodge their attacks, so you don't need to rely on steroids.
On top of that, you will get more tripmine traps on both sides when approaching the two atomic healths which will also spawn about four nearby shotgun elves because why not? And then later on in the level, inserting the blue card will also cause a bunch of snowmen spawning around you because why not? Ambushes that feel cheap and want to surprise the player.
And if that wasn't enough, there are even more flaws present with many "inactive" presents you can't open (fixed in NW+), a duplicate red card for some reason, many of the cards being marked for different skill levels (I don't know if cards are actually affected by skill levels but at least everything worked fine on CGS skill) and the last door that leads to the exit sometimes opens itself before you get there, which didn't happen in Megaton playthrough but it happened in NW+ and DOS playthroughs. Of course you can insert the yellow card and get locked outside or inside if that door is already opened. Or better yet, don't use the yellow card at all! Just backtrack for goodies and then finish the level.
Oh and aside from a hidden atomic health on a roof, there is one sneaky official Shrinker secret that I recall a decade ago on YouTube (when there weren't many playthroughs of the Duke3D addons), GalleyUK wasn't able to find it and then posted a response video upon being informed where the actual secret was by one of the viewers. I still remember his reaction when he ended up with the glitched door at the end and he wasn't able to access the exit anymore. However, back then, I didn't understand what's with that door at end and why it glitches randomly. But even to this day, I still don't know what's up with that.
I don't think I have more things to say other than despite the level being decent in terms of design and layout (and plenty of health/armor pickups), it is ruined by many stupid things mentioned above. Oh and when going to the area containing the first red card, you can find the drunken elf and even a "captured" babe that dies in one hit and makes the same trooper death sound, which again seems funny, though was given the proper full Babe treatment in NW+. Oh and there is no continuity to the next level, which is a shame.
Overall, despite being a flawed level, I would rather replay this than most NW levels. What about the final level? Will it be better or will it turn out disappointing?
Here Comes Santa Claws
The final level of NW! It is quite short and only contains 40 enemies (the 41st one is the boss himself that gets spawned when visiting his office).
I will not offer a walkthrough but I will say that I enjoyed how some interiors looked. And once again, there are presents that you can't unwrap (fixed in NW+). But thankfully, there are still plenty of Xmas trees that you should be able to get some extra atomic health/armor if needed.
Oh and when inserting the blue card and accessing Santa's office, first take out the last two enemies carefully and then backtrack to grab all the stuff throughout the whole level. Don't forget to also visit the sewers, there are a bunch of sentry drones and two shotgun elves to kill. There is also one secret located in the sewers with an atomic health (requires an explosive to blow up the crack), plus a hidden jetpack underwater in one of the places you can submerge. This jetpack is required to escape and to grab a secret in the main area.
Once you are done with backtracking and ensuring you have maximum health, armor and ammo (you should have full on everything except no boots, partially used jetpack and scuba, only 3 trip mines and probably 90 devastator ammo). Now use your RPG to blow up a crack (leading to the Shrinker secret earlier) and the Pinata in the office which will spawn a LOT of goodies, like the BLIMP in the original Duke Nukem 3D.
Once you are ready, SAVE and then enter the office! When you enter the office, you will hear Santa saying: "You have found my secret plans! Now you must die!". Prepare because Santa
Claus Claws has showed up and he isn't happy to see you ruin his plans! Prepare for the final battle of this expansion!
"Ho ho ho, it's not nice to shoot Santa!", he says whenever you hit him. It's not nice to shoot Duke either, you asshole! Time to give some strategies when fighting him and what attacks he has!
His kick attack is done when you are near him and does about 10 damage overall (though done quickly once per second), his shotgun doesn't seem to be often used and it's not as strong as the pig cop's one (seems a bit weaker overall, probably does more damage in NW+), while his chaingun is very powerful and rivals the player's and Battlelord's one, so pray he doesn't use this attack because it eats your health/armor like candy! As for the RPG, in the original release, it is comparable to the Commander's rocket in terms of damage, so it's not too bad. However, this is changed in NW+, Santa's RPG projectile is the same as the Duke's RPG projectile which always results in an
INSTANT DEATH if you get hit directly in the face and you can only survive if you have 200 health! Of course, if you don't take a rocket in the face, you will still take some splash damage but at least you can survive that attack.
Unlike other bosses, he won't squish the player upon getting close and he can actually be shrunk but for obvious reasons, you won't be able to step on him, as after the shrinking animation, Santa immediately uses steroids to return to normal size while running away from you in those five seconds. The Shrinker is probably only effective in temporary disabling him, so you can run for a while and get more health/ammo if things get too heated, although you can also just simply run away and grab more health/armor if needed. Oh and he has a jetpack too, which he will use when you try to use the jetpack yourself to gain height advantage, though I wouldn't recommend using the jetpack, just fight him on the ground level.
The best weapons to use against him are Shotgun, Chaingun, RPG, Devastator and Freezer. In case of Shotgun, Chaingun and Freezer, they work the best when near him, although the shotgun works at mid range well enough. RPG and Devastator should be obviously used at longer ranges, to avoid hurting yourself, as Santa has a habit of running towards you, which minimizes those weapons' effectiveness.
If you care about getting all 41 kills, then ABSOLUTELY make sure you are finishing off Santa with an explosive to blow him up. Killing him with the first three weapons (or even the kick attack) causes him to simply die (and his corpse will also disappear for some reason) but he will NOT ADD +1 TO KILLS! I noticed this easily in Megaton Edition (thanks to level stats option) but in original DOS executable, you can only see the level stats at the end of the level. This was NOT fixed in NW+ if you are wondering! So make sure you kill him with weapons 5-0 (Expander and Freezer will also work properly and lead to expected results). Funnily enough, smashing a frozen Santa will make him drop an atomic health but you can't grab it due to the game's feature which disables picking up items upon defeating a boss.
After defeating the jolly old bastard, you will get a cutscene with the Story Snowman telling you how Duke saved the Christmas...somehow by blowing up Santa Claus and then wishing you a Merry Christmas! Then you get a nice screen similar to the one from Lunar Apocalypse's ending, although there are some grammar/spelling mistakes here as well (in the original release at least), which proves that Nuclear Winter was rushed and released unfinished, which is a shame, as the potential was there but I guess the developers weren't experienced enough, so I wish that Sunstorm were the ones making NW, I'm sure it would have been a lot better. But with all that said, congratulations, you have completed Duke Nuclear Winter!
Overall, this level was kinda meh and more suited for Deathmatch but at least the final boss is something else and provides a good fight, making it feel like you are up against a Deathmatch opponent or a Dukebot or something. In fact, this might as well be based off SOB-Bot because there are some similarities between the Santa and those SOB-Bots. I personally haven't used SOB-Bot but I have seen YouTube videos before and that's why it seemed similar to me, at least the way Santa moves.
But wait, it's not over yet!
Santamatch
This level is only accessible with command line parameters or DNSCOTTY208 cheat code. It is a modified version of the bonus E1L7 map from Duke Zone II. It is meant for Dukematch, as there are no enemies and secrets to be found.
There isn't much to say about this level other than it actually contains an exit that takes you to a non-existent map which causes the game to exit. In NW+, finishing this map takes you to OVERLORD! I haven't tried to see yet in Megaton but I imagine it's the same as the original release, trying to load a nonexistent map.
Oh and something tells me this level may have been planned to be the final level where you face Santa but I don't have any confirmation to support my theory, so this is only my little guess.
And now for the extras!
Nuclear Winter Demo
See above. It's just a slightly modified version of the first level (only the exit part is changed, everything else is identical) and it's included as a nice bonus for NW+.
Nuclear Winter Zoo
A modified version of the original ZOO map (Atomic Edition), to contain various NW elements in it. It is only available in NW+. I'm only covering it for the sake of completeness.
If pressing the nuke button, first time it restarts the level and second time, it sends you to E3L2: Bank Roll.
Just note, if you kill Santa by squishing him with the door, he will actually get squished but the level will NOT END IF THAT HAPPENS! I've read this is possible to do in the final NW level as well but I wasn't able to do this before and it's not recommended as you get softlocked if you succeed in squishing him, which also makes me think why you can't squish him after shrinking him (that and to avoid insta-killing the boss). At least here in Zoo map, you still have the green Nuke Button which will just finish the current map but defeating Santa will obviously end the episode. And obviously if you played through the same map twice and you conserved resources (finished the map with 150 health), you should have 200 health this time and have a better chance against Santa, as in that case you will survive a rocket if you get one in your face!
It's definitely a nice bonus to have in NW+ and worth checking out.
Closing Thoughts: Nuclear Winter is a short but fun Christmas themed addon for Duke3D Atomic, that isn't very polished and feels mediocre overall, plus it didn't make much sense to be a commercial product back in late 1997, not to mention the missed opportunity to be included in the Kill-a-Ton Collection that was released a bit earlier (October/November 1997), which would have made the expansion a bit more accessible to a wider audience. Until 20th March 2013, the day Megaton Edition was initially released, this expansion (alongside DukeDC and Caribbean) was relatively obscure. And compared to DC and Caribbean (the latter released about a month after NW), it wasn't that great. Sure, there's at least some new enemies and features to be found in NW, compared to DC which offered nothing new (besides new maps and ART). But the level design overall isn't very comparable to the original episodes (without sounding disappointing to fans of NW).
The reason for that is because the first two levels are just modified versions of the first two levels from original Duke3D, just played backwards and having some new locations to visit with new enemy/item/weapon placement, etc. I think NW would have been a lot better if split into two episodes, the first one being a complete remake of L.A. Meltdown in a snowy theme and the second consisting of original levels. Then the addon would have had 12 levels in total and wouldn't be labeled as being too short, then it would have also been better received.
At least, Nuclear Winter is way better than Duke Zone II, that's for sure. In the end, Nuclear Winter is a mixed bag. I still enjoy replaying it nowadays (it seems to be a tradition to play Nuclear Winter every December, although before the very recent playthroughs, I haven't played NW since back in 2015 or so!) and have a bit of nostalgia associated with seeing a playthrough of the addon (and also DukeDC and Caribbean, all were played in JFDuke3D if I remember correctly) on YouTube back in mid/late 2007, by an YouTuber called Teleemahn (I think that was his name?), his account disappeared sometime in the following years (around 2009-2010) and the videos were removed as well. Too bad about that, I remember wanting to play those addons back then, though I eventually managed to get my hands on them shortly after.
I will post about Duke's Snowy Adventure II next time, as I've recently finished it and it makes sense it is the next one reviewed, right after the original NW.
Have a nice weekend!
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