In Defense: Duke Nukem Forever

It has finally happened. Duke Nukem Forever has finally been released in North America as of June 14th, 2011. Going to the mall to pick up my Balls of Steel edition was almost surreal, and getting home and throwing the disc into my XBox 360 was doubly so. I played through the entirety of the single player campaign in the span of a day, on the hardest possible setting available to me (a harder one was unlocked after beating the game). I've already gone over the history of Duke Nukem Forever in a previous post, so I'm not going to rewrite it here...if you want that information, you can go check out my World Ten: Duke Nukem Forever entry. This is about the game itself, and whether or not I feel like it was worth my time and money, as it seems that a lot of the people out there who have played the game feel like it's a horrible, terrible thing that should be banished to the 6th circle of Hell and should never be played or experienced.

Duke Nukem Forever starts off by re-introducing you to the world of Duke. Not only does it start you off where Duke Nukem 3D ends (the destruction of the Cycloid Emperor in the Stadium level, complete with a classic eyeball field goal), letting you relive the moment of the previous installment, but it also pans out and shows that this is, in-fact, a game within a game that Duke is playing on his TV in his massive penthouse at the top of a casino he owns, while being fellated by two ladies. Duke has become a massive star since he saved the earth from the aliens in Duke 3D, and this is all shown by the reactions of NPCs throughout the first area where you explore the Lady Killer casino and basically revel in the fact that you're in the shoes of an idol. It's a bit lengthy, but a lot of it is pretty cool and has some nice throwbacks to the series, such as plaques of enemies found from the previous game, and bronzed versions of some of the most popular Duke 3D weapons in glass cases. You autograph a book for a kid, with the pen actually in your control and allowing you to doodle whatever the hell you want. You can play a quick game of pool in the penthouse suite, mow down a whole pile of donuts, or deck a ranting Christian Bale knockoff...all of these things make the environment more than just background, and bring the game to life.

This is one of the first key points: the interaction in this game is very well done. There are tons of objects around the levels that you can use, and these will increase your overall health, also called Ego, if you can find them. Gaining a reward for searching out and observing what the producers have created for the environment is really nice...a Duke vet such as myself would go and look for these kind of things anyway, but to reinforce that element of exploration and curiosity with a boost to your stats is a nice touch. I found myself playing pool, air hockey, and pinball for way longer than I probably should've, and although they're not completely perfect with state of the art physics and such, it's still impressive that these touches were placed around the world and functional. There's actually a stage part way through the game that takes place in a strip club, and although there are no enemies to speak of in this area, there's a plethora of things to interact and play around with (no, not just the strippers). I was sucked into this level for a good extra hour before I decided to keep going. The Ego system is, unfortunately, similar to the modern FPS setup where it recharges if you remain unscathed for a few moments...I had hoped they'd use a classic health system such as that found in Duke 3D and Doom, but it's not terrible.

The health boosts will obviously help you against the cast of enemies that you have to deal with, which mainly consist of returning alien bastards from Duke Nukem 3D. Classic enemies like Pig Cops and Enforcers make a return, and they have subtle touches to them that will make Duke fans happy. For example, the fatass Assault Commander, an obese extraterrestrial that floats around on a disc and fires rockets out of its asshole, still spouts the same lines that he did in Duke 3D. A small nostalgic point, but there is personality to the enemies here...they're not just humans over and over again and you don't need to just go for headshots throughout the entirety of the game, which is a nice change. I also find that they're animated quite well, with very few exceptions that I could easily overlook. The Bosses are pretty fun as well, but since they're so big they really only take damage from explosives. Although I can see the reasoning behind this, it limits the options of the player when it comes to dealing with them. What if I wanted to use the Ripper or Railgun on the Battlelord? That's not a possibility...well, you can, but it just won't do anything. It's not really the best design choice, but it's not the worst either...it just means that you know there's going to be an RPG, Pipebombs, and Laser Tripbombs sitting around where a large fight will occur, and sometimes that gives it away before you encounter a large enemy. This stems from an issue that I had hoped they would switch up for the game, but didn't...weapon selection.

Seriously, if you think these graphics are abysmal then you need eye surgery.

That's not to say that the weapons themselves suck...quite the opposite, in fact. There isn't a single weapon in this game that I found to be lame and boring to use. All of the weapons from Duke Nukem 3D return: the Pistol, Shotgun, Ripper, RPG, Pipebombs, Shrinker, Laser Tripbombs, Devastator, and Freezethrower are all back and fully functional, and they feel a lot like their old counterparts but with some minor changes. For example, the Freezethrower shoots a ranged beam now rather than reflective projectiles, so you need to get up close and personal to chill your enemies...but with this limited-range attack comes the fact that it constantly recharges itself, making it pretty handy to keep around. In addition, when you freeze an enemy you can execute them and instantly restore your Ego to full. These kinds of balancing issues are welcome additions. Sure, the Shrinker's cool, but having a maximum of 50 shots in the original Duke 3D made it somewhat of a beast so they limited it to 10 shots in DNF. The RPG rockets may be slower in this game, but you can also lock on to targets if you keep them in your sights for a few moments...a feature I don't find myself using too often, but it's there if you need it. There are four new weapons as well: a Railgun, which functions as a high-damage piercing rifle; two variants of alien Assault Trooper weaponry, which fire laser bolts; and the Enforcer Gun, which is a multiple homing rocket-launching weapon that's carried by the alien Enforcers. The Railgun and Enforcer Gun are welcome additions I find, while the Assault Trooper weapons fall short a little bit. They're not horrible though.

The deal with the weapons is that you can only carry two at a time...a lot of people are finding issue with this, while others aren't. For the most part of the game, I find it works alright...there are weapons scattered around the levels quite liberally, so you do in fact get the chance to switch your weapon set up more often than I figured you would. That was a nice surprise. However, in some cases where I was in a longer shootout with a high number of aliens, it seemed like you wouldn't find enough ammunition for the guns you had if you had happened to choose the wrong ones. In most cases, you can find an ammo crate sitting around that will restock your weapons completely, but in some strange instances, these are absent and you really have to conserve ammo and try to make do with what you have. This isn't really a Duke-like thing to do, and it's in these types of occasions where I wish they implemented the Walking Armory weapon system, where you can carry all of the weapons at once. It just seems like it would have worked better for the game overall, and prevented awkward moments of scraping the bottom of the barrel when it doesn't seem like you should have to. If they really wanted to encourage specific weapon usage, all they would have to do is have more ammo readily available for them in the environment. It essentially does the same thing, but without making you drop weapons that you don't want to, and also gives the player some more freedom for selecting weapons...something that should be emphasized in a game with such a well-rounded weapon set that all function so differently. Like I mentioned earlier though, this doesn't break the entire game...it just kind of cracks it in specific places.

There are other items as well, which can come in handy quite frequently and are good additions to the game. Over the course of the single player portion of the game, you can find Beer, Steroids, and the Holoduke. Beer will make things slow down a bit to subtly reduce your reaction time, and also makes Duke less susceptible to pain. It's a bit strange that one beer can affect Duke like it does, but since Duke's the man, I just kind of assume it's 90% alcohol beer or something. Steroids will cause Duke to put his fists up to deck enemies to the floor...and wall...AND ceiling, because they explode into shreds when you punch them while on the pills. Finally, the Holoduke will create a fake image of Duke Nukem that the aliens will fire upon, while also causing the real Duke to turn invisible so he can blow away the distracted enemies. All the while, it makes hilarious quotes in a robotic tone such as "I AM THE REAL DUKE NUKEM! EAT SHIT AND DIE, BALLS OF STEEL!" These items are pretty fun to use, and they can really help you out in a jam if you employ them properly. In addition to these items, you come equipped with Duke Vision in your shades, which is just a fancy lookin' night vision mode so you can see in dark places.

With respect to level design, Duke Nukem Forever is really a mixed bag of things. Randy Pitchford of Gearbox was certainly touting the variety in the level design of DNF, and it certainly was no lie...but is it a good thing? Mostly, yes...but there are many parts of the game where it seems like the particular design of a level is dragging on or being overused. For example, one part has Duke driving around a huge monster truck called the Mighty Foot to get from place to place along a highway and through canyons in a desert environment. This is hilarious at first, because if Duke had a vehicle it would definitely be something massive and over the top such as a monster truck. However, you end up driving it for a very long time...this would be alright if there were some variety while driving it, but you just hit ramps and ram enemies for the duration. It's not absolutely stupid, but it seems like the game could have been tightened up a little in a section such as this. For example, rather than have you drive the truck 4 times, cut it down to twice...then at least the lack of variety wouldn't be as obvious. It reminds me of the car section of Half Life 2, which was also fun for a little while but eventually dragged on needlessly. Another example is turret sections...there are far too many turrets in Duke Nukem Forever, to the point where when I encountered another one, my reaction was "Really?" They're not too fun either...blowing away hordes of Pig Cops or tons of ships rapidly flying at you and shooting you is only interesting for so long, and some of them last way longer than they should. I'm actually dreading scaling the Duke Burger tower and using the turret in that section of the game on Damn I'm Good difficulty, because I know it's going to be irritating. There are also a few sections in the game where you barely fight any enemies at all, which is a little bit weird. The introductory levels can get away with this, since it's establishing the story and setting of the game, but finding a level near the end of the campaign that's almost completely devoid of any gunfire is just odd. The aforementioned strip club is also devoid of any action, instead replacing it with a fetch quest. Although this can potentially break the flow of the game as well, if you really want to you can just book it through to get everything you need and be on your merry way, which is a nice option.

See this? You'll be doing this kind of thing a lot.

However, I found that other points of the game with new ideas seemed to pretty well. One portion requires you to push glowing insects down paths so that they're eaten by creatures that unlock doors. These insects are also a key source of light at this point in the game, which happens to be really dark, and so the effects they have on the environment and the enemies look really cool. Another portion I liked was a situation in Duke Burger where you've been shrunk and must hop around on shelving and various condiment bottles and food in order to make your way around the room. I know quite a few reviews mention this was kind of lame, but being the platform-lover that I am, I rather enjoyed it. In fact, it's interesting that some of the rooms have been thought out such that they appear to be normal and not specifically structured at first, but when you shrink down and have to view it from a different perspective, you can see clear deliberation in the placement of room ornaments and objects such that you can get around things when you're shrunk as well. It's actually a neat mechanic to see in action. Another cool thing is right near the beginning of the game, where Duke has to control a remote control car in a separate room by viewing it through a window. The purpose is to use it to push a key item out of a vent by knocking it off a shelf, but this requires some obstacle-dodging and dexterity. It's a neat idea and I thought it was pretty cool. There are other parts of the game that do really well, but obviously I can't talk about them all.

The classic Duke humour is back, but it's less censored than ever before. Not only are there tons of hilarious details around the environment and secrets for you to search out, but Duke's lines are delivered insanely well by Jon St. John, and quite a few of them made me laugh out loud or at least smirk. References to old action movies abound, with a lot of them being Schwarzenegger-derived. Other main characters are hit and miss...General Graves was voiced pretty well, whereas the President of the USA wasn't as well done. Other menial characters deliver their lines in a corny way that you're not meant to take seriously, because you're not really meant to take the characters seriously in the first place. Some will spit out pop-culture references, and others will shoot puns at you. Often, these characters are killed, but in the grand scheme of things, the game is about the Duke and this makes perfect sense. You're not supposed to really feel or care about the characters, they're just a part of the ride. The Holsom twins (ladies fellating Duke at the beginning of the game), although pretty terribly-voiced in the campaign except for a few lines, really stand out in the multiplayer component...but I'll get to that shortly. Sound effects overall in the game are very well done, I find. Weapons have the right amount of punch to them, explosions are powerful, and the aliens sound just right. The music is just sort of there for most of the game, but you catch some glimpses where it's pretty good, and there are even occasions where themes straight out of Duke 3D are played. The story of the game is pretty bare-bones, but that's to be expected of a Duke Nukem game: aliens have come to earth and started stealing our chicks and wrecking stuff, so go and kick their asses! That's all there is to it!

Graphically, I think it's pretty good. Yeah, it's dated compared to other games coming out today, but this is essentially a game from 2007 or 2008 that was shunted over to Gearbox so it could get shipped out. It's old, is what it comes down to, but I find that it looks fine the way it is. It reminds me of the Doom 3 engine, and I always thought that Doom 3 was a pretty sweet looking game, so it's fine enough for me. There are some strange things that I've noticed, though. For instance, when you hide behind a wall or something, if you come back out you can see objects in the room "pop" into existence. I believe this is some form of engine optimization, where objects don't exist until you can actually see them. It can be distracting, and in some areas it's very noticeable...at least on the XBox 360 version of the game. Maybe the PS3 and PC versions don't have this issue, but I assume it's rooted into the programming of the game engine. Textures will usually pop in kind of late, which is an artifact of the Unreal 2.5 engine being used. It's pretty clear that the engine is dated and unoptimized for certain situations, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the game. However, I'm one of those people that's less bothered by such things whereas others can easily be put off by it, so I can understand that people would be irritated with it. The game will also chop up when a few things are going on at once, specifically physics-related incidents. Again, this has to do with lack of optimization for the engine. Load times are also a major factor...loading the level takes maybe a minute, and then loading from a death can take maybe 30 or 40 seconds. After installing the game, I don't think this has changed at all, although I believe it has fixed the texture pop-in a little bit. If you're at a part of the game where you're getting killed often, the load times really become a drag and I wish they were shorter. Patches may come out to address this, but we can't really say for sure.

WOOO! I can't believe I get to take this truck off at least 32 more jumps!

The multiplayer component is really simple, but really fun. Game modes included are Dukematch, Team Dukematch, Hail to the King (the Duke version of King of the Hill), and Capture the Babe (flag). Dukematches are really frantic and fast, and it reminds me of a mix of Duke Nukem 3D and Quake III Arena, particularly with the over-the-top weaponry which is scattered around the level. I haven't played much of Hail to the King, but it's pretty fun from what I have experienced, particularly when teams are fighting within a capture point in an attempt to take it over but without moving out of the range of the point itself. Capture the Babe is interesting...instead of a flag, you capture the other team's Holsom twin and sling her over your shoulder. At this point, you get a gun called the Garter Pistol, which will kill anyone with one hit but has a slow rate of fire and requires pinpoint accuracy. You can't use other weapons when you're carrying the babe. Also, the babe will occasionally wave her hand in your face to try and irritate you or get your attention. At this point, you can press a button to spank her ass and calm her down, to which she usually responds with a silly phrase or tries to fake that she's not turned on. I think it's funny, and it gives CTF that Duke-ish vibe to it which is nice. Also, the Holsom twins will spout hilarious things when they're just standing around at their base or when you pick them up or capture them. "EWW, the ugly one got meeee!", or "Now that I'm here, are you gonna like, tie me up or something?" Although they're irritating in the single player portion, I found myself snickering at their quips in the multiplayer. The maps are pretty good so far, with my personal favourite being a paintball arena modeled after Hollywood Holocaust, the first level of Duke Nukem 3D. You can also find the classic Jetpack sitting around some of the multiplayer maps, which is a blast to use. Just don't let someone shoot you in the back, or it'll blow up and take you with it!

There's also an experience system, as well as challenges to complete in multiplayer. Gaining experience points won't unlock guns or something, but rather it'll unlock customization options. These include cosmetic alterations for your Duke for multiplayer, such as new hats, shades, or shirt logos. I've already decked my Duke out with a fez and red circle spectacles to make him look ridiculous. You can also unlock statues and objects for something called My Digs...this is basically a penthouse of your own that will gradually fill up with cool things from the game as you gain experience. Interactive objects, statues, food, and of course, babes will all be unlocked at certain points. I've already found myself striving to get to specific levels to see what cool prop I get next. Challenges are extremely varied, and are basically conditions you meet during your multiplayer battles. For example, Free Fallin' is awarded to you when you have fallen a particular number of feet and it nets you an experience bonus. Another example is Ice to See You, which you get from freezing and executing your enemies with the Freezethrower. It gives you things to focus on during multiplayer and prompts you to mess around with all of the weaponry...not that you wouldn't want to do that to begin with! Finally, there are Mutators, which allow you to set up a game with conditions such as heavy weapons only, railguns only, instagib or infinite Ammo. There are a few others as well, and they can be really fun...infinite ammo seems to be a popular one online, allowing people to blast away at each other without abandon. It's fun stuff, really...the fast paced action is really satisfying. Online multiplayer does suffer from framerate issues and object pop in as well, so if you want a smooth online experience and can tolerate nothing less, this might not be the right game for you. There's no splitscreen or system link to be found either, as far as I can tell, so you're stuck with only one way to enjoy multiplayer. This is unfortunate, because I think DNF really lends itself to humiliating and smack-talking each other and would've been a great game to play with others in the room. Oh well.

------------------------------

The Bottom Line:

So overall? Well, Duke Nukem Forever's not a game for everybody. If you were expecting it to be the best game ever simply because it's been in development hell for 14 years, then you're going to be in for a rude awakening. There are flaws and issues with the game in fundamental areas that will irritate a lot of people. There are strange choices with pacing in the game's single player mode, and rather than appreciating the variety, you may find yourself rolling your eyes every so often because of overused gimmicks. The unoptimized engine makes for some issues with the game that really shouldn't exist on the 360 at this point in time, particularly for a game that certainly doesn't push the limits of the system. Does this make the game a total train wreck? Nah...it's just been through a lot of overhaul that has resulted in somewhat of a Frankenstein monster. Parts are good, others aren't so much. As a massive Duke fan, I can admit this...it could have been better. It sits on a really weird fencepost between the yards of the modern and the old-school FPS, incorporating facets from both sides. It doesn't excel in both areas, but it doesn't particularly shit the bed in them either.

For what it is though, it's a game that'll just be fun for you as long as you don't let the caveats ruin the entire experience. It doesn't take itself seriously and knows it, which is welcome when compared to the serious shooters that plague the market in this day and age, Bulletstorm excluded. Jokes are around every corner, and Duke frequently has things to say that'll make you laugh, giving it that same old charm that Duke Nukem has had ever since his first 3D outing. Sure, some parts of the game aren't laid out the best, but I find that it doesn't destroy the whole campaign as a result or anything. The game looks fine unless you're a massive graphics nut, and you have to be forgiving of the outdated and unrefined engine to overlook its issues. People can't be expected to do this, however, and so DNF will fall flat with a lot of gamers just as it seems to have done with many reviewers as well. Multiplayer's really damn fun as well, especially if you like classic-style FPS mayhem! However, it's not without its own issues and problems and the lack of splitscreen sort of sucks...I was really hoping for that feature.

I feel bad for all those people who worked on the game for so long, and spent all of this time just to see game review sites give it 0/5 or 3/10 ratings. This is wrong, and the game itself is not that broken to earn a score so low. Before playing DNF, I expected it to be terrible from what I had been hearing, and I was pleasantly surprised when I found I enjoyed it as much as I did. From the beginning though, I didn't expect Duke Nukem Forever to be perfect because of its long development time...I just expected it to be a new Duke Nukem game, and that's what it is and I believe it succeeds at that in the end. I won't ignore the problems that it exhibits...but even though it falters in some areas, overall I found the game to be enjoyable and loads of fun, and that's what really matters.

My score for Duke Nukem Forever is 7/10. I feel like I'm pretty tolerant of certain issues in video games though, and so if you find yourself bothered by things such as sudden framerate drops, long loading times, and other occasional anomalies, your personal score for the game will certainly be a tad lower at least.

I have to thank Gearbox for polishing up the Duke and getting him back on store shelves again, and also all of the people who've ever worked on it from 3D Realms, Triptych, 2K, and Piranha. It takes a lot of spirit to work on something for so long, and that should be respected. Despite the negativity swirling around this game from major reviewers, those people saw this project through to the end...congratulations on the game finally coming out!