Hail to the King!

Duke Nukem is renowned across the gaming universe for three main traits; his childlike demeanour towards destruction, mayhem & obliteration of anything living, his sexist and chauvinistic approach to the female gender (or anything in a skirt) & his long awaited return to the World of Gaming. But finally, Sir Duke ‘King of Debauchery’ Nukem is here at last in Duke Nukem Forever. It must be good to be King…

In the 12-year-developed game, your placed as the one-man-army once again to do the voodoo that you do so well. Shoot some very large guns, bust some very thick skulls and cap the day off with some very fine Totti. There’s nothing child-friendly in the world of Duke, and you wouldn’t want it any other way. With the classic 90′s B-movie scenario, you have to save the world one last time from alien invasion…again.

Graphics:

The Graphics of Duke Nukem Forever are nostalgic to the classic titles of the 90′s era of gaming. Through the entire game you know that it’s not trying to sell itself with its high definition graphics, because it’s not Crysis or Child of Eden. It’s the classic appeal of the games we grew up with, and doesn’t have to conform to today’s over realistic attempts. What makes the game stand out a lot is the lower visuals. From the almost 2D Environment, to the vivid colour schemes. Its offers aesthetics that are recognisable to any fan of the franchise, which always went well with the original games.

The graphics of the game aren’t terrible, but they’re not the best you’re ever going to see. However, this allows the content of the game to speak for itself. Unlike a lot of modern games being released, which use nothing more then the slogan ‘Ours is almost real life’; Duke Nukem Forever has a much more satisfying Slogan ‘Kill & Grill’. The lacking graphics suit the game to a Tee, and there’s no need to revolutionise a franchise just because this is what the entire outside world of gaming are doing. DNF plays extremely well with these nostalgic aesthetics, and your don’t distracted by a few sparks of brilliance but are blown away by the sheer fun you have. So, the graphics aren’t modern day graphics but they follow the typical appeal of the franchise and classic 90′s gaming. It’s almost a breath of fresh air amongst today’s titles, and hopefully indication that game developers will start focusing more on content over presentation.

Storyline:

The storyline follows the long thought-out and devised strategy of previous Duke games: Shoot all Aliens & Save all Babes. What this basically entails is you working your way across Vegas and disemboweling enemies all to get back your women. The story amazingly stretches out the simplistic goal across a variety of landscapes and missions, which all later derail into sub story-lines. For instance, along your travels you meet up with characters from the original games who, as always, need the assistance of Duke. Each new character you meet is basically a new protagonist for the storyline, who allows you to move to a new environment with new aspects. This allows Duke to get a lot of site seeing in, and also allows you to move effortlessly between surreal and non-surreal settings.

Throughout the story there are also a broad range of Duke vehicles that add to the boisterous thrill of the missions. They also break up the large sections of on-foot missions that you have throughout the campaign. The missions are normally quite similar with usually a change of task or setting, which changes how you play the entire mission in comparison to the last. For instance, some of the longest missions are played underneath the Duke Dome. Where you find yourself in what can only be described as a alien-erotica hive slurred through dark and musky caves. With this environment, weapon selection, environment items and task elements all change to suit the setting. This mixes the story up and really stops the game from getting stale whilst playing.

The Highlight of the Storyline and perhaps the entire game are the boss battles, which are the most challenging part of the game. You encounter a handful of different bosses through the campaign, each with there own looks and varying tactics for defeat. However, eventually they all succumb to an array of RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and mounted turret fire. What makes them much more amusing than the regular enemies of the game, is the final strikes that you have to blow to defeat them. Once you lower their defenses, you have to run up close and go to a cut scene attack which resembles to the boss attack on Viking: Battle for Asgard. The most satisfaction you can have without cuddling afterwards, is from ripping out a head-spike and jamming it into the eye of the same alien.

Gameplay:

The gameplay of Duke Nukem Forever is standardized to the average, everyday shooter. The controls and basic mechanics of the game are very similar to any shooter you buy, which makes the controls simple to grasp from the beginning. Its still ‘R’ to shoot, ‘L’ to aim and ‘Left Stick’ to run. And, with Duke that’s about all you’ll need.

What makes this gameplay so entertaining and satisfying is the fact that it plays like a solitary genre. In the modern times where every game is a genre spliced with another genre, the motives of DNF are simple. Aim and shoot is all you need. That’s not to say that the game is just move around and blast bullets, there is a few little puzzles to slow down the pace. But for nothing more than that, the game and franchise are shooters. What mainly alters the gameplay so it doesn’t become monotonous drivel, is the addition of character and surrounding changes from abilities. For instance, one of the more amusing part of the game is the ability to shrink down to miniature Duke. What this does is alters the once regular setting such as a kitchen, to a playground of ‘borrower’ sized activity. The chuckles that spill from your lips from something as idiotic as using a toaster to propel yourself to a shelf is outstanding.

It’s the game’s ability to keep its core ideals and stay true to the origins of Duke Nukem, yet revolutionise against the contrasting modern conventions of recent gaming. It’s getting back to the roots of the franchise whilst using a couple of future spices to embellish the game. It’s almost as if the game just needed a couple of tweaks to go from the ‘retro-classic’ to ‘legendary’ status. And, as far as gameplay appeal goes, Duke Nukem Forever succeeded.

Character:

You can not look at Duke Nukem Forever and not look at the man himself. Duke Nukem is back in this game with a vengeance. He’s witty, crude and every little bit as patriotic and immature as he ever was. His childishness knows no bounds, and his sexist attitude towards his adoring female fans is hands-down outstanding. Duke Nukem is one hell of a role model, and could easily be the single reason for the recent attempt at prosecuting game developers in The States.

What you’ve gotta love about Duke is that he has all of the negative traits that are deemed socially unacceptable, but you love him anyway. There are only a few characters in existence that are; arrogant, selfish, egotistical, insolent, imperious, autocratic, audacious, wise-cracking, pretentious, vainglorious and outright debaucherous in nature and still entirely liked by nearly everyone. It’s the fact his character is everything we want to be in real life, but it’s actually acceptable in their universe. Duke is just the pile of molten, big-headed crazy that just spews constant banter. He’s 6’4″ and 240lbs of awesomeness & badassery… Never Change, Duke.

If there’s one problem that I can find with Duke, its his constant grunting when jumping. Which if you’re very jump prone, will become annoying quick.

Operation: Cock Block

Music:

The game’s score is a compilation of action-hero Rock and Metal. There will be few times where the awe-inspiring feat you’re about to perform wont be accompanied by a distorted rock ballad. It’s what you’d expect from a 80′s action-hero movie staring Arnold Schwarzenegger, so why not give each mind-blowing moment of Duke the same treatment. If you hate the sounds of a heavy metal guitar shredding away whilst you game, I’d advise that you turn down the music in the settings and plug in your Frank Sinatra… Although, I’m not entirely sure it’ll have the same effect. But overall, the music fits the content of the game perfectly. All it really needed was a little bit of Led Zeppelin and it would have been set.

Gimmicks:

This game is chock-full of gimmicks. Literally every corner you turn there is a gimmick for you to interact with. The key to the gimmicks, are the relation to your health bar. With Duke’s health bar now fueled by his own ego, each time you do something in the way of the Duke, you will gain a small perk on the end of your ego-bar. So, you get rewarded for being a rambunctious fuckwit, which just adds to the humour you can have.

My personal favourites so far have to be; Duke Pinball, Microwaving a Rat and Slapping the Wall of Boobies. If that last sentence didn’t suggest that this is a game for men, then there’s no better way to say it. This game was made for the gimmicks, and the great thing about them is that they help slow down the story. They encourage you to take your time with the game. I even spent 30 minutes playing basketball, pumping weights and racking up over a million score on the Pinball machine Just because it was too tempting not to. If you like tedious and unnecessary gimmicks that will have you giggling like a school girl, then Duke Nukem Forever is the game for You.

Multiplayer:

The Multiplayer was the weak link in the game. It wasn’t terrible, but even though the story was brilliant as a nostalgic revamp of the classic 90′s shooter. Multiplayer now-adays has become a large part of the game and its replay value. It was too simplistic, and didn’t really implore you to play. Epic Games‘ Cliff Bleszinski said that “the future of shooters is RPGs,” and this is just as true when looking at games in the 90′s. I think that multiplayer for a game like Duke Nukem is just unnecessary, because the campaign is so well done. Today’s focus on multiplayer in gaming is just so great, I believe that it just can’t compete. It did conform to modern-day aspects, and gave the basic entertainment for multiplayer. But overall it didn’t will you to play on, and the experience becomes dated quite swiftly.

Conclusion:

This game stays true to the roots and essence of the franchise, and delivers a classic Duke experience. The campaign is the best in all the Dukes, and the story as a whole with the relevant music & 90′s aesthetic styles of graphics just add to the entire entertainment value of the game. It gives a little bit of retro gaming in a world of over realistic releases, and provides pure unadulterated amusement. With constant giggles and chuckles across the story, mostly provided by the outstanding array of gimmicks. The main cons of the game were the multiplayer aspects, which against the campaign just seemed frivolous and unnecessary. However, overall this truly is a Duke Nukem game to be proud of, lets just hope then next one doesn’t take another 12 years to make.

Long Live the King!