Duke Nukem Forever, First Impression

Hold on – we’re getting this out of the way right at the beginning; Duke Nukem is an extremely divisive game, huge parts of which will either be enjoyable or cringe inducing based on your outlook going into the game. The most important thing I can say about the game is that reviews will be almost meaningless to you. If you find the idea of the game hilarious you’ll probably enjoy it, if you think it’s childish do not spend your money on it, it’ll be a waste. There is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing in the game-play or story that will change your inevitably already pre-made opinion of this game. It’s all about the jokes and the style, everything else is as bland as bland can be so as to not get in the way of either.

I find myself comparing it more and more to Shadows of the Damned, a comparison in which it’s fairing rather poorly. It’s not that Shadows annihilates Duke in any real element, just that it does absolutely everything Duke does slightly better. I mean that qualifier literally there – slightly – Duke isn’t losing out big time in any major categories, it could just stand to improve in virtually all of them. It has funny moments and good one liners, just there’s too few of both and that means the one liners end up repeating a great deal. It’s gun play is solid in that it isn’t glitchy or floaty, but it’s very bland except for a few cool guns that the game seems to jealously guard. The scripted moments can be funny, but I found myself waiting for them during the somewhat boring gameplay segments. I think that’s a repercussion of the boring guns issue; the gameplay itself isn’t really engaging enough on it’s own. There needs to be a gimmick for each fight, or a scene setting it up, otherwise it just drags.

It’s worth pointing out here that it never drags for too long. All of these issues are what I’d class as minor ones. I get bored for a couple minutes, maybe a one liner is repeated two or three times too many, I find myself hoping there’ll be a shrink ray or anything other than a ripper and shotgun around the next corner. None of this would really lower the game in my opinion too much should they be alone, and even combined they make no suitable explanation for the 2/10 ratings it received from some people. No, it just lands it firmly in the sixes at best.

What it does give me hope for is the next one in the series, which I believe they’re going to make enough money to create. Without all of the baggage of the last dev team to carry maybe they can take a new direction with the weapons or jokes. Something fresh, which is definitely lacking in Forever.