So the demo starts off with a bit of back story on Duke Nukem, and how he's an American hero for fending off countless alien invasions. He's described as the perfect soldier who can't lose. Some type of superhuman. Then, you're given control of this invincible warrior... as he's using a urinal. Classy game, ain't it? And no joke, you control how long Duke pees by pulling the right trigger. My personal record: 18 minutes. My guess is that Duke has a bladder the size of my ego. Anyway, after you're done taking care of business, you look around and realize you're in the locker room of a sports stadium, and when you head out to the lockers you notice dozens of dead bodies littered around on the floor.You see a group of EDF (Earth Defense Force) soldiers huddled around a whiteboard with football-esque plan drawn on it. Basically, it shows a bunch of circles (EDF soldiers) heading towards a giant alien cyclops. One of the soldiers asks Duke if he wants to add anything to the plan. It's optional, but you can draw or erase anything on the whiteboard. I just drew a big red X over the cyclops. No matter what you do, the EDF soldier exclaims "This is the best plan I've ever seen! I mean, I don't understand it, but I'm sure it's amazing. If we had this earlier, that guy over there would probably still have arms." Anyway, after a brief art excursion you start heading throught the linear halls to the big cyclops boss. Once you get to him, you fight him with a dual rocket launcher containing exactly 69 rockets (like I said, classy). As you run out of ammo, an EDF ship drops more. It's a fairly easy boss fight, and once you kill him, you rip out his eye, and since you're in a football stadium, you kick a field goal with it. Then the camera zooms out to reveal that everything you just played through was actually being played by Duke Nukem himself. Still in first-person, you see Duke's throne room of his mansion as he pauses the game holding up a custom Duke Nukem controller. A woman asks Duke if he enjoyed the game. His response: "After 12 years, it better be!". Do you hear that? It's the sound of the fourth wall shattering into nothingness.
After this funny scene, you start a new level taking place later in the game, in a desert area. Most likely somewhere in Nevada. The level starts with you driving Duke's monster truck through a canyon. The driving controls are pretty good and basic. Right trigger to accelerate, left trigger to brake, B to use the handbrake for drifting, and A to use the nitro boost. Eventually, you run out of gas. Don't worry, it's part of the plot. You won't actually have to manage gas levels for the entire game. Anyway, now you have to find gas for your ride. As you make your way through the very linear canyon you start fighting the main enemies of the game. Aliens that are really just pig-men. Duke Nukem's gunplay controls are a lot like most other FPS's. If you've played Call of Duty or Halo, then you know the controls. The weapons are pretty accurate. The pistol is relatively weak, but accurate, the shotgun is a one-hit kill at close-range, etc. My personal favorite gun was the shrink-gun, which shrinks your enemies to mere inches, and then you can just melee them for a quick insta-kill. My one problem with the shooting is the aiming. Duke Nukem does not utilize iron sights like Most other FPS's. Insead, the camera zooms in and you just see the aiming reticle, just like what Fallout 3 did. It's mostly personal preference, but I would rather have iron sights. They're more realistic and feel more accurate. But enough analyzing. Eventually, Duke arrives at a mine entrance. The whole mine is pitch black, so you use "Duke Vision" which lets you see in the dark. It's exactly like the night vision that Riddick uses, where everything is white. It's a nice concept, and definitely worked well. I actually prefer it to the standard green night vision. Eventually, you find gas deep in the mine and ride a minecart back to your monster truck. There just happened to be a minecart track right above where you ran out of gas. How convenient. Once you refuel your truck the demo fades to black and you watch a trailer for the game that's been out for a few months already.
All in all, this demo showed me that Duke Nukem Forever will be a decent game. It's definitely funny, but also action packed and fun. I love the character of Duke Nukem. He's a super soldier that loves women, America, and cracking off hilarious one-liners every two minutes. Other than the odd aiming, and the fact that your shield feels too weak and runs out too fast, Duke Nukem Forever should be a great game. I look forward to playing it on June 14, which is when it is released for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. You can expect a review on the game as soon as I can get one out. To close out, I'm going to use a quote from Duke, about Duke: "All hail the king!"
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