Written by: Riley Hooper
Duke Nukem Forever was released in June after one of the most tumultuous development cycles in video game history. Duke Nukem Forever took 13 years to be made after being passed from company to company untill finally landing in the hands of Gearbox (creators of Borderlands). Duke Nukem is one of the most iconic names in video games. Does Duke Nukem Forever live up to the fame? Short answer: Yes. Long answer:
Duke Nukem Forever is an action FPS with a classic style that is a huge refresher from the modern FPS's like Call of Duty and Battlefield. Yes, most of DNF is spent running and gunning through aliens, but there is the occasional break in the action in the form of a puzzle. Just about all of the puzzles are platforming whre Duke has to jump from one area to another. They may sound bad, but they're fun and keep the game from getting repetitive. The shooting controls work well, just like Halo or Call of Duty. My only problem is the zoom. You don't look down the sights, the camera just zooms in and you can only see the cursor. It's a lot like Fallout 3's zoom.
Duke Nukem Forever is an action FPS with a classic style that is a huge refresher from the modern FPS's like Call of Duty and Battlefield. Yes, most of DNF is spent running and gunning through aliens, but there is the occasional break in the action in the form of a puzzle. Just about all of the puzzles are platforming whre Duke has to jump from one area to another. They may sound bad, but they're fun and keep the game from getting repetitive. The shooting controls work well, just like Halo or Call of Duty. My only problem is the zoom. You don't look down the sights, the camera just zooms in and you can only see the cursor. It's a lot like Fallout 3's zoom.
Storywise, DNF's plot is fairly simple. Following the events of the previous game in the series, Duke Nukem 3D, Duke is a rich celebrity and aliens are attacking the Earth . Worst of all, the aliens are kidnapping Earth's women. It's up to Duke to save the world by going to the Hoover Dam to defeat the alien king. The game follows Duke traveling to the Hoover Dam from Las Vegas. There are essentially 3 segments of the game. The first is Las Vegas, then the road trip to the final segment, which is the Hoover Dam. The road trip segment is where you drive Duke's monster truck to the dam. During this segment, you run out of gas at predetermined spots and are tasked with finding more fuel and killing all aliens in your way.
Like I said earlier, Duke Nukem Forever has many classic gameplay elements. A lot of puzzles, and even boss battles. I've seen boss battles in a few FPS's, but the ones in Duke Nukem Forever worked extremely well and really fit the game. One problem is that not every weapon can damage a boss. Only explosives, such as pipe bombs or the RPG. The classic styles are a great throwback and make the game truly fun.
The graphics of Duke Nukem Forever are average at times, and bad at others. Most notable are the models for humans. They look... inhuman. That's definitely not good. Hair is particularly terrible. It looks like everyone is wearing a terrible cardboard wig.
Duke Nukem Forever does contain a multiplayer, which was fun, but not amazing. The only gameplay modes are deathmatch, king of the hill, and capture the flag so there really isn't that much variety. You are able to use all of the weapons from the campaign in multiplayer, which is a plus. You are also able to customize the look of your character by leveling up. But, I only played a few matches of multiplayer.
Two trademarks of Duke Nukem forever are its humor and interactivity. Regarding humor, it's a very funny game. Jokes and pop culture references are constantly being thrown at you. For example, after I killed one boss, Duke said "Duke wins. Fatality!". Admittedly, the jokes don't stay fresh, but they never get too old or annoying either. As for interactivity, Duke can mess with most of the objects in the game. See a slot machine? You can go play slots. See a urinal? You can go pee in it. The interactivity is a really cool concept that kept me checking everything in the game world to see if I could use it. Most of the times, I can.
The achievement list in Duke Nukem Forever was great. It really forced me to play the game in different ways. My favorite achievement was to carry Duke's golden pistol throughout the entiregame. You get this special gun in the very beginning of the game. Since Duke can only carry two weapons at a time, this made the game a real challenge. The pistol isn't that great a weapon, so I was essentially carrying one weapon at a time. I stuck with the assault rifle. Many other achievements involve killing a certain amount of enemies in different ways. This forces you to try out every weapon, which really shows off everything good in the game.
One disclaimer that I feel like I have to include is that this game is rated M and for good reason. There is a lot of female nudity. And I mean a lot. One level even takes place in a strip club. This isn't a game for young people.
In conclusion, I liked Duke Nukem Forever. This is a famous game that many people though would never exist, but it's here. What I don't understand is how much bad press it's getting. Most reviews that I have read of this game have said that it's a terrible game. It's really not. People have berated the jumping puzzles, but would you rather have the shooting be non-stop? It would get repetitive and boring. The mix-ups in gameplay are the reason that I was able to play this entire game in one sitting. I couldn't stop playing for the full 10 hours. Go play this game. You'll be glad you did, even with the bad-ish graphics and occasional staleness in jokes.
Final Score: 4 out of 5 stars
0 Comments:
Post a Comment