Fourteen years. For fourteen years, across four development studios, Duke Nukem Forever's been in development, with a team of programmers, artists, and designers beavering away. Long thought lost in development limbo, few had ever genuinely believed that Duke Nukem Forever would see the light of day - a worry further compounded when the game's developers, 3D Realms, entered financial difficulty, and a legal case ensued. Like a knight in shining armour, respected devs Gearbox rode over the horizon, and picked up an injured Duke in September of last year, somehow managing to trim fourteen years of mixed directions, confusion, and sweat, into a logical game.
A lot's changed in fourteen years. Duke Nukem, the lead role in the game, however, hasn't changed a bit. Loud, crude, cheesy, and a walking caricature in himself, Duke's a muscle bound meathead with an insatiable soft spot for the fairer sex. He's also a hero, having saved the world from an alien invasion in the last game, and a shrewd businessman, with an empire that spans a casino, a burger outlet, and his autobiography "Why I'm so Great". With its tongue so firmly in its cheek it'll need surgery to get it removed, Duke Nukem Forever's like no game you've ever played before - and with nudity, swearing, drug use, and implied sex from the start, it's certainly not one for the easily offended.
He's back!
From the second you load the game, Duke Nukem Forever sets its tone in the crude and juvenile. The first thing you have to do is to take a leak in a urinal, although it's not put quite as eloquently as that. The story here's one that's simple, yet effective - the aliens Duke saw off last time have returned, and this time, they want revenge on Duke. What better way to get under the skin of the world's number one chauvinist than by stealing the world's "babes"? With the fairer sex under threat, Duke loads up, and sets out to... oh, we can't resist. "Kick ass and chew bubble gum - and he's all out of gum."
While other first person shooters take themselves deadly seriously, Duke is a lot more easy going. There are (dated) references to popular culture throughout - a product of the game's fourteen year development, with everything from the Olsen twins, to Leroy Jenkins getting a look in, while a few of the more slapstick gags can't help but raise a smile. Duke himself wisecracks his way through each and every level, and although most of his one liners miss the mark, the otherwise baritone Duke's helium shriek of "What the f*ck" after getting shrunk for the first time got a genuine laugh. One minute, you'll be punching a boss in the nether regions to deal the final blow - the next, you'll be shrunk, and whizzing around a casino in a remote controlled car, driving into the feet of the aliens you meet. It's about as crazy as it sounds.
As you may imagine, for a game about turning back an alien invasion, there are plenty of aliens that need teaching a lesson here, too - and luckily for us, things are a little different to your standard shooter here too. With a wide range of weapons to choose from, from the triple-barrelled machine gun that is the Ripper, through to trip mines, which blow up when an enemy walks through the laser they project, and shrink rays, which bring your enemies down to size, and then lets you stamp on them, there's a weapon for every occasion - although annoyingly, you can only carry two at once. Luckily for us, should you run out of bullets, you can always just pick up a random object you find lying around, and chuck that at the aliens instead, with an obligatory hefty grunt. Obviously having arms the size of a redwood comes in handy for hurling objects with enough force to kill someone. Or at least, an alien.
We wouldn't fancy any other guy's chances against an alien like this. Luckily, Duke's not any other guy.
As you may have guessed by now, Duke isn't like other game heroes - and that runs all the way through to his health. You see, Duke doesn't have armour, or a shield, or any other traditional form of protection - those would be for wusses. Instead, Duke's protected by his ego, which, inexplicably, protects Duke from damage, and works like a shield does in every other game. By doing things that make Duke look cool - from admiring himself in the mirror, to pumping iron, or scoring a basket - you're able to increase your total Ego, and increase your version of the game's "shield". There are plenty of ways to earn extra Ego too - mostly by interacting with cool things in the levels, which form mini games in themselves. From a fully functioning pinball table, to a poker machine, and even air hockey, the amount of interactivity in each level's pretty impressive, even if it would have been more ground breaking fourteen years ago.
Far from simply being a mindless shooter, though, Duke Nukem Forever's actually a lot more puzzle based than you may expect. Often, you're forced to stand around and scratch your head as you try to figure out how to access the next area. One of the cleverer puzzles involves a locked door in a building. You can't break it down, but after a bit of fishing around, you find a crazy, alien jump pad, that's sitting looking innocent through a hole in the wall. Chuck a grenade through there, and it'll bounce over the ceiling of the room you're in, into the room behind the locked door, where, along with some explosive barrels, it promptly explodes, breaking the door down. There are plenty of times you'll have to interact with something in order to make your way through the level, too, from taking over a demolition ball wielding crane, and knocking a wall down, to rotating a giant model of Duke, before climbing up it, and running up his arm to access higher ground. It's not all blasting aliens and saving babes - although that is a large part of it.
But while the story may seem almost throwaway for the most part, it does have a more serious side, too. A few levels into the game, you'll enter what's known as the Hive, and discover that the aliens aren't just kidnapping women - they're impregnating them, too. Suddenly making the game's plot feel a lot heavier, you'll walk past naked women, wrapped from the waist down in alien tendrils, who're whimpering, and crying out in fear. While the moment is soured somewhat by some of the girl's occasional outbursts about being "too young to be pregnant", and Duke's later quip, when a girl asks him what's happening, and he replies "You're f**ked", the segment's genuinely harrowing, and actually quite upsetting, as you're forced to make the choice between killing the women, and putting them out of their misery, or letting them live, at which point they'll eventually burst into a mass of aliens. It's not an easy choice.
Miniature Dukematch.
But as fun as the game can be, there are more than few times Duke Nukem manages to trip over his own feet. The boss sections are exercises in old school frustration, with Duke being disappointingly weak, and the bosses stupidly overpowered, leading to plenty of deaths, and a lot of sitting through only-just-acceptably-long loading times. One in particular that annoyed us saw us firing rockets at the alien queen, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, an octobrain appeared, which have the power to telekinetically grab any projectile, and fire it back at you. Needless to say, we met a prompt death. Equally frustrating is the reliance on making you walk across narrow ledges, next to annoying alien arm type things that fire out of the wall at random, and manage to knock you to your doom. That happened one too many times for our liking.
Special mention has to go to the multiplayer, however, which has quickly proven a favourite at Everybody Plays. Perhaps it's that no-one's used to playing Duke Nukem after all these years, but even as a team that was just two staff strong, we managed to hold our own against strangers online, which usually never happens. With a persistent levelling system seeing you gaining XP for each match you play, as well as for completing challenges across each game, you'll unlock rewards, which let you customise both your Duke Cave (your home base, which serves no purpose other than to show off when you have friends round), and your very own Duke Nukem for use online. Ours currently wears a Fez and a pink shirt. You'll know him if you seem him.
Overall, Duke Nukem Forever's an enjoyable, if occasionally embarrassing journey into adolescent humour. It can be cringe worthy at times, and while it tries to be an "adult" game, it never really manages to feel anything more than toilet humour - although, to be perfectly honest, that's part of the fun of it. It's Duke Nukem. He's a caricature; if you take him seriously, he's a feminist's worst nightmare; and he's a bit of an idiot - but most of the time, he's a funny one. With a heavy dose of sarcasm, a military grade stockpile of bubble gum, and, amazingly for a game that's been 14 years in the making, some still unique touches, Duke Nukem Forever's a decent revival for someone who was once one of gaming's largest icons. We look forward to seeing where the series goes in future. If you'd like to know more about the content of Duke Nukem Forever, and aren't sure whether it's the sort of game for your tastes, be sure to check out our Parental Perspective for more information.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
