It is out. 14 years and Duke had the last laugh. Albeit a faint one.




It has it's fair share of problems. Keep in mind several things: this game adheres to FPS standards about 5-6 years ago, there is literally nothing new in DNF, nothing groundbreaking, it is stricktly formula.

Which DN3D was essentially, aside with mass amounts of level interactivity. DN3D for it's time was run-and-gun, nothing new to Doom, but with peppered tidbits that made levels fun, and levels designed after realistic settings, not just a maze dressed in thematic colors.

DNF has interactivity, however that is saying that an FPS game has sniper rifles - it is not memorable enough. All FPS games nowadays use this, hell, it is a requirement. What DNF has instead? Tried and told formula, browninsh realism. The FPS technology simply cought up to the logical maximum of what Duke started, and now the sequel cannot quite provide as much interactivity in comparison to the prequel (which was the starter of it all). Short version: levels are standard. The settings are fun, casino, Las Vegas etc. but that is also pretty standard urban ruin which we have seen.

Dukequips. Some people have bashed that Duke lost his humour, that straightforward taunts etc. are not Duke...yadayadayada. I just reran DN3D (6 hours in Come Get Some difficulty) and frankly, the original Duke's humour is just as straightforward and simplistic. People it seems put on the nostalgia goggles too much for Dn3D. But again, this quipping while not a standard fare in FPS games has already been done and expected so it underwhelms somewhat.

Though some of the new quips, while borrowed again (even from Blood of all things - Army of Darkness etc.) are still as macho and guilty pleasure indulgences as previously. And the new references are even more stomach splittingly hillarious and unsubtle. Example - - -> 2 Girls 1Duke.
Go on, browse 2 girls 1 cup, I dare you. All in all, humour is still on par with DN3D, but nothing more by a milimeter.

Guns... not much of innovation here either, and the two gun restriction is , to put it midly lame... understandable with some weapons (RPG, Devastator, Enforcer rocket launcher - 5 shots of heat-seeking swarms), but for the Love of Duke why can't he carry around the pistol and the shotgun at least? Melee finishers are okay, seem visceral enough and do not step over to the gruesome, example - - - > Duke can Johnny Cage the heads off of the Alien Bastards, especially when 'roided up. More comical than gruesome, which fits the overall atmosphere very well.


Weapons:


Enemies. Just one thing: a big love letter to DN3D. All enemies are harder, meaner than 3D, and troops are no pushovers either. This results in MANLY COVER TAKING more often for Duke which is eyebrow-raising, but the game does provide some challenge (not to the level of Blood for example, which at the hardest difficulty puts Doom's Nightmare! level setting to EPIC SHAME. That game on the easiest is still killing you with three cultist tommy gun salvos). Enemies and the challenge is also STRICT FORMULA, but it is more akin to 3D, and by that it is A OK.

Oh yes, if you expect the bosses to have the same speed, I am looking at you Battlelord, you will shit your pants. That thing is now has ungodly run, and will bomb the f*** out of you.

Oh yeah, the Protozoid Slimer facehugger gets replaced with the Pregnator, suffice to say that it is a facehugger and it hes a set of balls on it's backside.... this had the effect of me deliberately allowing Duke to be mouthfucked for laughs the first time.

Sexy: it is there. More than before. My favourite is when at the beginning Duke is moving through ventilation shafts in his HQ and stumbles upon a woman in her room.

Ceiling Duke is watching you masturbate.

Turd: yes. it is there, with glorious commentary. Also, hillarious.


What is new: nothing. The game is basically 3D with better technology down to the simplistic run and gun mentality.

So what is good: Run-and-gun. The game is a love letter to Doom, and calling it Call of Nukem is a misnomer. Sure, Chest High Walls aplenty and regenerating health, and standard melee fares are included, but wasn't 3D the same culmination of FPS standards back then?

What is bad: play it once and you are basically finished with the game, seen most of the stuff, and have seen that this project isn't groundbreaking, and the top of it's current competition. Infact, it is pretty mediocre. But fun. Brainless, short term fun, sadly, in our time not as long or rather, not having the longevity of the precursor.

Simply put: what the Duke experience was and is does not cut top material any more. I am still trying to gather my thoughts about how it could be better (Duke NUkem and Robin...), but primordially this FPS genre is a simple straightforward bloodbath with memorable settings. The problem arose from the settings not being memorable enough, which has more to do with the fact that during the 14 years we have exhausted most ideas.


Verdict: 50%-75%, the in-between I tend to place around 70 or 65%. Formula, one shot FPS which will get a chuckle out of you or not. Not a reinventor, for which it is too late. But not garbage, because even though the tried-and-true mechanics are done better in Halo (ugh), etc... Duke still is diverse enough from the competition, especially from Random Military FPS with Zero Originality.

Filler game, stupid and half-assed thanks to megalomania. The character still has power, Duke himself is strong in the game, it is just that the product is ...well. you know what it is. Perhaps Duke would do better if they returned to the 2D plattform again (Manhattan Project) and later on revisit the FPS genre, when they have ACTUAL SIGHTS ON WHAT LEVEL OF INNOVATION THEY CAN ACHIEVE.

The industry needs Duke and what it represents, moving outisde the box of gruff, brooding protagonists with half-hearted mental problems, or the stock effeminate jackasses. Duke is an anti-hero, but one that is alot more positive than the downright villain protagonists we seem to get. I am sorry, either have a good villain protagonist with no redeeming factors (Caleb in Blood. An undead gunslinger from a late-western era containing the Dark slavic God of Tchernobog hell-bent on entropy), or a strong protagonist. I am sick of moral and emotional dilemmas in video games. And even more sick of the military propaganda they churn out again and again for the "gamer fratboy culture".

Who as we know, deserve the Mighty Foot Engaged on their asses.

Shallow, one-shot FPS with average stuff, but nothing bad about it. Mediocre, but refreshingly fun for a short time. For which, I think we could be thankful, as the release of DNF should stand as a warning to what not to do to a game, and what not do when salvaging a game. But honestly, not even Valve or Id Software could have saved DNF.

And actually, I look forward to the sequel.

Not an outstanding game, again, a pretty mediocre one, but with charm, and a naive love for something we all have seemed to forget: simple can be good when done smart. And that simple however comes off strong in DNF, and saves it from being a total trainwreck.

And there is something heartwarming about the fact that someone got his shit together and didn't let this character die. Duke is still holding on, but he is at least chest-up to the platform. And if Gearbox can pull it off, woe betide any FPS that goes up against a smart Duke sequel. Gearbox you have alot, ALOT, MORE THAN 14 YEARS OF DNF CATEGORY ALOT before you if you want to continue Duke. Good luck.




TL;DR: mediocre game with nothing explicitly bad, and has an atmosphere unlike anything else out there. Love it or hate it, but definitely worth that one shot and buy. Unless you are explicitly picky. Then I do not advise buying it.

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Walkthrough episode by episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWsYbwdYO_M&feature;=related