Duke Nukem Forever! - Worth the wait?

Well I've just completed the game. The ending was pretty bad, it didn't feel like a proper ending at all and it wasn't really long. Don't want to spoil it for people who have been waiting to play it for years. After completing it though I did get some extras such as old trailers and gameplay videos. Got to say any of the versions up till the 2003 one look better and more interesting. The humor in the game was there at the start but towards the end I thought it really lacked and pretty much stopped happening. Judging from the old versions there was meant to be a lot more. Such a shame hope eventually the old versions leak or something.

 

when you consider what Gearbox probably got handed to work with atleast they got it out. I'm sure it was a total clusterfuck when they started to find out what was already done

 

After checking out all the old trailers it seems a lot of the ideas they had before such as new enemies, weapons, vehicles etc didn't make the one that's out today. Wonder why they decided to take them out? Or maybe Gearbox weren't handed enough material to add them in. Defiantly seems though towards the last half of the game things just get worse. Must be where 3D realms were taken off the project. Be interesting to see what people find inside the files when the PC version is out.

 

The PC version is "defiantly" out.

 

Hmm... seems lackluster. In fact, it seems like it's barely a decent current gen shooter.

You know it's total bullshit considering that each year on the forums George & the 3D realms staff would rant about how it was going to revolutionize the gaming industry.

I remember reading stuff like the entire world would be "interactive" among other things.

If the 3D realms forums still exist somewhere you'll see a shitload of insane ideas and promises that they were spewing out.

Honestly that's what pisses me off the most.

The fact that the staff kept hyping it up even 2 years ago to their loyal fans.

 

The before-credits ending is a parody of a certain part of a Call of Duty game (I won't spoil which). The after-credits ending is much more appropriate, especially since this is a Duke game. I'm not really sure what other type of ending to expect?

There were also references in the demo to DLC packs, including a 15 map SP add-on. There were a decent amount of stuff that didn't make it into the game (when looking back at the leaked design documents), but it all has the potential to make it as DLC. When you think about the ending, a DLC expansion would fit right in. As far as the interactability, it is certainly on par with Duke Nukem 3D.

Again I say, do you like Duke Nukem 3D? Then you'll like Duke Nukem Forever. It's not the developer's fault if anyone was expecting anything different.

Edit: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/13/duke-nukem-forever-is-all-outta-bubblegum-for-uk-charts/ -- Yes!

 

No it was not worth the wait, this game is total garbage.

Even if I forget about it being Duke Nukem, for an averge FPS this game sucks.

There's nothing to explore no secret locations or items, your forced to take one path only, I beat the game in 7 hours on my first run.

They recycled the first boss and also used him for the last battle.

Enemy's have no AI, they just run at you in a straigt line.

Everything looks plastic and shiney.

For some reason blood does not splat on your face but ketchup and spunk does.

Every time you die you have to wait about 30 second for the level to reload.

You can only carry 2 weapons.

Almost no ingame music.

 

I know that I am probably seeming like I am defending this game to fault, but oh well.

There are definitely secret areas\easter eggs\bonus items. Not to mention the ego boosts. You beat the game in 7 hours because you didn't even attempt to find them.

 

I've been working on this one for some time myself in person and on these here interwebz. In person its harder to be tactful unless you can set yourself in a frame of mind depending on the situation. At least with the internet you can take your time writing out exactly what you want revising it along the way.

Yes, kinda sorta...

3DRealms contracted Prey out to Human Head Studios as mentioned earlier and 3DRealms was doing DNF. On top of that Prey was considered to be in "development hell" for a number of years like DNF forever was. Obviously Prey didn't stay in "development hell" anywhere near as long as DNF.

After having played through DNF to the mothership battle I have a few observations. The classic Duke persona, quips, attitude and such have gotten a few chuckles, snorts and such from me which is pleasing. Anyone who didn't play DN3D back in the day likely wouldn't get those leading to a negative review.

The game does feel very sluggish. The controls are fine until you go to the weapons and movement with everything feeling like it has a slight lag time. Maybe this will alleviate itself with a larger Ego bar? Really annoying to the point where I don't really want to play more than about 30-40 minutes at a stretch. Upping the mouse sensitivity has fixed it a bit.

The graphics are pretty nice thus far as are the sounds. Duke's voice sounds a bit muffled to me for some reason which was a tad annoying at first but then I seem to recall having a similar reaction to DN3D as well so it might just be the voice actor and not the game itself.

Overall I'm glad I'm not the one who paid $50 for this game. It is far from a POS but there are extremely few games released these days I'd pay full price for knowing full well that in a few short months it'll be reduced or on sale on Steam. Plus I have a huge backlog of games going back to the 90s I still haven't finished. The loading after every death is a bit annoying but frankly it was a staple of so many games for so long it isn't that big of a deal. Plus I'm not that sure how much of the load time is necessary and how much of it is induced by bottlenecks in my hardware.

I'd rate it a smidge above mediocre at this point. Comparing it to Daikatana is a joke, DNF isn't bug ridden garbage. At least so far as I've seen. Not worth $50 but I have an extremely short list of games released in the last 5 years I have paid full price for.

 

This game might have been fun 5 years ago, its pretty dang bad now though.

 

Not as long, but pretty close - 1995-2006. Shit game anyway, unfortunately.

 

And I actually rather liked it. Then again I rented it and finished it pretty quickly. At $60 I'd have been pissed.

 

I enjoyed the demo, but got burned out on the real thing. I remember getting as far as flying around in a small, weird-feeling ship of some kind. Fucking thing wouldn't fly right, I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing, and the game in general was just feeling very dated. I think it was only a tenner new from Amazon (pretty soon after it was released, which is usually a bad sign), so no great loss.

I guess the lesson in all of this is: try not to take more than a decade to develop a videogame.

 

Wow... I remember claims that they wanted a fairly open world. Disappointing very disappointing.

 

x

 

As a fan of Duke I'm glad it got released instead of being cancelled outright. Seems it's worth the playthrough if your a big fan.
Saying it'd suck with the license would be true for a lot of other games, so that's irrelevant.

You have to give Gearbox credit for completing this in like a year after 3D Realms closed doors and handed them the assets. They did what they could I gather.

At least perhaps high enough sales could result in a great sequel. It's obvious there are a lot of great ideas and ways Duke Nukem could come back as a major franchise. So it's a step in the right direction for fans.

The claims made by the 3D Realms staff while upsetting, I guess you can't fault them as they probably wanted this to be as great as they claimed.

I remember reading financing was out of their own pockets at times and they worked insane hours. You just don't do that without faith in your project.

On the other hand, the reason they lacked financing was also due to them not being able to complete the game. I don't blame publishers for pulling financing. Iirc correctly 3D Realms also sought to be a fairly small team and work in a unconventional way. Perhaps if they were better organized they could've gotten more done.

The decision to basically remade the game like 4 times from scratch in order to "keep up with the times" seems silly now. In the end they released a outdated game anyways. They should've polished the first incarnation of the game to a sellable state. Then at least they would've made some profits. I mean physics engines and graphics aren't the only things that matter.

 

I've played through most of the game and it certainly feels like Duke 3D at some points, in the general spirit of it. Gameplay-wise, the "only two weapons" thing is a total mess. Duke's meant to be able to carry an arsenal, not just two weapons

The puzzle-platforming (tiny duke mostly) parts are a fun distraction but the controls aren't made for this type of gameplay really. The vehicular parts are very very bad imo, mostly frustrating due to controls (Even when played with a gamepad). Overall the game is good fun for the most part but there's a healthy amount of old-school tolerance that needs to go with it.

 

I felt the vehicle sections were quite perfect. Maybe you just weren't good at controlling them.

 

I borrowed this from my friend who has completed it. I've only had a few hours on it (just entered the sewers to go to the Duke Dome) and yeah, it isn't so great but then again it's not as bad as some are saying.

Graphically it's a mess. Far too much bump-mapping and awful water effects. The fish tanks in Duke's home look really stupid. I do like the focus effect but at times it's in the way. Another odd thing is that some textures look quite nice while others are really low resolution. One last thing, the 360 version has pop-up! Yeah, pop-up in a closed environment! Piss poor programming if ever there was any.

Still, even with all my complaints I still enjoyed what I've played so far. Duke as a character is great :thumbsup: Is it Evil Dead's Bruce Camble doing the voice though? He was the actor who voiced Duke 3D from what I remember.

Yakumo

 

Nope, it's the same Jon St. John as always.