Duke Nukem Forever is released and personally I couldn't believe it. It's finally done? No more switching between developers, acquiring licenses not only on the copyrighted material itself, but also on the various game engines the game has been developed on? No more game trailers, no more teasers? NO more Forever jokes? Indeed, the game has now escaped from development hell, and I have beaten it.
What I have noticed is that DNF is one part the same old Duke Nukem gameplay, one part borrows popular concepts that currently dominate first person shooters, and one part completely forgets about some features that made Duke Nukem 3D back in 1996 a classic. Let's talk about those different parts.
The arsenal is the same, except that a few new alien weapons are introduced, nothing out of the ordinary though. You've got one guy against a horde of aliens, you've got various kinds of level design, with a few basic puzzles and driving sessions thrown in. Occassionally Duke Nukem also shrinks into a tiny size, resulting into some interesting scenarios, and there is even a whole "relaxing" chapter in the game, where the hero takes a break from all of the ass-kicking and blowing everyone's brains out.
Best of all, Duke Nukem's personality is still intact. First introduced in Duke Nukem II(1993), the man has some new hilarious one-liners up his sleeve, such as "My balls, your face" but some of the oldies are also still there, such as "Hail to the king, baby", as taken by the movie Army of Darkness(1992). If you didn't know by now, Duke Nukem likes to quote several movie and game titles.
Now let's look at what all of the developers on this had decided to really change. In Forever, Duke can only carry 2 guns at a time, reminiscent of many other shooters today. Next, the game got linear, where most of the time it would be obvious to know where to go next. And, last of all, auto regeneration of health is also present, making it truly similar to the competition. These are changes that really weren't needed.
Why did this have to happen, if Duke Nukem himself could carry all of his guns in one go back in 1996, had to find medkits or just splashes of water to keep healthy and at the same time be able to use several paths to maneuver through each level, primarily by the use of air ducts? Were the developers really concerned that change towards the actual status quo was needed, or otherwise it would not bring out newcomers towards the franchise?
I think this was a huge opportunity to bring out some old ideas back into the current generation and be proud of it. Some of the old ideas were even entirely missing(the jetpack!). Honestly, it's dissapointing to see that Duke Nukem Forever changed its gameplay more to the likes of titles such as Call of Duty and Halo. So when we are speaking of originality, Forever missed out big time.
There is lack of exciting new content, including weapons, enemies and since Duke can only carry 2 guns, it feels less exciting to uncover any of the game's secret areas(which are more easily spotted when compared to Duke Nukem 3D), and find a gun there that you can only take if you leave another one. Except for Duke Nukem's personality and it's infamous status of development hell, the whole game is an average first person shooter for today's standards.
Which is really sad, considering it's very long development time. I'm not saying that Forever should had surpassed 3D in every way, but unfortunately the game is just way more average and squeezed between the millions of other generic first person shooters available now, and the only way the game is still selling is because of the 2 reasons I listed.
Stick with the three old Duke Nukem titles instead(I have yet to play the first two thoroughly though) and try Forever out. It's nice that the game is finally released, but I hope that whoever is gonna develop an eventual sequal will especially look back at what made 3D really outstanding for it's time.
Or, if 3D Realms allows it, someone should develop a sequel towards a certain game that in my opinion, was even better than Duke Nukem 3D in the 90's, featuring a ninja bodyguard with his own kind of Eastern humor to battle demons.
Rating: 6.5
1 comment:
I have not tried the game yet. From what you're saying though it sounds relatively disappointing. The best parts about Duke Nukem 3D for me were the massive array of weaponry, finding secrets, and the very cool stage creator. Perhaps I won't even give it a try if it is just like every other "modern" FPS out there.
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