Duke Nukem Forever review Hail to the King Baby

[crazyeyesreaper]

Duke Nukem Forever...

Its here, finally, 15 years since Duke Nukem 3D. Where to begin, I think starting from the games' development cycle and how it came to be, is the most important place to start, as it answers many questions.

The game started Development in 1996 and originaly began life on the Builder Engine. During development the engine was scrapped, upon which Duke Nukem Forever moved to the Quake 1 engine and later to Quake 2 engine. During this time, release was considered close, but pushed back with the game eventually slated to use the Unreal Engine and was finally finished on Unreal Engine 2.5. The game itself saw 5 different 3D engines during development, and due to the process was probably done from scratch nearly just as many times. The games assets we see today were created in 2006-2008, which is why many reviewers and gamers bitching about graphics makes alot of sense. The game was finished by a small development team with little support, from makeshift assets. The games graphical edge is tech based in 2006, and if compared to titles of the time it looks just like it should. I do hope readers keep this in mind, as while its no excuse for the graphical presentation the game has, it does explain a few things. That said, the game dosen't look bad by any means and the attention to detail, when it comes to the Duke himself, his stripper babes, and the big bad aliens who's asses he kicks, the graphics are great. The only thing lacking was some TLC to touch up the sore spots and round out its edges.

Alright now onto the game and how much it may or may not rock. The core gameplay mechanics are rather solid, nothing game changing or game breaking but they are comfortable and for the most part responsive, While I am not a fan of in game quick time events interactivity with Bosses and enemies in general is welcome even to a PC user such as myself. Anything that has me doing more then the simple tasks an avid FPS user knows by instinct; The average user would call it button mashing but im honestly okay with it since it lets me rip the tusks off a Pig Cop, or rip apart an enemy. The game plays as it should; its a cut and dry Unreal Engine based shooter with nothing new but nothing missing.

The Graphics tend to range from bad to exceptional, examples would be the eyecandy in the game. The strippers look good, in terms of Tits & Ass, and average NPCs have good texture work and modeling if not beibg a bit repetitive. Some of the smaller details like levels themselves have great texture work and feel authentic such as the Suite where Duke spends his time, it feels like home sweet home in Duke Nukem. Too bad the Alien freaks wreck his crib. I do however feel some smaller details would have better helped the game, such as better facial animation and eye movement. The hair on many of the females needs better alpha maps so they look less like the polygon planes they are. A few nice touches I'd like to mention are: when you pick up a cigar and start shooting some alien bitches the smoke coming off the cigar looks nice and feels authentic in Duke. Overall the games graphics are passable, but then again can people really complain all that much? well they can, and they have, but overall Duke runs well on ancient hardware. Its a game any Duke fan can enjoy, and its not a bad ride visually when its all said and done. The games graphics do have some other nice touches; the fact Duke Nukem has legs feet hands arms etc when looking around is, in this day and age, still amazing. The last FPS game i have seen with that was FEAR nearly 6 years ago. Its a nice touch that brings a small smile to my face as i realize Duke is fully modeled to kick ass, take names, and chew some bubble gum.

The story, while antiquated, mediocre, with its cheesy "B movie"-esque tone, brings some humor and some cohesion to the game. It might not seem like much but the Duke's story this time around catches that B Movie vibe seen in old action flicks staring Bruce Campbell. Its not supposed to be serious; its suppose to be fun, and fun it is. Overall the Pace feels pretty good and the game will keep you entertained, but make no mistakes about it; this isnt some jaw dropping story, its enough to tie things together. The real story, and all you need for story, is the humor, the one-liners, and numerious punches to the nuts. If your a Duke fan, thats all the story you need, besides aliens to shoot and maybe a little gum for when you run out of asses to kick.

The game really mixes up the action as you play, everything from punching aliens in the balls to getting shrunk down and driving an RC car. Duke Nukem Forever has a little bit of everything; The Mighty Foot monster truck sequence is possibly my favorite of the game. It was just simply a blast to run those piggys over and listen to them squeel! Executing enemies by kicking there heads off was gratifying as well; it made Duke feel powerful, when a kneeling enemy was so readily and easily dismembered by brute force. The weapons all had various uses; the fact I was limited to 2 weapons felt a bit underwhelming at first but i changed them out so often it didnt really matter as I enjoyed using them all. Of course the Devestator and Rocket Launcher were where the real fun was; as always the Big Fucking Guns felt fantastic.

In General Duke Nukem is an average game, that is 2-3 years to late to really show itself off, and with that said I would indeed recommend the game to anyone who enjoyed the older Duke Nukem games, as the humor, attitude, and overall "old school" feel is intact. The game is truly a throw back to old school 80s and 90s action. The fact that most reviewers these days are too stupid to understand what Duke Nukem is, and was, truly astounds me as the game is nowhere near as bad as they make it out to be. The game itself makes fun of many genres and pop culture references; being offered power armor from Halo, Duke flat out refuses with "Power armor is for Pussies!". The games' other one liners still make me laugh old and stale as they may be, if you leave the politcally correct douchebag mentality at the door, and allow yourself to laugh, you'll find the game has alot to offer. Tickling the anus-like doors in the Hive with Dukes "Coochie, coochie!" left me laughing as I shot some alien scum. Admiring yourself in the mirror gives you the comedic gold of "You wanna touch it don't you?" or "Look at my ass! Go on, look at it!" Hell, even the references to "Team America - World Police" left me laughing "America; FUCK YEAH!" when Duke is told hes the only one who can get the job done. The remaining jokes references to steroids and booze, guns and women; its just as it was 15 years ago, nothings changed and I like it that way. Duke is certainly a King and I'll Hail him; he might not be King anymore, but I certainly remember when he was and Duke Nukem Forever WILL bring you back in time to that moment. The moment when Duke slaps some wall boobs and alien milk splashes the screen you'll laugh, and be disgusted at the same time. I can't stress enough that the game has heaps of humor, if you just allow yourself to enjoy it. The fact the game is crude, rude, disgusting, and over the top is its strongest assets; its not for everyone, but the PC version plays just fine, and a 360 pad works without issues. The game is certainly easier with a mouse and keyboard, but the gamepad can be used for just as much fun. Overall its a fun ride and I salute Gearbox for allowing me to enjoy it! It's not a ride for everyone, and while I may find other reviewers simply out of touch, its just my opinion and as they say, "opinions are like assholes everyone's got one!". So in the end, it comes down to the simple fact; if you enjoyed Duke Nukem you will enjoy Duke Nukem Forever; the 80s/90s action cliches, the disgusting humor, and awesome one liners - that is who Duke is, its how he is suppose to be, and if you dont like it, well to bad, as he will just rip off your head and shit down your neck because he has Balls of Steel! The rewards for beating the game are also well worth the effort, the old school cheats like infinite ammo, god mode, big head mode, etc. make for fun times. The concept art is great to flip through and the screenshots showing the different versions of Duke Nukem Forever during its development are also a great; one stop look and see of just how much change happened to Duke Nukem Forever. I honestly feel after beating the game and enjoying my time Playing id give the game a 6.5/10. Its above average but wont appeal to all. The simple fact is the game wont appeal to many, but if your willing to just enjoy the ride for what it is, you'll find Duke to be a great experience. If you want realistic action and politically correct garbage, find a different game and go play that. The game is what I expected it to be and while not ground breaking the game offers up some of the most fun I've had in years.


The awesome:

Its time to kick ass and chew gum.. but im all outta gum. Of course its the fact that Duke Nukem is back love him or hate him its awesome. So come get some.



Good:

Fun varied gameplay from driving to platforming FPS to 3rd person it keeps the gameplay fresh

Tits an Ass it might seem like your in middle school again but its a theme of Duke Nukem and its one im glad to see is still there.

The game runs smoothly on almost all PC hardware meaning nearly anyone can if there a fan enjoy the game

Bosses are fun the triple tit Alien Queen being a prime example of awesome and humorous at the same time.

The laughs the game will make you laugh if you drop the Polically correct BS and overbearing guilt tripping at the door its crude its rude and its fun.

The nostalgia it feels like a game from 15 years ago why is this a good point? because few games today even come close to resembling there former predecesors Duke is faithful to the extreme.



Not So Good:

Linear level design.

Jokes are not for everyone.

Graphics are okay there standard fare today but if the game had released when the games assets were originally made *2006-2008" it would have been better recieved in this category.

Puzzels there not bad there not good there somewhere inbetween.



Bad:

Repetitive enemies

Bad Blur filter

Zooming in causes everything to get pixelated to the extreme.


Review Score

Crazyeyesreaper 6.5/10
Qubit 6.5/10
Cadaveca 7.5/10
JrRacingfan 8/10
Velvet Wafer 8/10
To finish things off here are some images for you to enjoy.

Warning Images may or may not be Offensive if you can't handle it turn around and walk your candy ass back out the door.

Spoiler

The Duke loves his fans especially the ladies


The Duke always has time for an autograph


After kicking some Alien ass the king needed a cold beer.


Even a paper bag cant make this monstrosity bang worthy!


Ooooh Shake it Baby


My Ride is bigger then yours


Hail to the King Baby!


Eat Shit and Die


Guess who saved the world

[TeXBill]

All hail the King Duke Nukem Forever..
great review, nice read.

[qubit]

UPDATE 1: 16.06.11, added my review to this post

UPDATE 2: 19.07.11, added link to new Tom's Hardware performance analysis on DNF:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/duke-n...iew-32234.html



Great review, crazy. Finally a balanced review to offset all that BS Duke bashing we're seeing.

Here's my review of Duke Nukem Forever, in bullet point style format. It concentrates more on the technical aspects of the game, talking about the important operational details that tend to get left out of reviews.

I gave it an overall rating of 6.5 / 10, but it would have had an 8.5 if it hadn’t been for the crap checkpoint system and general bugginess, especially the frame rate drops.

For all of us DNF fans, you can also get the originals:

Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition and Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project DRM-FREE! for $5.99 each at gog.com

I've just bought them.




THE GOOD

Totally, uber un-PC! This has to be its number one selling point for me. It’s got hot babes, great one-liners/humour, swearing, sex and a macho OTT hero! I don’t know of any other game that blasts past today’s crappy political correctness barrier quite like this. Duke’s OTT macho voice acting is just right, too.

Old skool gameplay has been kept It’s a product of the 90s due to that 12 year development cycle and they kept that feel which I think is a plus point. Just blast the baddies in various badass ways all the way through! I like the frequent bosses, too.

The linear story and puzzles are reminiscent of Half-Life 2, which I think is good. I have no problem with a linear game. Think of it as playing a story, like a movie or a book. Those things are fixed and events only ever go one way. This is the same, except it’s interactive. And you can die, lol.

Nightvision effect is really cool Has a real ‘electronic’ feel to it with all the special effects and so much more imaginative than just having a simple torch (that usually runs flat after a minute) light up the way.

Good music Good rock/metal music all round. I especially like the music played when in the GUI and the loading screens. As one hears this often, crap music would be very irritating.

Good intro video Really sets the atmosphere leading up to the GUI interface. Duke is badass! It should have been possible to permanently skip it easily though with a checkbox in the GUI. One has to hit Escape every time.

Good GUI It’s simple, looks good and works responsively. I especially like the way the screen resolution and aspect ratio settings work. Vsync can be toggled, which is useful.

Windowed mode and vsync Most games will not allow vsync in windowed mode, causing the graphics card to freewheel like crazy. This not only produces line tearing, other artefacts and an unpleasant sqealing noise, but can also damage the card if the framerate is too high. DNF keeps the framerate nicely locked to vsync in windowed mode.

Subtitles Yup, boring subtitles. If you tend to miss parts of dialog like I do, it can be very frustrating. Having subtitles helps a lot here. A mundane feature, but it’s very useful and not every game has it.


THE BAD

Frame rate drops WTF? This happens intermittently and a lot in the game and for no apparent reason. It’s lost me a few firefights and wasted ammo. It can drop down to something like 5fps or even freeze for a bit. Then, a bit later, the same scene can render at full speed, completely smoothly. Sometimes the framerate drops from 60 (vsync locked) to 30 for a bit and then once again, the same scene will render smoothly at 60. Other than this, it runs very smoothly on my system. Crazy didn't experience this on his system, but believe me it's there and others have, too.

I reckon this problem will cause game sales to tank more than any other.

They really need to fix this. Fast.

Checkpoint system This seriously sucks. It’s a direct result of it being a console port. They can’t be bothered to put in the simple logic to have two keys assigned to save and load the current position. There’s only one checkpoint too. This is a big downside, because it means you can’t replay key moments that you really enjoyed. For example, I would like to save just before a boss battle and then replay it if I found it particularly enjoyable. Nah, can’t do that. You can only replay whole chapters – which lose your last checkpoint. It’s lost a whole point because of this.

Difficulty setting This cannot be changed dynamically at any point in the game, like in Half-Life 2. Only at the start or the chapter replays, meaning whole sections have to be replayed to change it.

Only two weapons Awwwe, why can’t Dukey carry every weapon type he comes across? What, isn’t he strong and bad enough?

Limited graphics options Obvious console port. I don’t want depth of field. And for that, I have to lose other effects, too. Even instruction booklet lists XBOX 360 controls first

Alt-tabbing out of a running game in full screen mode This seriously disrupts Windows operation, virtually freezing the PC and making the desktop very unresponsive. My dual core CPU is stuck at 100% This can be cured in two ways:

1 Going back into the game and resuming it – plays ok. Quitting the game returns to the desktop normally and everything works fine.

2 Setting DukeForever.exe to lower than normal priority in Task Manager. Note that tabbing back into the game then causes it to freeze and even restoring the priority doesn’t bring it back. It must then be killed off with Task Manager.

Even switching from full screen to windowed mode isn’t glitch free. There are two pointers visible: one inside the game window and the other on the Windows desktop. On top of that, the game one is active. Alt-tab must be used to switch out of DNF. Clicking inside the window makes it work properly though, with only the game pointer visible.

In short, don’t go to the desktop when running DNF in full screen mode. Most games don’t misbehave like this and it should be patched ASAP.

Serious driver glitch This was easily fixed, at least. My nvidia driver was only one revision old, yet it was unplayable in full screen mode. Everything was black, except for a few world items, which looked very odd and made it totally unplayable. It worked fine in windowed mode though! Installing the latest 275.33 driver completely cured this problem. It’s only using Unreal Engine 3, a very well established game engine, so it shouldn’t have needed it though.

I dunno how it runs on AMD cards. Anyone care to review this aspect of it?

I’ve docked a point for all these bugs. If 2K ever bother patching it properly, then I’ll add the point back.

Generally poor reviews Game does feel like more TLC and polish could have been put into it, but it’s still very good in my book. I think 2K Games just wanted to get the damned thing out the door, after such a ridiculously long wait for it.


INFO

Graphics quality is reasonable, but nothing special by today’s standards. The NPCs animations are poor. In particular, the way their gaze doesn’t follow you when talking to you. Half-Life 2 managed to achieve this in 2004, so what gives? Perhaps UE3 isn’t so hot at this?

Metacritic score is dropping! Started off at 62% yesterday, but has now fallen to 59%. Come on, it’s not that bad.

I’ve not played the multiplayer, so can’t review it. However, I don’t normally play it on any game. The usual times are with LAN play with friends.

It’s got a UK 18 rating (American R) which I think is a little much. I’ve seen games with much more violence and gore than this with lower ratings. It should be a 15 in my book.

Tested on:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

E8500 3.16GHz CPU @ 4.11GHz
GTX 580 (slightly overclocked out of the box Zotac Amp edition) Driver: 275.33
4GB RAM
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P v1.0
SoundBlaster X-Fi ExtremeMusic
WD Caviar Black 640GB

Monitor: 1920x1200 Iiyama ProLite E2607WS

[MainframeTM]

Good reviews guys...lets some Duke some love.

[xrealm20]

Great review - thank you for putting the effort into showing how this game actually an enjoyable experience!

[TotalChaos]

I have gone through the first 5 or 6 levels and while it's not ground breaking in any stretch of the imagination I agree it's not near as bad as the majority of reviews say it is. Thanks for the reviews they were refreshing

[crazyeyesreaper]

feel free to post your own reviews here, and give the game a score on 1-10 and ill add it up to the list of names and there scores,

as for you Qubit i think its just Nvidias drivers causing the frame rate drop ive had 0 issues with AMD / ATi in that respect steady 180-350fps with my 6970s smooth as strippers pole lol

Also post some screenshots id love to see some memorable moments from fellow TPUers

[qubit]

Yeah, it could well be an nvidia thing, crazy. Remember, with TWIMTBP all games play better on nvidia!(tm) I did have to update from a one gen old version to make it work in full screen mode and I don't think I should have had to.

Let's hope the next version improves things further.

+1 to screenshots.

[Mindweaver]

Nice review Crazyeyesreaper! I've not had any problems with my GTX480 on my i7 970 @4ghz.. and it's an older Nvidia driver. Not the newest one.. but the one before. I've not had any issues i was having with my Q9550 @ 3.8ghz w/ crossfired 5850 toxics...

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Disable post processing. That's the source of the crappy distance blur.

For me I was entertained, but missed jetpacks, keycards, space, switches, and the old level design in general. The weapons were pretty dull compared to say it's graphical equivalent, doom 3. Now that had fun guns... or am I thinking quake 4? Whichever had that steerable rocket launcher that shot photon torpedoes.

[crazyeyesreaper]

or you can go into the INI file and disable blur and that worked for me lol


C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<your Steam user id number>\57900\remote\

you can edit the config file in there for Duke and turn off blur it didnt completely fix blur from post processing but it did help remove some the excess motion bluring and shit.

[Bo$$]

if the reviews think the graphics look old, have they ever played COD serieS?

[LAN_deRf_HA]

The problem with reviews is for some bizarre reason everyone played the bad console port. It's a pc game, and doesn't take a good pc to run. That covers the majority of complaints I've seen reviewers make. They're platform specific.

[qubit]

Holy crap it's still dropping! 62%, 59% and now 58% in the space of a couple of days. I guess this game is really rated, huh?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/57900

Admittedly, I gave it a so-so 65%, but that's more due to implementation bugs rather than the core game. Otherwise it would have hit 85% easily.

I still love the crudeness and dodgy references.

[crazyeyesreaper]

i put 6.5 because the game really isnt worth anymore then that

its ENJOYABLE but its not blockbuster so 65 is acceptable for this its rather sad because id say a month maybe 2 of some real TLC would made Duke a far better project.

[Mindweaver]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

i put 6.5 because the game really isnt worth anymore then that

its ENJOYABLE but its not blockbuster so 65 is acceptable for this its rather sad because id say a month maybe 2 of some real TLC would made Duke a far better project.

Game informer considers 6.5 games above average. So, 6.5 isn't a bad score and I believe it's fair, but I give it a 7 to where i'm at.. I've only play about 30 to 40 min into it. I can't wait for mods to the game. Duke has enough followers to make this an even kickasser game. Look at all the high res stuff that was done with duke 3d you know?... Of course you know crazy you're a Duke follower too!

[WhiteNoise]

Pretty fair review. Good job.

[fullinfusion]

NICE!!! Thanks Ray!

[Velvet Wafer]

The Awesome:

The Aspect i liked the most about the game, was indeed its politically incorrect humor!
(people that are not Duke are literally shredded in Masses, like they were just props, rather than a real person...cannon fodder... i didnt counted the amount of dead EDF thru the whole game, do you?), the pimpy bitchslappings of many other games and idols, i also was amazed of! brang me great laugher of course!
Such Details tell me, that Love was put into a game, if developers take the time to fill it with such "trivialities"
(in the days, were COD-like clones get released every day, and a good game is about as rare as gold)


The Good

Fun varied gameplay, definetly! You go from driving to platforming FPS to 3rd person...sometimes shrunk... sometimes big.... keeps the gameplay fresh...you wont be bored by having to do the same stupid thing over and over again....
Tits an Ass ..... well, what would that be for a Duke, without Chicks and naked flesh?

The game runs smoothly on almost all PC hardware meaning nearly anyone can play and enjoy the game... Really good Example, on how to program a modded UT3 Engine right... Bulletstorm for example didnt looked better, and pulled more

Bosses are fun the triple tit Alien Queen and the Cycloid Emperors being prime examples of awesomess and humorousness at the same time. Especially the finishing Moves in the end of each fight, i really loved!

Crazy already stated it: Its crude, its rude, and its Damn fun! Not addictive....but rather like: "I want to see the next level, and the even awesomer stuff in it....but still i am not finished with exploring!"

I cant tell much about the nostalgia but from what i knew, DNF is pretty much conservative with its changes since DN3D, all in all they really tried to make it as much related to each other as they could

The OK:
Puzzles were mostly good, not too easy and too difficult.... most of them wont hinder the gameflow really, and thats what i liked about them!



The Not So Good:

Linear level design.

Jokes are not for everyone, but most peole that play FPS wont argue due to them

Graphics generally are okay,but, in my opinion its very incosistent... in some places you see beautfiul texturing, and in others, it looks muddy and bad



The Bad

Repetitive enemies

Bad Blur filter

Zooming in causes everything to get pixelated and unsharp to the extreme.


Only 2 Guns???? Man! This is Duke! even if there are pretty many weapons standing around, id rather have them to be more rare, and to be able to carry it least 5 guns.

Not enough Guns.... i would wish me, they had implemented about 10 more weapons, each, with the most curios killing methods.... the ordinary guns get boring after a while

There also is no Upgrade system, for Guns you already have, which again, makes shooting people one of the faster getting bored aspects...close combat is funnier, but also, there are not enough actions, to make it really interesting... overall, the fighting system would have needed more love and time, but it will suffice, i guess

i give DNF 8/10, as it was one of the few games in a good amount of time, which actually is able to keep me longer on it, then one evening... the stuff that was realeased in the last few months surely didnt satisfied me as much as Duke did (Crysis 2 included)

[HookeyStreet]

Good, fair review if you ask me.

I don't understand all the hate this game has been getting. FFS, it's Duke f*cking Nukem.....it's MEANT to be like this!

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by qubit

Windowed mode and vsync Most games will not allow vsync in windowed mode, causing the graphics card to freewheel like crazy. This not only produces line tearing, other artefacts and an unpleasant sqealing noise, but can also damage the card if the framerate is too high. DNF keeps the framerate nicely locked to vsync in windowed mode.

Not using vsync damages hardware? Since when?

[crazyeyesreaper]

um why qoute me when its not me but qubit who wrote that in his review lolz interesting troll Dan

[DanTheBanjoman]

It's not a troll but a fair question, my bad though. Must have been doing silly things when editing the quote. Perhaps I did multiquote by accident. Who knows, it shall remain a mystery. I shall fix the error though

[Funtoss]

love duke nukem! its a good fun game

[lilhasselhoffer]

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

Not using vsync damages hardware? Since when?

Perhaps this is a referrence to Starcraft 2 like issues. Whenever vsync wasn't active you'd get certain areas where the game would try to render a limitless number of frames per second, and in doing so burn out the graphics card. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I read it.