Duke Nukem: Forever Review

In 1996 I was a fresh faced child who was new to the world of PC gaming. My family had received an already outdated by many standards of the day, a Packard Bell 75mhz computer. With barely enough ability to run Windows 95, I was introduced to a whole new world. A world that was before this moment occupied by Sonic and Mario, due to only having access to console games at this time. Needless to say it took hold and PC gaming has always had a very special place in my heart.

One of my very first games I was introduced to was a shareware copy of Duke Nukem 3D. Probably more at the time I was more amazed with the shear amount of violence, gore and boobies than anything else in the game. I mean it was like a R-Rated Movie for me at this time. But enough reminiscing, needless to say Duke has always held a dear place in my heart, maybe because of my loss of innocence at hands of this game, but maybe because I played the hell out of shareware and the Atomic Edition of its incarnations.

This review unlike many of the others seeks to ratify Duke for the current generation. In all honestly I think many reviews have been too harsh on poor Duke.

Probably the best way to describe Duke Nukem: Forever is like have an old friend show up a party very late. Not just very late, almost to the point where the vast majority has left and simply the stragglers or people too drunk are still hanging around. This said old seeing the situation at your party being very dim and boring, decided the best way to liven up the party is to leave a turd by the punch bowl. To some people this seems funny (me) but to many others (vast majority of gaming community), the sight of a turd by the punch bowl disgusts them. Duke Nukem Forever is that turd.

Story: Is there really a story to Duke Nukem: Forever? Not really. It actually doesn’t deviate much from the original context in which we often find Duke. Aliens invade, steal our chicks and it’s up to Duke like always to save the world. There is a minor “plot” twist at the end of the game, but honestly it was pointless. But if it is something about classic games from the PC era, story was never their finer points. Usually revolving around the simple plot of kill everything with the largest gun possible, and Duke Forever does not leave this far behind. But can we really expect Duke to have that much a story? Probably not. I mean the character in itself is an arc-type that wouldn’t lead itself to even having a story. In many instances the story of Duke Nukem: Forever is a story Written, Produced and Directed by Duke himself.

Gameplay: The game play is your typical FPS. You point towards something that is running towards you and try to kill it before it kills you. There are some half hearted attempts for puzzles. They barrow from Half-Life 2’s physic puzzles. But they are nearly not as clever and actually serve to be minor hick-ups in the game play. But a game about Duke shouldn’t really be focused around puzzles anyway, it should be about killing things, and there is no lack of that. However the guns and creative ways to dispatch your enemies are just generic. The shotgun is still the best weapon, being able to take down all enemies expect for bosses in a few bursts. Even weapons like the shrink ray and the freeze ray which could have had the possibilities to be cool, fall short. And with “Halo” ability to have only two guns at a time is kinda annoying for a game such a Duke. I mean its suppose to be about having the most fire power as possible to kill your enemies, but with the lack of having only two weapons is annoying for this game. This is especially true with trying to the get the Gun Slinger achievement where you must carry Duke’s Gold M1911. This is all together too weak for any encounter except at the beginning. I don’t know what happened to Duke’s Desert Eagle that were in the original scream shots and game play video, but they should of left it in.

But without great level design you can’t have a great game. And honestly having a game like Duke Nukem 3D which was been a beacon for level design, to the really pitiful level design that is Duke Nukem Forever. With linear corridor esque levels that really towards the end of the game become painfully boring, you won’t ever get lost. However it feels like the game is really in two parts, a somewhat polished first part that has fun levels and is interesting. And second part that was thrown together out of broken ideas to simply publish and ship the game.

What were really terrible where the force platforming portions and the underwater part. Understandable once again there were left over from a different era of games, but they do not translate well into the modern field. One part in particular caused me great anguish. After being shrunken (it happens a lot in the game, but the few moments in the beginning it was actually kinda fun) later on, you have to maneuver yourself through air ways and machinery in the Hoover dam. I died nearly 25 times trying to get through moving gear within a machine. But I blame this one the controls.

Duke often controls like a tank. There are visibly present in the moments when you require hands of a surgeon to move across a careful narrow ledge. Or when under water he swims like he is covered in cement. Granted I wasn’t expecting speed of Michael Phelps but still…come on Duke, you can swim faster then that.

The Game also toots a degree of interactivity with the environment. This isn’t blowing up walls ala Red Faction, but various items in the environment you can play with and receive EGO boosts. Your EGO acts like a shield, so its necessary to receive these boosts. However at times it seems rather tedious. Case in point the Pin Ball Machine. Never in my life have I become so mad at a game within a game (a game cepetion). With un responsive controls how can one obtain the EGO boost from this god forsaken devil machine. Only with reflexes of a jungle cat and even that may not be enough. Granted this is not a necessity for the game, but if you are going to include something such as this within the game, at least make it playable.

Audio/Visual: Audio is nothing stellar. However Duke’s one-liners are still funny to me. I did actually laugh a couple times when Duke would yell “Damnit!” or “Shit!” when I messed something up. And the context particular ones are sometimes funny. But then you start to hear the same things over and over again, and then it loses its originality.

The visuals are by far the worst part of this game. I hate to say it but at sometimes it’s hard to even play it when it looks so bad. This is especially true of the outdoor environments. Jesus Christ how terrible can they be? With even barren lands the game still managed to slow down to a shear grind in some portions. Granted the visuals are suppose to be better on the PC (which is what I played the original demo on at PAX 2010), but for consoles it’s pretty terrible. The inside environments are not as bad as the outside, but they are still lacking. I will say some how the game can show slime and sheen very well. This is especially true in the Alien Hive level where everything is covered in a thin layer of film. But for a game that has been in development for 12 years, and has spent the last 2 years being ported to consoles should look better than this.

Overall:

Duke has not aged well. It’s sad to say when I looked back at the Game play videos from E3 2006 and 2007, the game looked better than it does now, and it looked like it had originality. But did I have fun playing it and reliving a part of my childhood, yes. But that can only go so far. I really wanted to like this game, and I did to a point, but nostalgia can only go so far. Unfortunately with a market flooded right now with Half-life, Halo’s, and Crysis, there may not be a place for Duke anymore. It’s kind of sad really, that all the other older games made more successful jumps to current generations then Duke (except for Quake 4, but that’s a whole different story). I really hope I see Duke again, and I think Gearbox has the ability to bring him back. They did accomplish something that took 12 years to do, which is pretty amazing. But in the end, the released a pretty half-assed attempt at trying to recapture the Duke franchise. It’s sad that this was supposed to be his crowning return, but instead it’s still a turd next to the punch bowl.

Score: 4.0/10

Infamous 2 Review

I had originally intended a review of Duke Nukem: Forever to be my maiden review, however since I just finished Infamous 2 it will have to wait.

Infamous 2 is the sequel to Sucker Punch Studio’s Infamous. You play the role of Cole McGrath who by events from the first game is garnered with powers to control electricity.

Story: I felt like the story was a little lacking within Infamous 2. Granted it was still an amazing story, it however lacked the ability to truly grip me and hold onto me attention much like the first game could. The story in Infamous 2 centers much more a central gathering mission which pits you against the forces of New Marais. The stories are very intertwined between the first and second game. To avoid spoilers, I won’t give away many details between two. I will say the antagonist, Bertrand, is a decent evil force. However I feel his goals or ambitions seem muddled throughout the story. It’s made clear later on, but throughout the majority of the game, I felt lost to what exactly he wanted. This could simply be the story telling technique used by Sucker Punch, but a little more clarity would have been nice.

With the central theme of Cole’s adventure set, you are faced with karmatic choices that affect the abilities you obtain and equip. For my first outing I played through Evil. (I always choose evil when I play a game the first time) I never felt like my actions where really all the evil. They just seemed more selfish compared to the helping the “greater good” Good story line. But by the end of the game, you are met with an interesting change in paths. I will say the evil ending is very bitter-sweet. It does leave it open, but it actually made me really sad to commit one act at the very end of the game. All I can say is well done Sucker Punch for making me feel terrible for my choice but reminding me that it’s the choice I made.

Game play: The game play is always the focal point of any video game. First all of Cole’s abilities return from the first game with some welcomed extras. The level in which you can purchase and equip powers is a welcomed addition to Infamous 2. This allows for the player to have the ability to switch weapons on the fly for any situation that they might encounter. However I felt like after a certain point I only keep certain powers within my arsenal, only switching out my Ionic attacks depending on what type of mayhem I wanted to produce. Honestly just about any combat situation Cole finds himself in can be solved with a few simply Grenade lobs. But this may be a simplification of the entire system. This is by no means to downplay the intensity and pure insanity that some battles offer. However this could be that I was playing on hard difficulty or my own lack of tactical skills set, but later on some battles with the Ice Enemies seem all together too cheap. There is a dodge feature which is welcomed, but I am not accustomed to using this feature to dodge a nearly 50ft piece of ice thrown by some unknown juggernaut. I found often sometimes in battles with enemies barreling down upon me with speed that I couldn’t hope to match only to be shot at a close range by a point-blank shot gun blast. This became a rather annoying occurrence, but thankfully with the amazing save system that Infamous 2 employs it didn’t make me want to turn off the game once in frustration.

Cole’s platforming abilities make a return as well. One could argue that with Sucker Punch’s Sly Cooper Series they were the original perfectors of vertical platforming. The first Infamous had amazing versatility when it came to ability to climb nearly surface without any hassle. Not much to this system has been tweaked in the second game; if anything it has been improved it’s the shear speed and all around nimbleness of Cole. But it doesn’t seem as seamless as it could be. With such game characters as Assassin Creed’s Enzio having the ability to scale a wall or building with dynamic ease is amazing. Cole on the other hand seems be almost reluctant at time to scale a tall building. There is certainly a pause while Cole tries to scramble to find his footing on even the narrowest wall or outcropping. But at times the platforming really surprises the player. I found that many of the times I died platforming where by my own hand and taking too much control over my jumping. In many ways the game wants you to have more faith in it, with a simple “Don’t worry, I got this” mentality. This same degree existed within the first one and would probably put off those who found the lack of total control frustrating.

As for mission design they were great. The central story missions where well told and always provided great variety in what they wanted. The side missions where the same, however they at times there where far more copy and paste then the main mission. The real variety came from the Karma missions. The evil or good missions provided a welcomed change. Working with either the proposed evil character in which you quite protestors who are demonstrating against your reign of terror or destroying the local police force provide ways to break up the main story. From what I played of the good missions, they focus on healing the sick or putting down militia uprisings to defusing bombs.

Audio and Visuals: Honestly I am not that big into this category as many of my gamers. Yes in some cases some visuals can be appalling with terrible voice acting. But any triple A title such as Infamous 2 does not suffer from these issues. The only thing that struck me was the different voice actor for Cole. I didn’t like him at first because I thought the voice actor for the first game was amazing. However the new voice actor does a great job conveying the emotions and often the frustrations that Cole has to go through dealing with his powers. And I thought the evil character that joins your side was probably one of the most annoying characters, but I can understand her. An uneducated child who is fueled by simple emotions and anger that is given power. But at the same time I had a hard time picking the evil side because of her.

Overall: Infamous 2 is a brilliant game. It it’s probably one of the best games this year. It is lacking in some areas compared to the first one, but I believe they are minor to the overall fun and satisfaction that really comes from Infamous 2. If an individual enjoys playing these type of games then Infamous 2 should be a definite pick up. But if you did not play the first one, I would recommend playing it first simply the get the benefit with the overlapping story lines.

Score: 9.0/10