Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 59 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 37 out of 59
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 59
  3. Negative: 12 out of 59

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  1. yoe91
    Mar 31, 2017
    3
    Well this is very disappointing for certain. Duke 3D original was a masterpiece, but this here totally feeds off it without adding anything new that's worthy. The one new gun, is way, way too powerful and totally uninspired. The new enemy is a bizarre idea, that uses the same sound as previous enemies, and is incredibly confusing and frustrating to fight against. The levels are tooWell this is very disappointing for certain. Duke 3D original was a masterpiece, but this here totally feeds off it without adding anything new that's worthy. The one new gun, is way, way too powerful and totally uninspired. The new enemy is a bizarre idea, that uses the same sound as previous enemies, and is incredibly confusing and frustrating to fight against. The levels are too spacious and often feel totally vacant and fake, nothing like the soul that inhabited every level of the original.

    On the plus side, there's a bit more "professional" Duke to be played, soundtrack is pretty good, I like the mini boss idea, and the chronological play-history thing is very efficient and practical (no more save-load redundant reflex).
    They basically milked it big time and counted on the brilliance of the original to sell this one easy.    … Expand
  2. DukeDreamcast
    Oct 12, 2016
    10
    Glorious return of the king! World Tour is a groovy game all around, the new episode Alien World Order is incredibly well done. Blum and Levelord are better than ever, these maps are what gaming is all about. Fun, immersive, like a playground to kill aliens in. Great variety from the famous city maps style to larger more elaborate ones like Egypt or a Greek Arena.

    Gunplay is fun as    Glorious return of the king! World Tour is a groovy game all around, the new episode Alien World Order is incredibly well done. Blum and Levelord are better than ever, these maps are what gaming is all about. Fun, immersive, like a playground to kill aliens in. Great variety from the famous city maps style to larger more elaborate ones like Egypt or a Greek Arena.

    Gunplay is fun as ever, doing the shotgun shimmy, the new Incinerator is fun too (if messy, leaves lava everywhere)! The new music by legend Lee Jackson is very cool by the way, has a John Carpenter vibe to it. Duke Match is great as ever, and the Workshop is starting to get going. Countless great user maps out there.

    On the remastering, I really dig the new renderer, the lighting adds a new sheen of quality (lighting done by Blum and Levelord), ambient occlusion is cool too. Framerate is butter smooth, Jon St. John's new Dukeisms are superb, some of the sounds like the pistol are a bit muffled but not distractingly so. In general this port looks great, plays great, could patch in a few more options, no complaints here. All around a great game here.

    Duke is back! New episode is the best thing going, every FPS dev should study these masters showing how it's done. Let's rock!    … Expand
  3. Harley82
    Oct 26, 2016
    4
    Really sad about this product. The online Multiplayer is just not working. For lots of friends, other players an myself included it's not possible to Play Coop/DukeMatch for more than a Minute or even start a Game. You get kicked out of any Game or Enemies an other Players just lose any connection to Duke Nukem Online service.
    Another big problem is that you immediately Run, when you go    Really sad about this product. The online Multiplayer is just not working. For lots of friends, other players an myself included it's not possible to Play Coop/DukeMatch for more than a Minute or even start a Game. You get kicked out of any Game or Enemies an other Players just lose any connection to Duke Nukem Online service.
    Another big problem is that you immediately Run, when you go (slow) forward and look around. Can't unterstand that issue. Do the Producers have even play that Game before selling it ???    … Expand
  4. somedude14
    Mar 21, 2018
    8
    Includes the original three episodes, the fourth "The Birth" episode that started being included with Duke3D releases starting with Atomic, and an all new fifth episode exclusive to this package that was made by the original developers. This new episode also includes new music by the original composer, a new enemy and a new weapon. What's missing compared to previous packages are the threeIncludes the original three episodes, the fourth "The Birth" episode that started being included with Duke3D releases starting with Atomic, and an all new fifth episode exclusive to this package that was made by the original developers. This new episode also includes new music by the original composer, a new enemy and a new weapon. What's missing compared to previous packages are the three licensed expansions: Duke it Out in D.C., Life's A Beach, and Nuclear Winter. It also doesn't include the N64 or PS1 versions of Duke Nukem 3D, but no bundled release has done this yet (though the since cancelled Android collection was planned to include these and be the first truly definitive version - with the major downside of it only being available on Android). This collection is also missing the shovelware unofficial and unlicensed map pack collections, but those were extremely low quality and I only bring it up to mention they aren't here.

    This release also includes a developer commentary mode which, when enabled, puts hovering interactive voice files all over the game that can be used to get more insight into the history of Duke Nukem, as well as some insights into the development of this release. There is also a "Playback" mode that can be enabled or disabled. When enabled, this allows you to rewind to any earlier section in your playthrough on that mission, so if you don't want to need to spam saves throughout every mission, or routinely forget to save and end up losing progress, you'll want to leave this on. It's worth noting this game doesn't autosave, not even when starting a new mission, so you will still want to make hardsaves.

    Has some pretty brutal input lag which is caused by vsync, which can't be disabled in-game. You can however disable vsync by forcing vsync off through your GPU's control panel. Once you fix the input lag issues, this version controls the best as far as official releases are concerned, however the mouse control still doesn't feel as tight as what can be experienced playing the original in eduke32. It isn't reading the input as well for some reason. The Megaton version that has since been pulled from Steam had worse mouse input issues of its own that never got resolved. It also used an OpenGL renderer, as opposed to putting the game in a new true 3D engine, which is what this version does. You can turn on SSAO, and you can also switch between the classic and new engine with the press of the "C" key. The immediate difference is that the FoV has been corrected, and there are more light sources in addition to an improved lighting engine to make the game world look less flat. The improved lighting is nice visually, but also has the side effect of removing some of the game's tension, since a few areas that were once dark are now clearly lit.

    I didn't play this version at launch, but have read that this release used to use different sounds than the original. That must have been addressed, because ever since I've been playing this, it sounds the same as the original. The sound effects and music don't seem to have as much depth as they could though. Duke's lines have been re-recorded with the same voice actor to get more audio depth to the old recordings - as well as having some new lines - but if you don't like the way the new lines sound, you can turn on the "Legacy Duke Talk" option, which lets you use the original tracks. Some of the sound effects (mainly the alien noises) still have a lot of distortion to them, it was this way in the original as well so it's hard to tell if this was intentional for an effect or audio clipping that occurred and they never went back to fix it. Either way it's really obnoxious and should have been fixed for this release, although it would have required re-recording those sound effects to be properly addressed.

    Has an integrated game browser for coop and deathmatch multiplayer support, up to 8 players in both cases. I've never been able to find a game, so can't comment on multiplayer beyond the mention. It does allow for you to do offline vs bots (no coop with a bot however), but that gets boring fast.

    I recommend this because despite missing the three licensed (but unofficial) expansions, the mouse input not being as good as has been seen in Duke ports in unofficial engines (though still very playable once vsync is forced off), and several sound effects still having distortion/audio clipping issues, this is the best official collection that has ever been available. If all these issues were fixed, this would easily be a 9/10. If they had done all this and also included bug-free, hi-res, multiplayer supported versions of the N64 and PS1 takes on Duke3D, making this the truly definitive all inclusive "World Tour" version of Duke Nukem 3D, this would be a perfect 10. As it is, it's an 8.    … Expand
  5. Kostia
    Aug 15, 2019
    0
    absolutely hacky remake of duke nukem 3D practically didn’t add anything new except for the 5 episode, well, even a little chew pulled up the schedule and so I put the hack 0/10
  6. mmarko433
    Aug 1, 2021
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Duke Nukem Anniversary World Tour, thanks the remake game. The best game ever.… Expand
  7. tronchaviones
    Jul 1, 2023
    0
    Developers must be full gagá, because they managed to break the mouse code. Now, mouse sensitivity is unstable and continuously variable, so this "remake" just kills the gaming experience. Wasted money and wasted time.
  8. thexb
    Jun 21, 2020
    0
    bring back megaton, randy, no one wants to play your crappy port with missing campaigns
  9. BenzoSt
    Jul 12, 2022
    8
    A classic from the 1990's with fast, explosive action, lots of silly one-liners, and hidden Easter eggs referring to pop culture. The new episode is quite good as well, despite being created with circa-1996 technology. Nevertheless, Duke 3D could have been better if the enemies were faster and if it weren't so easy to accidentally blow yourself up or occasionally get yourself squashed in aA classic from the 1990's with fast, explosive action, lots of silly one-liners, and hidden Easter eggs referring to pop culture. The new episode is quite good as well, despite being created with circa-1996 technology. Nevertheless, Duke 3D could have been better if the enemies were faster and if it weren't so easy to accidentally blow yourself up or occasionally get yourself squashed in a doorway or elevator. If you play it nowadays, you can try the EDUKE32 source port plus the HRP (high resolution pack) for a more 3D experience with sharper image quality.… Expand
  10. MCGrammajam
    Nov 28, 2022
    7
    i'll commend it as the most readily available version of duke nukem 3d on pc. it's missing official expansion packs such as duke it out in dc and duke caribbean: life's a beach. ambient occlusion which is enabled by default can cause numerous performance issues on hardware that surpasses recommended system requirements.

    it's not the worst you can do and the new levels really are gravy,    i'll commend it as the most readily available version of duke nukem 3d on pc. it's missing official expansion packs such as duke it out in dc and duke caribbean: life's a beach. ambient occlusion which is enabled by default can cause numerous performance issues on hardware that surpasses recommended system requirements.

    it's not the worst you can do and the new levels really are gravy, but i'd recommend it on a discount before completely disregarding free online ways to play the game.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 12, 2017
    80
    It’s not just a game. It’s a wonderful journey to the past that revives beautiful memories. [13/2016, p.57]
  2. DarkStation
    Dec 16, 2016
    80
    Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour ultimately is a tweaked version of the original game with a touch of new content, though it neglects the content included in its expansion packs. It’s a bit easier to play, and the sound is vastly improved, but beyond what was already great, there isn’t too much else to offer outside of a new episode and developer commentary. The game is still fantastic and holds up very well thanks to this version of the game, which can be a hard thing to do with classic games in the same genre. It’s unfortunate that World Tour doesn’t stand on its own, but it would be a big lie to say that I didn’t enjoy playing through it.
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  3. GameGrin
    Dec 1, 2016
    60
    Overall, it’s a good game but riddled with issues and a way too expensive price tag. It feels like they should have spent way more time on improving the game and play testing it a bit more. One of the most fantastic things however is that they have added modding compatibility. Also, credit to Urbanator for the art.
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