Duke Nukem Forever

It was never going to be perfect but it hits a spot that's been left unappreciated for an awfully long time. While the likes of Call of Duty and Crysis continue down the road to absolute realism, Duke Nukem Forever takes gamers back to remind about how to have fun; surely that's why people play games?

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever as it feels like a game caught in the past which it is.

Duke Nukem Forever definitely is an awesome old-school experience. It has some flaws (especially in terms of graphics), but that's okay – at least for those who eagerly awaited the Duke's return for more than 14 years now. For all the others: The game probably isn't good enough to change your opinion, but at least you now know for sure.

What awaits you is a Duke that would have rocked the genre nine years ago but for today's standards this is just mediocre.

An extinct approach to first-person shooters, like a game locked into a time capsule that has been relased now (which is almost what happened). There are indeed many better shooters out there, but very few as charming, although the game might disappoint some who are just looking for a FPS by today's standards.

While the action is fun, there is no way to avoid feeling it's stuck in the past.

Duke Nukem Forever has many imperfections, like worthless AI and poor-looking graphics. The question is, though, whether that really matters with this game. We did enjoy Duke Nukem Forever from beginning to end and weren't bothered by those imperfections. The one-liners are, once again, the stuff of legend, and Forever does constantly introduce the player to refreshing gameplay elements. All and all it's a real Duke Nukem game. And as an ode to the biggest legend of the game-industry is exactly how we judged it.

There are lots of things Duke does right however, like ridiculous levels of interactivity, variety in level design and for entertaining me personally all the way through.

At best, Duke Nukem Forever is a solid but flawed game that most people would enjoy only as a new iteration in the 3D Realms veteran series. Despite some old promises, this game has a lot of trouble living up to those high expectations set forth by the saga's past triumphs.

I'm glad Gearbox stepped up and finished this game, but after hearing about it for 12 years, I have no desire to relive any of it again. I'm now satisfied in my knowledge of what Duke Nukem Forever is and ready to never talk about it again. Welcome back, Duke. I hope your next game (which is teased after the credits) goes off without a hitch.

With its incredibly obsolete graphics and technical aspects, combined with inappropriate modern elements, Duke Nukem cannot be called a good game. It is however a fun game, that offers the Nukem-trademark humour together with much variation in surroundings and gameplay.

I always new that it would never live up to expectations but I had hoped for something that would have a bit more character than just being an average shooter with Duke's face and humour plastered over it. Still, I can't bring myself to hate it or bash it vociferously. It could never be anything other than what it has been and actually, that's fine.

Duke Nukem Forever's world-record development time has produced an ugly, buggy shooter that veers back and forth between enjoyably average and outright boring, with occasional surges of greatness along the way.

Duke Nukem Forever is not just a game, it's a relic from the past. Not a great one, unfortunately. With a campaign that mixes some good moments with a lot of boring ones, Duke's return isn't the game everyone wanted it to be. It's a passable shooter, with some decent level design, nothing more.

Like reuniting with a close friend after many years apart and then discovering how they've gone nowhere with their life, Duke's return is a sad engagement that makes you wish you had left the past where it belongs.

Overall this is not what I had expected after 15 years of waiting. The graphics are not state of the art, the gameplay is average, the mini games suck and the level design doesn't offer you more than one option. The only advantage is that the game is cheaper than other shooters and the Duke is back. However, I had expected a more glamorous comeback of the guy with balls out of steel.

Hopefully this is Duke's swan song. No matter what happens next it will never top Forever in terms of hype and discussion. It doesn't deserve the venom it got from reviewers and message boards, but it probably doesn't deserve your cash, either.

It's a muddled, hypocritical exercise in irritation with solid shooting mechanics and decent encounter design. There's some dumb fun to be had in Duke Nukem Forever, but the game tries hard to ensure it's only fleeting.

After more than a decennium the Duke is finally back in Duke Nukem Forever but the game isn't really great. It has fantastic humor and the fans will appreciate this game, but technically it's way too old for a good PlayStation 3 game. It's a shame that Gearbox didn't update the game more at the technical aspect.

It's just a mess. It pains me to say it, but it's absolutely true.

It's true that there are plenty of superior overall shooters out there that'd murder for a character with a quarter of the charisma Duke Nukem oozes. He's a dinosaur; a two-dimensional mound of muscles with a gun. But that's the joke. Duke Nukem Forever really is a several-year old game masquerading as a new release. [August 2011 p67]

For the fans, it's a safe bet that offers good diversion. For the others, it's nothing but a dated and bad game at all levels.

This game is neither a classic nor a complete failure. What ultimately makes it worth playing is the variety. The different parts don't all work quite as well as they should, but there's always something fresh around the next corner.

Duke Nukem Forever is the result of what first began as perfectionism that slowly snowballed into mismanagement.

Aliens are here, kidnapping and impregnating women, and it's Duke's job to blow them away. The more intriguing aspect of Duke Nukem Forever is how the character's apparent mythos appears to be the engine of the entire experience. He's worshipped as a living god in the game, with his own burger joint, strip club, museum and stadium. His mission is about rescuing babes and kicking ass, which is well within his strike zone, but did it need to leak into every capillary of the experience? It's as if Gearbox was relying a little too much on the "Dukeness" to cover up any weaknesses. Who care if the game looks dated? It's Duke! Let's have him mess with Halo because he's Duke!

The aging loud-mouth hero does not take himself too seriously in Duke Nukem Forever, and neither should you. Overall, nostalgia simply is not enough to save this bland and repetitive shooter.

And that, as insane as it sounds, is the crux of the matter: Duke Nukem Forever feels like it was rushed out the door. So many of the design decisions are poor, so much of the maps are unbalanced (going from uneventful to extremely difficult in a flash), and the graphics are so shoddy, that an experienced gamer can come to no other conclusion.

Somehow, Duke Nukem Forever manages to feel rushed, even though it's been in developement for 15 years. It's not the worst game by any means, but the worst use of resources for video games ever.

Everything we expected and less. Duke should have stayed dead. [Aug 2011, p.88]

Nobody wanted to love DNF more than me but I just couldn't get any enjoyment out of it.

There aren't any highs as such, just moments of not sucking. [Aug 2011, p.108]

It's good to see that Duke Nukem Forever finally made it past the development finish line, but the race to get there clearly took its toll on Duke. He started limping toward the end goal around 2007, and he's looking and feeling pretty rough.

Today's gamers have become used to enjoying a much more balanced FPS experience when playing online and many of us find it frustrating if our game of choice doesn't maintain a fair playing field. The Duke Nukem Forever multiplayer seems so outdated in comparison which is a real shame, as both gamers and (in fairness) the developers, were really hoping that it would just be good chaotic fun.

DNF plays like it's been developed in a vacuum, serving more as a time-capsule of mediocre PC games from the first half of the last decade than a certifiable, modern-day FPS.

It's not just the dated game mechanics and the misogynism that drags the experience down. Somewhere along the way, Gearbox have lost track of the series' charm, and have effectively killed the franchise for good with their blunt approach. It feels like I'm saying goodbye to an old friend that I've grown apart from and have nothing in common with any more. And I'm out of gum too. What a bummer.

Quotation forthcoming.

If you're not willing to play a sloppy, cobbled together first-person shooter just because it has some kind of weird historical meaning, though, just forget this ever happened and move on. It's great, in some ways, that Duke Nukem Forever was released at all. But don't be confused into thinking that it's a great game.

Duke Nukem Forever is a disappointment to say the least. 14 years of development seem like a waste of time when you see what has become of the most famous FPS franchise. Sad.

As a bizarre curio of video game history, Duke Nukem Forever's appeal cannot be denied, and there is some entertainment derived from overlooking the end product of one of history's most troubled productions. The main thing we can learn looking backwards, however, is that no game should be like this going forward.

Duke Nukem Forever is a strange enough novelty all on its own, but when all is said and done, it is a vastly aged shooter that is left trailing in the dust of its modern contemporaries.

If not a bit ironic, Duke ends the game with a line about how 'crappy' the ending was. Well Duke, that just about summed up the entire game. There are no redeeming qualities about this game, the shooting, weapons, enemies, gameplay, platforming and driving all combine to be one extremely unrewarding experience. If it were not for the fact this game has had so much hype and been in development for nearly fifteen years, this game would not be receiving any attention, because it does not deserve any.

Ten years ago it would have been bad. 15 years ago it wouldn't have been worth playing. Today? It's a joke, and one that's just not funny. [Issue#207, p.82]

Dated in almost every way.

Forever eschews any hope for a decent story or interesting gameplay in favor of shoving as many boobs in our face as possible. As a result, the game comes up short in every way possible.

The bland and ugly Duke Nukem Forever turns a famous gaming icon into an embarrassment.

Plain and simple, Duke Nukem Forever suffers from being passed around the development table for too long without any updates to its core.