Duke Nukem Forever

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.