Giving him the same amount of plot to work with as, say, Duke Nukem 3D could have masked this, developing a character with a bit more of a personality, like a Dante or a Bayonetta, would have made him a bit more likable, and making the game an obvious satire would have made the character terrible for a reason, but this? This is just… uncomfortable and a bit puerile, to be honest, and that’s coming from someone who thinks Rumble Roses XX and Oneechanbara are perfectly fine, so take that for what it’s worth.ĭuke Nukem Forever generally fluctuates visually, and you really get the feeling that four developers worked on the game when you see the different visual quality issues that pop up throughout the game. He’s not a likable character in the strictest sense, in other words. Duke is basically a bobbing gun and a series of one-liners borrowed from old movies who makes fun of the deaths of his friends and enemies alike, treats every woman like meat, and generally can be described as a “man-child”Â. I almost feel like some of the writers were trying to write a satirical storyline based around what Duke represents, but they didn’t tell anyone else about this, so we get this plot that just seems incredibly satirical, but never manages to make it apparent that this is on purpose. The game, however, chooses to basically take the Duke Nukem character as he is, unaltered, and craft a semi-serious storyline around him, and the results of this are that we’re given a lot more insight into the character, which is problematic, because he’s really kind of a horrible human being. That said, there were three “good” directions a plot for this game could have gone in: develop the character, make the whole thing satirical, or include about as much plot as Duke Nukem 3D. It’s also entirely reasonable to believe that, in a world that was saved by Duke Nukem, dudes would want to be him and women would want to be with him, since he saved the world and all, so, again, that’s easy enough to roll with. Further, while Duke might be a pig and a jerk, he’s never been presented as an idiot, and it’s quite reasonable to believe that if he single handedly stopped an alien invasion, hey, maybe he’s smart enough to run a burger franchise or a casino or a strip club or whatever. “Excuse me, mister savior of the world? Would you like to be our official spokesperson?” Just like that. If some random dude showed up clean out of nowhere and single-handedly saved the world from evil alien invaders, you can best believe that every company still in existence would be tripping all over themselves to offer said person endorsements of all shapes and sizes. Now, some elements of this plot are perfectly fine, and dare I even say sensible, given the nature of the beast. The Cycloid forces from Duke Nukem 3D have returned around this time, however, and while the initial indications imply that the aliens mean peace this time around, as anyone with some sense would gather, that’s not at all how things turn out, so it’s up to Duke, once again, to kick the hell out of the invading alien horde and save our chicks. Living the high life in a penthouse and dating mildly incestuous pop musician twins, Duke has done it all and essentially become the world’s biggest hero-slash-franchise. So the story picks up about twelve years after the last game, and as the song goes, ol’ Duke’s a billionaire. It’s not a bad game so much as it’s a confusing one, as it’s equal parts unnecessary innovations and archaic elements, leaving the final product as one that is worth experiencing just to say one has done it, but isn’t really worth owning unless one is both incredibly patient and easily pleased. As it turns out, however, the series hasn’t aged particularly well conceptually or mechanically, and the final product is one that’s hard to really appreciate. Expectations for the game have been, one would expect, far higher than any game could ever possibly pay off, but with a decade and a half of development under the game’s belt, combined with a developer (Gearbox) at the helm of the final iteration of the product that’s known for some great games, the odds were good that the public could, indeed, always bet on Duke. It’s not that the character hasn’t been in other games since then, or that other games haven’t spent a considerable amount of time in development hell, but it’s just a surprise for anyone who, like myself, was old enough to be alive for the entire development process and remember it. That, in and of itself, is a pretty big thing. So allow us to forgo, if we can, the assessments about the game’s massive amount of time in development and the astonishment of being able to finally see the day where this would indeed exist, and simply state that fifteen years and four developers later, Duke Nukem Forever exists. Developer: 3D Realms, Triptych Games, Piranha Games, Gearbox Software
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