If you ever wanted to live the high life of saving the world, kicking ass and taking names, while having nothing but endless females at your knees begging for your strong loving! Then this is definitely the game that will fulfill that fantasy buddy and I have to let you know that it is about damn time this title has been released. If you don’t know then you better look him up, because it is time to kick ass and chew bubble….and I’m all out of gum baby!
In Duke Nukem Forever, you are at the peak of your success, living the high life and doing it up the best that Duke can do, however there is always a down side and sadly your relaxation ends when aliens come and invade Earth. The good news is that you are freaking Duke Nukem, you can take on anything and anyone. The bad news is the President wants you to bend over like the rest of Earth’s citizens and take this attack up the pooper! The story is not that complicated from there, you go around killing enemies in the best and funniest way possible, sleep with females and pretty much bask in your awesomeness.
Since its a shooter everything is in first person, with exception to some side scenarios where you are in a vehicle in third person. I would have to say that 80% of the world is fully interactive. You can pick up rats or make yourself some popcorn in the microwave. Little things like that make the game interesting but it becomes a bit much in some cases. I mean I got an achievement for picking up a turd in the toilet. The controls are the same as in any FPS where your right and left triggers control focus shot and shooting, the d-pad controls your enhanced abilities with night vision, steroid pills, beer and other items you obtain along the way. The aiming controls are not all that to be desired to be honest, they are not precise and even the adjustments make them worse.
The guns in the game are pretty cool but they do take some getting used too, especially the alien laser rifles. I have my favorites though like the shotgun, pistol and rocket launcher. There is the three barrel ripper which is a machine gun but I find it to be my least favorite gun, since the ammo goes way to fast even holding up to over 150 rounds. I would say keep the rail gun handy which is a one shot kill when it is available. The explosives are impressive especially the laser mines. The power up items like steroids give you a strength boost which turn your fist into one hit kills and the beer gives you an extra shield boost, but it is your ego meter that acts as your shield. If you take damage hide behind something for a bit until your ego recharges and you are good to go.
The multiplayer has three different modes, Capture the Babe, Hail to the King, and Duke Match. The problem I had with the modes is more of the controls and dropped frame rate at times and it is not as interesting as other FPS games, even though it is the same as any other FPS match just with different names. It is just lacking that fun because of the clunky controls. It is still too early, but with the few I did get a chance to play with, I had to admit defeat due to the controls.
The game in itself is over the top with its cheesy humor that’s funny at first but gets old after a while. I did like some of the jokes towards celebrities like the Olsen twins and making fun of Master Chief’s power armor in one scene, but the campaign takes another turn for the worse when trying to navigate through the level. It is not a big world and you walk a linear path, but yet I was still getting lost. The game doesn’t really give you much of an objective, you kind of just walk up to things and figure out that you need something for it to work. The worse was going through the hive and I got lost so many times and didn’t really get what I needed to do or know where to go. It would be frustrating for a new FPS gamer and which isn’t good.
The only thing really going for this game is the crazy antics but sadly it falls short to the over hype curse. In turn we did wait 12 years for a new title, but sadly it needs to go back to the programmers to fix the many glitches. For example some of the environments that would not let you progress because of some random invisible wall. I frankly consider this the B-movie of video games or the “Troma Film” of video game consoles.
In closing I have to give Duke Nukem Forever a “RENT” rating. I don’t frankly care that the humor is over the top but as a disclaimer, kids steroids are bad and fighting crime while drunk are never a good idea. Now with that said the over the top humor is not bad, it is the controls that kill it for me and it needs a lot of work. The glitches in certain areas especially multiplayer left me with “meh” feelings. The worst was the long loading time between levels, I even tried saving the game to my hard drive, but it didn’t help. I was stoked at first for the Duke’s return, but I think they needed a bit more time to test out the controls. I do hope you enjoyed this review and please check below for our gallery and some gameplay footage, stay frosty gamers!
