Duke Nukem 3D

The Good
I liked the wit. It's typical Duke Nukem, and it is refreshing to play a game with a down to earth hero. His one-liners always made me chuckle, and it added an air of Hollywood into the game!

Graphics are pretty good for '96, probably just over Dooms '93 level (but remember that was insanely ahead of its time) and the environments are believable, and weapons are very good - futuristic but fun to use, and definitely add to the players interest. The graphics were good enough for me to enjoy those strippers' looks... ;)

I love the gameplay - It is pretty much your typical FPS - but it has less bad features and more good ones than many - For example, you can use items like the jetpack which are executed perfectly, and of course Duke's interactivity with the player sets this game above Quake, and even Doom in that respect.

The music consists of midi tracks, but they are very well done and catchy - Some levels use a form of ambience, and others use a very "on the go" type of tune depending on what sort of level it is; I think the music was done very effectively in this game. The sound is also pretty good - with background sounds in effect, and the same format of enemy sounds as found in Doom ("wakeup" sounds, "active" sounds, etc) which can cause the player to shake in fear! There are a good number of levels to play here - I never got bored playing this game. Sounds great, huh? Well there are some problems ...

The Bad
... yes, you heard me! There are some problems. Mainly, similar to Doom II, there is a poor storyline which is never really followed by the player. Also, obviously it is 2.5D, which means sprites are used for the characters, which can look poor when looking at dead bodies on the rotating security cameras in the game - as they bodies spin with the camera. This is something that has been a problem since Doom, and 3D Realms were very aware of it. Also, I can't say much for the mouselook feature in this game - tends to give one a bit of a headache using it, although that may just be me...

The Bottom Line
This is a good game, and worth getting if you want a complete "old school FPS" collection. As with Doom, it is an adrenalin pumping game with good graphics and admirable gameplay.

The Good
I don't know where to begin, because it's really just about everything to do with the game. The levels are all well designed and, despite sticking to the game's theme, provide enough variance to keep oneself interested from start to finish. I didn't find one of the game's 29 (40 in the Atomic edition) levels to be boring, poorly made, or unwelcome. Often one level will continue roughly where the last level left off - this is a definitive improvement over Doom which just starts every level at a random point unrelated to the level before. There are also quite a lot of secret levels - and, at least for the most part, they successfully distinguish themselves from the main levels. Not to mention, in addition to the main game, there's a whole and still rather active user community that has pumped out plenty of good custom material for the game over the years.

The game looks better, and has more detail, than any FPS released prior. I even might say it looks better than Quake because it is way more colorful. The music is not only good and fits on virtually every level, but EVERY one of the game's levels has a unique track.The controls are easy to configure from setup and take no time in getting used to. Difficulty is quite high on the highest difficulty setting but fairly casual on the lowest, giving a choice for all levels of experience. There are ten weapons and each of them are unique and good for different purposes. This is not a game where you'll just be blowing your way through with one "weapon of choice" throughout. In fact on the higher difficulties you virtually have to make good use of all the weapons the game has on offer.

There is a diverse selection of powerups and, like the weapons, you will be making use of them. Given the right weapons and/or powerups, can freely jump, fly, look around, destruct numerous things, etc. - everything you could possibly want or ask for in the 2.5D universe. There is not an enormous selection of enemy types but there are enough, and not only do they take different strategies themselves, but even the same enemy may demand different strategies based on what surroundings it's in.

And who could not discuss the game's attitude? There are numerous classic one-liners and jokes/pieces of humor, and while they are often quite mature and may not be to the taste of EVERYONE, this is an element Duke Nukem 3D always did, and still does, implement best. Some of the one-liners occur naturally and others occur by interacting with features in the game. And there is a "parental lock" to cut some of the most mature humor out of the game.

But let me reiterate, of all the game's positive points, the most important, by far, is how much FUN the game is. Sure all the positives contribute to the fun factor, but without a good base to use them one, the fun would never have been as well done. And that really is the most important factor to ANY game. It you're not enjoying yourself, you simply will not be eager to come back, no matter how good any other part of the game is. So likewise, all this game's positives would have meant a lot less if it wasn't fun - but thankfully it is not only fun to play, but exceeds in that aspect with flying colors.

The Bad
Okay, I can't, and won't, say there is absolutely NOTHING to put in this category. But, I'm not even sure I could say that for Doom!, so don't read much into it. Anyways to the few points, other games like Doom occasionally had a slightly better, or more consistent and varied, atmosphere. That's still not saying Duke lacks in this department, however. Some of the enemies are very "sneaky" or hard to avoid taking damage from, but on the other hand the game's not too tough or unbalanced - and it's always fair if you play it well - so you could debate if that even counts. Finally, the selection of addon levels/mods for the game, despite being quite plentiful, still doesn't come up to the same level as Doom. And some of them are a little harder to get running, but the EDuke source port and/or a well-configured DosBox that comes with the version of the game distributed on GOG.com helps alleviate much of this. It might, however, be for the reason of custom content that I'm not willing to officially call the game better than Doom. But it could also be for the fact that it wasn't such an incredible leap in technology, which in and of itself is not really a positive or a negative in my view.

But let me end by saying this - once you're into the game and are having a blast - you will, more likely than not, pretty much forget anything I brought up in the last paragraph.

The Bottom Line
Well, a long review, but a timeless classic to this level deserves no less. I don't hesitate to give it the top rating, because a game doesn't have to be literally PERFECT to get top marks, it just has to be really, really good, and Duke Nukem 3D satisfies that requirement and then some. Unless you can't handle Mature games, you absolutely owe it to yourself to play Duke Nukem 3D if you are even remotely into shooter games, or for that matter into games at all. And there aren't many games I can say that for. */5

The Good
Duke Nukem's third outing may have been the king of first-person shooters, and it is the one that had many people become interested in the franchise. But for me, it started way back around the early Nineties when they were simple platformers, and they were not made by 3D Realms. I liked playing the Duke games, so when 3D Realms took control of the franchise and turned it into a first-person shooter, I didn't give a shit. All I cared about is that it had Duke in it.

Duke Nukem 3D can be considered a stand-alone game as it doesn't follow on where the sequel left off. However, the setting remains the same. While Duke is out cruising his ship, someone blows it up but Duke manages to propel down just before it crashes into a skyscraper somewhere in Los Angeles. Later, he finds out that the same aliens responsible are abducting women and using them for their evil intentions.

There are thirty levels in the game, spanning three episodes. Duke goes around each level blasting many types of enemies, and unlocking doors with three different keycards, in order to get to the exit. The enemies include Pig Cops, Enforcers, Sentry Drones, Protozoid Slimers, and Octabrains. In my opinion, the Octabrains are the most disturbing one I have seen. Not only do they look hideous, but they make disturbing noises as they try to seek your out or you put a bullet through them.

Duke3D introduces a number of firsts, as far as the FPS genre is concerned. You can use security monitors to either spy on enemies or find out what's ahead of you, crawl through vents to access hidden areas, interact with the environment, and use jet-packs to get to hard-to-reach areas. You will also see women attached to pods in most levels, and they will all say “Kill Me” when you try to interact with them. I found it very amusing that since they are crucial to the alien's plot, putting them out of their misery will result in enemies appearing out of nowhere. The game also has cut-scenes that normally appear at the end of each episode. Most of them are excellent, but are rather gory to look at. That, and the nature of the game itself, caused Duke3D to be rated 18+ in most countries.

Each level represents a real-life location. In the first episode, for instance, you start out in a movie theater and then goes on to a gun shop, a prison, and the location of San Andreas fault. In the third, you get to explore a Japanese restaurant, a L.A. transit system, a radio station, hotel, and a stadium. I'm sure that there are other locations that you can visit, but I'm not listing every one of them. It was fun for me to explore the many locations in the game, to see what I could do and see.

In Duke3D, as well as future Duke games, Duke is voiced by Jon St. John which also did a number of characters in other games. He is perfectly suited for the role, and has thousands of lines that are worth listening to. I found that the only way to keep him talking was to use my RPG or Devastator, so that he can say things like “I am going to put the smack dab on your ass” and “You guys suck”. The highlight is jet-pack all the way to the top of the map and switch it off so Duke falls such a great distance, and hearing him make a falling sound then make another one has if he has been kicked in the groin.

There are many more items to get besides the jet-pack, including first-aid kits and steroids; and one of my favorites is the HoloDuke. I know that this item is used in multiplayer games as decoys (I remember using it in a MP game myself, but it didn't work.), but I used the cheat to give me all items, and see how many HoloDukes I could have at once. I had about ten of them, and it is quite funny to see them (try to) follow your every move. Watching enemies put a bullet in these decoys instead of you is also entertaining.

Although this game has “3D” in the title, there are no 3D graphics in it. It is just a fad that companies used in the Nineties in an attempt to sell first-person shooters. Like Wolfenstein 3-D four years earlier, all the graphics are in 2.5D, including the enemies and backgrounds. Almost everything is chunky, and the only way you can get real 3D in the game is to download the High Resolution Pack and play the game in Polymer mode. With the HRP, the earth and moon in episode two never looked so good.

Duke Nukem 3D is set sometime in the future, so you will hear laser gun sounds when most of the enemies fire at you. The sound effects are great. The one I like is the Pig Cop squealing after you killed him. The background sounds provide some atmosphere to the game. In the street levels, for instance, as you explore the surroundings you hear the sound of a helicopter flying past, while in episode two, the normal “door opening” sounds are modified to sound space-like.

The Bad
As soon as you each the final level of episode three, you come face to face with the Cycloid Emperor in the stadium. Considering that you have to go through an entire level to meet the boss in the previous episodes, I think the developers were too lazy to design this last level in such a way that Duke has to walk a long distance to reach the stadium. Also, it's ironic since Duke3D is an adult-only game, we don't get to see him have sex after he defeats this last boss. (Though the sound effects suggest that he does.)

The Bottom Line
So, Duke Nukem 3D is a brilliant first-person shooter that introduces new gameplay mechanics. These include looking at security monitors, crawling through vents, and blowing up objects in the game's many levels. Each level's soundtrack is excellent, as well as the numerous sound effects. Sure, there were a couple of platform games before the game's release. However, Duke3D isn't a continuation of the story from the second game. Anyone who loves first-person shooters should get this game, but it would be a bonus if they find the Atomic Edition.