• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Duke Nukem Forever is actually a great game (for oldschool fans)

Yeah, what's wrong with it, seriously?
I'm playing this game right now for the first time (PS3 version) and I love it.
I grew up with Doom, Half Life, Unreal Tournament, etc.
....and this game makes me feel nostalgic (in a good way).
Shooting (and overall gameplay) feels great, I love the humour and easter eggs. Load times aren't as bad as I thought. You respawn max. 20 seconds after you've died, even Skyrim has longer loading times, so wtf?
Visuals are dated but...yeah I don't mind. Doom 3 BFG Edition looks dated, too but I have more fun playing these games than playing the new COD, Battlefield, Gears of War or Halo.
I love old school shooters.
 

Jacobi

Banned
Hm, I might try it if I get it for a buck... It would surely have been amazing if they had released in 2001... Looked really great back then too
 
I actually enjoyed it at release, I don't feel any shame in that.
I laughed, had a great time. I still need to play the DLC though.
 

Shchenok

Neo Member
I actually agree with you.

I was really looking forward to this game and was not disappointed at all; it had everything I wanted from a Duke Nukem game.

I actually picked it up at midnight and got the hat! :)
 

Sneds

Member
I own the game but haven't played it yet. Based on others' impressions I thought that the game wasn't actually that old school. A lot of people compared it to HL2 more than DN3D or Doom in terms of level design. Isn't it a very linear corridor shooter with regenerating health?
 

Verilligo

Member
It was a fun spin around the block with all the so-awful-its-good moments I expected. The one thing I fault it for with any level of severity is the fact Duke can only carry a very limited arsenal. One of the great things about games of the era was you just picked up every weapon in the game and could switch between the all at will. Just not the same having to drop a weapon for one reason or another.
 

GD1551

Banned
Gameplay is pretty standard, infact due to some shit level design I'd say it was below average. The performance and visuals are just atrocious, and the random puzzles are just lmao not to mention the story and humour are just lame. It really has no redeeming qualities, and before you say it I am also an old school FPS player.
 
The problem was that it was supposed to be the second coming of Christ with how long it took to come out and all the trouble it caused along the way.
 

Marjar

Banned
It's pretty shit, and it's really not like old school shooters.

The gunplay is alright, but good lord the humor is fucking abysmal. Most of the jokes are memes from like 2003-2005, it looks like shit, the bosses are bad and often involve constantly going back and forth from shooting the boss with rockets and getting ammo from an infinite ammo crate, it has regenerating health instead of health packs, and it blatantly steals ideas from other popular games that came out during its development.

Then of course there's that horrible Hive level where you see
innocent women being raped/impregnated by alien tentacle things only to explode into alien babies, to which Duke responds with one liners that make him seem less like a cocky hero and more like a sociopath.
 

Card Boy

Banned
Its actually pretty shit OP.

  • It had 2 weapon limit till they patched it to 4 (still too little)
  • The levels are COD/Battlefield style linear
  • There barely secrets if at all (not to be confused with easter eggs)
  • The game got even worse when during the Hive Level and the Wall Boobs. I don't easily get sick when playing games but this was a first for me.
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
I didn't mind it either, hell I thought some parts were great and it had a lot of variety too. But it really felt like a mish mash of games which came out during it's development period with some parts being fun and some being utterly dreadful. I quite liked the DLC though. I still love the Duke and want to see another game. It's not a great game but I've played far worse FPS this (or last even) gen and it was like putting old 'demons' to rest finally getting to play it. I'm glad I did, I expected faaaaaaar worse tbh.
 
I own the game but haven't played it yet. Based on others' impressions I thought that the game wasn't actually that old school. A lot of people compared it to HL2 more than DN3D or Doom in terms of level design. Isn't it a very linear corridor shooter with regenerating health?

Yes but it's still an old school shooter. :)
 

Yuripaw

Banned
Then of course there's that horrible Hive level where you see
innocent women being raped/impregnated by alien tentacle things only to explode into alien babies, to which Duke responds with one liners that make him seem less like a cocky hero and more like a sociopath.

It may have not been as detailed, but this was happening in the original Duke Nukem 3D. Like I said, it's not as detailed, but you see women trapped like that in DN3D, DNF just shows in more detail what you might not have realized.
 

Protome

Member
The Deadpool game was a better Duke Nukem game than DNF. At least in terms of humour.

That said I didn't completely hate DNF. The shooting was clunky in an endearing way but the level designs held it back from being fun.
 
Its actually pretty shit OP.

  • It had 2 weapon limit till they patched it to 4 (still too little)
  • The levels are COD/Battlefield style linear
  • There barely secrets if at all (not to be confused with easter eggs)
  • The game got even worse when during the Hive Level and the Wall Boobs. I don't easily get sick when playing games but this was a first for me.

Ironically "old school" fans are the ones who should be the most disappointed.
 
There are some things that FPS games would do well to revisit from DNF but it has more than it's fair share of flaws.

That being said I had a lot of fun with it.
 
I didn't mind Duke Nukem Forever, but I can totally understand why people didn't like it. To me, Duke Nukem was always a parody of the FPS genre. Duke Nukem Forever felt to me like a parody of the genre; in both a good and bad way, more bad than good.


However, I can't agree with the sentiment that "oldschool fans" will like Duke Nukem Forever. Maybe for the Duke Nukem character, but from a gameplay standpoint, Duke Nukem 3D was much better than Forever. Forever took gameplay elements that are somewhat standard in mainline FPS games now, as opposed to making it "oldschool" like Duke Nukem 3D was.

If oldschool fans want to play the game Duke Nukem Forever should have been, play Shadow Warrior(2013) from Flying Wild Hog.
 

antitrop

Member
Playing Dukematches with my best friend by direct dialing his modem is one of my fondest childhood gaming memories.

Duke Nukem Forever was a heinous travesty that I regret wasting $60 on.
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
OP, joke threads are fun and all, but come on... it's fucking terrible.

There's a different between juvenile silliness and a complete lack of self-awareness resulting in some tragic irony and outright disgusting moments that aren't funny and are just flat-out bad taste.
 

Card Boy

Banned
But Doom is also a linear game?
Was the only Doom you played Doom 3?

LZngk.png
 
I enjoyed the game for what it was. The game was a trainwreck development wise, and it shows in the final product, but I had my fun in the end.
 

Sneds

Member
But Doom is also a linear game?




I don' get it, why?
It FEELS like a shooter from 1996
Open world and four weapons does not mean it's old school

Doom 1 and 2 have non-linear elements as levels necessitate backtracking. There's an emphasis on exploration.

Ironically "old school" fans are the ones who should be the most disappointed.

I think that many were. I played Doom and Doom 2 for the first time recently and I'd love to see more new releases with the design sensibilities of those games.
 
Once you got the shotgun the game became playable enough that I was ok finishing it... though, had this not been Duke Nukem Forever I wouldn't have even made it past the first hour(Actually I wouldn't have played it in the first place).

Can't believe I spent $60 on it. I knew I was in trouble when I played that initial god awful demo but after all those years of waiting I just had to play/finish DNF. =P
 
I enjoyed it simply so I could say that I played it and found a few sections pretty enjoyable and enjoyed the variety in gameplay as well, but I can't really recommend it to anyone.

Someone made a mod of the game (Or is it a DN3D mod?) that takes what was seen in what seems like all of the trailers and leaked gameplay and puts it in one package as to what they thought the final product might have looked like. With Duke 3D visuals of course. Definitely worth a look for any Duke fans who might want to try a better version of the game if they were disappointed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C3SKDwFh-8

Be warned though, it's a Let's Play with an annoying voice over the entire thing. Lame jokes abound.
 
I thought it was pretty boring if anything, not necessarily awful but really dull. The level design felt like they really wanted you to go through a retread of DN3D concepts while never offering anything that makes it worthwhile, my memories of the combat were of it being just so spread out and each encounter feeling barren. A couple pigcops here and there, oh another alien, but now you get to shrink down and navigate a kitchen! Ride a minecart! Play a dull driving section made even worse by having to collect gasoline at set moments!

It just seemed like they were piling on the level gimmicks without much else. Didn't play like a classic shooter, and was not a great game for fans of classic shooters.
 

z1ggy

Member
I´m an old school shooter (DOOM, Hexxen, Quake, etc) and i find this game to be pathetic. Visuals, gameplay, jokes, everything is awfull.

An example of a polished, fun, good looking old style shooter is Shadow Warrior (2013).
 
It doesn't feel anything like an oldschool shooter.

I love Duke Nukem 3D, but this game just sucked ass. One of the few games I've played that actually made me nauseous.
 

Ntsouls

Banned
Its not. At all.
If youre a fan of Doom, maybe. But even then its a gimped Doom.

If youre a fan of Duke Nukem. Wait for abstraction games to port over Megaton Edition to Ps3 and vita.


Duke Nukem Forever is an abomination.
 
Bullshit.

DNF is a travesty.
Countless vehicle sections, awful "humor", atrocious pacing, a myriad of game-design issues, shoddy mechanics, tasteless, dull, and just plain SHIT.

The developers had over a decade to make a good game, instead they spent that time looking for the worst possible ideas to steal and running with them.
 

DJ_Lae

Member
Game is shit. It's bland and boring, the worst thing a Duke Nukem game could be. There's nothing special or unique or fun about it. Even the bosses acknowledge this by giving you an unlimited ammo crate for you to unload your weapon, refill, and repeat over and over..

The recent Shadow Warrior and even Rise of the Triad did the 90s shooter transition a LOT better.
 

Card Boy

Banned
Uh oh what have I done? This topic was a bad idea :p

Not really, it is important to highlight the evolution of the FPS, for better or worse. Doom 1/2 and Duke Nukem 3D had gigantic, mazelike maps with powerups and keys scattered amongst the hordes of monsters, but its oldschool roots really shine through with the very high weapon count, generous ceilings on ammunition and absurdly high runspeeds.

DNF takes a lot of that away, and the smaller, more linear levels aren't enhanced with a playstyle that suits them well since you get interrupted a lot by silly cutscenes and hamstrung by a low weapon count.

Oldschool FPS fans were given a love letter in the first two Serious Sam games over ten years ago. I don't think we got one in the form of a new franchise last gen, BFE notwithstanding. I'm not sure we're going to get many more like it this gen. I hope we do.

The recent Shadow Warrior and even Rise of the Triad did the 90s shooter transition a LOT better.

I should check these out.
 

Whompa

Member
As an "older" gamer, I disagree. The game is just trash. It's trying to please everyone and it's stuck in a very awkward middle ground where it just sucks on all fronts.
 
Top Bottom