Hail To The Once Fallen King...

Before the start of PAX East, I was considering the opportunity to experience a close to completed version of what was once regarded as the Holy-grail of vaporware. I'd like to touch on the sordid development history that Duke Nukem Forever has seen before we dive into the results of Gearbox's quest to liberate Duke Nukem from his development hell.

Since Gearbox's surprise announcement of their plans to resurrect Duke Nukem Forever back in 2010, memories of preorders that could easily date back to over a decade ago have resurfaced into the minds of fans. Gearbox is determined to deliver the long awaited sequel to the original 3D entry that helped push the popularity of the first-person shooter game.

In April of 1997, 3D Realms released information on the successor of Duke Nukem 3D. Duke Nukem 3D, the third game within the series, was released in 1996 for DOS and MAC platforms before hitting consoles in the following year. Duke Nukem Forever was boasted to be the revolutionary follow-up, beyond what anyone had in mind for the ideal concept of a first-person shooter at the time. It had a trailer showing off the visuals and gameplay suggesting vehicular movement/combat, fully voice acted scenes that displayed a stronger emphasis on the story, large interactive environments with mammoth sized enemies on screen, and multiple foes with formidable A.I. against several tactics the player could possibly use.

Duke Nukem Forever still retained the vulgarity and crude humor in a portrayal that was stronger than any of its previous entries, giving the game a sensation that it was destined to push any boundary that bowdlerization had quelled before within the video game industry at that time. 3D Realms had begun to display a pattern of creating anticipation for Duke Nukem Forever's release through various methods of promotion and press details before deferring the release date of the game into a repeated cycle. Eventually 3D Realms was pushed into inadvertently coining the game's implicit slogan to the public, "When it's done," five years after the game was announced. Before Duke Nukem Forever, the team was also working on another project known as the game Prey for close to eleven years. The stress of dwindling resources and demand towards the completion of Duke Nukem Forever, along with it's own history of delays, Prey was eventually contracted and outsourced to Human Head Studios for completion.

Leading into the year 2009, 3D realms was faced with financial dilemmas that caused a significant portion of the development staff to be laid-off and the company to go under. Duke Nukem Forever was imminent towards completion, but adding to the turmoil of the project, Take-Two Interactive filed a lawsuit against 3D Realms over monetary damages caused by the failure to deliver a complete game for publication and release. The case was eventually settled with prejudice with no other details revealed. In September 2010, Take-Two Interactive then revealed that the development of the game will be finished by Gearbox software while 3D Realms will be credited as a co-developer. All rights and intellectual property of the Duke Nukem franchise now rests in the capable ownership of Gearbox.

With the knowledge of its troubled past fresh in my mind, on the date of March 12, of 2011, I had twenty minutes to get a hands-on impression with the infamous game itself. Duke Nukem Forever booted to the introduction of the man himself positioned in front of a urinal, giving you the option to spill Duke's body fluid against the porcelain drain before approaching the moment of defense that awaits you. As you leave and maneuver Duke towards the game's beginning objective, there's already a sense of polish that I really enjoyed with the visual care that Gearbox put into it's overhaul of the game as you make way through the dilapidated restroom. There is a sense of realism about the display of your peripheral vision, being able to see Duke's sides of his torso, as well as the presence of his barreled chest when moving your sights down. Not to mention the full display of the real time body movement in the cracked mirror of the crumbled lavatory. However miniscule this effect may seem in the grand scope of visuals, it did give me a sense of immediate intuitiveness towards the game's control.

Next you enter a conference room that displays a whiteboard with the mission objective of "operation cock-block" while you listen to the apprehensive delegation of a ranking superior instructing his remaining forces and placing blind faith in you. The same kind of interactive freedom you had in Duke Nukem 3D that involved the objects in your environment is immediately conveyed with the white board itself. The next scene following Duke's iconic kick through the faculty double door, transitioned into a cinematic display of linear movement which did convey a sense of modern presentation that the franchise has never seen before. The moment I heard "Hey Pal! What are you going to do, save the whole world all by yourself?" I knew that the source material that Gearbox had to work with was not completely scrapped and there was a respect paid towards the efforts that 3D Realms had made. As I approached the hallway closer to the action, I was blown away from an explosion and knocked down to my feet where Duke brought himself up through a struggled effort. His fists were immediately available and the game truly begins from there.

I followed the path ahead of me and picked up a devastator as I confronted the giant Cycloid. The fight was standard fare for shooters, but it did feel refreshing as I had a giant football field to combat the creature while avoiding his stalking attacks. At one point, I was knocked on my ass while I started shooting out of desperate defense to climb back up to my feet. The small details continued to impress me, like the peripheral visual effects of Duke running, and allies providing additional ammunition signaled by flares around the football field. With the Cycloid defeated, I was given the quick time event of ripping out the implied life support on it's back and watched it's heart fall out of the creature's open gullet. I then kicked the shit out of it into the field goal ahead of me. With my visceral goal kick I moved ahead to the loading screen.

At this point, the controls were slightly sluggish but responsive. The sight movement of the right stick was overtly sensitive and other than inverting the controls, I was unable to find an option to turn down the sensitivity of movement. Being as this was the demo, I overlooked this infraction and I moved forward to the next scenario. I was then placed in a crude 4X4 monster truck accelerating through a rock canyon. The driving mechanics did akin to the vehicles of Borderlands, but the handling was slippery at best, making the effort feel like a chore. After I leaped over a gap and gained my bearings, I immediately recognized the point of where 3D Realms developed the core mechanics as opposed to the scenario from where I originally started the game. It wasn't the most drastic change but there was a sensation that disengaged me slightly. I felt subtle changes in movement and shooting, the same way a ham sandwich on wheat then tasted like a ham sandwich on rye when I went back to eat it. The enemy A.I. was aggressive and the selection of weapons was surprisingly varied as I immediately found access to a shotgun, devastator, rail gun, shrink ray, RPG, and pipe bombs along with ammo crates for reloads in situations involving horde onslaughts of alien attacks. I put to use the different weaponry and found weapons that accommodated the situation. I came across a beer for just the right moment of another horde, and drinking it sent me into a fucking madness of invulnerability and the eyesight comparable to a giant fish tank filled with Vaseline being forcibly duct-taped to my face as I wildly shot without a care for my well being and that's when it hit me.

I soon realized my approach to the game and what I was doing wrong. I took Duke Nukem seriously and compared it to every other shooter. I deduced I would enjoy the game by fully embracing the fact that Duke Nukem was using shooter mechanics to deliver an experience relative to the universe that Duke Nukem exhibits. It is not necessarily trying to be a revolutionary shooter, but Duke Nukem Forever definitely delivered on it's charm.

I'll have more to say when I fully review the game of course but the game isn't doomed. It definitely delivers hope that the franchise can be capitalized once again within capable hands along with it receiving merit where merit belongs. I'll be coming to get some in May.