Its time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all outta gum (Duke Nukem 3D (PC))

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Duke Nukem 3D (PC)
Date:	29/06/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hugely fun, darkly humorous, full of innovation and character

Disadvantages: Graphics are somewhat dated

Released in 1996, 'Duke Nukem' is an early first person shooter that relies on the Blood engine, a fairly basic pseudo-3D engine that allows for limited looking up and down and employs sprites as enemies rather than the 3D models that were to follow.The plot, if it can be called that, is that aliens have invaded the earth and stolen all the world's women, and its up to The Duke to get them back! This sets the scene for more ludicrous violence and cheesy off-the-cuff one-liners than you'd find in every 80s action film put together.

Whilst quite dated looking, 'Duke Nukem' is still a joy to play. The weapons are varied and great fun to use, including a rapid firing semi automatic pistol, pipebombs, an excellent pump action shotgun, a quad-barreled machine gun, and a number of more ridiculous weapons including a shrink ray that gives you the opportunity to squish your much diminished opponents and a freeze-gun that stops your opponents in their tracks to be smashed to pieces by a well aimed pistol shot or swift kick from one of the Duke's size 13 boots.

Theres an interesting range of baddies too, including jetpack-flying and machinegun-wielding aliens, mutated pig-like shotgun-wielding cops, and massive, Alien Overlords with chainguns, whose Godzilla-like roars can be heard from several blocks away.

The levels are great too, with locations varying from UFOs, seedy cityscapes, spaceports, ancient monolithic alien cities, a nightclub, moonbases and even a porn shop, and the designers evidently took much glee in filling them with nice touches, such as operable CCTV monitors, lightswitches, and breakable glass windows, none of which had ever been done before. The game is also full of knowing film reverences courtesy of The Duke, including quotes from Die Hard, Evil Dead, Pulp Fiction and Full Metal Jacket. These references are present in the level design too- one prison level appears to lead nowhere until the discovery of a poster with a neatly chipped tunnel behind, leading, 'Shawshank Redemption' style, into the sewers and freedom beyond. There are some great cutscenes as well, including one in which Nukem, having earlier threatened a massive rocket launcher-wielding Overlord with "I'll rip off your head and shit down your neck" goes on to do....... just that, whilst reading a paper and whistling to himself no less.

This purile approach was clearly for the benefit of game's target demographic, ie teenage boys, and I predictably found it awesome at the time and still remember the game with much fondness. But whilst the presence of swearing, gore, and semi-nudity all adds to Duke Nukem's charm, its main appeal comes through intelligent, innovative level design and an emphasis on fun and variety throughout. No two levels are the same, and the game is hugely successful in sucking you in.

Duke Nukem came out around the same time as Quake, and whilst the latter is a turgid, uninspired albeit for the time technologically unbeatable affair, the former is a graphically crude, hugely fun experience full of crazy innovative touches and character and sporting a dark sense of humour.

The multiplayer mode is no less rich in innovation or fun, allowing players to set huge minefields of tripbombs and sit there, finger on the trigger waiting for prey, or alternately activate 'Holoduke' decoy holograms, to trick other players before blowing them away, 'Total Recall' style.

An endlessly replayable game evidently created with much love, 'Duke Nukem', much like its spiritual predecessor 'Blood', is a timeless, delightfully un-pc blaster that is both full of character and immenstely entertaining in spite of (or perhaps partly because of) its crude if charming graphics.

Summary: A fantastic blast for the past thats full of character and still great fun today