Time Out of Mind
"Duke Nukem Forever"
It seems to me, based on reading a lot of the commentary on Duke Nukem Forever here on the forums, that many of those critical of the game have dismissed it on the basis of a) its two-weapon limit and recharging 'ego' shield, and b) its low metascores. This is, suffice to say, fairly ridiculous, allotting as it does far too much credibility both to the meaningfulness of variable game features and the competency of the average game critic.
. . .So allow me to weigh in, as someone whose beaten the game. First off, it's funny. I say this without self-consciousness, since what's essential to understanding the humour here is being clued to the fact that Duke--far from being the irreverent philanderer whose cult of personality has entranced even his own designers prescribed by Jim Sterling--is actually more of a postmodernist, This Is Spinal Tap-style joke; something most critics hilariously (not to mention characteristically) ignored in their heady game of one-upmanship to determine who could most obnoxiously trumpet the fact they were above such bawdy humour.
What's ironic about this is--like the aforementioned Spinal Tap--Duke's bloated persona has an air of plausibility about it within its own medium that enriches the satire. I mean, is destroying a twenty-foot alien baddie who fires rockets from his face whilst coolly making zingers that much more ridiculous than what you're likely to see in most action games? Or the kind of brusquely machismo films this franchise was based on? The DN franchise has, since 3D, been fundamentally about parodying the content and form of both first-person shooters and the action films they were based on--illustrating how absurd they are as a form of cultural expression, as it were . DN3D, for what it's worth, did this by imposing a narrative onto what was, for most intents and purposes, a DOOM-style shoot 'em up: something that worked because its creators correctly understood that the only consistent narrative rationale for these sorts of behaviours was a kind of psychopathy, which they parlayed additionally into the realm of sex. In press releases, Randy Pitchford often took to describing Duke as "egocentric": a label which can be considered the direct result of DN3D and DNF's narratives being structured around the gameplay experience, rather than the other way around--Duke is a hedonist because the player, unbound by the consequences of real-life moral logic, is also a hedonist.
Evidence of such satire abounds. Where Arnold Schwarzenegger might have appeared unnaturally muscly in a film in the 1990s, for example, Duke simply ingests steroids--something Arnold has, in retrospect, admitted to--boisterously killing enemies whilst commenting about the unleashing of his "'Roid Rage" (and, in another gameplay sequence, telling a young boy to take his "pills" to become strong before backpedaling--"I mean vitamins"). Where disposable female love interests often appear in both action films (and games), Duke makes no bones about what he wants, and within the first five minutes of the game is depicted receiving fellatio from the blonde "Holsom Twins." Later in the game, when their lives are imperiled due to being captured--and impregnated--by aliens, Duke's described psycopathy reaches morally dissonant heights, as they cry out for help (promising to "get the weight off" to Duke), and Duke's response is impassive: "Looks like you're. . . fucked." If this sequence makes you uncomfortable, it's because it's supposed to: while Duke can stop to pose in the mirror in DNF, it's often just as easy to imagine him holding up a mirror to our own culture.
I've devoted this much energy to describing the game's satirical approach because it's important; but rest assured, the gameplay isn't bad either. Above all, what's pleasant about it is its variance (and length--this game is a healthy fifteen hours, provided you explore): over the course of the game, you'll navigate through a fast-food restaurant whilst shrunk, barrel through the Nevadan desert in a monster truck, fight a giant octopus underwater, treat yourself to an assortment of mini-games, solve physics puzzles strongly reminiscent of Half-Life 2, and--of course--kill aliens. The quality of these sections varies--fortunately, most of the tedious ones don't last too long--but when they work, like in the Duke Burger--in which you're crouching behind canned goods and jumping on hamburger buns in order to not let your feet touch a deep-fryer--they're among the most inventive I've played in a first-person shooter, and recall the glory days of the Build Engine.
Claims to the game's CoD or Halo-ization, I should add, are overstated. There's lots of things that echo DN3D here: weapons that recur, obviously--the shrink and freeze rays among them--bosses with tidily displayed health bars, aspects of the visual design, etc. But what most tellingly connects DNF to its antecedent is the game's high level of interactivity, which the designers have obviously taken pains to both program and showcase (indeed, the centrality of environmental interaction to DNF is made obvious when the game begins in a washroom which features roughly ten things--taps, toilets, showers, etc.--you can simply screw around with). Not only that, but unlike DN3D, exploration in DNF actually serves a functive purpose: gaining a high score in the pinball machines scattered unassumingly throughout the game world, for example, enlarges your 'ego' bar--basically, your regenerating health.
About that. Yes, DNF has regenerating health. But you know what? It works exactly as it ought to; preventing needless backtracking whilst encouraging the kind of frequent, high-tension firefights the game's fans inevitably expected. In a way, regenerating health allows the game to be more challenging (and DNF is challenging, at least by modern standards), because its designers aren't left guessing at the player's remaining health, meaning significantly difficult sections aren't watered down due to the burden of these calculations. The same, unfortunately, can't be said of the game's two-weapon limit, which should have been either expanded or scrapped altogether in favour of allowing the player greater freedom to experiment with the impressive spectrum of weaponry the game features.
The multi-player is, in contrast to the single-player, only okay. It's reminiscent of the simplistic multi-player features included in the shooters of yesteryear--which, made as they were before blockbuster multi-player shooters in the 2000s really mainlined the genre, can seem quaint by today's standards, if insanely fun at times. Nearly as much entertainment, I would venture, should be derived from the games 'Extras' menu--unlocked after you beat the game--which includes, among other things, promo videos released throughout the game's storied development (and it's surprising to see how many designs appear to have been retained from the nineties), a handful of cheats, and--oddly--a Duke Nukem soundboard. The cheats, in particular--which allow invincibility, infinite ammo, enlarged AI & NPC heads, etc.--are good fun, and make me wonder why more developers today don't do this sort of thing.
Of course, there are legitimate gripes. The graphics on PS3 are subpar--some parts look great, while others--such as the blurry textures that often load at a slower pace than Duke progresses--are less than satisfactory, and make you wish more time had been invested in prepping the console version. The loading times, too, are a tad arduous--something particularly frustrating in a game that, on medium or hard difficulty, seems to revel in finding as many scenarios as possible to kill off the player.
So--would I recommend DNF? It depends: if you're a fan of Duke Nukem series, yes--the game prominently features enough of its signature social satire to guarantee you'll enjoy it. Fans of the Half-Life series, too, will probably enjoy the game--which is co-developed by Gearbox--since so much of the gameplay echoes that series; something that seems entirely appropriate when you consider how much Half-Life itself owes to Duke's influence (remember the microwave in the first level of Black Mesa?). What I wouldn't do, however, is pick up DNF expecting something either entirely arcane or entirely modern: this isn't Painkiller or Serious Sam, and nor it is Call of Duty 4 or GoldenEye for Wii--rather, it's a surprisingly comfortable mishmash of old and new; one that reprises the past while rarely seeming enslaved to it. This may not be what enthusiasts were expecting. But that doesn't mean it's a bad game.
8/10
