Turn back time. Review of the game Duke Nukem Forever. Duke Nukem Forever Game Review Minority Review - XTR

What has been talked about for so long has come true! Grandfather Duke shook off the age-old dust from his muscular carcass and appeared to us, mere mortals. During those long 14 years, while we were spoon-fed, that Duke Nukem Forever is about to come out and show everyone that he is cooler than “Kung Fu Panda”, another generation of gamers has managed to grow up, and the old guard has approached the line beyond which it already turns into the ancient one.

Duke Nukem Forever takes us some time forward to Duke's latest adventures. This muscular loafer sits in his huge penthouse, plays games on his behalf and enjoys the actions performed by 2 young and very pretty young ladies. Feeling bored at one point, our uncle decides to warm up a little by taking a short walk around his property. While Duke is doing his exercise, some incomprehensible and inexplicable crap begins to happen in the world. What is noteworthy is that our old characters, familiar from the last century, are involved in the case, and in particular, alien bastards of different stripes and sizes, including the beloved big and brazen pigs.

So, old Duke, having seen enough of all this garbage, goes down to his personal command post, where very influential individuals in the country have a very serious conversation with him. After the conversation, our guy is finally convinced that it’s time to remember his youth and culinary lessons from Ukrainian cuisine. Therefore, Nyukem turns around and heads towards the exit, where he encounters the fastest (or simply the stupidest) representatives of the alien race. Well, what can you do, someone had to be unlucky.

A little about the gameplay

We have a long and difficult journey ahead of us from our home to the big alien boss, and don’t you think that we will do it empty-handed? Especially such a character as Duke Nukem.

Our hero’s main and most important weapon is obscene jokes and remarks, with which he breaks the consciousness of all the characters around him. And to consolidate the material, there are large and not so big guns, well known from previous games. Passage diagram Duke Nukem Forever from level to level is maintained in best traditions Duke Nukem, i.e. exciting adventures from point “A” to point “B” with obstacles and non-trivial overcoming of them, shooting alien assholes, as well as swearing. What’s nice is that there are tasks that require additional devices to complete. Such as, for example, toy car on the control panel. From time to time we encounter various bosses that are destroyed by using heavy artillery and tearing off body parts from their host, followed by humiliation of the latter.

As you progress through the game, you will often encounter “reminders” of how glorious Duke’s past was, and in addition to this, you will come across various Easter eggs.

Now we will look at some aspects in more detail Duke Nukem Forever.

As mentioned before, we have at our disposal a whole range of well-known guns. The trouble is that over time, Duke has grown very old and can no longer carry such a hefty arsenal with him. Apparently, that’s why the developers took pity on him and allowed him not to take more than two guns with him at a time. Further. There are allied NPS, but their role in the game is not only minimal, it has generally reached the micro level. IN best case scenario they will praise you, swear at you a couple of times, and even pretend to act like they’re helping you several times during the game. As for the enemies, here is what is called “Hello Tree!” These guys do not shine with intelligence, and in principle this is not their strong point in this game.

As an innovation, Duke's "Ego" became the main indicator of health. Now the health of our brave guy measures his coolness. Excellent implementation of Duke’s departure into “prefix”. Well, the developers are great, they were able to make Nukem one more step closer to consoles and further from PC users.

There is no “Jetpack” in the game, aka a jetpack for flying. More precisely, it exists, but we are destined to fly it only in multiplayer.

As for graphics and sound. Frankly speaking, the graphical component is not particularly interesting. Looking at the screen, you get the feeling that you have gone back 5 years. Musical accompaniment It also doesn’t stand out as anything special. Yes, there are melodies that touch a chord of nostalgia in the soul, but nothing more.

And for a snack “Russification” by Duke. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, from the subtitle company "1C" refused. That's why all the characters, including Nukem, speak Russian. Yes, the localizers did a good literary translation. Yes, the actor did a professional job and voiced the main character. But! The text, a significant part of which consists of obscene statements, turns into one big “Pi-i-i-i-i-ip” and part of the meaning of the original phrases is lost in translation. Although not everything is so bad - Duke learned several original phrases of the great and mighty, upon hearing which, his mouth involuntarily stretches into an ear-to-ear smile.

Oddly enough, but in Duke Nukem Forever there is multiplayer. True, he made a depressing impression on us personally. There is a feeling that he was screwed into the game of “what would have happened.” Game modes are standard and time-tested: battles are every man for himself, team battles, capture the flag (in the game it passes as capturing chicks), holding control points, etc.

To make the dull multiplayer somehow attract people, the developers created a system of achievements in the form of levels. They consist in the fact that you have your own penthouse and your own wardrobe. By participating in battles with other players, you receive points and thereby improve your level. After gaining a new level, you can unlock a new piece of furniture in your penthouse and new clothes for Duke. So if you want a new T-shirt for Nukem or a new monument to your loved one somewhere in the lobby of your penthouse, then welcome to multiplayer. The question is how long will you last in this kingdom of boredom?

So, let's summarize. About storyline We won’t talk, because there’s nothing to talk about. The gameplay, in general, follows the style of this series: we sneak around the levels, shoot at enemies and comment on it all with vulgar and obscene jokes, thanks to which we keep ourselves on our toes and mock throughout the game. If it weren't for the jokes, you could have slept through half the game. The opponents are not distinguished by either intelligence or intelligence. This is probably why one of the main weapons in the game will be a shotgun. The considerably weakened Duke Nukem can carry no more than two small arms with him. The graphics stopped at the level of 2006-2007. The sound is also nothing special. Localization is enough high level, but for this game it looks like some kind of perversion invented by an unknown sick mind.

The character's health began to be characterized by his coolness. Thus, the developers came to the conclusion that health is restored by itself, you just have to hide behind some bedside table. There Nyukem apparently convinces himself that he is as cool as space balls, after which he continues his warlike campaign. To a large extent, Duke has turned into a console character, which cannot but make me sad.

On this moment the game is a shooter with a slightly below average level, but very much promoted. Unfortunately, myself main character has changed, and not for the better. Yes, his lines remained at the same level, but lines alone, even if they are spoken by the great and terrible Duke Nukem himself, won’t get you far.

Graphic arts: 3.0
Sound and music: 3.5
Gameplay: 3.5
Plot: 3.2
Multiplayer: 3.0

I don’t know about you, but personally, I remember such corridor legends as Doom, Wolfenstein, Quake. Among his own kind, at that time, Duke Nukem stood out in the crowd of clones, because the developers endowed the character with charisma. Duke could easily finish off a dozen pig-diggers, and then go to a strip bar to throw pixel bucks or take a leak to improve his health in the style of “Nice!” aspiration. And the scenes with the hero shitting on defeated bosses in the screensavers are included in all textbooks gaming history. We have to admit that in the 2000s and even already in the 10s of the twenty-first century, Marcus Phoenix became famous for such an attitude towards life, who, almost like Duke in the 90s, dealt with disgusting creatures, can then have a snack of some kind. Great Dane You can remember Rios and Salem from Army of Two, who are also obsessed with hunting. Sirius Sam - without any tests - is the blond hero's own nephew. And the recent Bulletstorm is the main spiritual successor to the steroid lover. All of them are direct heirs of the gaming grandfather, who, in his old age, decided to shake things up with, hmm... antiquity. Among the faceless shooter characters, which are the majority (Call Of Duty, Battlefield, Crysis, etc.), he was a clear, albeit dead, king. Hail to the King!

Years have passed, during the 14 years that the Duke Nukem Forever game was in development, 5 (!) different companies managed to be noted in it, one way or another involved in the creation of the game (3D Realms, Triptych Games, Piranha Games, Gearbox Software and 2K Games) . Thus, to what was churned out in 3D Realms, a portion was added from one studio or another, and then mixed in the sperm banks of 2K Games with the help of Gearbox Software. The worst thing in all of this is the revival of a dead man in the world of cardboard shit, where he, in all seriousness, still fights with classic monsters, who have only become a little more convex in comparison with the previous parts, and the hero has become even more dull and slow.

The game tells about the glamorous life of a simple guy named Duke Nukem. Having become a world hero, he received hefty dividends: a game was made about him, he is expected in all TV shows, he lives in a multi-story mansion with twin beauties who satisfy his sexual needs in different positions. By the way, on one of the floors there is a museum of Duke’s military glory with various parts of monsters’ bodies, weapons, monuments, a throne and classic 2D parade portraits, essentially made in the style of pixel art. In reality, of course, these are the same arts from the previous parts. Then you understand that the graphics in the game have changed over 14 years, but remain faithful to the original design.

In the game we have to avoid losing our blond face in the dirt, because danger is once again looming over the Earth where Duke Nukem is revered alien invasion, assault and anal penetration into her depths. And the worst thing is that the most beautiful chicks in the world are kidnapped by slimy invaders.

Each location is a classic corridor shooter - enemies, enemies, boss. The various puzzle sections and mini-games are a breath of air. But even they are drowning in a swamp of monotonous indifference and stupid humor. The developers, for example, force you to remove the battery with the help of a toy car, which must go along a certain route, or with a Duke reduced to five centimeters to reach the switch. A tribute to the past in Duke Nukem Forever is main character and all his signature tricks: peeing in the toilet, throwing poop and other reckless actions. You try to play the game because of these creative scraps of ideas that are suddenly interrupted by an uncontrollable alien attack and the ever-present death. And as a result - a long, very long download.

The game plunges even deeper into the abyss of horror game mechanics from the 90s, in which health (aka EGO) is restored automatically, but its level increases depending on Duke’s activity at billiards or while playing pinball. No one can explain how health level and pinball are connected. Also, the level of the Ego grows from interaction with objects in the world (turning on, turning off, picking up and throwing, and of course flushing the toilet).

As for design, this is a stumbling block. Everything seems to be fine, but all this has already happened somewhere. Either dungeons, or the insides of a giant alien worm - very similar to Gears Of War, except that in Girki there were no tits on the walls that could be spanked, and phallic symbols rhythmically fucking the girls stuck here, a nightclub - perhaps most reminiscent locations Saints Row, and such examples can be found in every location prepared by the developers.

The result was a large carpet of different pieces, sewn with one thread - Duke. The only thing you understand as you progress is NOTHING. The hero does not change in any way during the course of the plot, you do not empathize with him, like the heroes of other games. He's just a soulless piece of silicone, making tired old jokes, often dying and taking forever to load.

On the other hand, you will have to complete the game much longer than other modern shooters, but it is recommended to play no more than an hour and a half a day, it is still dangerous for nervous system.

To summarize, I would like to say that some things should remain in the past, the way we loved them. The new Duke, it's like a possible ABBA reunion, it won't get better, and hardly anyone will want to buy the game out of pity. A person who grew up watching Duke can watch the game, shoot with a shotgun, railgun and other classic guns, but after two or three hours, he will go hack into any other shooter, and indeed any other game. Not because Duke is no longer the same, but because his time has passed. Or does it need too much of a shake-up, and not a stream of endless creativity woven into outdated mechanics and dull shootouts in an environment devoid of dynamics. Looking into the past, you understand that these 14 years the game was not developed, but lay in a coma while the developers sniffed out the yellow brick road with the money of a patient publisher. Unfortunately, the game does not have any outstanding qualities, except for one thing - as I have said many times - Duke, Duke and Duke again. But this is not enough today.

Dissenting Review - XTR

Duke was so cool that without regret we replaced the boring Doom with him in the spiritual center of Muslims in Russia and fought all night long with the mufti’s assistant. The frantic multiplayer mode with laser mines and bombs was many times more dynamic than Id Software's creation. Duke also had a successful visual editor, with the help of which I created a map with a transparent floor in the style of the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and even won some award at the 3D Realms competition. What we have now been offered under the name Duke Nukem Forever is a pathetic attempt to pass off a mediocre copy as the heir to the sparkling original using outhouse humor, puzzles that have become outdated over the years and a once mighty hero who has suddenly lost his mojo. The hero has lost his dynamism, lost the thread of the aggressive narrative, turning into the elderly owner of the Playboy Mansion, who even keeps his weapons behind the glass of the museum, living on rent from a third-rate show and young fans. Duke Nukem Forever is a parody, a shadow of a once successful brand, mercilessly trampled and mutilated by numerous herds of armless developers and too lazy creators of the original. A parody drowned in endless creativity, which, when implemented in this way, looks tasteless and boring. However, everyone has a chance, even a forgotten cult hero (hello, Mickey Rourke), given the incredibly high sales of counterfeits under the harsh pressure of powerful PR. But this will be a different game without extra hopes and overhype.

Version tested for Xbox 360

Summarizing the impressions of the Duke Nukem Forever single, we come to the disappointing conclusion that it was essentially “glued together” by Gearbox Software from previous 3D Realms developments - the hand of the new license owners is felt only last stages, which please much more than others. At the same time, there are a lot of anachronisms and software errors everywhere, which indicates the insufficient quality of beta testing of the project. After a short run through the level, we are greeted by loading screens, the game reacts poorly to minimizing, increasing the level loading time, and the “lucky” owners of dual-core Intel processors are forced to delve into configuration files for optimization gameplay. Yes, we imagined Duke’s retirement in a completely different way...

Trying to find a new " gaming experience"You can pay attention to the multiplayer, for which the Piranha Games studio was responsible. Duke Nukem Forever's multiplayer mode lacks stars from the sky, but it may well be a good alternative to completing the single player on Insane difficulty. The developers have prepared only four modes for players: every man for himself, team deathmatch, a variation on capture the flag - Capture the Baby and something like point control called Hail to the King. In principle, these modes are quite fun to play - dragging girls around each other, multi-colored dukes furiously pour fire on opponents, actively “strafe” and even fly on jetpacks.

The atmosphere corresponds to the perception of Duke Nukem Forever - the girls, called “chicks” in the localization, kick, whisper all sorts of vulgarities to the dukes and kick - to pacify them, you should spank the burden on the “ass”. But there are at least a couple of complaints. Firstly, the size of the maps is too small - sometimes there is simply nowhere to turn on them, which is why online battles turn into a real heap. Secondly, and this is nothing more than a consequence of the first problem, the number of players is limited to only eight participants - criminally small, especially considering that in some Battlefield: Bad Company 2, infighting between three dozen players has long become the standard. Finally, not the least important complaint is that the weapon is not very balanced. In multiplayer Duke Nukem Forever, in most cases, the “solution” is a double-barreled grenade launcher, which does not require any special skill or “aim” from the player - hit the pile and forget. “Reducers” and “railguns”, which are much more interesting to use, make much more severe demands on players, but few people are interested in them - almost crowds of people line up at the place where the grenade launcher “spawns”. But how nice it is to hit some “bastard” with such a “gun” from a “reducer” and then slam him with your boot - words cannot describe it.

A festival of vanity and a Disneyland for the mentally ill, Las Vegas has become the primary symbol of everything that stands behind the word “America” today. Vegas with its casinos in the form of huge castles, pyramids, Renaissance palaces and even Eiffel Tower looks like the final spit by the United States in the face of the rest of the world: they say, thank you, dear Europe and Asia, but we will somehow continue without you. Vegas is an ode to the narcissistic, arrogant and patriotic, which is why our dear friend Duke Nukem belongs here. It was in this city that we attended the first big press screening Duke Nukem Forever.

The demonstration took place in an establishment with the telling name Titty City, but we met the first strippers at the hotel reception - there were metal poles right in front of the doors, and they were not shy about using them for their intended purpose. Welcome to Vegas, that's how it is here. The presentation itself was moderately innocent, so don’t think anything of it - our opinion is not at all clouded.

In Titty City, we and a couple dozen other journalists from all over the world were met by Duke's new owners - the Gearbox team - and rows of Xbox 360 consoles with a long demo of the project. We've made it through the first three hours of Forever's single-player campaign, and now we can honestly say - damn it, Duke, we miss you. When getting to know Forever, the first and most important step is to turn a blind eye to the outdated graphics. Yes, the textures are sometimes blurred in the most indecent way, the decoration of the levels is quite sparse, and Duke’s jump animation is no better than that of the anonymous hero of the first Quake. Everything is true, but this is not the main thing - after all, it’s interesting to play here, the rest is not important. It’s worth making a disclaimer: we watched the console version, and the picture is guaranteed to be better on PC - but it will still be far from the level of Crysis 2 or at least Call of Duty. Having overcome the starting barrier and not caring about the graphics, you find out that Duke, it turns out, has a plot. More than ten years have passed since the first game (Duke Nukem 30, in the sense) according to the script, and all this time Duke (although he didn’t look a bit older) rested on his laurels, basked in the rays of glory and lived like a star. Since he saved humanity, our hero has earned a lot of money and became the center of everyone's attention: books have been written about him, films have been made, he is now the idol of the whole country. Successful and rich Duke lives in Vegas, where he has his own huge casino - this is where the game begins.

IUE GOT BALLS OF STEEL
Duke sits on his couch, being pampered (behind the camera lens) by blonde twins, while he plays a new shooter based on his adventures in his youth. Meanwhile, we are already in full control of what is happening, going through the “game within a game” and shooting missiles at the huge boss there (in fact, the scene in the football stadium from the Duke Nukem 3D final is repeated, only on a new engine). “Damn, it’s been twelve years, I hope it’s worth it,” Duke says, putting down the controller. This is how the authors are ready to use irony not only at themselves, but also at their competitors - in certain moment, for example, Duke will be offered the armor of the Master Chief from Halo, to which our hero will answer: “ Power armor- for suckers” and will continue on in a T-shirt. The first level is made according to the model Half-Life: There are no enemies, we just walk around the upper floors of the casino and eat the plot. Although the location looks pale, it, like everyone else in Forever, is saved by the level of interactivity: as in old game, every piece of nonsense here can be picked up and twisted. Here is a board with a battle plan drawn on it.
We approach, take a marker, draw some lines, and a soldier nearby comments: “Brilliant! Duke, of course, I didn’t understand anything from what was drawn, but the plan is great!” And there are hundreds of such small and funny episodes, and sometimes they give good bonuses for finding them: they either replenish health (which is called “Ego” here) or slightly increase its bar. As a result, you look for interactive elements like an idiot, even forgetting about your opponents. Lights can be turned off, food can be heated in microwaves, taps can be turned on, water can be flushed in the toilet, and, excuse me, excrement can be taken from the same toilet (“We thought about making it so that Duke’s “Ego” bar would decrease for this,” they comment developers). If you see a billiards table, rest assured, you can come up and play; met with pinball - get ready to spend twenty minutes hitting a steel ball and listening to Duke's comments in the spirit of what is in the subtitle; went to the basketball court - try to throw the ball into the hoop. By the way, throwing objects is an unobviously useful skill for Duke: the local fuel barrels, for example, explode damn well and throwing them into crowds of enemies is sometimes very convenient.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DECAPITATION
However, back to our plot: after wandering around the casino and chatting with our fans (and even leaving an autograph for one boy), we go down to Duke’s headquarters and learn something terrible from the US President. It turns out that the aliens returned to earth, but this time they contacted the American authorities and decided to conclude a peace treaty. In this connection, the president asks Duke only one thing: to do nothing and not kill anyone.
The head of state's plan goes to hell much sooner than one might think: literally a couple of minutes later, our casino is attacked by space pigs and their comrades, who all want to finish off Duke in a friendly crowd - blood feud, apparently. What about Duke? Duke is known to have balls of steel and two fists. The latter will be useful to us in all the initial fights: a surprisingly terrible weapon, I must say. There are no combos, of course: there is only a regular blow and the opportunity to spectacularly finish off a half-dead enemy. After a couple of fist fights won with the press of a button, it begins to feel like... Duke Nukem Forever - simple game. Big mistake: the further you go, the more difficult it becomes, and the more complex, the more interesting.

HAIL TO TNE KING
By the time Duke finds his gun, the plot completely dies out: almost until the very end of the demo we will only run, shooting at different sides, and save some random ladies (the aliens, of course, want to kidnap them). But from the point of view of gameplay, the transformations are very different and interesting - at a certain moment, for example, Duke falls under the action of a “shrinker” and collapses to the size of a toy. There is no point in shooting in such conditions, but you can jump on sofas and chairs (from which the hero springs, like from a trampoline) - suddenly, “Duke Nukem” becomes a first-person platformer. Later you will have to get into a radio-controlled car to jump off the ramps and ride between the legs of the angry fighting pigs. By the way, you will then be able to control the machine in the traditional way: through the control panel. Forever does not let you relax: in every room we are greeted, if not by some nonsense but extremely entertaining mini-game, then at least by a fight with the boss. Speaking of bosses: without leaving his casino (but only by climbing onto its roof), Duke manages to deal with a giant alien ship that spits lasers and releases fighters. The shootouts are horribly old-fashioned, but they warm the soul and are played superbly. The most surprising thing is that behind this mask of gameplay variety lies a really good old-school shooter. One where it's just fun to shoot with enemies, without motives and without explosions in the background. Like any good shooter, combat system here it stands on two pillars: a selection of enemies and an arsenal of weapons. With the first, everything is fine: some evil spirits rush at Dukaslom’s head and strive to grab him, others know how to teleport, others fly, and others walk with an RPG on their shoulder. You have to change tactics, break up groups of enemies and not yawn at all. The weapons are also excellent: although you can now only carry two guns, the overall selection is huge. Already in the first couple of hours, a pistol, a shotgun, a machine gun, a chaingun, a grenade launcher and some kind of plasma machine gun were found. And in addition to this, two types of explosives are always available: grenades, which do not detonate immediately after being thrown, but by pressing a separate button; and sticky bombs with a laser sensor that explode when someone crosses their red beam. Another small touch: Duke now has four special skills (on a console gamepad they are called up using the arrows). The first is a banal night vision, the second is an unusual opportunity to drink beer (you become stronger, but the image terribly floats before your eyes), the third is the ability to eat steroids (fist blows are many times stronger), the fourth is Holoduke (creating a hologram of a hero to distract enemies, just like in the original game). Most importantly, in the shootouts, Forever becomes a truly difficult shooter, but difficult in a good way. The kind where you die only because of your own mistakes, and every death motivates you not to open your mouth. The developers clearly did not try to adapt to modern market: Duke has his own path everywhere.

PASSKEY? I DON"T NEED BUT PASSKEY!
Duke's phrase, written above in red letters, conveys the entire philosophy of level designers. No searching for keys, no labyrinths: Duke goes ahead and kills everyone, end of story. And that's great. At the end of the demo, Duke and I get out of the casino onto the street - onto the famous Vegas Strip, where all the big casinos are located. Here it immediately becomes clear why the presentation is being held in this city: gaming Vegas is very similar to real Vegas. That is, the buildings, of course, are different and the names are distorted - but the atmosphere is conveyed without problems. None open world, here, of course, there is no smell: the city is in ruins after the alien attack, the roads are littered with rubbish. All that remains is to run to the end of the winding path and finish off the overgrown boss, who, right before his death, will require the execution of an OTE: you need to approach the villain and press the right button so that Duke will tear out his horn and stick it in the enemy’s eye. Brutal. Forever is a very brutal game in general, childishly brutal. Childishly preoccupied, with at times stupid humor and ridiculous violence, almost no plot and with a hero no smarter than Rambo - but interesting, old-fashioned and truly good game. Damn it, even if it was bad, we would still buy it and pass.

This is because “Duke” has become a legend - in a press release, the developers call the game “the most anticipated of all time” and at the same time they are not even lying. It was in development for 12 years, and the reasons for the delay are still terribly mysterious - even today Gearbox employees won't say what the problem was. And although the new developers try not to talk about their unsuccessful predecessors, the current “Duke” was assembled for the most part in 3D Realms, and Gearbox just completed the work and now holds the future of the entire series in their hands. There's no word yet on sequels, of course, but the time for a new dawn for Duke seems to be about to come.