Duke Nukem Forever (Xbox 360) Review

[MasonB15]

Haven't been active on this site in a while, I thought I'd come back with a small bang.

Anyway, Duke Nukem Forever has finally been released. Reviewers have been shooting this game down just like Alien Bastards shooting down rides. Is the game really as bad as most reviewers would have you believe?

No.

Look, I'll be honest, this game isn't exactly a masterpiece. I'll go ahead and deliver the bad news about this game. First of all, the game looks awful for today's standards. I feel like I should have been playing this on the PS2, not on the Xbox 360. The character models are very lackluster, but many of the textures just look HORRENDOUS! Seriously! Want to see digital vomit? Look closely at a wall in Duke Nukem Forever. Examine a poster, a box, something, and your eyes might bleed. I, a guy who plays more NES than anything else, never thought I'd say that.

Secondly, the game is a little buggy. The frame rate is a little choppy. Slowdown is very frequent. In a modern video game, especialy one that looks 6 years behind, the slowdown is pretty much inexcusable. Another bug is the texture loading. It takes a while for stuff to load. Another bug I encountered was a weird one, and I can only think of one way to describe it. Ever play a game with a Game Genie or GameShark and enable a moon jump code? Yeah, well, I've seen Duke moon jump three times during the course of campaign mode, once while underwater. No reason, no explanation, but I watched Duke fly way up in the air. It had no real effect on the gameplay, but I thought I should mention it.

Third, some stuff has changed since Duke's last appearance on the scene. I think that in his time off he went to where they train the Call of Duty recruits. Duke can't toggle a run mode and run forever, but he has a limited sprint, and he can't shoot a gun while bookin' it. And speaking of guns, Duke can only hold two guns, not an entire arsenal. This sucks when you want to have a shrink ray, an RPG, a shotgun, and the Devestator, but you can only hold two of them.

Finally, the pacing of this game is weird. You have stretches of fun, and then you have these friggin' turrett sections. Oh my God, I hate these turretts. A lot. They slow the game down, and they suck. Maybe I'm just the one who sucks, but these sections were more of a chore than they were fun. Another weird thing in the pacing was the driving section towards the end of the game, where Duke is in a monster truck. This thing has negative gas mileage, so you have to stop, find gas, and get back in the truck to drive to the next scripted re-fuel. Those aren't huge complaints but I guess I should mention them.

Now you're asking yourself, why should I even bother with this game? I'll tell you why.

Duke Nukem. He's back, and he's still kicking ass and chewing bubble gum. He still has the comments, the humor, and all of the things that make Duke...Duke. After playing this game, I have two new Duke quotes that have now became my favorites. He's still cool.

Anything else good about this game? The easter eggs. There are tons of gags and jokes throughout the game. The humor element is definitely there. Other than that, not really, but it honestly doesn't matter. Duke just makes everything enjoyable, even this big pile of mediocrity. I know it sounds weird, but Duke Nukem made the bad game into a good game. A really fun and enjoyable game. I know that it looks like the bad heavily outweighs the good here, but believe me, when you are playing this game you forget about the game's flaws and just have fun. Last time I checked, having fun is a good thing.

So, should you buy Duke Nukem Forever? Maybe. If you've never played a Duke Nukem game, just avoid this game all together. If you have, and you enjoyed it, I think that you should give this game a shot. Maybe not now, but once the price drops a little bit you should pick this game up.

[Hobie-wan]

Another good perspective. You should note you're covering the 360 version in the title.

[MasonB15]

Another good perspective. You should note you're covering the 360 version in the title.

Fixed that.

[YoshiEgg25]

Another good perspective. You should note you're covering the 360 version in the title.

Which is arguably the worst of the ports.

[saturnfan]

Yea when this game hits the bargin bin for PS3 I will pick it up. I always loved Duke Nukem 3D and I was really hoping that this game was going to be at least in the "C" range. A big let down, but either way I want to check it out.

[Luke]

Best the game yesterday, and oh boy was the ending a let down. Where the eff are Duke's chicks?