Duke Nukem Forever Revisited

Duke Nukem Forever was a very long awaited game and one that released to a really cold reception. It was mocked, made fun of and of course is the go to for joking about games that take too long to release. Just add "Forever" to the game's title! While that latter part certainly has had longevity to it, you really don't hear about the game too much. It has largely been forgotten aside from that aspect and with it, basically buried the hero. One would question making this type of title in the current climate, but it might be neat to see a proper fresh start for the franchise.

Duke Nukem Forever released in summer 2011 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC platforms. The game was later made available on Xbox One through Xbox Backwards Compatibility. The title was developed by a number of studios over the years including 3D Realms; Triptych Games, Gearbox Software and Piranha Games being published by 2k Games. It was a project that passed through many hands, across countless years and with many iterations. It's actually quite neat to open the game's extras to see the trailers and how vastly different this game looked over the years. Some of those older games looked way better actually.

For whatever reason I had a desire to work through this game from the start through the backwards compatibility program on Xbox One and I had a decent time. I was slightly more frustrated at some of the glaring parts and those visuals have not aged well. A lot of the time it looks really ugly with muddy textures and just blur. There were some scenes in the warm day that I was actually having troubles seeing enemies, or making out objects due to the lack of resolution. The edges are rough too, but some parts looked good. I will actually praise this titles' interactivity which I recall being somewhat special at the time.

You can lift objects, go to the bathroom and just generally interact with many items within the world. I thought this was neat, it holds up well. I was also impressed with the mirror techniques shown throughout and it seems like a weird mix of interesting visual elements against aspects that have not held up well. The campaign was simple in its goal, but fairly long and I had to work through it across multiple days. I typically like to just start a narrative and then finish it in a sitting, makes it feel more cohesive to me. This was fine though, I just was aggravated by some of the awkward elements.

There was a ton of loading present, even on the Xbox One X and some of the platforming segments weren't great. I wasn't able to check out the multiplayer since no one was online, but I don't recall it being anything special. I actually think a remaster might be good for this one to clean it up a bit visually, I'd like to see the character return as well at some point. It's a very different type of character, one that doesn't hold back and just says wild things. You really don't get that anymore, everything is so constrained now. Interesting revisit of the game, no idea why I wanted to play it again.

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