Duke Nukem Forever PC Review

For a game that’s been stuck in development hell forever, you’d have expected Duke Nukem’s latest foray to be worth the wait. Now that Duke Nukem Forever has finally clawed its way out of development hell, you might be wondering what exactly to expect.

Well look no further. I’ll pare it down for you.

For a game that’s been stuck in development hell forever, you’d have expected Duke Nukem’s latest foray to be worth the wait. Fans have been holding out for 14 whole years hoping for the return of The King. But now that Duke Nukem Forever has finally clawed its way out of development hell, you might be wondering what exactly to expect.

Introduction

It’s exactly these elements – the crass, the banal, the toilet humor – that are manifestly Duke. Take these things away, and you emasculate the game. You’d be left with only an average First-Person Shooter (FPS) going through the usual motions of alien slaying.

Duke Nukem’s claim to fame is that it makes no pretensions to sophistication. It’s a parody of ’90s style Hollywood action – a darkly comic subversion of the very tropes that make critics and feminists cringe. Needless to say, Forever serves all that up, and more.

The Plot

What other game opens with your protagonist’s pants down?

You’re thrust, in media res, into the thick of Duke’s adventure. He’s taking a leak in the bathroom, while his military buddy is hysterically whining about aliens at the gate.

Your first and worst enemy. Incontinence.

And then there's this guy.

After dodging aliens, water coolers, and getting your hands on the Devastator, you enter a lift to face off against the Cycloid himself. Of course, it’s just a re-enactment of Duke’s 3D adventure in ’96, and as you’ll soon discover in this sequel, the King’s been at the top of the world for awhile now. It’s just another day in the life of our legendary, egotistical savior of the world, when predictably, the aliens return.

Initially thought to be peaceful, it soon becomes evident that they’re up to no good when Duke’s abode gets invaded, and his two live-in girlfriends kidnapped. Needless to say, the hypermasculine egomaniac decides to take the fight to the enemy, because nobody messes with the Duke.