Duke Nukem 3D

The Good
The history of FPS games is marked by 3 major milestones...Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake. Each of these games completely revolutionized FPS gaming with their release...Wolf3D introduced slick graphics and layed out the basics, Doom took the graphics to a the next level and introduced changes in elevation to level design, and Quake of course brought FPS gaming into the all important third dimension.

So where does Duke3D fit in?

Duke (and the excellent Build engine with which it's based) bridged the gap between Doom and Quake, bringing us such now-important gaming elements as mouse-look, jumping, crouching (which Quake didn't even let us do), flying, hi-res graphics, and one-liners. You could zip around in jet packs, shrink enemies and then stomp on them, tip strippers, remote detonate pipe bombs...all in all, Duke3D was a blast and an instant classic. Even the fairly good Build engine games that came after it (namely Blood, Shadow Warrior, and Redneck Rampage) didn't have the same coolness or fun factor as this game. Gameplay was miles ahead of Doom, or even Quake (which was released almost at the same time). Enemies were still just 2D sprites, but now they were rendered in excellent SVGA graphics. Level design was clever enough to hide the fact that the Build engine could not put a room over another room (but it sure fooled most of us!). While most of the weapons were rather generic (the standard pistol, shottie, multi-barreled chain gun, and the melee weapon i.e. Das Boot), some were down right ingenious and loads of fun to use (the pipe bombs, the freeze gun and the shrinker...I think the gaming world let out a collective "sweeeeet" when they first fired the shrinker at the mirror and shrunk themselves!) It was a very polished and feature packed slaughter fest.

And the "Award for Coolest Ironic Video Game Baddie" goes to....the PigCops!

The Bad
So if it's such a great game, why didn't I list this game with the 3 major FPS milestones? Am I just kissing Id's ass? The reason in a one word....technology. I consider Duke a "mini" revolution because technically Duke3D was a little behind the times. It unfortunately got released the same year as Quake introduced us to the future of FPS with its revolutionary full 3D engine. And while its true that Duke and its Build engine brethren where much more fun to play then Quake and the various early clones of that game, it was clear that the future of gaming was changing, and by the time Quake II hit the shelves, 2.5D engines had faded of the scopes. While the Build engine allowed for some great new gameplay innovations, it was little more than a tweaked and enhanced Doom engine. While Quake itself wasn't all that great a game, the engine was much more versatile than the Build engine allowing modders to twist and contort the engine to create completely different games - and in some cases different genres (Air Quake, Quake Rally, and Basketball Quake come to mind). The controls were half-assed between Doom and Quake...mouse look was just starting to be implemented and didn't quite feel right somehow. This wasn't a problem at the time because we weren't saturated with full 3d games, but play the game now and you'll know what I mean. Some of the levels were a little dull. Every now and again I would get the "been there done that" feeling that inevitably creeps up in every FPS.

The Bottom Line
All in all an excellent game. The Duke will forever be immortalized as one of the all-time great video game personalites along side Commander Keen, Mario, and Laura Croft. While not as advanced as Quake, it's still light-years better than Doom, and a hell of a lot of fun. It's a real shame that nothing ever became of it's sequel, although it was in the works for years. I lost track of it after the switched from the Quake II engine to the Half-life engine (or was it the Unreal engine?). If anyone knows if the Duke3D sequel is still in the works or has been canned please, email me and let me know.

Final word: If you are interested in classic gaming, and want to sample the glory days of 2.5d gaming, or just want to have loads of FPS fun, this game is a must!

The Good
Duke Nukem's third outing may have been the king of first-person shooters, and it is the one that had many people become interested in the franchise. But for me, it started way back around the early Nineties when they were simple platformers, and they were not made by 3D Realms. I liked playing the Duke games, so when 3D Realms took control of the franchise and turned it into a first-person shooter, I didn't give a shit. All I cared about is that it had Duke in it.

Duke Nukem 3D can be considered a stand-alone game as it doesn't follow on where the sequel left off. However, the setting remains the same. While Duke is out cruising his ship, someone blows it up but Duke manages to propel down just before it crashes into a skyscraper somewhere in Los Angeles. Later, he finds out that the same aliens responsible are abducting women and using them for their evil intentions.

There are thirty levels in the game, spanning three episodes. Duke goes around each level blasting many types of enemies, and unlocking doors with three different keycards, in order to get to the exit. The enemies include Pig Cops, Enforcers, Sentry Drones, Protozoid Slimers, and Octabrains. In my opinion, the Octabrains are the most disturbing one I have seen. Not only do they look hideous, but they make disturbing noises as they try to seek your out or you put a bullet through them.

Duke3D introduces a number of firsts, as far as the FPS genre is concerned. You can use security monitors to either spy on enemies or find out what's ahead of you, crawl through vents to access hidden areas, interact with the environment, and use jet-packs to get to hard-to-reach areas. You will also see women attached to pods in most levels, and they will all say “Kill Me” when you try to interact with them. I found it very amusing that since they are crucial to the alien's plot, putting them out of their misery will result in enemies appearing out of nowhere. The game also has cut-scenes that normally appear at the end of each episode. Most of them are excellent, but are rather gory to look at. That, and the nature of the game itself, caused Duke3D to be rated 18+ in most countries.

Each level represents a real-life location. In the first episode, for instance, you start out in a movie theater and then goes on to a gun shop, a prison, and the location of San Andreas fault. In the third, you get to explore a Japanese restaurant, a L.A. transit system, a radio station, hotel, and a stadium. I'm sure that there are other locations that you can visit, but I'm not listing every one of them. It was fun for me to explore the many locations in the game, to see what I could do and see.

In Duke3D, as well as future Duke games, Duke is voiced by Jon St. John which also did a number of characters in other games. He is perfectly suited for the role, and has thousands of lines that are worth listening to. I found that the only way to keep him talking was to use my RPG or Devastator, so that he can say things like “I am going to put the smack dab on your ass” and “You guys suck”. The highlight is jet-pack all the way to the top of the map and switch it off so Duke falls such a great distance, and hearing him make a falling sound then make another one has if he has been kicked in the groin.

There are many more items to get besides the jet-pack, including first-aid kits and steroids; and one of my favorites is the HoloDuke. I know that this item is used in multiplayer games as decoys (I remember using it in a MP game myself, but it didn't work.), but I used the cheat to give me all items, and see how many HoloDukes I could have at once. I had about ten of them, and it is quite funny to see them (try to) follow your every move. Watching enemies put a bullet in these decoys instead of you is also entertaining.

Although this game has “3D” in the title, there are no 3D graphics in it. It is just a fad that companies used in the Nineties in an attempt to sell first-person shooters. Like Wolfenstein 3-D four years earlier, all the graphics are in 2.5D, including the enemies and backgrounds. Almost everything is chunky, and the only way you can get real 3D in the game is to download the High Resolution Pack and play the game in Polymer mode. With the HRP, the earth and moon in episode two never looked so good.

Duke Nukem 3D is set sometime in the future, so you will hear laser gun sounds when most of the enemies fire at you. The sound effects are great. The one I like is the Pig Cop squealing after you killed him. The background sounds provide some atmosphere to the game. In the street levels, for instance, as you explore the surroundings you hear the sound of a helicopter flying past, while in episode two, the normal “door opening” sounds are modified to sound space-like.

The Bad
As soon as you each the final level of episode three, you come face to face with the Cycloid Emperor in the stadium. Considering that you have to go through an entire level to meet the boss in the previous episodes, I think the developers were too lazy to design this last level in such a way that Duke has to walk a long distance to reach the stadium. Also, it's ironic since Duke3D is an adult-only game, we don't get to see him have sex after he defeats this last boss. (Though the sound effects suggest that he does.)

The Bottom Line
So, Duke Nukem 3D is a brilliant first-person shooter that introduces new gameplay mechanics. These include looking at security monitors, crawling through vents, and blowing up objects in the game's many levels. Each level's soundtrack is excellent, as well as the numerous sound effects. Sure, there were a couple of platform games before the game's release. However, Duke3D isn't a continuation of the story from the second game. Anyone who loves first-person shooters should get this game, but it would be a bonus if they find the Atomic Edition.

The Good
Duke Nukem 3D is the game I regard as Doom's spiritual descendant. It has all of Doom's good elements (atmosphere, design, and of course mindless fun) while adding something that was totally lacking from the original: style! At first glance it appears to be a rather unassuming FPS that is little more than a 3D rendition of the Duke Nukem platform games that preceded it, but as you step on dog crap and hear Duke say "shit happens," or walk into a topless joint filled with women who will happily strip for cash, you realise this game is something unusual.

Duke 3D became (in?)famous in part because of all the mature content it features. But that's not all it has going for it. Step away from the boobs and profanity for a second and you'll find one of the most fun and inventive shooters ever to come down the pike, and one that is still a blast to play today. Lots of games since have tried to recapture the Duke Nukem 3D spirit (i.e. Serious Sam) but none have ever made the splash the original did.

Game design is a pretty simple equation. It comes down to what a developer/publisher is most prepared to dedicate his time and effort to. At the same time id Software was making a technological wonder with generic gameplay, Quake, 3D Realms was making a game that emphasized content over everything else. And believe me, it paid off. Duke 3D is a blast from beginning to end. At no point does it become generic or annoying. This is partly due to great level design, and also how damned original the game feels. I don't mean "original" in that it turns every FPS game play convention upside down, but that it has millions of small touches that makes Duke 3D an almost unique experience.

Notice the pool table in the first level? You can roll balls around. See the Duff Beer Blimp in the background of the last boss fight? Try shooting it with a rocket. Lights can be turned on and off with switches, and can even be destroyed by gunfire. Toilet won't flush? Pipe-bomb the sucker. Small gimmicks and tricks, you might say. But the stuff I listed above is only the tip of the iceberg, the entire game is full of small personal touches that transform it from a generic shooter to an immersive, original experience that contains the first truly interactive environment found in a 3D video game. Just about everything in the game (toilets, mirrors, fences) can be interacted with in some way. This is part of what makes Duke 3D so special, it's one of the most detailed games around.

Obviously, that kind of stuff isn't enough to make a game on its own. But Duke 3D takes the rabid addictiveness of games like Doom and builds upon it with several new gameplay conventions that are still in use today. The game is non-linear, there are often quite a few ways to get to the exit (such as crawling through an air vent to avoid a tough group of enemies, or blowing a hole in a wall) and lots of different paths you can explore to find goodies and secrets. You also have an inventory, and unlike Heretic's it actually doesn't suck. You have a varied arsenal of weapons (including the classic pistol/shotgun/machinegun combo, as well as weirder stuff like a shrink-ray and freezer) that is perfectly balanced and well-rounded, even in the later stages of the game you'll still be falling back on your pistol occasionally. As you'd expect the enemies in Duke 3D are downright insane, I burst out laughing when I saw a pig cop riding a spin-deck.

Add to this a collection of great levels that actually make you want to play them again, a solid multiplayer mode that remained popular years after the game had become obsolete, and enough pop culture references to expand the trivia section threefold if someone went and documented them all, and you have one of the best old-school shooters around.

In short: this game gives weight to John Romero's famous statement "design is law." Contrary to what industry pundits think, we gamers aren't mindless sheep who play whatever game has the prettiest graphics. If a game has what it takes to rise above the pack, and combine new elements with well-grounded traditional ones, we reward it.

(This isn't related to the game itself as such, but I feel the need to commend Ken Silverman for designing the Build engine. It's incredible that a teenager who was just out of high school and was failing half his classes at university was able to produce such a dynamic, powerful and flexible piece of software with practically no outside help. Build also comes with what must be the easiest editor ever made for a 3D game. Finally you didn't have to be a theoretical mathematician or UNIX operator to design your own levels for an FPS. Ken Silverman became the god of virgin geeks everywhere for allowing them to plague the internet with their billions of crappy custom levels and mods. Oh well...)

The Bad
Most of the problems Duke 3D has some with the genre. If you disliked Doom and hate key-hunt puzzles don't expect Duke 3D to be much different. Duke 3D is simply a nice package of old-school FPS action with some extra huevos thrown in. It's got lots of original touches, but it isn't like it's trying to revolutionize the genre.

And of course there are a few small nits and nats (too much ammo, boss fights are boring, puzzles are dependent on trial and error) but let's not focus on what Duke 3D did wrong but on what it didn't do wrong. Face it, with a game like this a million things could have ruined it, and it's a testament to the designers' work that the game is as good as it is.

The Bottom Line
Some excellent games get released during the wrong time and thus are ignored (Grim Fandango won multiple awards but failed to attract gamers because of the FPS phenomenon), and other mediocre games sell quite substantially if there's a multimillion dollar hype campaign backing them...just look at some of the recent Star Wars games. But Duke 3D is neither over-rated nor under-rated. It deserves every gram of success it received. Duke 3D is a classic and one of the greatest FPS games ever released, no buts ifs or maybes allowed.